Enlightenment, de-lightenment: The Fix Is in in Western Thought

For a Protestant, "Faith" means a "leap of faith" (see Søren Kierkegaard for an explanation of that). Catholic Faith, on the other hand, is the willing acceptance of divine revelation and the witness of the Church because they are true. They're reasonable, in fact.

For example, St. Paul says in 1 Cor 15 that 500 of the brothers saw the Risen Christ at one time -- and 500 was the size of an Athenian jury when a man was on trial for his life, so Ft. Paul is saying he has evidence that would pass the legal system of the greatest city-state of the Ancient World. 

Faith as "blind faith," a leap in the dark, is based purely on self will, or rather self desire. One wants something to be true whether it is or not and one is willing to jump into the dark for it.

"Man is the Measure of All Things" is a Renaissance idea. I think the real "black hat" in Western Culture is none other than Nick, Niccolo Machiavelli. René Descartes and his Mechanical Physics was the "icing on the cake" that sealed the doom of Western Man, and that was highlighted by the wide acceptance of the teachings of that true and certain idiot, David Hume. Humie should be read only to be laughed at and yet today he's considered the dean of the Enlightenment (my understanding is the Enlightenment meant to be enlightened that God didn't exist).

And a prime directive of the Enlightenment was to come up with a metaphysical materialistic way to explain life on Earth. None other than a certain Erasmus was a leading proponent of such an idea during the Enlightenment, and this particular Erasmus came up with a theory of evolution very much like the one his grandson would come up with thereafter. Yes, I refer to none other than Erasmus Darwin and his grandson Charlie. 

In other words, "the fix is in" in Western thinking going back now some hundreds of years. There's a long, old, complicated story being unwound right now. Vatican II and its despicable "spirit" is on a tip of the pimple that has to be popped, if I may be excused for being vulgar.

An Préachán