I really love my philosophy and mythology classes, because they allow me to critically think about what it is I believe and what others believe. Recently, we've been talking about Augustine, and there are some points he makes that I really have to agree with. The first is going to be one of the most important points to understanding this entry: faith must be held higher than reason, however it is all right to try to reason what you believe. In other words, to be a good Christian you must first have the belief before you can ever start reasoning that belief. The Greeks believed the opposite, they believed nothing until they reasoned it to be true. The Greeks also believed that we were good enough to figure out what was true on our own, but Augustine pointed out that we are not, and that we depend on God to find the truth.

What am I getting at? Even though philosophy and mythology provide me with the views of other cultures, I still cling to what I believe which is what i have learned from God's word (the Bible). If another culture says something that makes sense, I use that and try to make it fit with the Bible, I do not try to make the Bible fit with that. That's an important distinction to make.

The Bible covers a lot of bases, but it seems a lot of passages get ignored. "Christians" have no problems focusing on homosexuality and abortion, but they seem quiet on issues like the environment, the death penalty, the poor, and compassion overall. And Christianity is supposed to be different from all the other belief systems of the world because WE ARE supposed to be compassionate to the point of servitude. Serve God and your fellow humankind. The Bible also tells us to take care of the environment, the poor, and not to be judgemental. There are a lot of judgemental churches out there, no? And did not Jesus show us to be Tolerant? That seems to be something else modern day "Christians" neglect. I believe there is a difference of course between Tolerance and Acceptance. We all sin, and I am definately no exception. So how is it right for me to judge another sinner, no matter what they do? Should I not forgive them as God has forgiven me? Should I not welcome them with open arms as God welcomes me? Tolerance. It doesn't mean you have to Accept their behaviour, but it doesn't mean you have to be prejudiced either.

I told you I wasn't sure if I was going to get to my point. So, here I am learning about different cultures, different philosophers, and I am listening to what they say, and finding that sometimes the Bible says the same things, and sometimes it does not. And if the Bible disagrees with these philosophers, then I either deny what they say or form my own beliefs based on their works that adhere to the Bible. Humankind is flawed, so its natural that philosophers may have a few good ideas and a lot of bad ones. the Bible is not flawed, and that is my fallback.

Augustine brought up this question which I will share with you. Here is teh problem in formal terms:

1. If God is omnipotent (all powerful), omniscient (all knowing), and perfectly good, then there can be no evil, because
a. being all-powerful, he could do somethign about any existing evil,
b. being all-knowing, he would know about any existing evil, and
c. being perfectly good, he would want to elimante any existing evil.
2. But there is evil.
3. Therefore God is either not all-powerful, all-knowing, not perfectly good, or some combination of those.

So Augustine struggles with this question and he realizes that the only way for this to make sense is to ignore the second premise and say that there is no evil. This proves that the third premise, that God is not all-knowing, all-powerful and all good is false! God is those things because evil doesn't EXIST. Evil cannot exist because God created all that exists and He made all good (and it was good is what God says after creating in Genesis). Evil must therefore be the lack of good (something I've always understood), and therefore the lack of existence. Existence is good, evil is deprivation of good. Wow. That's hard to chew at first. What he's saying is that everything, from Mother Theresa to Hitler, is GOOD, but just on some different level of good. Hitler is on a lower level of good. Now IMPORTANT!!!!! This is not an ethical philosophy, this has nothing to do with morals. This is a metaphysical philosophy, and metaphysics refers to "what is the basic stuff of the universe." As a body, created by God, Hitler was made in God's image, and therefore was created good. His choices placed him in the less good area.

So who is in the most good, with a 100% good? Augustine's answer is obvious: God.

And what can get us there? My answer? The Bible's Answer: Christ.