What is Truth? Part 1

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Welcome, welcome one and all, welcome to the Catholic Experience. I am the one, the only Catholic adventurer Today we’re talking about. By the way, this is February 4th in the year of our Lord, 2024. And I say thank you, catholic Church. Today we’re talking about truth. What is truth? How on earth can you know? Let’s get that slate back up there, hello, hello Slate. Tell me about what is truth. How can you possibly know and why is that important to know? Folks, this is one of the most, this is the most important show, really the most important episode in my catalog. I’m very glad that you’re joining me. Hello to those of you catching me live on X, youtube and Facebook and throughout the known galaxy, especially if you’re catching me live on my website at catholicadventurercom slash live. Very happy that you’re joining me.

00:51

At the top of the show, by the way, I’m going to be giving some advice to people who are struggling with like the same sins over and over again, or struggling with spiritual difficulties. It just seems like a same cycle. It just won’t end. What do you do in cases like that? I’ve got some advice for you right at the top of the show, and at the bottom of the show, I’m going to be taking your calls. You’ll be able to call in at 888-546-4656. Again, that’s 888-546-4656. If you’re catching me live on socials, you see a little video feed, just a little slate there with the title of the show, and don’t worry about having to memorize the phone number. I’m going to be popping it up there. When it’s time to call, you’ll be able to read it on your screen.

01:40

So did a lot of work leading. I have to tell you something very funny I did a lot of work leading up to this show. Really, I’ve been working on this show for a few days, little bits here and there. It’s not, like you know, eight hour days, you know, for free, four days, nothing like that. But we’re working on the show for a few days. And between yesterday and today I’ve been kind of active on, especially on X if you’re not following my following me on X, please do so at for the Queen BVM and I’ve been posting teasers. I posted I’m going to read a little bit of it today I posted a prelude to a podcast, which is basically this is what the podcast is going to be, this is what I’m talking about and this is why. And then today I posted a few things. You know, by the way, I’m going to be doing an after show live in an X spaces session, about 330. So about an hour and a half from now I’m going to be doing a live after show.

02:35

So I tweeted about that and so on. Nothing episode related on either on X or on Facebook. Nothing episode related has been taking off. The algorithms are barely distributing it, very barely distributing anything I posted that happens to be episode related, and this is really aggravating the hell out of me at this point. You know, I was looking at it just a little bit before I started to go live and I posted this what I really you don’t, I can’t even repeat what I really wanted to post, but anyway, I posted this. I said ice cream is delicious. Ice cream emoji. I heart it. Heart emoji. Ice cream is delicious, I love it, and I’m going live in a half an hour.

03:22

Watch this tweet blow up because of that first line. Isn’t that wonderful smiley face? Now, it was only posted a half an hour ago. The tweet didn’t blow up, but I have to tell you it has more action on it than the previous three or four tweets that are episode related, that one tweet that started off with ice cream is delicious. It isn’t literally blowing up by comparison to the other episode related tweets. It is blowing up. You see what I mean about this damn algorithm. So the algorithm definitely wants peppy up beat stuff and if you don’t give it peppy, peppy upbeat stuff, it punishes you. If it’s business related or if it’s you know, it doesn’t even have to be angry, just stern or firm. The algorithm punishes you. It’s unbelievable. I think everything I post that’s episode related. I’m going to start off with hey, are you ready to feel good? Let’s feel good, yay, something like that. And then I’m going to post the details about the episode. Follow me on x at for the queen BVM. Quick little note about that.

04:38

My my strategy for getting around that damn algorithm that gets in my way. So much my strategy for that is my newsletter. If you’re not signed up for my newsletter, please consider doing so. Go to CatholicAdventurercom and you should get a prompt like a pop up inviting you to sign up for my newsletter. Otherwise you’ll see in the menu bar there’s like a subscription or newsletter link in there that you can sign up. Or you can see it on my if you click the link in my bio on my social networks. Click that link in my bio at the top of the page will be taken to. It’ll be a sign up form For my newsletter. That’s my way, because that’s my way around the social media algorithm. It takes the middleman out of the way and that’s just me and you and you get notified of everything important that I do. I send out about one a week, maybe one every two weeks. I don’t flood your inbox, don’t worry about it.

05:35

Okay, let’s get down to this nitty gritty first segment at the top of the show. I wanted to give you some advice, those of you who are struggling with the same sin over and over and over and over and over and over again, struggling with the same spiritual difficulties over and over and over again. And doesn’t it just make you mad? Doesn’t it just make you lose hope? Right, and it makes you wonder, makes you wonder why. Why is it like this?

06:06

I’m going to tell you a little story from back in my Marine Corps days. I’m going to try and keep this brief because God knows I can talk for hours about anything. Little story this is back when I was so I was an infantry Marine. This is going back to infantry school. This was after boot camp and now this is, I mean, infantry school in the Marine Corps is like boot camp 2.0. It’s pretty intense.

06:32

We were in a training evolution we were doing. We were training for a very specific maneuver and I’m not going to get into the details of it, but it was a very specific maneuver. It involved about five or six steps Okay, it was. It was a little complicated, about five or six steps to do this thing, this combat maneuver. Now all of us are lined up, we each have to do this maneuver and we’re being judged on it by our, our instructors.

