Can We Know God Is Real? Part II

God

We can know God is real from Reason alone, without Faith. That is to say, we can know God is real by using only non-supernatural evidence and logic.

St. Thomas Aquinas

St. Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274 AD) shows the way in the “Five Proofs for the Existence of God,” or “Five Proofs” for short, in his Summa Theologica. This column will present the two Proofs not covered in my previous column. They are not exact translations of St. Thomas’ Latin words but are paraphrases that are intended to simplify and clarify without distorting St. Thomas’ thought.

The Proof from Predictability

This Proof is often called “the argument from design.” But realize that St. Thomas argues from the design of individual things—NOT from the overall design of the universe, as “the argument from design” usually means nowadays. So “purpose” in this Proof does not mean the role of something in the grand scheme of things; it means something’s own immediate goal which gives the thing’s activity consistency and predictability. For example, the purpose, in this sense used here, of a seed of corn is to produce nothing but ears of corn. Here is his proof:

Because every unintelligent natural thing acts in a consistent and predictable way; and

because every unintelligent natural thing cannot act consistently and predictably unless it has been given a direction or purpose by some being with intelligence, as the arrow goes to its target because it was shot by the archer;

therefore something intelligent exists that has given a direction or purpose to every unintelligent natural thing—there exists a Purpose-Giver of each natural thing, and this being we call “God.”

God

Everyone naturally gives the name “God” to the Purpose-Giver of everything else since “God” is the name of the Supreme Being and since that being which gives purpose to everything else is supreme or superior to everything else. What an arrow is to an archer, every unintelligent natural thing is to God. Note that St. Thomas considers animals as unintelligent natural things since they cannot use Reason, let alone know that God exists. As we might say, there are no scientists, mathematicians, or technology-makers in the animal kingdom.

As in all his Proofs, St. Thomas uses common, undeniable evidence on which he bases his logic. In this Proof, St. Thomas’ evidence is that every unintelligent natural thing acts consistently and predictably. He means generally consistent and predictable, NOT completely random.

This Proof explains something about reality that an atheist or agnostic cannot explain—that unintelligent natural things do not act completely randomly. If an atheist tries to argue that natural things act randomly in the universe and so God does not exist, you can, with all due respect, give these replies:

  • Natural things act with only some randomness, NOT complete randomness—there is enough predictability in order for science and math, and the technology-based on them, to work because science and math would not work in a universe of completely random natural things.
  • If you believe natural things act with complete randomness, then you don’t believe in science, math, and technology.
  • Is that which you call random really random or only apparently random because we do not completely understand it?

If a theist asks an atheist, “Why does every unintelligent natural thing act in a consistent and predictable way?” and the atheist answers “Just because it does,” then the atheist is not really giving a reason to the theist—just as a theist who answers “Just because He does” is not really giving a reason to the atheist who asks, “Why does God exist?”

It might be helpful to add that while St. Thomas made an analogy between God and natural things with his century’s archer and arrow, in 1804 William Paley famously made a similar argument for the existence of God using an analogy between God and natural things with his century’s watchmaker and watch, which we can paraphrase:

Because we find a watch; and

because a watch could not have given itself the purpose of telling time;

therefore there is a watchmaker.

The Proof from Necessity

This is the most difficult, mind-blowing proof so buckle your seat belt. It has longer and shorter versions.

Here is the longest version. Since it often re-uses a proposition, I have numbered its propositions so that it is easier to see how they are re-used.

Because (1) all caused things both exist and do not exist at different times; and

because (2) every possibility happens with infinite time;

therefore (3) one possibility is the simultaneous non-existence of all caused things.

Because (4) time already is infinite if God does not exist and so did not create time (if time is real, and if there is no Creator of it, then it must always have been real); and

because (2) every possibility happens with infinite time;

therefore (5) every possibility has already happened if God does not exist.

Because (3) one possibility is the simultaneous non-existence of all things; and

because (5) every possibility has already happened if God does not exist,

therefore (6) the simultaneous non-existence of all things would have happened by now.

Because (6) the simultaneous non-existence of all things would have happened by now; and

because (7) that which does not exist only begins to exist by something already existing—nothing brings itself into existence (as we saw in the Proof from Effect to Cause);

therefore (8) by now nothing still would exist.

Because (9) things do exist now; and

because (7) that which does not exist only begins to exist by something already existing,

therefore (10) there exists something which cannot both exist and not exist at different times—something which must exist at all times—a Necessary Being (a Must-Be Being, a Being-That-Needs-to-Exist), and this being all men speak of as “God.”

Here is a shorter version:

Because only if there is a Necessary Being (Something-That-Must-Exist-at-All-Times), then there can exist unnecessary beings (things which both exist and do not exist at different times); and

because there are unnecessary beings;

therefore there is a Necessary Being.

