Some reflections from a brisk walk in an eastern wood.

A story need not be factual to be true. The Emperor’s New Clothes is a true story, as are Romeo and Juliet, The Lord of the Rings, and The Remains of the Day. They’re true, because they create an encounter with reality. But our current human reality is not absolute reality; it is not God. This reality also includes created things in a state of journeying, and it includes disorder.

In this second of three parts, I defend basic Marian doctrines in light of proper Christology and Christian hope, and I explain the how the Deposit of the Faith can and must unfold over time.

I have often struggled intellectually with Marian doctrines…Having finally come to some light about these matters, I here share the fruit of my intellectual struggles for the benefit, first, of Catholics (and their fellow sacramental Christians,) and second, of Protestants who may wonder how and why such things are believed, let alone considered so important.

That, after all, is the glory of science: looking to see what’s actually there…Any theory, theistic or atheistic, that attempts to assert a priori how nature must be, and which then purports to explain it or spin it out merely in accordance with the principles of a theory, and without actually looking — well, that’s an unscientific theory.

A good scary tale has at least one virtue: It confirms the healthy human instinct, a memory of Eden, that human death is an abomination…Scary stories help us to remember that all of our idols will be smashed; even the noble ones. Nothing that is not everything can escape that dark entropy. 

Perhaps the intellect and will seem to be immaterial because they actually are immaterial. Perhaps water seems to be a form because it is a form… [P]erhaps we need to dispense with physicalism altogether, and go back to first the first principles to see where we’ve gone wrong.

Before continuing, I note that it is possible to believe in just one god, without believing in the One God. A person who worships the sun, or the earth, or the universe as a singular entity is really no different than a polytheist, in a metaphysical sense.