07:04

My turn comes up to do this maneuver and I proceed and advance forward and I do this maneuver the five or six steps, whatever it was and the instructor said Nope, do it again. Exactly like that, nope. You know to this day, when my kids do something wrong, I go Nope. If my dog does something wrong, I say Nope. I say no, exactly like that instructor said it to me. And you know why? Because the instructor said Nope, do it again. And I did it again. No, do it again. And I did it again. And I did it again and again, and again, and again. He made me do it over and over again until I got it right. He would not tell me what I was doing wrong. I would do this maneuver, something across those five steps, those five components. I should say something there was done wrong. He didn’t tell me what it was, he just made me do it again. No, do it again, and again, and again, and again.

08:20

I was probably doing that maneuver again and again, and again. It had to be at least an, at least an hour. It might have been a little bit longer. Each time more and more tired. You know, my body tired, my mind tired, my spirit tired and frustrated. Nope, do it again. Do it again. No, do it again. Damn, he wouldn’t tell me what I was doing wrong. He just maybe do it again. And let’s just say it was an hour, because it was at least an hour, an hour into this, again my body is hurting.

08:54

I mean I’m, I am literally ready to cry, because in the Marine Corps you don’t say can I just have a few minutes to rest? There’s no such thing. You’re told to do it again. You just do it again, but my leg is falling off. Then do it on one leg, but you’re doing it. You just don’t ask, you, just do right. So I’m ready to cry at this point, I’m like at a breaking point.

09:18

Do the maneuver again. Finally I got it right. I’m shocked. I’m shocked. Then he makes me do. He says, yes, that way, just that way. You understand that. Yes, sergeant, but I don’t know what I did differently. He said, yes, that way, just that way. You understand that. Okay, now do it again. Oh no, yes, sergeant, he was going to make me do it again to get it right again. And I did Again. I don’t, I don’t know what I did differently, but I just did it again. And then he made me do it again. I had to do it correctly three times before he finally relented and let me advance. He told me later what it was. He wasn’t just messing with me. He told me later what I was doing wrong. But as it as it turned out, I became quite lethal in that maneuver. I was an expert at it. I took lead in that maneuver and other training exercises and in the fleet I was a master at that maneuver. He made me do it again and again and again.

10:25

Sometimes, my friends, in the spiritual battle, whether we are battling an addiction, a habit, a compulsion or we’re having trouble overcoming a hurdle in. It may not be sinful, right, some hurdle that isn’t sinful. It’s just the next step we want to be at in our spiritual life. Maybe it’s prayer, meditation, I don’t know. Maybe it’s a daily rosary for some people and I’m I’m kind of one of them.

10:54

For some people that’s a hurdle, and you find yourself in this cycle of rising and falling, and rising and falling, and trying and failing, and trying and failing, especially if you’re dealing with a repeating sin. Right, and you sin and you confess, and you sin and you confess, you rise and you fall, you try and you fail, and it makes you want to just scream at God saying why, why do you let this cycle continue? Can you just tell me what I’m doing wrong? What should I be doing differently? Well, you torture me, lord. You torture me with this trying and failing and then trying and failing, and rising and falling. Why do you let me rise if you’re just going to let me fall? Why do you let me smell success and then throw me headfirst into failure? I’m just so tired of this cycle. It feels like a torturous cycle. Right, it can feel like a torturous cycle, depending on what you’re dealing with.

12:09

Again, it may be sin. It may not be sin, just something else in your spiritual life. Why do you let me suffer this way? Why this cycle? I wanted to say that to my instructor. Why are you doing this to me? Why are you making me do this and do it wrong and then you make me do it again and again and again and again? The instructor made me do it for the same reason God does so.

12:39

The first thing I want you to understand, my friends don’t think of it as a cycle the rising and falling, the trying and failing, the sinning and confessing and sinning all over again. Don’t think of it as a cycle. Think of it as the way. It is not a cycle, it is the way. It’s the way to holiness, it’s the way to being forged, it’s the way to achieving self-mastery and mastery over your spiritual struggles, or mastery over your sins, the trying and the failing, the rising and the falling, the sinning and confessing. It’s not a cycle, it only appears as one. It is the way. This is how holiness happens.

13:32

When I got done, when that sergeant got done with me, I was lethal in that maneuver. Lethal, lethal, lethal. I gave classes on it Lethal. You know why? Because I tried and I failed, and I tried and I failed and I tried and I failed and I tried and I failed until I tried again and I had it down. I had mastered it because I was made to try and fail and try and fail. It is the way. It’s not a cycle, it’s the way, it’s the way to holiness.

14:10

And damn it’s painful, damn it. Is it painful, and I don’t know what to tell you about that. It’s painful because it is, but you soldier on and you persevere. This is the era of saints. I say it all the time it is the era of saints and this this what I’m about to say leads into why we’re doing this episode on truth. It’s the era of saints and that doesn’t happen easily. That happens with work, hard work, damn hard work. I feel like God has brought the whole world into, you know, world 2.0, where we’ve had 2,000 years to live in a Bing Crosby movie. And now, now it’s time to get tough and to get serious, and that’s damn hard, real, real hard. The quest for truth is part of that hard work.

15:14

It used to be that we could just float on by. We just knew what Catholic the Catholic faith is. We knew doctrine. We knew maybe we knew a little bit of scripture, right, we knew orthodoxy. We knew how to be Catholic or, in your case, if you’re not a Catholic, listen to this we knew how to be Christians I do get the occasional non-Catholic Christian listening to these shows. So you just knew, right, it was easy, it was simple. You went to church on Sundays, right, you said your prayers before bed. Maybe you set a rosary here and there, maybe you set a daily rosary. Next Sunday came, you went back to Mass. You tried to be nice, you tried to be honest. Maybe you even tried to be charitable, not just nice and not just honest. You tried to do acts of charity and so on. Easy, easy, right. Well, we’re not in that era anymore. God is taking us through a painful, painful period. By us I mean the church, the global church, the ecclesial church, and the people. The church. He’s taking us through a very painful period.

16:36

It is the sojourn through the desert that the Jews went through. And if you’re not familiar, go back and listen to an episode I did called I think it was Tradition and the Desert, where I go through this brilliantly Tradition and the Desert. It’s in my podcast catalog on iTunes, spotify and everywhere else Tradition and the Desert. So we are being brought through this 40 year sojourn through the desert, just as Israel was. And why? Why was Israel brought through this, through the desert for 40 years? It was to punish them yes, it was, and it’s also to punish us right, we deserve punishment. So it was to punish Israel, but it was also to make them stronger. It was also to make them real, real, real, tough.

17:26

By the time Israel started to fight, even before not just before they got to the Holy Land, but once they crossed into the Holy Land and they started at Jericho and so on. Once Israel started to fight to take the land that the Lord had promised them, because the Lord is offering it. But Israel had to take it, had to accept, it, had to like, claim to it. It didn’t come by magic. Once Israel started to fight in Canaan, the Holy Land, once Israel got there, they were a very, very dangerous people in terms of warfare. They were battle-hardened. I mean, people feared Israel before they even encountered them. They feared Israel because they were battle-hardened and they were very, very, very, very, very, very, very tough, very, very tough people.

18:25

God is bringing the church through this sojourn through the desert for the same reasons to toughen us and to punish us, but mostly to toughen us, to prepare us for the next phase of Christian history. And so it is no longer good enough to be familiar with doctrine, to understand what the church teaches Okay, that’s easy, my children can do that. That’s no longer good enough. It’s no longer good enough to just say, well, at least I get to church on Sundays, which is good, that is good, because God deserves worship and we really need that encounter, but it’s no longer good enough. It’s no longer good enough to be orthodox, no longer because this, because this is the era of saints. The game has changed a little bit, but Catholics have not. Catholics are still reading from the same old script of the Bing Crosby movies Orthodoxy, orthodoxy, orthodoxy, orthodoxy.

19:16

Yes, orthodoxy is important. I am Mr Orthodoxy, you don’t have to make the argument to me, but do you understand that a time is coming when the Antichrist will fool many in the church? A lot of Catholics may think yes, I can name several bishops and cardinals who will probably be fooled by the Antichrist. Oh, you don’t think you’re going to be one of them, my friends, there will be a final battle and before that there will be an Antichrist Capital, a Antichrist the Antichrist, and he will. He will deceive many in the church. I mean, he’ll deceive countless people outside of the church you know secularist people but he will deceive many in the church. How can that be? Here’s how that can be. He will be able to deceive many in the church because we won’t in the church, we won’t be able any longer to distinguish lies or falsehood from the truth, because the lie plural, the lies will so closely resemble the truth that even many in the church will be fooled.

20:26

My brothers and sisters, I know that there are people who hear me say this and they’re thinking not me, you want to bet, because what I just said is already happening. I’m not saying the Antichrist is here, although he may be. Listen, if we got a newsflash tomorrow that said turns out, the Antichrist is here, that wouldn’t even shock me. But anyway, I’m not saying the Antichrist is here. What I’m saying is the preparations for that ultimate plan are already underway. They’ve been long underway. Are you kidding? There are faithful Christians right now, catholics or not. Who, though they they, they possess truths. Jesus says this, the gospel say that the church teaches that they possess truths, but they’re not able to to to discern capital T truth.

21:17

In this episode I’m going to explain what I mean by that and I’m going to explain how to do that. Okay, and I’m telling you now, my friends, discerning truth is a discipline. It’s a gift of grace, first of all, but it’s also a discipline of thought. It takes humility and it takes practice and it takes balance, which may be a show I do in the future. So we’re going to start off in a second. I just want to make one quick announcement, but then we’re going to start off with just a very basics from St Augustine and St Thomas Aquinas, because they lay a foundation of a philosophy that I’ve kind of developed on my own, but it’s rooted in their philosophy, okay, so we’re going to start in a second with St Thomas Aquinas and St Augustine. At the bottom of the show I’m going to be taking your calls. Okay, I don’t. I don’t often do that.

22:17

I’m trying to make this a little bit nicer because this may be one of the last podcast episodes that I do. Support for this show has been really, really anemic, like surprisingly anemic. But okay, people, very few people, seem to be interested in what I’m doing with these podcasts, and that may be because, look, if God wants this, it’ll be successful, no matter what I do, as long as I’m, you know, doing something decent. It may be God’s way of saying I don’t want this for you, okay. Well then, if this is going to be my last hurrah, I wanted to do the most important things, which is truth, and maybe I’ll do one last one on balance, which is related to truth. So, if you’re catching this, I would appreciate it, if you share it, if you find it worthy, because it really is important. Again, this and maybe an episode on balance. Maybe, as I said earlier in, like the pre-show that I did, 70% chance, these will be the last ones that I do. It really depends on God and where he directs me.

