Deep in Thought

On the heels of a busy Thursday night came a pensive Friday morning, as members of the High School Summer Program began the day considering Pascal’s famous “Wager.” Classroom discussions focused on the terms of the wager and their implications — the finite vs. the infinite, the difference between pleasure and true happiness, the existence of objective truth and morality, and whether we are capable of recognizing them. One student called the class “the most interesting yet!”

A good many students attended the midday Mass immediately afterward:

At lunch the group celebrated the birthday of Brendan, a Summer Program student from Phoenix, Arizona:

In the afternoon class, the students considered two readings: French naturalist J. Henri Fabre’s detailed account of the workings of bees and St. Thomas Aquinas’ fifth proof for the existence of God, the argument from design. Students discussed how, in Fabre’s portrayal of the social economy of bees, every part — from the bees’ antennae, to their stomachs, to their cells — has a purpose. The beauty and complexity of this order, the classes found, contradicted the Pre-Socratics’ presumption of a meaningless universe, while lending support to St. Thomas’ argument that the presence of a design requires a designer.

Recreation has now begun, and students have headed for the athletic fields, for Shakespeare rehearsal, and for the ponds!