Buddhist Catholic Contemplative Evangelical General Christian Hindu Jewish Latter-day Saint Muslim New Visions Progressive Christian

Beliefs

Topics

Columnists

Resource Library

Research Tools

Video

Podcasts

Thought Readers

Faith In Media Tracker

Newsletters

Ad-Free & Subscriber Log-In Subscription Support

Follow Patheos

Experience and Reason

Home
General Christian
The Virtue of Prudence Helps us Discern the True Good

The Virtue of Prudence Helps us Discern the True Good

Last updated on: October 25, 2021 at 11:33 am by Chris A. Longobardo

The Virtue of Prudence Helps us Discern the True Good 2021-10-25T11:33:08-05:00 Chris A. Longobardo

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Prudence, as a virtue, helps us discern the true good in all circumstances. Virtue of any kind is a likeness to a perfection. Discernment of any kind is an intellectual ability. Prudence also helps us choose the most ethical way of achieving the true good.

Christians should know by now that all forms of entertainment do not glorify God.

Do you know the meaning of giving glory to God? It means to do something that celebrates his goodness, generosity, etc. I cannot celebrate sin and death, and celebrate eternal life and eternal happiness at the same time.

I needed to practice being prudent when I converted to Christianity because infused prudence, a gift from God that leads my soul to heaven, does not come naturally to me. That means I had to examine a lot of things. One of the things I examined was my entertainment.

Guess what? Deception does not glorify God.

Synthetic Media: How deepfakes could soon change our world – 60 Minutes – CBS News

I believe God can neither deceive nor be deceived. I intend to live and die in this faith.

Trickster gods have existed throughout human history because people deceive themselves sometimes. People sabotage themselves and people sabotage other people. If you believe what I believe, then you will agree that the one true God cannot deceive nor be deceived, because he is good all of the time. My likeness to this faith in Christ means that I will not enjoy games that glorify deception.

As a 35-year-old man converting from sin, and choosing to follow Jesus Christ, one of the first things I focused on is my relationship with the internet. Every single one of us has a relationship with the internet. I use the internet for work. I use the internet to get the news, traffic, and the weather, etc. My relationship with the internet is something I need to examine/ pay attention to.

Like Christianity itself, the internet was not created for evil, although both the internet and religion have been used for evil from time to time. You have heard the world cry about misinformation campaigns, politics, fake news, etc. I suppose synthetic media, or deepfake technology, is another way for people to play around with tricking people for entertainment value. That does not point to the goodness of God; and people who get emotional satisfaction, or financial gain from that kind of activity, are not giving glory to God with their life.

I suppose that our relationship with technology will divide generations of people because there will always be people that do not adapt fast enough with the changes in use of technology.

Brain plasticity is involved in the fact that younger brains will have an advantage that older brains do not have. It depends on the brain. Older computers seem to get replaced by new computers frequently. My laptop has an “auto-update expiration date.” This is why God converts sinners through young people and old people. Young people can teach old people, and old people can teach young people.

You may have heard of pre-conceived notions. I want to talk about image recognition. The intellectual souls of human beings rely on images to understand reality and the environment. Technology designed to fool people will damage our faith, because faith is is essentially an intellectual activity. The knowledge of God will refer to our intellect. The will of God refers to our activity.

Deepfake technology exploits our ability to tell the difference between real and fake. It looks so real that I can’t tell the difference. People who do not meditate on the mysteries of faith, or contemplate the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, do not have the same images in their brain that I do. What kind of images do they keep in their brain? Is it images of college football, American politics, sin, and death? College football can be used for good. American politics can be used for good. I am saying this because of immersion. We are dunking ourselves, infusing ourselves, with and in whatever we love.

When non-believers think of the word “faith,” it is possible the image that comes to mind is something like “self-deception.” The virtue of prudence helps us discern the true good.

Deception is actually built into technology, the internet, and video games. Deception is a human part of professional sports, American politics, and even courts of law. It is so common these days that people are very skeptical.

Both technology and religion is created by human beings. You know that religion was created before Christ, right? Technology has no ethical programming unless humans program it that way. Religion is a visible sign of all the virtues that arise from a human being’s relationship with God. True religion is how I glorify the one true God with my one body and soul. I don’t need to preach. You can simply see me live my life.

To glorify God with my life means I am sincere. I am straightforward with you. It’s possible you don’t know me well enough to know how silly and funny I can be; but I don’t play around when it comes to the highest truths known to mankind.

Virtual reality is so real that parts of the brain would light up just as bright as they would if I was emotionally moved outside of a video game. We have virtual experience, and we have personal/ direct experience. I suppose that years of virtual/ impersonal experience has made people uncomfortable with face to face encounters with the truth, goodness, and beauty of God. Some people will enjoy it, but other people are too immature and really enjoy the illusions of this world. I still play video games, but I suppose my mind is enlightened by the Holy Spirit and it changes the games I will play, and why I play them.

Scientists can use FMRI and computer analysis to read our thoughts – 60 Minutes – CBS News

Knowledge will save you. Willpower makes us act on what we know. The virtue of prudence helps us discern the true good.

Knowing an image is fake will tell you that what you are looking at is not real, even if the image is a near perfect representation of the real thing. Then you start to see the spirit or likeness of the image.

“My people are ruined for lack of knowledge!”

Hosea 4:6

Technology designed to fool people will damage our faith, but it will also bring people closer to the truth. I suppose that our beliefs are supposed to divide us, and some of us will “be saved,” and some of us will be the opposite of saved. “To save something” existed before the invention of a computer. Now I tend to think of the opposite of saved is deleted.

“This is the time of fulfillment. The kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

Mark 1:15

You have heard of people using the fear and anxiety of death, (and you have heard of people exploiting the elderly), to sell them something they don’t need. I can say the same thing about tempting children to buy stuff they don’t need. The buying of stuff I don’t need refers to material gifts. I need spiritual gifts.

The world doesn’t need to knock on the door to my grandma’s house in Florida to sell to her. The marketplace does not need door-to-door salespeople anymore. We have delivery people now. Some people will not be smart enough to say no to this technology is a matter of fact. After that, you have all the people in the middle with Christ, even if they don’t know it is Christ. I am writing for people with full use of their intellect and skepticism that still gives Glory to God in the process. I am trying to write for people of wisdom and prudence.

You may have heard of image recognition software. I also write for non-believers. All humans do not have the same source of information. Some of us didn’t grow up in the Church.

Intelligent life forms are supposed to be able to look at an image and make intelligible connections. My handwriting is known as “legible.” So, you can read it. Intelligible is like that also, but it refers to comprehension. Like in the case of Jesus Christ, a lot of people don’t know what to make of the image of Christ on the Cross. A lot of people do not know what to make of an image of a person suffering. Then we have all these games that glorify sin and death.

Can you intelligently connect actual pain and suffering, with the salvation of a soul based on faith in God? The knowledge of the history of salvation would need to be there. The knowledge of the history of salvation is found in another image.

Previous Post

October 12, 2021

Mature Faith is the Solution for the Adult with Adult Problems

Next Post

October 21, 2021 Faith in Christ is the Perfect Happiness Available to the Human Person

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Emotional intelligence Faith Fasting God and Money Grace and virtue Imitation of Christ Justice and Warfare Music ministry Prudence and wisdom Religion and Virtue Trinity

Select a Month May 2022 March 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz