Msgr. Charles Pope on the Cartesian anxiety of our times—and what faith can offer:
Cartesian anxiety is a term that refers to a longing for absolute certainty, and the belief that scientific methods, should be able to lead us to a firm and unchanging knowledge of ourselves and the world around us. It is called Cartesian due to its connection to René Descartes who sowed seeds of extreme doubt by insisting upon a kind of absolute or ontological certainty in things. Western civilization has suffered from unrealistic expectations as to the basis of knowledge, and a kind of anxiety ever since, that we can really know anything in a way that will satisfy our doubt.
April 6th, 2011 | 7:04 pm
“What is mind? No matter. What is matter? Never mind.” ~ George Berkeley
April 7th, 2011 | 7:17 am
We see the wisdom of Pope John Paul11 and many others who ardently advocate Eucharistic Adoration as a remedy for much that ails us !
April 7th, 2011 | 8:04 am
Or one could just come to terms with the idea that everything we know has a certainty value attached to it less than 100%. Some things come awfully close to 100%, but nothing reaches absolute certainty.
(Yes, including the idea that nothing reaches absolute certainty. God hasn’t revealed anything to me, but if that happened I might have to change my mind about ‘nothing is utterly certain’.)
April 7th, 2011 | 9:00 pm
“As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force which brings the particle of an atom to vibration and holds this most minute solar system of the atom together. We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter.” -Max Planck
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