23:31

Okay, let’s get down to the nitty-gritty. Oh, by the way, as I get my notes up, let me just remind you I’m going to be doing an after show at about 3.30. So about 15, 20 minutes after this live episode ends, I’ll be doing an after show Exclusively. I’m going to be doing it live in a Twitter slash X Spaces session at For the Queen BVM and I hope you’ll join in. You’ll drop in, you’ll listen, you’ll even have a few things to say and share with everybody. After that, if you miss it live, you’re going to have missed it, because I won’t be leaving a recording on Twitter. If you want to listen to the after show on demand, you’ll have to go to my website for it. All right, catholicadventurercom. Okay, let’s get on with it.

24:24

So in the prelude that I wrote the prelude to this show, which I wrote and posted on my website the other day, I really worked this angle hard where I said truth is not merely a factually accurate statement. That is, in fact, a dangerous limitation of what truth is. Often, when people hear truth, they’re just thinking that a factually accurate statement, or what Aquinas might call a logical truth. But it is a limitation of what truth actually is. And why is this important for us to know? Because even Catholics who are in possession of the truth whether it’s doctrine, orthodoxy, whatever a lot of them, a lot of Catholics, don’t really know how the truth operates, and so they get it wrong. Let me give you an example.

25:26

He refuses to listen to my side of the story. I’m always wary of people who use the word refuse because often and they do this on purpose. They use the word refuse in place of hasn’t or can’t. Maybe the person hasn’t just simply hasn’t yet heard your side of the story. Maybe the person can’t hear your side of the story. Maybe you’ve never asked the person to listen to your side of the story. He just didn’t ask for it, but you didn’t offer it either.

25:58

But when we say he refuses to listen to my side of the story, aren’t we saying something different? Right? What do we get from let’s? Let’s put the scenario this way. Let’s let’s say there’s a dispute between two employees and the manager steps in and says listen, this has to come to an end. Let’s just say it’s between John and Bill. John, take your lunch break early, bill, go outside and take a walk for a few minutes and then come back and get back to your station. Let’s say Bill is the one who’s really got the gripe and John is the one who’s actually in the right. But we don’t know that because the manager just wants to put an end to the conflict and he separates them, gives the one guy an early lunch break, whatever. And then Bill says you know, he gave John an early lunch break and he refused to even listen to my side of the story. Well, that’s not actually what happened.

27:02

The manager might not have heard Bill’s side of the story, but Bill did not offer. The manager didn’t hear Bill’s side of the story and the manager didn’t ask for it. But what do we hear from Bill? He refused to listen to my side of the story. Well, aren’t we saying something else then In that statement? He refused to listen to my side of the story. We are reflecting something that is factual. The manager has not heard Bill’s side of the story. Well, that’s factual. But haven’t we changed the truth? Haven’t we changed the truth by using the word refuses? He refused to listen to my side of the story. Well, that’s not true. He didn’t offer it and he didn’t ask. There’s no refusal there. It’s not like he’s putting you off because he doesn’t like you so he refused to listen. That’s not true. So we’ve sort of vaguely represented a fact in he refused to listen to my side of the story. We’ve vaguely represented a fact, but we have not told the truth. We have not told the truth.

28:09

My friends Catholics, especially Catholic communicators today, do that exact same thing. And it’s not just Catholic communicators, it’s people on social media. It’s people in pews. They do the exact same thing, my friends, and it’s not because you’re crazy or malignant, it’s not because you’re evil Nothing. It’s because people don’t understand that if you’re going to deal in the economy of truth, you have to be much more precise. You have to be very, very careful, because if you have not mastered precision in your dealings with truth, then you will not expect precision when an alleged truth is presented to you. You will not expect it because you don’t understand that. It’s necessary, vital in dealing in the economy of truth. And I’m going to get more into in real terms why that’s important in just a minute. First, let’s get to Aquinas. I think Aquinas wrote this in Confessions where I found truth, there found I my God. Where I found truth, there found I my God, who is truth itself St Thomas Aquinas. I’m sorry, st Augustine, st Augustine as well as St Thomas Aquinas, but I prefer how St Augustine puts it.

29:39

St Augustine believed that God was truth itself. He also believed that truth is immutable and eternal, like God himself is immutable and eternal. There is no your truth, my truth, whatever. Perceptions may change, opinions may change, but truth is absolutely unchanging. Why it must be unchanging? It has to be unchanging. Why? Because God is truth itself. Truth exists because God is, and if God is unchanging, truth is unchanging. If truth is something that changes, then God is changeable and then he can’t be God. It’s impossible. So the first thing we get from this is that truth reflects the image and character and nature of God. It’s a direct reflection of God himself. So, for instance, truth sometimes is hard and truth sometimes is I don’t know, I don’t want to say soft, but delightful, makes you feel good, and sometimes it makes you feel pain. Don’t we see that from God in the scriptures? Right, sometimes he’s tender, sometimes he’s stern, right, that’s the first thing we get.

