This book is hard to read.
But I think I’m starting to get it.
- Coffee can’t spill itself.
- Therefore, God exists.
That makes sense to me.
If it’s a little murky for you, I’ll try to explain.
For quite awhile, guys like Aristotle, Socrates, and Aquinas have been thinking about why things are the way they are.
Guys like Edward Feser explain what those guys think about in terms that guys like me can sometimes almost understand.
For example, I understand a cup of coffee.
The coffee can “cool off” when it’s left on the table.
The coffee can spill on the floor when it’s knocked off the table.
Philosophers think about those things as “potentials”.
The coffee has the “potential” to cool off.
It has the “potential” to spill on the floor.
This leads me to say something that has been obvious to many people for a long time:
Coffee has a lot of potential.
And here’s a thing I already knew but never really thought about…
…potentials are not “real”.
The cool coffee doesn’t exist.
The spilled coffee doesn’t exist.
Potentials don’t become “real” until they are “realized”.
Feser uses the word “actualized”.
And here’s another thing I already knew but didn’t think about…
…coffee cannot actualize any of its own potentials.
That’s basically saying:
“Coffee can’t spill itself.”
The coffee needs something “actual” to actualize its spilled potential.
In other words, “something real” needs to knock the cup off the table.
Potentials don’t exist…so they can’t do anything.
I have a lot of potential too!
One of my potentials is the power to knock a cup of coffee off a table.
I can actualize the coffee’s potential to spill.
(WARNING: This next part is where my brain melted.)
I am like a cup of coffee.
I cannot actualize my own potentials.
And I know, for a fact, I have the actual power to spill coffee…
…but I DIDN’T GIVE MY COFFEE SPILLING POWERS TO MYSELF.
So how come I’m able to spill coffee?
Something, outside of myself, actualized my potential to dump coffee cups.
That something is what philosophers call “God”.
Think about that next time you drop your Starbucks.
21 Responses
Hey John and Mandy. I’ve never posted before so i chose this entry to ask you a question i’ve been wondering for a while. I enjoy your podcast immensely, but I am fustrated not be in the room to repond to your conversation because you engage the squirrel in my cranium and he begins to run feverishly on his wheel while i listen to you. The recent topics of discussion about engaging atheist has gotten me reflecting on how I interact with people around me. I do not blog and I don’t have a personal email or facebook page, but I do come in contact with numerous atheist at work and in my community as I live in loony northern california. My question to you guys is, how do you know when to engage someone and when to remain silent? The church answer is to be led by the Spirit, but as I seek to rightly devide the word of truth, I see places in the proverbs that says to answer a fool (someone who says there is no God) his folly and then it says to not answer a fool his folly. Jesus spoke out at times, and at others, he remained silent. He also said not to cast pearls before swine, and in Paul’s writings he says not to argue or quarrel about unprofitable things. I’m asking because my natural inclination is to remain silent and not debate people at all. I know that is not what Jesus calls us to but I’m afraid of speaking when I should be quiet, so I tend to just not engage. I believe that your example of spanking a baby that is not breathing to get them to repond is a good one, but I don’t know if Amanda’s conversation with “the crazy lady” about people first pronouns was fruitful. I do not say that as a negative judgement because I have had many unfruitful conversations with crazy people also. I am astonished to hear though that there are christians who don’t know the total depravity and wickedness of our culture. If they would read the comment section on any news story about abortion or so called lgbt rights, they we see the night-dwellers in full force. Anyways, enjoy your whit and appreciate you talking to the heathen. Any advice you have on how to have a conversation with someone that isn’t just a big face full of truth, but is a truth sandwich that is made with love in the hopes of seeing a conversion would be good 🙂 God Bless and keep up the discussions!
Hi Rob, I really appreciate your comment as a fellow listener. I too get frustrated that I’m not in the room with these podcast conversations because the pot-stirrer in me wants dive in as well. Obviously there will have to be a comedy sojourn conference initiated at some point.
As for your question, Amanda wrote a blog post on the two sided coin that is “answer/don’t answer a fool according to his folly” a while ago that, whilst didn’t give me a lot of guidance, encouraged me in the fact we aren’t always going to know when we should speak but often we should speak anyway. Whilst we shouldn’t go looking for dogs to grab the ears of, we should always have an answer ready when we come into contact with unbelievers. A friend once told me that there are two types of faith: faith to tackle mountains, and faith to not tackle molehills. In short, asking for a wisdom to discern the difference is a good place to start in my opinion.
thank you for the thoughtful reply. Where might I find Amanda’s blog as I would love to read? As for your response, you have the wisdom of a Godly woman as my wife gives me similar answers. I guess for me, It seems like the average person i come in contact with are the people Frank Turek would describe as being on a happiness quest and not a truth quest. I want to have meaningful conversations but it seems like they are so indoctrinated by ungodly, leftist dogma that it leaves m wanting to bang my head against the wall. My wife tells me that a seed takes time to germinate and to have faith that maybe one will grow, but in the meantime, argggg…..
