Final Causality (Aquinas 101)

The world in which we live is not at bottom a world of chance or chaos.

Final Causality (Aquinas 101) - Fr. James Brent, O.P.

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This video was made possible through the support of grant #61944 from the John Templeton Foundation. The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the John Templeton Foundation.

[joanl.]

We have so many reasons to be grateful for our beautiful natural world, and for all the gifts of God.

[RK-trxk]

These Dominicans are absoulute bosses. Love them! Keep up the excellent work!

[e.l.]

God be praised for feeding our souls with food such as what this channel has been transmitting.

[claudiohernandez]

This video was publish in my birthday day. Thank you Thomistic Institute for this gift.

[davidrasch]

I listen to these lectures more than once because I want to understand or in the least sharpen my thought processes.

[michaelmozart]

All of the videos y'all are doing are fantastic and a blessing. They make great videos to share with nonbelievers

[renecordero]

Excellent and very logical explanation, as logical as a mathematical equation. It is amazing to me how a human mind can develop such a clear and comprehensive view of nature.

[yohanessunjoko]

I do believe that we all come from chaos, but divine power directs us to order

[letdaseinlive]

More sufficient fullness is not denied to those wishing to learn what is betowed!

[bluedude]

Actualiteit, bees make honey from nectar, not pollen. Nectar is their source of sugar, pollen their source of protein.

[JamesUlliane]

The first polypeptide formed in the primordial evolutionary pool had the tendency to propagation of existence (life), which has no explanation other than a divine plan. Without the explanation of a God directing life forms to further thriving and existence, there is no explanation as to why the first life forms wouldn’t rather have tended towards nonexistence (death).

[Mommyandtux]

The like:dislike ratio is proof they are of God. These videos have some of the highest like to dislike ratios on all social media.

[godfreydebouillon]

Took me a long time to sort of understand formal and final causes, but even sort of understanding them changes EVERYTHING.
My humble suggestion is to give more explanations of these using non living examples, because fascinatingly enough, even atheists use Teleological words for almost everything and they stll tend to act like a flower isn't meant to be "beautiful", because only something with a mind that can perceive beauty (i guess thus putting minds in some separate category than physical things).
Any ole thing that changes would work.
H2O, when combined, can only form water, ice or steam, never, not even once out of 90 trillion times, not by sheer chance, nor any force of nature, will it form gasoline, or slime. Water for example, when heated, is caused to tend toeard the outcome of steam, never light or an explosion. The same efficient cause that changes water, say a flame, the exact same efficient cause when applied to gasoline will be forcced by its formal cause into taking the form of fire and light as its outcome (very different than the outcome of water).
You can see all four causes in literally everything, and it seems all those who try to deny, can only possibly say "nuh uh, today we know better, bc science n stuff, and they just do all of that cuz science, and we know this because of science" 🔭 At least thats the extent of any redponse I have ever seen. Physical science can give absolutely no account if the FACT that there are formal and final causes, all the adherents of scientism (not science) can do is try to deny them.
So, that was a long winded way of saying, please provide a lot if extremely diverse examples when teaching these topics. The modern Western mind has been carefully molded from youth to not understand any of this.
God bless your work.

[reggiestickleback]

So many priests (Jesuits in particular) were naturalists and scientists as we see in history. I wonder why the scientist-priest saw his decline? Good to know these Dominicans are reigniting the spark of the Catholic scientific tradition, whether it be in bioethics, evolution, etc….

I do have a question, since there were so many clerical scientists and naturalists in the past, who trained them to study and interpret nature? Was it Catholic universities? Did it go back even to Church Fathers, to campfire conversations between Jesus and his Apostolic band? How did Jesus, the Logos, see and experience His Natural Creation as embodied man? How can we use this insight to see nature with the eyes of Jesus, following step-by-step how creation was weaved by Wisdom playing before the Father? Seeing how barren science is without the Catholic scientific tradition makes it more important than ever to restore this tradition, especially since modern science has allowed us to recognize the incomprehensible scope of the universe at the level of the microscope and the level of the telescope. If lush worlds were found elsewhere in the galaxy—let it be friars, with the possession of Grace and Truth, powered by the merits of the Cross—who land on those distant shores, compass the fields in search of God as present in the works of his His hand, and preach to the indigenous—with confidence and caution, with fear and love of the Lord—let them preach what marvels and graces God had bestowed upon planet Earth, and let them preach how despite this Earth still rots with our sins. It’s the Catholic scientific tradition which will open further immensities in fields of study like consciousness, biotechnology, living systems, astrophysics, etc….I am afraid science separated from the Gifts of the Holy Spirit, science divorced from Wisdom, Knowledge, and Understanding—will stagnate in overspecialization, in mere accumulation of data, will become nothing other than infornography

[PInkW]

Bees don’t gather pollen to make honey
Bees gather nectar to make honey

[eapooda]

If it is true that things can act beyond themselves within larger natural systems in which they serve a role, you would be committed to saying that the Sun and the Moon act for the sake of life, since life would not be and is causally dependent on the Sun and Moon for its survival. But it seems weird to say "The Sun acts for the sake of providing energy to living things" unless the Sun was intentionally directed towards living things lets say by God. This is the only way you could maintain that things act for ends beyond themselves universally.

[theplinkerslodge]

Still trying to understand how this is a proof of God. The discussion ends more in a contemplative suggestion that the source of these natural dimensions could be a god, not necesarily The God, or Our God. I.e., not easily defended any better than that the natural world is jus the way it is, no further thinking needed. I'll keep working at appreciating these arguments.

[jackdarby]

"atoms"? 4:45 are there really atoms? Atom is material thing that has no( further) parts, right?
(But) all material things tend to have parts, don't they?
So in that sense I suppose atoms could not exist( because, it seems contradictory to suggest the existence of an matter—the principle of division itself as I understand it—could ever truly be found to lack parts at any point of view. Moreover if a 'atom' exhibits property enough to be detected, I'd assume that that that is a sign of the existence of some kind of form intrinsic to it, I mean "pure matter" has no property of any kind.)

[davimonteiropaiva]

great video, but what about actions that seems useless to us such as the rain in planet light years away?

[PInkW]

Either God made the universe
Or
Chance made the universe