Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas was a Catholic philosopher (many know him as St. Thomas) who put forth the current view of the Catholic church's views on Natural Law. As a Jew, I don't really pay much attention to Catholic belief, especially that of "Saints", but as one who believes in Lockean principles (i.e., Natural Law), I found this interesting.

From Wikipedia:

Natural moral law is concerned with both exterior and interior acts, also know as action and motive. Simply doing the right thing is not enough; to be truly moral one's motive must be right as well. For example, helping an old lady across the road (good exterior act) to impress someone (bad interior act) is wrong. However, good intentions don’t always lead to good actions. The motive must coincide with Aquinas's cardinal or theological virtues. Cardinal virtues are acquired through reason applied to nature; they are:

Prudence
Justice
Temperance
Fortitude

His theological virtues
are:

Faith
Hope
Charity

According to Aquinas, to lack any of these virtues is to lack the ability to make a moral choice. For example, consider a man who possesses the virtues of justice, prudence, and fortitude, yet lacks temperance. Due to his lack of self control and desire for pleasure, despite his good intentions, he will find himself swaying from the moral path.

To any Brother, that should seem very familiar.

Fellow Craft

I am now a Fellow Craft Mason. Tonight's degree as tremendously exciting, although some of it was expected (the pats that are similar to the first degree). I'll go through a few impressions I had, in order, as best I can remember. I won't give away anything I shouldn't, and I won't spoil it for others, either.

The beginning part was easy enough, since it was nearly identical to the first degree. There were some obvious changes, although I guessed some of them before tonight. It does make me very curious about the third. The real changes come in the second half, but I'd be remiss not to mention how utterly metal some of this stuff (the music, I mean).

The second half is where the real differences occurred, and where I really enjoyed myself. As a student of history, it was entirely evident to me where all of this started. The verbiage and ideals set forth are very Renaissance or Reawakening. I recognized a lot of it from time in medieval/renaissance reenactment. Admittedly, there was a lot to take in, but I enjoyed it throughly.

That's about all I can think of for now, but I'm sure I'll have more to talk about after I sleep on it some and read some of the stuff I've gone through. Apparently, it wasn't run entirely as it should've been, although I wouldn't know, yet. There was a bit where the Master stumbled and it was rather comical, but I didn't mind - it lightened the mood.