Damascene Cosmology – Does the Damascene Cosmological argument prove the Christian God is the only God?

26 07 2010

Some might be quick to point out that the Damascene Cosmological argument doesn’t necessarily prove the Christian God. They would say that I have wasted my time in trying to prove my faith because all I have proven is that “a god” exists, but this doesn’t give me specific details as to what type of God he (or she, or it) might be. Shockingly enough, I have run into quite a few atheists who feel that this is an adequate reply to any cosmological argument. “Well you haven’t proven the Christian God exists” they say as they smile, sit back, and fold their arms.

I would tend to agree with the atheists on this point; the Damascene Cosmological argument does not prove the existence of the Christian God. However, I believe that Christians are justified in using the Damascene argument for the following reasons: Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Damascene Cosmology, Theology

Short Homilies – An Introduction

25 07 2010

These are short “sermons” that are written as a prose. They are meant to cause someone to think and to seek God in all things. They are not deep on technical language (as some of my other posts are), but instead are meant to challenge the whole of a person. The intellect, emotions, the heart, and everything about you should be challenged, uplifted, and convicted when reading these.

I do not write these as someone who sees himself as an expert or above such things. I write these to myself and to others who share in my nature (other humans). Many of these homilies stem from my own internal dialogue with myself, especially the ones concerning sin. Do not think that I express any of this in a haughty manner, but rather I express these as humbly as I can.

For all the mentioning of our sin I also attempt to explain our future glory in Christ and the hope that we have now. We must never forget that while we are fallen we are also forgiven and therefore redeemed. In being redeemed we are to seek God in all that we do so that we might become like him.

Some of these are new and some are reposts of things I have posted before, but they fit with what I’m doing here.

Please enjoy these as I have enjoyed writing them.

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This was a scheduled post. I am currently out of town and subsequently have turned comments off since I cannot moderate or interact with commenters. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about this post, please feel free to contact me.


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Categories : Creative, Devotional

Damascene Cosmology – Third Premise: “Therefore, since all things are mutable and require a creator, that creator is God”

25 07 2010

It is at this point that many readers will squirm, but such a reaction is simply not justified when considering the previous two premises. Though the idea of admitting the existence of God may not be palatable to certain readers, if they desire to base their beliefs off what is known rather than what stands in contradiction to reality, they must abandon naturalism and admit that God is the creator of the universe.

The conclusion is true because it logically follows from the premises and both premises are true. To review on why the conclusion is true:

1)   All things are either mutable (movable and changeable) or immutable (immovable and unchangeable)

2)   If something is movable then it requires a creator because an infinite regress is impossible

3)   An infinite regress is impossible because it would never allow events to come about

4)   Immutable objects are above an infinite regress because they do not move and therefore cannot be measured by time

5)   Everything we experience is mutable, therefore requiring a creator

6)   By definition, the creator must be God (due to what is needed in order to be immutable) Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Damascene Cosmology, Philosophy

Reflections on the Trinity – On the Incarnation

24 07 2010

You counted it nothing to abandon your place in Heaven, O Word, to take on our flesh, on our behalf, to rescue us from ourselves. How could we ever dream of such a God who would love us enough to die for us? But you did more; you lived as us so as to redeem us.

In the beginning you created us and we rebelled against you. As you walked in the garden shortly after our rebellion you asked where we were, but you knew. Nothing is hidden from you Lord. You knew what had occurred and what we had done, but in your question you shamed us. You made us contemplate on the sickness that we had just done.

You were not without love or compassion. Rather than eradicating us, you lovingly fashioned animal skins to cover our nudity. My Lord, you did this as a foreshadow of your own death on our behalf! Just as Adam and Eve had become ashamed of their nudity in the Garden and needed to be covered, so too did we become ashamed of our nudity before your Law. But just as you did with Adam and Eve, rather than letting us lay there in despair, you fashioned yourself as a skin to cover our iniquity so that we might not be ashamed. How can my sinful mind ever hope to understand your love, O Lord?

You came into the world as we do, only without human father. It was the blessed Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, who you chose as the worthy vessel to carry you. We ask that you send your Spirit to us to aid us in following her example, for at hearing that she was to be blessed with you in her womb she humbly and joyfully submitted. May we too react in the same way when invited to hold you within ourselves! It is in Mary that we find the eternal mystery of how the infinite was contained to her womb, but this foreshadowed the mystery of how your would Spirit would be contained within us. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Creative, Devotional, Reflections on the Trinity

Damascene Cosmology – the Second Premise: Everything we experience is mutable

24 07 2010

It may seem like a broad claim to say that everything within our experience is mutable, but I don’t think the claim is as broad as it might seem. For instance, does everything within our experience fall within time? If so, this means that it is subject to change and therefore mutable. However, this seems too simplistic a handling of the subject, so let us look at the issue with more depth.

