As long as we're into Greek words on this blog, telos comes from the Greek word for "purpose." Teleology, then, is the philosophical study of design, purpose, directive principle, or finality in nature or human creations.
I find it interesting to consider purpose, not just as an abstract thing, but as something we need to understand. Do our lives have purpose? One Southern Californian pastor wrote a book about living life with purpose. What is the purpose of the church? Of government? Of the different types of relationships? How has naturalism destroyed our culture's belief that we have a purpose?
It seems to me that everyone would like their lives to be meaningful, to count for something, to have a purpose. I would even argue that, even though he was mentally ill, that guy who caused all that trouble on the campus of Va Tech last week lacked purpose in life. I think the lack of purpose does that to people -- it destroys them, destroys their humanness.
Of course, that doesn't mean we have a purpose, or that any institutions or relationships have an intrinsic purpose.
But what do you think? Does life have a purpose? Do institutions and relationships have purpose? I'm not asking how we might know what that purpose is. But does it have a purpose?
More later.
Well written Mike, but I wouldn't be too quick to say the VT shooter was mentally ill. It's entirely possible but I haven't seen enough evidence to prove that. Whether mental illness played a role or not the blame is being thrust into that corner to propagate the idea that 1)we aren't personally responsible for our actions 2)the rest of us really aren't all that bad. Satan wants mankind to think we're inherently good and bad people are the result of some kind of physical, chemical, emotional abnormality or someone slipping through the cracks of society's goodness.
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