Doctrine Matters...

...because love is a theological virtue.

Father Barron explains -

A nice summary of the "Four Causes."

At Brutally Honest:

Imagine four sheets of paper. One has been folded into an airplane. One has been shaped into an origami frog. One has been crumpled into a ball, a paper wad. And one sheet is left alone.


All four objects are made of the same stuff but they are different things. Philosophers call that stuff the Material Cause. The last sheet represents that cause; the stuff of each object. It is important how the sheets were made, by whom and why. But for now consider just sheets of paper taking different forms.

Their form makes the objects different. Philosophers call that the Formal Cause. The paper wad represents that cause; a different form than the sheet. I read recently that crumpled paper has deep mystery to science. It cannot be accurately modeled! But for now, it is enough to see that a paper wad is different from a sheet. It has a different form.

An origami frog might be folded by an eight year old, but I couldn't do it. Philosophers call the eight year old the Efficient Cause. Almost anyone can make a paper wad. But it takes skill to make a frog. If you'd never seen a real frog, you might have trouble distinguishing the frog from the wad. But for now, it is important to note that an Efficient Cause must be up to the task. I couldn't do it. I am not an efficient cause of origami though you might be.

The paper airplane was made to fly. Philosophers call that purpose, the Final Cause. If the paper plane doesn't fly or doesn't fly well, we say it isn't well made because it doesn't fulfill its purpose.

My friend says that the universe is merely "atoms and void". We agree on this material cause. We agree on the formal causes, the different forms atoms can take. But I continue to be amazed that anyone, especially Randy, can think that natural laws are an efficient cause for those forms of matter that are alive. Nothing in nature, not even natural selection, has demonstrated the creativity necessary for a DNA molecule, let alone a human brain. Nature by itself is simply not up to the task. Believing life happened naturally seems to take an enormous leap of faith.

But the most troubling aspect of my friend's atheism is the loss of purpose. For Randy, there is no final cause for the universe, no purpose to life except what he gives it. When he is gone, so is the purpose.