I was not 50 when I got baptized but but I was a cradle Catholic but I fell away for about 10 years I was practically an atheist and explicitly an atheist for a lot of that and uh I had kind of a weird way back into religion which is that this worked on CS Lewis but I haven't heard it work on other people uh a friend of mine presented me the ontological argument for God which is one that even St Thomas aquinus doesn't really like and the the version of it is God is the maximally great being and it's better to exist than not to exist therefore God has to exist that's pretty much it you know there's fancy ways to say it but that's pretty much the the argument and and the crazy part is I was 18 and it convinced me and then I looked into more robust and I I think um really irrefutable Arguments for the existence of God St Thomas's five ways and Etc and uh so then I came to the conclusion as the first Vatican council did that the existence of God can be known with certainty by natural reason from the created world not everything about God can be known from reason that's where Revelation comes in that's where faith comes in but you you can know that and uh so I still thought because I was raised in a liberal New York and you know if anyone even believed in God they were considered weird weird like JD van uh that I I was I still believe that reason and Faith were opposed and actually there are many people who call themselves religious who think that but then I I just decided I might crack open a book one day you know I might read I might I might and so this is all even before I really start praying boy prayer highly recommended that really opens up your religious life but even just reading you know you it it turns out that all these questions that perplex us today it turns out that smarter people than we thought about them a long time ago and they've debated them for uh Millennia and uh they've come to some pretty good answers that might be better than the ones that you've come to I really want to talk about something thank you [Applause] fellas we would not be here tonight without our good friends over a good ranchers I said we would not be here tonight without our friends over at good [Applause] ranchers Ranchers Amer not only are they helping us to bring this live event to you but I myself am only able to stand on this stage because I am fueled by their delicious cuts of 100% American that they deliver right to your door we conservatives we often talk about supporting American Business and American values but good ranchers is actually doing it while the left wants us eating bugs and fake meat oh no while they lecture us about climate change from their private jets lets you and I enjoy Real delicious 100% American from good ranchers instead good ranchers meat has no antibiotics or hormones it is pre-trimmed and individually packaged most important it is all born raised and made right here in the US OFA good ranchers is such a big partner of what 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breasts for brown me for a year plus a bonus $25 off with code backstage go to goodranchers.com daily wire remember to use code backstage for $25 off your order good rers [Music] [Applause] good.com so anyway I uh I I broadly then agreed with Christianity I read the gospels and I I believe that Jesus is who he says he is and but I didn't know about protestantism or Catholicism or Eastern Orthodoxy and anyway I came to the conclusion that the historical uh claims of the church are true of the Catholic Church are true and I I also came to think there we I hear some mackerel Snappers out there even in the heart of the Bible Belt and uh so I I came to that conclusion and I came to the conclusion ecclesiological that the claims about Authority that are made by the Catholic Church are true so so that Authority has to rest in an incarnational real institution with real men and this is the part that actually comes back to politics because I know there are a lot of people who say you can't legislate morality and you got to get religion out of politics or whatever I'm not one of those people I suspect many of you are not not those people uh I I came to understand that the what separates Christianity from other religions especially like the daric religions the non-theistic religions is that ours is a faith that is grounded not just in poet not just in philosophy not but in journalism in fact you know the claim of Christianity is God becomes man in a place in the fullness of time under the Roman Empire which is actually significant and he picks real people and he establishes a real church and he leaves us real sacraments because we're not just floating Spirits you know in in modernity liberalism tells us that we're just kind of floating in The Ether man there's no time there's no body I'm a man but I could be a woman you know whatever I could be whatever I want to be no what Christianity says is man is irreducibly historical man has a body he lives in a place he's born to a family in a political community and that all means something and H so that then informs one's political views because it means that you know this is the moment that we're chosen for this is the country we were meant to be born in we have real bonds of kinship to people that that points to something beyond the world we have a dual nature a corruptible flesh and Incorruptible Soul we have a mind that partakes of Eternal and Universal things but we have a flesh that's contingent and dependent on all sorts of other things and you can't separate those two uh St Paul says you know if if the resurrection is false then we're all just a bunch of dopes basically you know that's it has to be historically true and it the final point I'll make on this that's important to politics is if all of that is the case if the word is made flesh and dwells Among Us and actually the second person of the Trinity like lives in time and is crucified by a legal Authority with jurisdiction over the whole world it means that history is not merely literal it means that history has an allegorical meaning that you we interpret history the political events that we're in this very moment that we're all in right now we can't understand the full meaning of this event in our lives as it happens we do that in retrospect we do that as we interpret history which is just the record of the political events that have happened and that means that there is meaning found meaning imbued in every single moment that we live it means that we encounter some random Joe on the street to use a phrase from CS Lewis we're encountering an eternal being and we cannot possibly overstate the significance of that that was a great clip now hold up ring the bell subscribe to the Michael nlls YouTube channel we'll see you next time