The speaker mentioned the "Confessions" and described St. Augustine's reflections on stealing pears as a child. He explained that Augustine had realized that his will was at the root of his actions and that his heart was desperately sick because it insisted that its will be done, over any other party, especially God.
Nobody was better at explaining what's this congenital impossibility or there's something congenitally wrong with our belief forming apparatus we have to believe radically in something and we will not...
— Episode: The Necessity of Belief
Episode: The Necessity of Belief
The speaker mentioned the "Confessions" and described St. Augustine's reflections on stealing pears as a child. He explained that Augustine had realized that his will was at the root of his actions and that his heart was desperately sick because it insisted that its will be done, over any other party, especially God.
Nobody was better at explaining what's this congenital impossibility or there's something congenitally wrong with our belief forming apparatus we have to believe radically in something and we will not believe in God there's something wrong with us and nobody put it better than our gustan in the confessions when he was trying to figure out he was reflecting on why he stole pears as a kid there was an incident in his youth when he was a kid that he broke into somebody's I think climbed over a wall and that somebody's orchard and he stole pears and years later he was trying to figure out why did I want to steal the pears so he thought was he hungry he wasn't hungry was he too poor so he didn't have enough to eat he had plenty to eat and actually there's one place where he even said and I didn't even like pears so why did he want to steal pears and he realized it wasn't because he was hungry it wasn't because he liked pears it was because somebody said don't go in there and he says as soon as somebody said don't touch those pears he wanted to and he began to realize deep in his heart there was a voice crying my will not dying be done to every other party in the world and especially the God
St. Augustine said at the root of his heart and at the root of all of our hearts is a voice crying out my will not dying be done to every other party and especially the God and Augustine says this is going to distort everything this absolute insistence my will be done not dying to every other person especially God he says it means I'm going to I'm deceiving myself all the time it's going to distort every relationship it's going to distort every decision I make I'm sick my heart is desperately sick I cannot avoid making radical faith acts and yet I cannot make them rightly I will always put my spiritual roots down into things that cannot support me that will desert me that will twist me and I'm not going to be able to change this by trying because something something outside trees can't replant themselves something on the outside is going to have to come and dig me up from the bottom and pull me out by the roots and radically revolutionize even my very foundations I'm going to have to be born again