31:08

St Augustine also taught that human understanding of truth is limited and imperfect because of our finite nature, and this is absolutely true. We believe that we could only fully comprehend truth after we see God, when we see God face to face. So this is important to understand and this is something that a lot of Catholics today are getting wrong. Human understanding of truth is limited, it’s imperfect because of our finite nature. So truth often is something that is unfolded. It doesn’t change, but it does evolve. It doesn’t evolve in a way that changes the truth itself, but it evolves in a way that we excavate more and more of it. We understand it more deeply, more fully, more completely, more thoroughly. And even as we continue to excavate the truth a truth, a particular truth, whatever we never fully understand it. Until we see God face to face in the beatific vision, the truth is unchanging. And I say sometimes and maybe I shouldn’t say it this way truth evolves. But really the truth is not what evolves, we are, our understanding of it develops. The truth itself is unchanging. Let’s go to Aquinas, because Aquinas teaches something that we really really need to understand. Just to point out, aquinas teaches the truth resides in the intellect’s conformity with reality. In other words, when our understanding aligns with the actual state of affairs, then we are in possession of truth. I mean, that’s kind of obvious right. If the lights are on and I say the lights are off, it’s not true, because what I’m saying or what’s in my mind does not correspond to reality that one’s obvious right.

33:09

Now let’s talk about ontological truth and logical truth. Now, don’t lose me, because I’m only setting a foundation here. I don’t want this to be boring. I don’t want this to be boring. It’s not going to be boring? I hope not, but I have to set up these foundations. To be really thorough and to really do you a good service, I have to set up these foundations. This is not going to be lectury. I hope not. It’s not going to be boring. Stick with me. Okay, let’s talk about ontological truth and logical truth. Phew, mouthful, right.

33:42

I’m reading this directly, by the way, from an article. I wrote, an article, a blog post I wrote on my website. I think it’s called for Aquinas truth is what it is literally, if you want to read this. But anyway, ontological truth. According to Aquinas, ontological truth is the truth of things in themselves. So the way I put that, folks, is when something exists in a state that’s in accord with its nature, then it is ontologically true. Okay, so well, let me save the example for a moment from now.

34:22

Ontological truth, a truth, the truth of things in themselves. So, for instance, if I say I’m an Asian person, I’m not Asian. So that is ontologically untrue, right? Because it’s just not in my DNA, it’s not in my nature at all, my physical nature. Ontological truth, it’s the correspondence of a thing to the idea of it in the mind of God. In other words, a thing is true insofar as it exists and fulfills its purpose, for which it was created. So let me give you an example. A tree is ontologically true when it grows, produces leaves and fulfills its purpose in the ecosystem. It’s ontologically true when it exists in accord with its nature or purpose, when it can express what it truly is. It is true. It is true, it is truly a tree. You got it. That’s ontological truth.

35:32

If I have a pencil and I don’t know, I break it in half. I pull out the lead or whatever that material is that makes the mark on the paper. We always called it lead. It’s not lead. Don’t know what it is. It doesn’t matter. Break the pencil in half, pull out that thing in the middle and then glue it back together. Is it still a pencil? No, it is not why? Because it can no longer fulfill the purpose that it was designed for. It can no longer do what it was made to do. It can no longer be what it was made to be, because we’ve changed something fundamental in it.

36:12

Let’s talk about a car. Let’s apply this to a car. If I have a brand new car, it’s true. It’s ontologically true. It functions, it operates, it runs fine. It’s normal with it. It’s ontologically true. It is a truth. Hold on to that, because we’re going to be repeating statements like that. It’s ontologically true. It is a truth.

36:36

Okay, if I remove the windows and the windshield? Well, now I’ve removed something from it. Is it still a truth? Is it still ontologically true? Yes, do you know why? Because removing the windows doesn’t stop the car from performing its intended function and nature. It can still get you from place to place. What if I put all the windows back and I take off one of the wheels? It is no longer a truth then. Because without four wheels, it can’t do what it was designed to do. Let’s say, I put the wheel back, I take off all of the doors. Can the car still do what it was designed and intended to do? Can it still fulfill its purpose and nature? Yes, it can without doors. Yes, it can still do what it’s supposed to do. It is still ontologically true, feel me.

37:34

Let’s move on to logical truth, which is much simpler. Logical truth, according to Aquinas, is the truth of propositions or statements. Okay, I’m a boy. Well, that’s true. Well, I’m a man. You get my point. It is the correspondence of the mind’s understanding to the way that things actually are For example, the sky is blue is logically true if the sky is indeed blue, so things can be true.

38:06

That’s what I want you to take from this. Things can be true, not just statements. Things can be true. You are a truth. You are a truth. You come from God, you made in His image and likeness. Of course you’re a truth. Things can be true and claims can be true. Things and claims can also be untrue. But the logical truth is depending on the depends on the ontological truth. Don’t, don’t lose me. I promise I’m going to make this make sense for you. The logical truth depends on the ontological truth. Our statements or our propositions about the world can only be true if they accurately reflect the ontological truth of the things they describe. Now, don’t lose me. I promise at the end of this episode you’re going to be masters of this. Don’t lose me. Here’s what I mean. I am a man. Well, that is true. It coincides with reality, the reality of my physical existence, my physical being. I am a man that can also menstruate. That statement is necessarily false. The logical claim, which was true, does not coincide with the ontological claim, which was false. Therefore, the whole claim is false, you see.

