'I mean, is that really human nature?'

Many people believe that faith and reason are incompatible. Faith is for those who blindly trust what their religion tells them or what they feel is true. Reason is what we have proof for; it’s for the logical ones, and faith is for the childish and weak. This is an over-characterization, but there is truth to the generalization. The truth here lies in the fact that this mindset is prevalent, but not that it is valid. Every year, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast day of St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274) on Jan. 28. Over the course of his lifetime, Aquinas wrote over 8 million words. He was a Dominican priest who spent hours each day in prayer and study. His life was devoted to God and to writing about the truth. Aquinas was groundbreaking in many ways because he was able to show the validity of church doctrine through the use of reason. Pope St. John Paul II wrote in his masterful encyclical, “Fides et Ratio (Faith and Reason),” that faith and reason are “like two wings on which the human spirit rises to the contemplation of truth.” The pope, who was trained in the theology and philosophy of Aquinas, noted that the human person needs both faith and reason in order to be truly human and to come to the fullness of the truth. Reason is seen in the writings of Aquinas in a multitude of ways. First, his core belief is that the intellect is made for the truth and the will is made for the good. Even without mentioning God, we can come to see that this is the case. When I come to know something as true, my intellect rests in the fact that it now knows. When my choices align with goodness, my conscience is at ease, and when I act selfishly, my conscience nags at me to ask for forgiveness. This is all rooted in the proper understanding of truth. Truth is the conformity between the mind and reality. When a thought or proposition that I claim is in alignment with what actually is true, then my claim itself is also true. Therefore, if a religious claim was to defy logic or be the contradictory stance found in known scientific fact, then the religious belief would have to be wrong. Otherwise, the principle of noncontradiction would be invalid. This principle holds that two opposing claims cannot both be true at the same time. This is why the atheist and the believer cannot be correct. God is either real or not real. Rooted in the thought of Aristotle, Aquinas explained that the existence of God can be demonstrated through simply investigating the world around us, as explained in Aquinas’ famous “Five Ways.” As explained, Acquinas’ findings align with what modern science has concluded about the universe. All material things have cause. The universe is a material thing. Therefore, the universe must have a cause outside of itself otherwise nothing would exist. In other words, infinite regress is not possible to explain the cause of the universe. The first three ways of Aquinas (motion, causality, contingency) hinge on this understanding. The fourth way is called the gradation of perfection. Without knowing and there being a perfect being, there can be no way to grade something as more or less perfect than another thing. God is not just the best or most-good or most-perfect being. God is being itself. His nature is existence. Finally, the fifth way is called unintelligent beings acting towards an intelligent end. Simply put: How does grass know how to grow? It cannot think. Grass cannot choose. However, when sunlight, warmth and water are present, it simply grows—every time. The fifth way argues that the fact that nonrational beings act in rational and predictable ways proves that there was an Intelligence that ordered it that way. Christianity is unique because it is rooted both in history events and in a relentless reliance on reason. The Christian claim is that Jesus is God, made flesh. The God who is perfection. The God who is goodness and love itself became one of us so that we can know Him and be with Him forever. The life and writings of Aquinas place an exclamation point on this, pushing all of us today to deeply investigate the claims of our faith, so that we can know that it is true and why it is both reasonable and faith-filled. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post The Man Who Showed That Faith and Reason Align appeared first on The Daily Signal.

