Part V of The Natural Law--God and Reason

God and Reason

The manufacturer of anything, GN, Apple Computers, The Natural Law, each have a lawgiver. In the case of The Natural Law it is the universe’s manufacturer—God. He, for lack of a better word, is our manufacturer and specifically our law giver. The question often arises both as a thesis and also as an anti-thesis—is there a God? Do you believe God and Reason
in God? Can you prove it? God? Can you, can we, know that there is a lawgiver of the Natural Law? Is it reasonable to believe in God? Is it reasonable not to believe in God?

It is reasonable to believe in God. There is something that is called “self evident principle of sufficient reason”. God is self-evident. The “creation” did not come about on its own—that there has to be a reason. Every effect has a cause and that cause cannot be its own. Why? Because it would pre-exist itself.

Can you imagine Galileo dropping the two spheres and being asked the question, “Gee, Gali, why did the balls drop?” And Galileo Gallilei answering, “Hey Columbus (not the same Columbus)—no reason. But that’s not the reason I was dropping them, anyway.”

The question relates to God as He is an eternal being. That statement is reasonable. Why is there something rather than nothing? There always has been. The alternative is that there was a time when there was absolutely nothing. If there was a time when there was absolutely nothing then there could never be anything. It’s self evident—or sufficient reason. The evidence of God is not self-evident but the proof of God is. That would be creation.

There are five principles of God according to St. Thomas Aquinas:
1) Necessity of God
2) Creation
3) Motion
4) Perfection
5) Design

We once talked about a watchmaker who took apart for a client his watch, put it in a brown paper bag, shook up the parts and told the client now watch this. As he dumped out the bag was it possible that the watch would come out whole? Perfect and in its entirety? Possible, yes. Probable, no. Can one think of something more intricate than the human eye. What, it happened by chance? The ear? DNA? You have to be kidding? Right?

We are not the creation and meaningless product, or a by product for that matter, of evolution. “Each one of us is the product of the thought of God.” Benedict XVI. Eyes and ears did not happen by chance. Possible? Yes. Probable? No. Through reason we can know that there’s one God. ‘Something’ cannot come from ‘nothing’.

Then the question, at times arises, well, then, can God make a square circle? The answer is ‘no’ because a square circle is (no thing) nothing. The same with the equally absurd question of God making a rock too big to carry. It’s a contradiction in terms. God, all knowing? Yes. How can we be sure? How can we have ‘free will’ then? There is no ‘time’ in eternity. I have heard the analogy that God looks down from above, picture in your mind’s eye a mountain top. He sees the incredible parade of human history before Him, from the beginning to the end. Why? Because he’s eternal. But before each individual in that parade makes a decision he or she is free. Have you ever regretted anything? Wanted to take back a biting comment? Another decision? Those are proofs of ‘free will’. One of my favorite old black and white TV programs, now I might add, is watching Bishop Sheen. He once said, “’Please’ and ‘thank you’ are two examples of refuting ‘determinism’.” They are proof, in other words, of ‘free will’.

What can we know through ‘reason’ about ourselves? There is an order of reality which is not material alone but also spiritual.
1) material reality has parts
2) spiritual reality has no parts.
We are composed of two elements: a material body and a spiritual soul. The soul is the life principle in anything that is alive. Do animals have souls? According to Aquinas they have ‘material souls’. Their souls are dependent on the ‘matter’ of that animal. When that animal dies, the soul dies.

How do we differ from the animal kingdom, specifically are we eternal? Created in the image and likeness of God? We are spiritual. We can do things that only a spiritual being can do:
1) Abstraction. A quarter is round. What is roundness? It does not exist in the material world. But we have the abstract idea of roundness. Roundness is an abstract idea.
2) Reflection. A piece of paper can be folded and the bottom, if it could see, can see the top or the top the bottom. But it cannot get out of itself because it is bound by matter. Animals the same way. They, according to Aquinas, have a spiritual matter which dies at the end of its life. Because animals do not have a spiritual component they cannot reflect upon their own selves or being. On the other hand, because human beings are in part spirit, have the capability of ‘reflecting’ upon themselves, the world, and even things that are non concrete—such as freedom, charity, truth, and especially love. Human beings even have the capability of reflecting upon their reflections.