Philosophy and God

Aristotle believed that every human has a telos. This, we agree on. However, unlike Aristotle, I believe our telos is to serve God. He believed humans' telos was to attain a eudaimon life. According to Aristotle, in order to achieve such a life we must acquire certain virtues. This is basically the foundation in which the Theory of Virtues is founded.

I agree that most humans seek out a life of happiness. This should not be our sole goal though. If we must suffer some negative feelings in order to become worthy of living an eternal life with our Father, then so be it. In fact, we as mere humans can never be worthy of our Lord. It is for this reason that the Father sent His Son to die on the cross. We no longer have to carry our burden of sins alone. Once we genuinely ask God for forgiveness, we are forgiven. It is truly that simple.

Happiness is so temporal. It is impossible for humans to always be happy. Unlike happiness, joy is permanent. From joy stems hope. With hope for better comes a belief that there is something/somewhere better. All this can only be found in our Father.

Why is it that so many people are willing to accept the idea of virtues from a long dead philosopher, but they are unwilling to adhere to the commands of the still living God? Is there anyone alive today who can say they met Aristotle? Are any of his family members still breathing? The answer is that he probably has descendants, but they are very distant from him now. We can accept his ideas and even rules he has set forth about morality based on old writings that have been translated and reprinted many times. Doesn't this sound familiar? The bBible was translated and reprinted many times as well. The Bible explains and sets forth rules concerning morality and many other aspects of human life. For years, philosophers have been formulating and reformulating moral theories, trying to come up with objective truth. Yet, we have a standard for objective truth, God and His Word. It seems like we are blind if we continue to seek out answers to questions that have already been answered. We are just not satisfied with the answer. I do not think we should try changing the answer, but rather we should try accepting the answer. Part of having a personal relationship with God is to try to understand the answers.

How can we follow the rules of a fallible man when we refuse to follow the perfect God?