Hi, Rob! (I mean, Pkarghl.)
Thanks for the perspective! You may be correct about the conversation with the Psycho Lady. I have no idea whether it was fruitful. (I’m pretty sure she’s still psycho… I can only hope someone else read/learned something.)
I don’t want to pretend I have all the answers. The truth is, I wrestle with God over this question all the time. Here’s the blogpost Jasmine mentioned:
https://culturesatwar.wordpress.com/2018/01/05/damned-if-you-do-and-if-you-dont/
Read the blog. Glad I’m not the only one. I applaud you and your dad for putting yourselves out there. I’m reminded of some of the videos Ray Comfort has posted of open air preachers who welcome and appreciate people who argue and disagree because others who may be genuinely seeking answers will stop and listen to the debate and be swayed by the truth. I just want to represent truth with love and not get caught up in trying to be right, which for me, is my tendency.
Thanks for listening (and reading), Rob. Hope you’ll interact with us when you get the chance, even if you can’t be in the room!
I can’t give you a definitive answer to the question about engagement. I can recommend a book that I found extremely helpful: https://www.amazon.com/Tactics-Study-Guide-Effectively-Convictions-ebook/dp/B01863JO40/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1520472890&sr=8-2&keywords=koukl+tactics
Koukl’s book will give you some good ideas for turning conversations toward faith without being a weirdo. I’ve used these “tactics” many times in my conversations with atheists (and Christians!). This book made me a better thinker and communicator.
Ah man, wasn’t expecting homework – now I’ve got to read a book! Seriously, thank you and I will check the book out. Hopefully it’s super thick so I can knock myself unconscious with it after some of the conversations I may bravely endeavor to have after reading said book. Another question for you though. How do you guys interact with people who claim to be christians but accuse you of taking the Bible and the Great Commision and striving to live Holy too seriously? It seems as if just as many attacks would come from people who call themselves followers of Christ as from the athiests. I don’t know if you are familiar with Pastor Mike Fabarez from Compass Bible Church (he has a radio ministry), but he commonly refers to the attitude in the modern American Church that thinks there are two groups of Christians, the varsity and junior varsity squads. He makes the Biblical case that the j.v. squad has to examine to see if they are really on the team at all. He says that these people will often oppose the varsity players and say that they are taking the whole Christian thing too extreme. Anyways, thanks for the reply. This blogging thing is kind-of fun. I just wish that I could hunt-and-peck more than 3 words a minute then I could be super-duper long winded!
Approaching ever closer to determinism in your posts, hehe.
One day, you will join the dark side. I will welcome you with open arms ^_^.
Never! I’ll never join your diabolical Empire!
There is a blog post coming up on Friday that features an exchange between an atheist and a theist whom we will call “Dylan”. I’ll be curious to hear your thoughts.
Oh boy, I’ll try to make myself available, though I’m taking my wife to an appointment that day. I find that most Dylans, even hypothetical ones, are interesting to read about. They also don’t typically need their names changed to protect the innocent either ^_-.
Also, I caught the podcast with Your Best Life Now: The Board Game. I will say, I’m glad you played it and I’m glad I did not, hehe.
I really like how you put that out there. It really puts things into perspective.
At the risk of being banned from your site, why is there coffee?
Great question.
I’ll get to that in another post!
I’m going to go out on a limb and predict your answer is: “The same reason there’s laughter.”
… I don’t like coffee. But my infant was really, really smiley at 4:00am, and I enjoyed it immensely.
You should have preceded your comment with “** SPOILER ALERT **”
And is there only one way to get the coffee?
Makes sense to me. Coffee is clearly proof that God loves us.
“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” We have to put our faith in the possibility of a cup of coffee and reach for it. Coffee is real enough, it exists, but if you can’t take that leap of faith and seek it, you ain’t getting no coffee.
Yowza. That’s a whole other level.
If you can’t keep from deepening the philosophical conversation I’m afraid I’ll have to block you. (A trick I learned from the pagans.)
I’ll be the opportunist that drinks the coffee.
Free coffee is free coffee.
I am with you there I have to have my morning coffee.