Catholicism For Dummies. Rev. Kenneth Brighenti
believing in the Tooth Fairy and hoping for a dollar bill under your pillow? Of course not. The First Vatican Council (1869–1879; also known as Vatican I) taught that you need the intervention of supernatural revelation to be saved, but certain truths, like the existence of God, are attainable on your own power by using human reason.
In the 13th century, St. Thomas Aquinas, a philosopher, explained how the human mind seeks different kinds of truth. He said that
Scientific truth (also known as empirical truth) is known by observation and experimentation. So, for example, you know that fire is hot by burning your finger with a lit match.
Philosophical truth is known by using human reason. You know that two plus two equals four, for example. So, if two chairs are in a room and someone says, “I’ll get two more,” you know by using reason that the total will be four chairs. You don’t need to count the chairs after they arrive.
Theological truth, known only by faith, is the final and highest level of truth. It can’t be observed, and it can’t be reasoned; it must be believed by faith — taken on God’s word, because He revealed it.
St. Thomas Aquinas also delineated five philosophical proofs for the existence of God in a monumental work called the Summa Theologica. Because Vatican I taught that the human mind can know some things of religion on its own without having to depend on divine revelation, it’s good to see the example given by St. Thomas. Aquinas reasoned that humans can prove the existence of God through motion, causality, necessity, gradation, and governance. Granted, you may not be able to persuade an atheist to become a missionary priest this way, but these proofs are still pretty compelling.
Through motion
Before you were conceived in your mother’s womb, you were merely a potential being. You didn’t become real, or actual, until the occurrence of the act that created a new human life. Likewise, at one time, everything now in existence was merely potential, because everything has a beginning. In other words, to get to the actual here and now, you first must have an actual beginning — a start. So, at some point, all human beings — and all things — never were.
Some force had to start the motion from potential existence to actual existence. And that force could never have been potential itself; it always was, is, and shall be. Otherwise, that force would’ve had to be started by some other force, which would’ve had to be started by some other force, and so on. This chain of forces means that an actual beginning would never have been. And, again, the here and now must have an actual beginning.
Before the Big Bang, when the universe was only potential, what force started the motion for it to become actual and real? St. Thomas said that the force is God, the Prime Mover — moving the potential universe into becoming the actual one.
Through causality
Our parents caused us to be born, just as yours did. Our grandparents caused our parents to be born. And so on. So, every cause was first an effect of a previous cause. So, if you go all the way back to the beginning of everything, something or someone had to be the cause of all causes. Just as the force that started the motion from potential existence to actual existence could never have been potential itself, the cause of all causes could never have been the effect of a previous cause. In other words, the cause of all causes was never an effect but always a cause — or, as philosophers put it, an uncaused cause. St. Thomas said that uncaused cause is God. He caused everything to be by starting creation in the first place.
Through necessity
The universe would not blow up or crash to a screeching halt if you had never been born. This fact is a real ego-popper.
No one individual is necessary. Everything in the universe is basically contingent on — dependent on — something else to exist. Think of it this way: If you turn off a light switch, the flow of electricity to the light bulb is cut off. Without the electricity, you don’t have light. If God removed His Being from sustaining you, you’d be like a turned-off light bulb. One being must be necessary in order to keep the contingent (unnecessary) beings in existence. Otherwise, nothing would exist at all. St. Thomas said the necessary being is God.
Through gradation
Existence and being have different levels. Following is a gradation, or hierarchy, from the lowest level of existence to the highest level of being:
Inanimate matter: Look at inanimate matter, such as rocks. They represent a basic level of existence. They’re just there.
Plant life: The next level is plant or vegetative life — simple but able to reproduce.
Animal life: Farther up is animal life. Not only can it reproduce and grow like plant life, but it also has sense knowledge. Animals can detect information from their eyes, ears, nose, mouth, and so on.
Human life: Next is human life, which can do all the stuff animal life can, as well as reason. Plus, human life has free will.
Angelic life or pure beings: Angelic life consists of pure spirits without bodies. Angels are superior to men and women in that their minds have all the knowledge they will ever have all at one time. Their minds are much more powerful than the minds of mere mortals, too, because they’re not distracted by having a body. Without bodies, they never get sick, feel pain, or need food or sleep or shelter. They’re immortal and, as pure spirits, have power over the material world.
The Supreme Pure Being: The final and ultimate level of existence is a Supreme Pure Being who has no beginning and no end. St. Thomas said that this Supreme Being is God. Like angels, God has no mortal body but is pure spirit. Unlike angels, He has no beginning, whereas He created the angels. Unlike angels, who have limited knowledge and power, God has infinite power, which means that He’s omnipotent; He has infinite knowledge, which means that He’s omniscient; and He’s everywhere — He’s omnipresent.
Through governance
Ever wonder why the earth is just the right distance from the sun and has just the right balance of gases to maintain an atmosphere that supports life? The balance is delicate, much like the ecosystem in which plants produce oxygen and animals produce carbon dioxide to keep one another alive. The planets rotate and orbit at fixed rates instead of crashing into one another. The fundamental laws of physics, chemistry, and biology must be followed; otherwise, life wouldn’t exist. These facts point to a higher intelligence — a being that made these physical laws, because they didn’t just happen on their own.
Nature tends to go from order to chaos. Who put things in order to begin with? A higher intelligence is indicated when you study how human DNA is so intricate, orderly, and consistent. Rather than being mere chance, life on earth is no mistake, and it follows a plan. St. Thomas said that the Great Governor is God.
These five proofs alone can’t convince atheists or agnostics, but they may get their minds clicking. The bottom line is that the existence of God is reasonable, and that faith doesn’t contradict or oppose reason. Rather, faith complements reason.
Chapter 3
In the Beginning: Catholic Teachings on Creation and Original Sin
IN THIS CHAPTER