39:37

So let me wrap this up in a nice little definition that I’ve composed. What is truth? I’m going to define it for you and then we’re going to start to apply it. Truth is that which is whole, complete and exists in a state that’s in accord with its intrinsic nature or purpose. It is also capital G good. It’s whole, it’s complete. It exists in a state that’s in accord with its intrinsic nature or purpose. It is also good. We’re going to leave that good part out of it for now, but I can tell you this is definitely going to be. I’m going to need like a second episode to do this.

40:18

But good is you cannot separate good from truth and you cannot separate truth from good. You can’t separate heads from tails on a coin and you can’t separate good from truth or truth from good. They’re one of the same. The difference is truth is usually stable, stable like a table, stable. The good, right the good.

40:41

The characteristic of the good in a truth is dynamic. It moves. It’s dynamic, you understand, it’s like a nuclear engine. And or I’ll put it this way Think of the good in the economy of truth. Think of the good as a rocket on a launch pad. Think of the truth as the launch pad itself. Because the launch pad is stable and does not move, the rocket is able to propel itself off of the surface. If the launch pad were wishy-washy or gushy or moved, it doesn’t matter the work that that rocket, the energy that rocket puts out, the rocket I’m sorry, not the rocket itself, but well, yeah, the rocket, the vessel, isn’t going anywhere, no matter how much energy the rocket is putting out, because the launch pad is not stable. So think of the truth as the launch pad, the good as the rocket. Truth is stable, the good is dynamic. The good is dynamic, but it only moves in accord with the, with the stability of the truth. So think of the.

41:54

Here’s another way you can think of the good. The good is like the furnace right or a boiler. A fire can burn down your house or it can heat it. What’s the difference? The mechanisms in your basement, the boiler, the heater, whatever. The furnace right. So the good is not like a fire that burns down your house. It’s more like the way a fire can heat your house, can heat your water, okay. So the good is dynamic, but it doesn’t do whatever it wants. It literally cannot, because it’s a component to the truth, and the truth is stable. Okay, truth is that which, but we’re going to leave the good part out of it for now.

42:45

Truth is that which is whole, complete and exists in a state that’s in accord with its intrinsic nature or purpose. If a statement conveys less than, or something other than, the reality that it claims to convey, it’s a lie. Let me go back to that example. He refuses to hear my side of the argument. Well, that statement, is it whole? Not really. Is it complete? Well, the statement itself is complete in terms of language, but is it conveying the complete story, the complete scenario? No, does it exist in a state that’s in accord with its intrinsic nature or purpose? What’s its intrinsic nature or purpose? When you listen to that statement, he refuses to hear my side of the story. Well, it claims to convey a truth about the manager’s refusal or the manager’s rejection of the employee or something, but does that statement convey what actually happened? No, it does not. You understand where I’m going with this. Statements are truths, and I’m just using the statement to kind of boil down that point.

44:07

But it isn’t just statements that are truths. You are a truth as well when you and I exist in a state that’s in accord with our intrinsic nature or purpose creatures made in the image and likeness of God then we are a truth. Let’s go back to the car. If we remove one of the wheels, that car is no longer a car. Everyone listening to that is saying, yeah, it’s still a car, it’s just missing a wheel. According to Aquinas and Augustine, it is no longer a car Because it is no longer ontologically true. It cannot fulfill its purpose. It’s in the form of a car, but it is not a car because a car can get you from place to place.

44:57

In the pre-show that I did on Twitter the other day, which you can find in my podcast catalog, I gave the example of a guitar. You take a guitar. It’s perfectly tuned, it works beautifully, makes a lovely sound. You have a guitar. If one of those strings, however, is out of tune, you no longer have a guitar Because it’s no longer ontologically true. It’s not making the sounds it was intended to make. You understand Now let me give you another example.

45:36

The Pope is a heretic and should be excommunicated. We’re hearing that all over the Internet. The Pope is a heretic and should be excommunicated. That statement is untrue. Do you know why? Because the use of the word heretic is faulty. The use of the word heretic there is faulty. Excommunicate, quote unquote excommunicated relies on the integrity of the word heretic. If heretic is not true, the claim of the requirement of excommunication cannot be true. A logical truth relies on the integrity of the ontological truth.

46:20

When the Pope says something people don’t like, they say that’s heresy. When the Pope said you know, we shouldn’t put people to death, we shouldn’t put prisoners to death, which the church has always been in Catholic thought, my friends, that is not new. That is not at all new. That has always been in Catholic thought. It hasn’t always applied practically, because we never had a way of putting people away for the rest of their lives safely and humanely. Well, we do now. So when the Pope says we can’t be executing criminals, people said that’s heresy. No, it is not.

47:04

Heresy is, I guess, a repudiation of a core doctrine of the faith, and heresy is nothing more or less than that. If the Pope were to say the Holy Eucharist is just a symbol of Jesus Christ, that is a heresy. I don’t follow the Pope that closely. I used to, and then it became tiresome. But I have to tell you, I have never heard the Pope speak heresy. Ever I have never heard the Pope speak heresy. It’s funny.

47:38

Even in headlines of outlets that want to crucify Pope Francis, they make the worst headlines. Even so, they make the headline worse than what the Pope actually said or did. Even the headlines fail to achieve the bar of heresy. Even if you just go by the headline, it still falls short of what a heresy is. So the Pope is a heretic and should be excommunicated. Well, I guess heretics should be excommunicated, or in some cases, I guess they excommunicate themselves. It’s not that cut and dry, but you get the point.