The Washington Post on Saturday demonstrated the heartfelt belief of liberal journalists that protests are only legitimate and newsworthy if they advance liberal goals. Conservative protests are somehow illegitimate and inauthentic. Friday brought a perfect test of whether they could cover a newsworthy protest on both sides, and the the Post failed it miserably. Anyone who spent $4 on a paper on Saturday would find absolutely nothing on the “March for Life” anywhere in what they bought. But the top of the front page carried this headline: Anti-ICE protests escalate in Minn. THOUSANDS MARCH: BUSINESSES CLOSE Show of dissent is largest vs. immigration policies Next to that was a large (four-column) color picture displaying hundreds of protesters. The story had a byline with five reporters, and gushed at the leftist hootenanny with these front-page paragraphs: MINNEAPOLIS — Thousands of people converged at a downtown park on Friday afternoon in the state’s biggest show of opposition yet to the Trump administration’s immigration operations in Minnesota, braving subzero temperatures and skipping work and school. Hundreds of businesses in the Twin Cities closed for the day of action, an effort organized by faith leaders and labor unions amid continuing tensions over U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions in the state, including the fatal shooting of Renée Good by an ICE officer earlier this month. On Friday morning, about 100 clergy members were arrested at a peaceful sit-in at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport protesting deportation flights. Labor leaders said more than 15,600 people had claimed tickets to the 2 p.m. march in Minneapolis — where the National Weather Service warned of minus-50 degree wind chill through Sunday morning. Bundled in down coats, beanies and ski goggles, demonstrators chanted “What do we want? ICE out!” and held signs bearing slogans such as “No MN Nice for ICE” and “Leave Us Alone!” as they marched peacefully.  “This rally says it all. We’re fighting for truth and freedom,” said Mary Turner, a night-shift nurse in Robbinsdale, Minnesota, and a union member who joined the march. Thousands of people converged on Capitol Hill on Friday afternoon in opposition to the killing of unborn children, braving winter weather and skipping work and school. The Washington Post ignored that as non-news, suggesting they should have all stayed home. But the leftists were awarded 30 paragraphs and two more large color photographs inside, because the Post is a Democrat rag manufactured for a Democrat audience.  To add comedy to this proceeding, the only other story on page A-7 was also about an anti-ICE protest:  Federal authorities wanted to charge Don Lemon. Here's what happened. Considering the obvious Post front-page bias, I also picked up Saturday's New York Times. The front page had a story on "Heaps of Dead Protesters In Iran," and the anti-ICE rally in Minnesota was reported with color photos on page A-10. The "March for Life" at least appeared, considering Vice President J.D. Vance spoke at the rally before the March. On page A-13, the headline was "Trump Widens Abortion Rule For Recipients of Foreign Aid." The Trump administration will expand the “Mexico City rule,” which bars recipients of United States foreign aid from promoting abortion, to include a ban on diversity, equity and inclusion policies or “radical gender ideologies,” Vice President JD Vance announced on Friday. Mr. Vance made the announcement, which had been expected, during a speech at the annual March for Life in Washington. The policy change is the Trump administration’s latest attack on what President Trump and his aides call “woke ideology” at home and abroad. It could affect more than $30 billion in foreign assistance.

BlazeTV host Sara Gonzales is sounding the alarm on Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison (D), claiming his political career has been a decades-long scheme to facilitate financial transfers to Somalia.“It feels a whole lot like Keith Ellison may have been pulling off a long con. I mean, decades long, just to facilitate Somalian fraud. Like it seems like this has been his goal for a very long time,” Gonzales says, pointing out that before he was AG, he served in Congress from 2007 to 2019.“You would expect that in 12 years serving in Congress, there would be a lot to show for it, right? Like he will have had a bunch of bills that he sponsored that passed ... I mean he did turn into the Minnesota AG so like obviously he was successful,” she continues.“Except, it turns out, there’s only one single solitary bill that he sponsored that ended up becoming law. Just this one,” she says.The bill is titled Money Remittances Improvement Act of 2014.“It made it easier for nonbank financial institutions like money-service businesses to provide remittance payments internationally, which of course, you know, is sending American money to foreigners across the world,” Gonzales explains.And in an interview with the Mogadishu Times, Ellison explained that the primary goal is to keep “the discussion focused on how we can keep money flowing to Somalia.”“Quite simply, one of the banks that helps to facilitate remittances from the United States to Somalia has now become worried about the degree of risk ... they’re worried that they could end up being prosecuted on a criminal basis,” Ellison continued.“It’s actually so incredible that all of this was out there. All the breadcrumbs were there this entire time. This has actually been in operation for a very long time for Keith Ellison,” Gonzales comments, shocked.Ellison has also publicly claimed that sending money to Somalia is mutually beneficial for U.S. taxpayers.“Please give me receipts on how it’s mutually beneficial. This is a third-world country with people who are inbred ... so I don’t understand,” Gonzales says.“On a serious note, lock him up. We need accountability for all of this corruption that has been happening for decades completely unchecked,” she adds.Want more from Sara Gonzales?To enjoy more of Sara's no-holds-barred takes on news and culture, subscribe to BlazeTV — the largest multi-platform network of voices who love America, defend the Constitution, and live the American dream.

SHOCKING TIES: Just GUESS Who's Strategist Leads Anti-ICE Signal MN Mob Hunting ICE Agents (Gets WORSE)