In all of human experience, if we ignore the claims of experiencing God, then everything we have experienced is subject to change of some type. The most obvious experience is matter. In matter we see dirt, we see wood, we see televisions, we see ourselves, and we see everything else. All of what we see is “matter” or “material,” but is manifested in different forms, showing that there is a change within these forms. Some things are bigger than others and all matter can be duplicated, which shows an incomplete nature (or imperfect nature) that is subject to change.

Energy is also mutable within our experience. Some things can have more or less energy. The heat of the water in a bathtub is less than the heat of a nuclear explosion, indicating that a nuclear explosion has more energy built within it than a bathtub. In other words, within material objects, energy is dispersed in degrees. Whereas God is equally over all things (necessarily so and not as a case of special pleading and not in a pantheistic sense), energy can be in something to a different degree. This indicates that energy is mutable because its entire being is found in different degrees. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Damascene Cosmology, Philosophy

Reflections on the Trinity – The Spirit

23 07 2010

Who am I to be so bold as to declare to you who you are? I offer this prayer up humbly to you my Lord, knowing that you are the Alpha and Omega. You are beyond me. It is in your mystery that I find clarity. It is in your hidden nature that I find you. I take sweet rest in your grace. I am weary O Spirit, but my rest is in you.

Eternally proceeding from the Father, but uncreated, you comfort us my God. You proceed as the heat proceeds from the sun, though distinct you are unified to the Father, though uncreated you find your existence in him. Such a mystery I shall never comprehend or understand, but in my finite nature I worship you.

Never let me blaspheme you, O Spirit. Should I ever blaspheme you, may you make my thoughts and actions cease! May you restrict me like an unruly child. Should I ignore your discipline, which is your love, then may you cast me into oblivion. May I never experience your presence or find comfort in you should I rebel against you!

But in all, please show patience with me Lord. I am a sinner, lowly in heart and low in mind. I need you to guide my path and to give me the strength to follow your path. It is through you, O Spirit, that I am defied, not in my identity and being, but in all other things I become like you. What a humbling thought that you would step down from heaven to dwell with me so that I might become like you. I do not deserve this for I have soiled your name. I have cursed you in word and deed. I have been your enemy. Yet you live within me and guide me to what you desire; your love I shall never comprehend.

You are the gift given by the Word to us mere mortals. You are the strength behind the martyrs. You are the power that raised Christ from the dead. You are the one that resides within those who follow and proclaim Jesus as the Christ. It is only through you that we know anything. But you are not a force, an inanimate object that permeates all of creation. You are a person unified with the Father and Son in identity and being, a living person who thinks and feels and I worship you.

How amazing it is that I could not worship were it not for you. It is only through you that I can worship you. I am so finite and so sinful that I am not even capable of uttering your name in a worthy fashion without your power. But you do not withhold this joy from me. You do not abandon me to live a life absent of worshiping you, which is Hell. Instead, you indwell me and open my mind. You enlighten me in every aspect of my being to prepare me to worship you and to wholly worship you. Such a beautiful mystery.

Christ called you the Comforter, the one who would walk with us and dwell within us in our darkest moments. What glory there is in such a thought! To know that there is no pain too great that you cannot overcome it, for what is our temporary pain in comparison to the infinite God of the universe? There is no sadness that can quench the joy you instill in us. There is no harm that can capture the soul that belongs to you.

You have been breathed into man twice, at our creation and at our re-creation. When created you are the one who crafted us into the image of God. When we are redeemed by the Word you are the one who is breathed into us again to craft us into the image of Christ, to make us holy, to make us more than we ought to be.

O Spirit, I pray that you sustain me tonight and for all the days of my life and once you have called for my mortal life to end that you will embrace my soul and bring me to your bosom. I pray that you will welcome me as a faithful servant and not a rebellious child. Continue to live within my life so that I may disappear and you may appear. Have mercy upon me O Spirit, a sinner.

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This was a scheduled post. I am currently out of town and subsequently have turned comments off since I cannot moderate or interact with commenters. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns about this post, please feel free to contact me.


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Categories : Creative, Devotional, Prayer, Reflections on the Trinity

Damascene Cosmology – On the Nature of Immutable Beings

23 07 2010

Second Sub-Premise – “If they are immutable, then they are uncreated”

As the first sub-premise says that anything that is created is also mutable (which implies the need for a creator), the second sub-premise provides the opposite, that if something is uncreated, then it is immutable.

The first thing to understand about immutability is that if a being is immutable, it does not require a creator. If an immutable being had a creator then we could posit that at one time the immutable being was created; this would mean that the immutable being was no longer immutable. If something came into existence it went from one state S1 to another S2. That is, the being went from non-existence to existence, which is a change of state for the being. Thus, to be immutable, by definition a being must be without a creator or without a beginning.