48:15

But because the use of the word heretic in that statement is faulty, the whole statement is untrue. If you cut it in half, the Pope is a heretic. That statement is untrue. And, my friends, here’s what I’m telling you. Not only is it untrue because it fails to achieve the standard of truth, but, according to Aquinas and Augustine, because it is untrue, it is a lie. People are lying when they say the Pope is a heretic. Now are they culpable for the sin of lying and calamity? I don’t know. It depends on their intent. People may honestly be ignorant of what heresy means, right, but I think most people who say that know what it means. I really think most of them know what that means. So when people say something like the Pope is a heretic, they’re telling a lie. They are telling a lie. I gotta tell you.

49:19

I did not think this show was going to go on so long. I’ve been doing this now 50 minutes, five zero minutes, and I’ve barely scratched the surface. I’m going to have to speed this along. If you’d like to be a part of the show, this is a good time to pick up the phone and load up those phone lines 888-546-4656. Call up and be a part of the show. Tell me what you think. Disagree with me? That’s okay. Ask me a question? That’s okay too. 888-546-4656, if you’d like to be a part of the show and I thank you very much for considering it I better make sure I keep this switchboard in front of me. God forbid. There’s going to be like I only hope there’s going to be like a bunch of calls, and I don’t see any of them because I have the switchboard in another window. There it is Now. It’s in front of me, okay. 888-546-4656. Give me a call. Tell me what’s on your mind.

50:21

So, in the grand scheme of things. What makes this important? Because it sounds like it’s just brainy. You know philosophical jargon. It’s just stupid. I know what truth is.

50:33

Here’s why, folks, I have been watching charlatans and Catholic media manipulate you for maybe 15 years. It’s like the Pied Piper and a bunch of mice. I’ve been watching them manipulate you and manipulate you and it’s unbelievable how they manipulate you. I know that this is a problem. Apart from my one-to-one encounters with people like in real life, you know, in parishes, in conferences and stuff like this. I see it all over the internet. The reason why you’re able to be manipulated with such ease is because Catholics not just you, all Catholics to varying degrees have lost the ability to discern truth. Where someone can tell you a lie and a headline and you swallow it whole. You don’t even see the red flags. I don’t understand that, but it just is what it is. You don’t even see the red flags. If people in Catholic media really in any media, but generally Catholics are less trusting of secular media, right, so that’s a little bit less of a threat because they’re less trusting of secular media. But if even people in Catholic media can fool you, do you really think the Antichrist won’t be able to fool you. Of course he will. Masterfully, he will. He’s already begun. He’s already begun through his puppets in the media and in the church.

52:12

When I talk to traditionalists which I have done for about 20 years I have seen traditionalists’ shapeshift over 20 years where these days there’s almost no talking to them. If traditionalists want to believe that the traditional Latin mass is superior to the ordinary form, there’s no dislodging them from that belief. It’s unbelievable to me. It’s truly unbelievable to me. If they want to believe one form of the mass is superior to the other, that’s just what they’re going to believe. Why? Because they’ve lost the ability to discern truth.

52:56

It’s not just traditionalists, it’s the liberals and modernists too. Well, let’s not say modernists, because they’re heretics. A real modernist is a heretic. They kind of don’t count. So let’s just say liberals, right, who are kind of loose, kind of heterodox. Okay, let’s just say that. Or let’s just say heterodox, not liberals. It doesn’t. They can say till the cows come home, vatican II says, vatican II says, vatican II says, vatican II says, and you say to them where does it say that they have no idea? Or they’ll point you to something that looks like Vatican II says what they wanted to say, and when you show them, that’s not actually what it says. You see these words, you see that? Nope, it still says what I said.

53:43

There’s no dislodging them from what they want to believe. First out, it’s because of pride, and they just want to believe what they want to believe, but also it’s because they’ve lost the ability to discern truth and so they’re being led astray. Why? Why? Because they’ve adopted something that resembles the truth but is actually a lie. Folks, I was nearly seduced by said of a contest, maybe 25 years ago. I’d have to do the math in my head and I’m no good at that.

54:11

But about 25 years ago I was nearly seduced because damn, did they make a really good argument, and it was an argument that boy, oh boy, did that sound just like truth. But something, something didn’t click. Something was on my radar Bloop, bloop, bloop. Something was not right about these arguments. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but ultimately I thought I don’t understand how the Holy Spirit could let the church go astray.

54:47

So that made me start to ask some hard questions about the arguments of sedative contests, and some of their arguments, as I said, sounded so true. The church is not supposed to change. The church doesn’t change. The church will remain the same. Here’s what Pope so-and-so said. Here’s what Cardinal Such and Such said. Well, that’s true. The church is not supposed to change. And there’s the words of the Pope, whatever the Pope was that they quoted they’re very good at building their fake arguments the seddies. And I was damn, I was damn ready to leave.

55:18

You know, the real Catholic church, and there was a seddy-vocantist parish, if you can call them that, about 10 miles from where I lived at the time. I was going to go to Mass there but, as I said, something didn’t click. So I started asking hard questions and I was very unsatisfied with the answers I was getting. And now I became very suspicious of seddy-vocantism. And now I started to really explore their arguments. I tried to establish their arguments to be true by researching documents and such and such, researching what these phrases meant, because I was.