Here is the shortest version:

If absolutely nothing needs to exist (if there is no Necessary Being), then nothing would exist.

Because things do exist, there is a Necessary Being.

By “God” in his conclusion, St. Thomas means a Supreme Being since that being which is the Only Necessary Being is supreme to all other beings since all other beings are unnecessary.

What common, undeniable evidence does St. Thomas use in this proof?  (1) Things exist and do not exist at different times.  (2) Nothing brings itself into existence.

What We Know from These Proofs

St. Thomas shows us that we can know from Reason alone—without Faith—some things about God’s essence or identity. In addition to knowing from the other Proofs that God is the Uncaused Cause, the Unchanged Changer, and the Only Perfect Being, we now know that God is the Purpose-Giver of Everything Else and the Only Necessary Being.

The Proofs covered in this column reinforce what we came to know from the other Proofs. There must be only one God or Supreme Being. The Purpose-Giver (supreme to all beings given purpose), the Only Necessary Being (supreme to all unnecessary beings), and the All-Perfect Being (supreme to all imperfect beings) must be the same Being because the All-Perfect Being must be supreme in all ways in order to be perfect.

Since there must be a Supreme Being, we know that atheism, agnosticism, and polytheism are objectively false. (This is NOT to judge the souls or disparage the human dignity of atheists, agnostics, and polytheists—but this is to judge their thinking.)

St. Thomas’ Five Proofs help us know that God really exists. They help us know something, not everything, about Who God is.

There are many more proofs for the existence of God. Good arguments can be made for the existence of a Supreme Being from the intelligent design of the universe, such as by the Discovery Institute at www.discovery.org. Also see Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli, SJ, Handbook of Christian Apologetics, Chapter 3, “Twenty Arguments for the Existence of God” (InterVarsity Press, 1994).

Does Evil Disprove the Existence of God?

Evil undeniably exists. The most common argument made to justify atheism is:

Because evil exists,

therefore God does not exist.

While this argument is powerful emotionally, it does not hold up intellectually. One problem with it, for atheism, is that it implicitly or indirectly endorses the Christian belief that there is one God Who is perfectly good. It takes for granted that there is not one Evil Supreme Being or many evil gods or an evil god at war with a good god or one imperfect God, any of which could explain evil and all of which have been proposed over the centuries. It tries to disprove the Christian God, but it does not come close to disproving the existence of supernatural reality and thus proving atheism.

The second problem with this argument for atheism is that it cannot ultimately explain the evil which it uses to justify its unbelief in God. Just as a fish cannot know it is wet because it is never dry or, more seriously, someone blind from birth cannot fully comprehend darkness because he or she does not know light or color, we can only know there is evil because we know there is good. Evil may undeniably exist, but good undeniably exists, too. Yet there can only be good if there is a cause of goodness, which must be a good Uncaused Cause and thus a good Supreme Being. Atheism cannot explain the cause of goodness because it rejects a good Uncaused Cause. Atheism cannot answer the question: If there is no God, why is there good? Remember: “Just because there is” is no reason.

These problems for atheism show from Reason alone, without Faith, that the existence of evil does NOT disprove the existence of God. The argument above is actually a fallacy. It has the unarticulated premise that evil cannot exist in a universe created by a perfectly good Supreme Being. There are good explanations for the existence of evil in the universe created by a perfectly good Supreme Being: Lucifer and his fallen angels, Original Sin, personal sin, and the fact that the Kingdom of God will not be completely established until Christ Our Lord’s Second Coming.

What Now?

What does God want us to do as a result of learning these Proofs? Be confident that He exists, get to know Him better, and develop an ever better relationship with Him. God wants us to know Him and have an ever better relationship with Him. God is constantly revealing Himself to us and making a better relationship with Him possible. He reveals Himself in Supernatural Revelation and in Natural Revelation. He makes a better relationship with Him possible in the doctrine, worship, prayer, and morality of the Catholic Faith.

Let us use the Proof from Necessity as an opportunity to reflect on the truth that no one has the right to exist (which is different from the right to life once conception has taken place). No one did anything to deserve to exist. Our existence is unnecessary. Every person exists because God created each of us out of nothingness thanks to His infinite love. Our existence is a gift from God. Should we not thank God for the gift of our existence by developing an ever better relationship with Him?

Sources

  • Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, I, Q. 2, art. 3., trans. Fathers of the English Dominican Province (Christian Classics, 1981).
  • Stefan Swiezawski, Thomas Revisited, trans. Theresa Sandok, OSM (Peter Lang Publishing, 1995).
  • Peter Kreeft, A Shorter Summa (Ignatius Press, 1993).
  • Jacques Maritain, Approaches to God, trans. Peter O’Reilly (Harper & Brothers, 1954).

 

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