- 26 Oct 2018 02:51
#14957102
There is nothing other than Matter, of all created things there is no thing that does not possess the qualities of extension, occupying space in three dimensions, and divisibility. There are things (living and unliving, places or being in places somewhere in the Cosmos) that are not necessarily perceptible to the unaided or even aided senses, or if they are they are not necessarily capable of being intelligible to our finite and limited minds, but aside from these important qualifications, all Creation is Material. I have never been capable of seeing it otherwise. I have faith, and I subdue my reason that is turned by a defective will, but I need not abandon reason altogether...
That makes me a Materialist. But I said; ''Creation'', and so that implies a Creator, and so I am also a Theist. I quote Tertullian in his book ''De Anima'', on the corporeality of the soul;
Here's the full book;
http://tertullian.org/anf/anf03/anf03-22.htm
I am an Orthodox Christian, fully submit to the teachings of the Fathers and Ecumenical Councils, assembled in the Holy Spirit, and to the Synods of the Bishops, rightfully expounding the Apostolic teaching and neither adding to nor subtracting from the salvific doctrine of Christ.
But as with other matters less important, I am willing to discuss this. But it seems to me that if there was less vain philosophy in what passes for ''christian teaching'' these days, the common regular people of the world would recognize again that teaching which redeems and saves, raises up stricken mankind, without drying up the heart and puffing up the mind...
So I submit this thread to view, for my fellow Christians on PoFo to examine and possibly discuss.
That makes me a Materialist. But I said; ''Creation'', and so that implies a Creator, and so I am also a Theist. I quote Tertullian in his book ''De Anima'', on the corporeality of the soul;
Chapter VII.-The Soul's Corporeality Demonstrated Out of the Gospels.
So far as the philosophers are concerned, we have said enough. As for our own teachers, indeed, our reference to them is ex abundanti-a surplusage of authority: in the Gospel itself they will be found to have the clearest evidence for the corporeal nature of the soul. In hell the soul of a certain man is in torment, punished in flames, suffering excruciating thirst, and imploring from the finger of a happier soul, for his tongue, the solace of a drop of water.46 Do you suppose that this end of the blessed poor man and the miserable rich man is only imaginary? Then why the name of Lazarus in this narrative, if the circumstance is not in (the category of) a real occurrence? But even if it is to be regarded as imaginary, it will still be a testimony to truth and reality. For unless the soul possessed corporeality, the image of a soul could not possibly contain a finger of a bodily substance; nor would the Scripture feign a statement about the limbs of a body, if these had no existence. But what is that which is removed to Hades47 after the separation of the body; which is there detained; which is reserved until the day of judgment; to which Christ also, on dying, descended? I imagine it is the souls of the patriarchs. But wherefore (all this), if the soul is nothing in its subterranean abode? For nothing it certainly is, if it is not a bodily substance. For whatever is incorporeal is incapable of being kept and guarded in any way; it is also exempt from either punishment or refreshment. That must be a body, by which punishment and refreshment can be experienced. Of this I shall treat more fully in a more fitting place. Therefore, whatever amount of punishment or refreshment the soul tastes in Hades, in its prison or lodging,48 in the fire or in Abraham's bosom, it gives proof thereby of its own corporeality. For an incorporeal thing suffers nothing, not having that which makes it capable of suffering; else, if it has such capacity, it must be a bodily substance. For in as far as every corporeal thing is capable of suffering, in so far is that which is capable of suffering also corporeal.49
Here's the full book;
http://tertullian.org/anf/anf03/anf03-22.htm
I am an Orthodox Christian, fully submit to the teachings of the Fathers and Ecumenical Councils, assembled in the Holy Spirit, and to the Synods of the Bishops, rightfully expounding the Apostolic teaching and neither adding to nor subtracting from the salvific doctrine of Christ.
But as with other matters less important, I am willing to discuss this. But it seems to me that if there was less vain philosophy in what passes for ''christian teaching'' these days, the common regular people of the world would recognize again that teaching which redeems and saves, raises up stricken mankind, without drying up the heart and puffing up the mind...
So I submit this thread to view, for my fellow Christians on PoFo to examine and possibly discuss.