Every Man His Own St. Thomas Aquinas

There's a concise article over at The American Interest claiming that when God goes away, superstition or worse can take His place. Outside of the weed-soaked troglodytes slouched in front of their computers, watching the latest porn videos, I think it's safe to say that most people need life to have some kind of meaning and higher purpose. In the absence of religion or a foundational philosophy, they're left to derive it on their own from first principles. I think that's one reason for so much intellectual mush in our culture.

Theology and philosophy are no joke. Among other things, I'm trained as a theoretical mathematician, which isn't too far from philosophy. Having read as much philosophy and theology as I have, I know there's no way I could come up with anything as well-constructed as even Utilitarianism on my own. There's definitely no chance I'd be able to find the holes in its arguments without a lot of help of really smart people who have spent tons of time thinking through the topic.

Most people have neither the intelligence, the training nor the inclination to even begin to do so. Without religion or philosophy, they're stuck with superstitions, cliches and the latest pop psychology to give them a basis for making decisions*. Not only that, without a formal framework in their lives, they lack objective experts to call upon for advice. If you don't have religion or philosophy, you might as well pick your coaches at random since they can't have any foundations, either.

One of the reasons I love the Catholic Church so much is that it gives me a robust framework upon which to build my own, tiny variant. I feel like I've got the freedom to be creative with the meaning of my life by starting from the Church's 2000 years of genius.

Someday I'll have to share my Theology of the Party with you. And that's "Party" with craft beer, hot chicks and good food, not "Party" with ghastly banners, trite slogans and headache-inducing chants. It's a Catholicism that gets down.

St. Thomas Aquinas. The dude was smart.
"Think of a number between 1 and 10. Wrong."

* - For an example, see: Warriors, Social Justice.