This means that whatever is immutable is also eternal. If we accept Aristotle’s explanation that time is motion (that is, the measurement of things) and combine it with Einstein’s theory of relativity, then it would seem that time can speed up or slow down depending upon the motion of matter, meaning that time is the measure of the motion of matter. Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Damascene Cosmology, God Exists, Philosophy

Reflections on the Trinity – On the Word

22 07 2010

O blessed Word of God, how we worship you! It is through you that all things were created. It is through you that we have existence. The begotten of the Father, but uncreated and timeless, you share all things with the Father except in this; you were begotten of the Father, not in the way we humans are begotten, but in a mystery that we mere humans will never know.

I reflect upon your good deeds and your revelation to us. Certainly God must have a Word, but not one that dissipates as soon as spoken as our words do. Rather, you are a person who shares in the divine essence of God.

How wonderful you are for the love you have shown to humanity. It was you who walked in the Garden with Adam and Eve, sharing with them the Divine wisdom that was meant for us humans. It was you who discovered humanity’s rebellion in the Garden and cursed us. But in the curse you showed such restraint! You showed such love! For you did not destroy us, but rather allowed us to continue.

It was you who guided Abraham’s path and it was you who met with Moses. You guided your people, the Hebrews, from Egypt into the land you had prepared for them. These have been your interactions with men, always guiding us along the path of righteousness.

You stood with the three in the furnace and you closed the mouths of the lions who desired to consume Daniel. You walked with Israel and guided her paths, but she turned from you as all humanity turned from you. But you did not despair. Instead of destroying us, O precious Word, you came down and lived amongst us!

Such blasphemy to the Jews and foolishness to the Greeks! That you, the begotten Word, would come down and live amongst us is unfathomable to all. But you took on our nature. My struggles are now your struggles.

When I sin, you are the one who forgives. When I am burdened, you are the one who guides me along the path to relief. You go between us and the Father on our behalf, issuing your forgiveness to us.

To whom can the burdened and tired take refuge? It is in you alone my Lord. It is in you that the weary may lay their heads and rest. It is in you that the traveler may find his home. It is in you that we learn that the mountains that impede our paths belong to you! There is no trial we can face, no persecution too great, that we cannot find hope in you O Lord! Read the rest of this entry »


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Damascene Cosmology – On the Impossibility of an Infinite Regress

22 07 2010

An infinite regress is impossible –

Since the “if/then” is contingent upon an infinite regress being impossible, we must look to see if an infinite regress actually is impossible. Those who argue for an infinite regress usually make the followings points:

1)   It is not impossible to think of something that is infinite regressive. If we imagine a man is stacking books in a library and he’s stacking books on an infinite number of shelves, then it’s not impossible for us to imagine he’s been doing this for eternity.

2)   It’s not impossible to imagine something existing for eternity and impacting other things. If we think of an atom that has existed for eternity, we can imagine it wandering around space, moving and containing energy, without ever have being created.

If we take such views prima facie then an infinite regress does indeed seem possible. However, I would contend that such analogies misconstrue the issue of an infinite regress and do not align with reality. That is to say, while it is possible to imagine an infinite regress (and in fact mathematically we can use infinity in equations), there cannot be an actual infinite regress when applied to reality, especially in light of modern science.

Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Damascene Cosmology, Philosophy

Reflections on the Trinity – On the Father

21 07 2010

Oh most blessed and holy Father, what ever can I say about you? To what can I compare you? What words can I say that will offer up an explanation as to who you are? Nothing in all of existence may be compared to you and no words come close to describing who you are.

The unbegotten and uncreated Father, holy beyond all comprehension. For no words can come close to describing you Father. Our words are mere analogies to your splendor and greatness. To say you are holy does not close to expressing your majesty.

The holy Father, forgiver of sins and origin of all things. For it is by your Word that we all came into existence. You spoke into the void and created us, not out of need or desire, but out of love and glory. You have safeguarded your creation and protected us.

It is by your will that you sent your only begotten Son to die on our behalf, to die for the creation that rebelled against you. Out of love you watched as your Son was tortured on our behalf. But you did not let your Son die in vain on the cross, but instead sent your Spirit to raise him from the dead and sit him at your right hand.

It is this same Spirit you sent to those who believe in you. God indwelling in man. Father I confess that were it not for the sacrifice of your Son and the indwelling of your Spirit I would not know you, for I am a lowly creation who has made myself lower by partaking in rebellion against you. Have mercy upon me Father! Read the rest of this entry »


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Categories : Creative, Devotional, Reflections on the Trinity

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