Faith and Reason

Many saints have searched for an understanding of God, His creation, and His existence for ever, before the world as we know it ever existed. Two that come to my mind are Augustine and Aquinas, both of whom sought to understand the workings and complete intervention of His Holy Spirit within the realm of creation and all that it entails. Just looking at the teaching and endless searching of these two brilliant men into what is beyond the mind of man into the deep and mysterious manner of the working of God during His creation can be insurmountable to man’s intellect.

As I begin this quest into what may very well be out of my reach, intellectually, my search hovers over and about the theme of the above paragraph and these two intellectual giants before me. Their works are deep, genuine, and have a powerful closeness to the One who inspires some of us to search, ponder, and then pen our thoughts using first of all the inspiring and realistic thoughts of the Holy Spirit.

From “The Confessions of Saint Augustine” there are innumerable statements that bring out a deep yearning forcing him to search and understand the working of God Himself in his life and consequently in the minds of those who will follow his own thoughts of the creation of the universe and the understanding that with God there is no beginning and ending of this world made for us.

Reading further from the Confessions of Augustine, Book XII (Further Inquiry into the Mystery of Creation) we can see how he (Augustine) wrestled with the thoughts and questions regarding God’s total connection to and creativity of the universe and the very earth we live in and how he graciously accepts and pronounces the truth that an Omnipotent God created all and is all with all for all.

September 4, 2016, I answered a newspaper response from the editorials regarding a reply to another minister’s article titled “Quantum Theology 101” in which the second writer was one of the many who see God, the bible, and the attributes within as pas se’ to say the least. My reply included a challenge for the second writer to read a section from the Old Testament; “For the spirit of the Lord fills the world, is all embracing, and knows what man says.” Wis. 1:6b. I felt compelled to put something that might move his thoughts. I mentioned that I had no problem with the Big-bang theory except that something cannot come from nothing. If indeed nothing existed before something came into being that something which came from nothing had to be created by someone or some entity. Aquinas says from his Five Proofs; (The Argument of the Unmoved Mover); “Since a potential does not exist, it cannot cause itself to exist and can therefore only be brought into existence by something already existing.” (potential - has not yet come, latent, unrealized, undeveloped). That something already existing has to be God. Even the most learned in science must know that even the most minute of anything, before it can expand, has to be placed in existence by someone or something already existing. Again, nothing can come from nothing. Only something can come from something!

The CCC 159, states; “Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth. Consequently, methodical research in all branches of knowledge, provided it is carried out in a truly scientific manner and does not override moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God. The humble persevering investigator of the secrets of nature is being led, as it were, by the hand of God in spite of himself, for it is God, the conserver of all things, who made them what they are.”

Therefore, no matter how often and how many there are that insist that the elements of created history, nature in itself, are simple expansions of the beginning when all of matter became into existence, came from the most minute particles according to the quantum theory, cannot and did not begin an existence without the power and intervention of God himself. Try as they might, scientists, New-age proponents and those who are anti-God will never convince those of us, who by the very infusion of the Holy Spirit’s Will into our collective intellect and God-given souls, will ever believe these godless proposals of science only will become the final expression of humanities quest to seek and find the Living God in their lives.