#materilism

You cannot have two masters such as God and money for you will either hate one and love the other or be loyal to one and despise the other. There is also a danger of greed by being lord over those entrusted to you so be careful to be good examples to the flock. Do not be greedy for money or love money.

  Cannot have two masters

Matthew 6:24    24 “No one can serve two masters; for either he will…

“Andrew Poe suggests that ‘What should cause theorists’ alarm are how divisions between the human and the world – between subject and object – have had the anathema result of allowing for the destruction of the actual (which is to say ecological) world. The subject, it seems, has come to care too much for itself.”

Barbara Bolt, “Introduction: Toward a ‘New Materialism’ Through the Arts,” P5

Our culture treats beliefs like passwords: good to have, but not meant for sharing.  Why are we cautioned against sharing our beliefs? Because everyone believes different things, and if I believe that A is true, then I am alienating all those who believe in B, or C, or D, or E all of the above.

However, our culture fails to understand the basic properties of truth.

Two Truths Cannot Contradict Each Other

It is possible for both A and B to be simultaneously true. However, it is not possible for both A and not A to be simultaneously true. 

It can be both raining and sunny at the same place and time. But it cannot be both raining and not raining at the same place and time.  

Some Truths are Contingent

It is raining, but it does not have to be raining.  It could be not raining.

Other Truths are Necessary 

Dogs are mammals. So long as our categories for dog and mammal remain the same, any dog will always be classified as a mammal. 

This discussion has thus far avoided controversy because it has not touched upon the truths that really matter -- the Ultimate Questions in life. For example:

Either There Exists a God or There Does Not Exist a God

If I believe in a god and you believe in no god, one of us is necessarily wrong.  

This is assuming that we both have the same definition of "god." If you believe that "god" refers to a bearded man in the sky with magical powers who delights in punishing the wicked and I believe in that god is the Creator of the universe who is Being itself, then we can both both we right or we can both be wrong because our definitions differ.

This is why it is important to understand your opponents.  If we are going to disagree, let's make sure we agree on what it is we disagree about.

Truth is Independent of What One Desires to be True, Prefers to be True, or even Believes to be True

My cat is dead. I do not want my cat to be dead. I do not like the fact that my cat is dead. I am categorically opposed to the deadness of my cat. But my cat is still dead.

You Can Choose What you Believe In, But You Cannot Choose Whether or not What You Believe in is True

I can deny that my cat is dead. I may even have visions of my cat. But my cat is still dead.

All Truths Cannot be Verified in the Same Way.

Some truths can be verified scientifically or empirically, but not all.

You can scientifically verify that a person is living, but you cannot scientifically verify the dignity of a human person. You can verify rationally the dignity of a human person, but you cannot verify rationally the depths of a person's love for another.

Thus it is With God:

You cannot empirically verify God. God transcends our categories and pre-exists our systems. You can rationally prove God through many philosophical proofs, but you cannot rationally prove God's love for humanity.

The Knowledge and Verification of Some Truths Come From the Gift of Faith.

Only when "Christ dwells in our hearts through faith" may we know "what is the breadth and length and height and depth, of the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge." (Ephesians 17-18).

Truths Must Effect the Way We Live.

If my cat is dead, I should not continue to feed her. If the standard acceleration of a falling body is 9.8 m/s^2, I should not hurl myself off a giant cliff and expect to live.   And if there is a God--and if my existence results from God and my being depends on God--I should seek to find out the nature of this God because 

He

Can

Be

Known:

"I have not spoken in secret from some place in the land of darkness, I have not said to the descendants of Jacob, “Look for me in an empty waste." (Isaiah 45:19). 

Above all, 

Truth Must Be Pursued

"For this I have been born, and for this I have come into the world, to testify to the truth" (John 18:38).

The Truth is not a What, but a Whom