55:55

This was 25 or so years ago. I wasn’t as expert as I am today. Long and short of it. What I’m trying to say is long and short of it is this the seddies put together one hell of an argument and, boy oh boy, did it resemble the truth. Folks, 25 years ago I was still a cradle Catholic and I still knew my stuff. I didn’t know as much as I do today, but I still knew my stuff and they had me fooled. They had me fooled why? Because I didn’t understand how to discern truth. If one string on that guitar is out of tune, the whole guitar is wrong, but it looks like a guitar. It kind of sounds like a guitar, except for that one string. It’s not a guitar. It’s not true. If one wheel is missing from that car, it’s not a car. Abandon it. It’s not true, it is a lie.

56:56

I got into that whole example with the seddies and traditionalism, not because that is the point, but just to make a point that many Catholics who have lost the ability to discern truth are suffering because of it and they don’t even know it, because those suffering from it are pacified with something that looks like the truth but really isn’t. It’s true on the left, it is true on the right. Sometimes it’s true in the center. It’s true in the secular world, where we accept that something is close enough to the truth and so we accept it as the truth. But it is not. In the church, too, we accept it. It happens all the time. You know, someone shows a good person so they’ll probably go to heaven. That’s not true. But damn, it sounds like the truth. It sounds so close to the truth, but it’s not the truth.

57:56

And that’s what the devil wants. He wants us to be disoriented and confused, not just because Listen, this is not the devil watching an episode of the Benny Hill show running through the forest. This is not that. The devil has us doing the craziness that we’re doing in the church, the infighting, the segmentation, the sectarianism. He has us doing that not just because it’s entertaining to watch, but he does get a big kick out of it. He has us doing that because, as long as we’re so disoriented, we won’t be able to get it out of the way. We won’t be able to recognize falsehoods when we see them, because he will continue to diminish our ability to discern these things. And so when the Antichrist arrives, he’ll fool hordes and hordes and hordes of faithful people who would have sworn it wouldn’t be me. It’s not going to be me.

58:50

888-546-4656. Folks, don’t make me go through the trouble, or don’t make me regret going through the trouble of starting up my phone switchboard. Don’t make me regret that Somebody give a call 888-546-4656. Don’t be shy. But if you are shy, you don’t want to call, that’s okay. You will have an opportunity to speak your mind in the after show, which I’m going to be doing at about 3.30, roughly 3.30, so I better get off the air here.

59:23

Here’s what I’m going to do. I’m going to do a part two to this episode. I’m going to do a part two. We’re going to talk a little bit more about what is truth and how can you know. And I’m going to talk about the good, because what is true is good and what is good is true. The truth is solid. The good is dynamic, right, and God created everything and he said it is good. The good is dynamic, it creates. The good is dynamic, it produces or sustains life and so on. And I can only do that because the truth is the truth. So I’m going to bring this episode to a close because I didn’t want this to be so long.

01:00:13

I hope it wasn’t boring and too brainy for you. I hope you were more entertained by it than I was entertained doing it. But I don’t do this for entertainment. I do this because I love you and I worry about you. If God doesn’t want me to do these shows, then he just won’t bring them to success. If he does, then he will.

01:00:35

But pending all that, I’m going to put this episode in the can and then I’ll do at least one other, because I really do need to talk a little bit more about truth. I’ll do at least one other, I guess next week that will be next Sunday and then I will do maybe one more on balance which is involved in truth. I’ll do one more on balance, and maybe it’s time to retire from this Catholic media business. It’s just, things have gotten real cold out there, real cold. I get more support from Protestants than I do from Catholics it’s unbelievable More from non-Catholics rather than I do from Catholic. In fact, I was actually joking as I said that just to make a point. But now that I’m thinking of it, it’s actually true. I do get. I do find non-Catholic Christians are more supportive of what I’m doing than our Catholics. That’s really really very sad. But hey, it is what it is and maybe I’ll keep going. Let’s see where the Lord leads me.

01:01:37

Maybe I’ll keep doing podcasts, but I do want to say this I’m going to no longer work so hard to grow the audience, because I’ve really reached an. I don’t give a damn point. You take today, for instance, all the work I’ve been doing to remind people of the episode of the show and stuff like that, and not a single like. And Twitter didn’t distribute it. Nobody has seen the post on no, zero, literally zero people on Facebook. It says how many people have seen the post and it’s zero. It says how many people are interested. It says zero. Well, that one I knew. Nobody’s interested. I knew that part Facebook. But thank you.

01:02:17

But if I keep podcasting after February, I’m just going to podcast. I’m going to try and keep it on a regular schedule. I’ll post that. I’m going live. I’ll post a schedule on Twitter and you see it or you don’t, if you give a damn sign up for the newsletter. If you don’t, then don’t. I’m just going to do what God asked me to do and if people want to get at it, they know where to find me. If they don’t, not my problem, and that’s really. That’s actually a good attitude to have. I hope you’ll stick along, stick along, come along with me for the after show at about 20 minutes from now it might be a little bit late, I don’t know. Doing the after show on Twitter on X in the Twitter spaces I’ve been the Catholic adventure. Follow me on Twitter X at for the Queen BVM. Thank you very much for listening. God bless you and God be with you all. Bye, bye.