WHAT IS METAPHYSICS ANYWAY?

The Greek word “physica” means 'what is natural', 'what can be observed and measured'. Generally it is the physical world and the exploing of the physical world.  It is the realm of science.

Science suggests a theory, experiments with it, and aims to arrive at scientific facts - something that is proven to be true. An example that is  giving  paracetamol to people with a headache and it healing them. These facts which have been proved then give rise to new theories which need to be tested, and so scientific knowledge grows. We know a lot of facts, and we have some pretty impressive theories that people are working on, like cures for cancer and Einstein’s theory of relativity.

The Greeks had another word, "meta", meaning "above and beyond" which they added to the word “physica” to describe thinking about the principles which govern all human thought and activity including how scientific research is carried out. They called this branch of study “Metaphysics”.

This is the realm of principles which are not observable, and need to be assumed. Simply put, it is the overall view of things which each one of us adopts. These can be described as “world-views”. There are many of them like the way cynics think everything is meaningless, or sceptics think you can’t trust anything. There is definitely a Christian World-view.

THE Christian WORLD-VIEW

I listened to a discussion between Dr Jordan Peterson the psychiatrist and thinker and Dr Christopher Dawkins the famous atheist, in which Peterson demonstrated that the scientific endeavour arose out of the Christian world-view. He said there are certain axioms or principles underlying science. They are the following:

• Truth tends towards unity, it doesn’t contradict itself.
• There is a logical order that is intrinsic to the cosmos.
• That fundamental order is good.
• It is intelligible to human beings.
• Discovering that order and aligning ourselves with it makes life more abundant.
• Ultimately, the truth will set you free.

He goes on to make the point that these axioms are religious and derive from the Judeo-Christian tradition. Otherwise, how can you account for way science emerged in Europe? Then he states the fact that this system of thought is under attack from all quarters today, which threatens the whole search for knowledge including science. Until recently, the Judeo-Christian metaphysical substrata underpinning science was intact, and enabled great advances in our universities. Now they are being questioned threatening to erode excellence.

I ask, how has this happened? It is because people have taken the clothes of Christianity, and rejected the body within. Without the body the clothes become a helpless pile. Christianity does not have a body of thought and knowledge at its centre - it has the person of Christ, the incarnate word of God. The knowledge is not in our minds, but in our hearts and being. It is fundamentally a relationship, heart to heart with God, not a set of convictions. This relation leads us to the fullness of life and also of science.