Science only answers the question, How does it work? Or at most, What's there? Science asks what and how, philosophy asks why, myth and religion ask who. Who's in charge here? Who's the author? That's what we really long to know.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the distinction between scientific inquiry and philosophical exploration, highlighting our quest for deeper understanding.
In this quote, Peter Kreeft illustrates the different realms of inquiry each discipline engages in: science focuses on the mechanics and existence of phenomena ('how' and 'what'), while philosophy delves into the reasons and meanings behind them ('why'), and mythology and religion seek to explain the authority and purpose ('who'). Kreeft suggests that while science provides valuable answers about the universe, our intrinsic desire is to understand the overarching purpose and the 'who' behind it all.
In practice
In a lecture about the role of philosophy in understanding human existence, one might quote this to contrast scientific and philosophical perspectives.
Trusting God's grace means trusting God's love for us rather than our love for God. [...] Therefore our prayers should consist mainly of rousing our awareness of God's love for us rather than trying to rouse God's awareness of our love for him, like the priests of Baal on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:26-29).
Remembering the facts of death and Heaven gives us an even more pressing reason to learn to pray: We do not have an infinite amount of time. We are one day nearer Home today than we ever were before. I guarantee you that after you die you will not say 'I spent too much time praying; I wish I had watched more TV instead.'
Like apes, we breed, sleep, and die. Yet like God we say, "I am." We are ontological oxymorons.
The modern mind always tends to reduce the greater to the lesser rather than seeing the lesser as reflecting the greater.
Our soul, like Mary's body, is to receive God Himself if only we, like her, believe, consent and receive; if only we speak her truly magic word fiat, "let it be." It is the creative word, the word God used to create the universe.
Protestants believe that the sacraments are like ladders that God gave to us by which we can climb up to Him. Catholics believe that they are like ladders that God gave to Himself by which He climbs down to us.
The efficacy of a prayer depends not on the words but on the sincerity of intention.
Would you take a billion dollars, if as part of the deal the Earth were made uninhabitable a year after your death? ... well, of course not; you care about your friends, above all your children, any grandchildren. But ... what if the deal calls for the planet to be poisoned a thousand years later? We feel strong obligations to generations in the near future - should we not feel the same way about our children's great-grandchildren and generations beyond them?
An economic system which can only expand or expire must be false to all that is human.
Victory and defeat are each of the same price.
Everyone is tearing each other apart in the name of their personal god. And the irony is, by definition, they're probably worshiping the same god.
I have a dreadful fear that the more you try to prevent revealing the self the more you do.
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