Converging and Convincing Proof of God: Introduction

10/25/2012

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exists. It is in fact foolish to try to use these kinds of reason because they are out of place in the premises.

Though he presumably believed in God, the Massachusetts physician Duncan MacDougall was still a fool when in 1907 he tried to weigh the soul by measuring the average weight loss of tuberculosis patients who died while on a scale. (He claimed the soul weighed 21 grams.)
Dr. MacDougall confused categories. The human soul, like God, is immaterial and invisible, which is to say, it will never be sensed by our senses, whether of sight, sound, smell, taste, or touch. That does not mean it doesn't exist. It simply means that it is a reality that is discovered another way.

The exact opposite error of Dr. MacDougall is found in the modern scientist whose science he says compels him to be an atheist or agnostic. The modern scientist who refuses to believe in God because God cannot be proved by empirical science, because God not subject to the experimental method, is, at least in this regard, a fool no less than Dr. MacDougall. A fool in a different way is still a fool.

This is the error and the foolishness of a modern man. He thinks univocally, and has abandoned analogical thought. He has put materialistic blinders on his reason. So he's stuck in what various thinkers have called various names: the "iron cage" of modernity (Weber), the "immanent frame" (Taylor), "Newton's sleep" (Blake), "deafness to the divine" (Benedict XVI). All of this comes from what Pope Benedict XVI in his Regensburg Lecture identified as the "reduction of the radius of reason."

Medieval man was more clever than modern man when it came to these sorts of things. That is why, despite the common saying, no medievalist would ever have argued about how many angels could dance on the head of a pin. The medieval scholastic was wise enough to know that mixing categories of the material world with categories of the spiritual world as if they were univocal things would be worse than mixing apples and oranges.

Medieval man avoided the error of the foolish Dr. MacDougall (applying empirical thought which works with material reality to invisible, spiritual reality). He also avoided the error of the foolish modern man or woman who justifies his or her disbelief because God cannot be proved by science. We have to recover that common sense that medieval man had plenty of.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church speaks of "'converging and convincing arguments (argumenta convergentia et persuadentia)' which allow us to attain certainty about the truth" that God exists, that he is a personal God, and that He is our First Cause and Final End.

The next series of articles introduced by this one and entitled "Converging and Convincing Proofs of God" will look at some of the "converging and convincing arguments" which allow us with certainty to know that God exists.

Relying on the excellent work of Aidan Nichols, O.P., A Grammar of Consent, we will draw from the insights of the "illative sense" in the thought of Blessed John Henry Newman, the movement of eros in the works of St. Gregory of Nyssa, the spiritual restlessness of St. Augustine of Hippo, the ontological insights of St. Anselm, the classic "proofs" of St. Thomas Aquinas, the mystical sensitivity of St. John of the Cross, the reasons of the heart of Blaise Pascal, the practical musings of Immanuel Kant, the sense of anxiety of self-estrangement of S�ren Kierkegaard, the sense of hope Gabriel Marcel, and the refulgent joy of G. K. Chesterton.

All these insights will, when put all together, give rise to "converging and convincing arguments" that allow us with certainty to conclude by the light of reason alone that God exists and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. (Heb. 11:6).

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Andrew M. Greenwell is an attorney licensed to practice law in Texas, practicing in Corpus Christi, Texas. He is married with three children. He maintains a blog entirely devoted to the natural law called Lex Christianorum. You can contact Andrew at agreenwell@harris-greenwell.com.
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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

Keywords: existence of God, proofs of God, faith, reason, Andrew M Greenwell, Esq

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1 - 3 of 3 Comments

DLL
6 months ago
I agree with the ideas that this article presents. It is also matter of numbers. Much is a matter of calculation. God is infinite,beyond comprehension,as science as well as the general knowledge of humankind,can only at best speculate about God. Time is a numerical measurement for most of us. We are conceived in our mothers womb,we are born,we live a life span,then we die. It is a matter of numbers,it is a matter of time. Being finite creatures we can only conceive time as a measurement of a lifetime,as a beginning and an ending. The number zero we comprehend. If zero means nothing than to say that we are nothing before birth and then become nothing after death. If that is true why love and experience life itself and one another as well. We are time creatures. Life is full and to experience it fully,it must have meaning. If we just die and that is it,then life is a joke of time. Numbers are infinite,beyond our capability to calculate them ultimately. When this happens,we just say there are infinite numbers,as well as calculations. They are,and in that we agree mathematically. God is known as "I am",He is beyond the ability of Humankind to comprehend Him,He is infinite,beyond the measurements of time and space. With a conceived beginning and end to all life,the answer to the reason for this,is do to the concept of infinity,as numbers have a beginning,but no conceivable ending. God is infinite. Creation of time must have a basis in the probability of an infinite number if calculations,possibilities,beyond human comprehension. Jesus is the incarnation of God so that we can come to know God,if we recognize the nature of God,in the human dimension of Jesus. Jesus is a demonstration of the way,truth,and the life. Jesus saves us from sin because he is the perfect sacrificial lamb of God. Death,the end of time is a wage of sin. Jesus saves us from sin,experiencing death,to save all from the consequence of death. The consequence is that we cannot be part of the infinite calculation,as a probability in infinity,as sin is the act in time that reduces all who sin,to a value of zero,so it is like they never were anything. Christ is perfect,the Holy Spirit is perfect,God is infinite perfection. All that is infinite demands perfection,the probability of infinite perfection. God is a factor of that probability. Love defines perfection,infinite perfection. Jesus is body,blood ,soul,like all of us in time,but he is Divinity,as Christ is sinless. Christ is Love,as incarnate,unique,he must be. In the receiving of the Eucharist we receive Christ as body,blood,soul and Divinity. As Christ is pure so we must strive to be like Him,pure also. That is our Catholic faith. Christ is the one,number one,that defines every other number,as a value to be one in an infinite number of possibilities,calculations,probabilities,so that perfection is the solution of all eternity. Knowing that personally I must be pure,as my Father in Heaven is pure,as Christ commands,then infinity is possibility for me to have a share in,after my time on earth ends. Each of us is a part of something greater than us,wether it is in time or eternity. Infinity is spontaneous creation and recreation,salvation and redemption until perfection is the ultimate solution. Then all is harmony. Who can know the Mind of God. All that is created is wonderful,God has ordained it to be,we are ultimately to be one with I Am,God. Love is as God is now and forever. We must be as St Faustina discovered,Love.
abey
6 months ago
As is written in the Book of the Maccabees off the manner "Prophet Jeremiah on instruction from God removed the "Arc of the Covenant", before the Babylonian invasion to a cave under a mountain sealing it Saying no man shall enter in till such time God in His Mercy shall gather his people unto Himself & reveal to them the Covenant". This Jeremiah foresaw to come about individually in the Spirit to what is called a "Personal relationship with God". Even to the words of Jesus of the manner "You know not the the Father neither the Son but them unto whom the Son pleases to reveal". which is to what is called the Original or New Covenant. So to the revelation of the Covenant as Prophesied, we come to know not just the existence of God but also the mystery of Him, to a beginning of the said personal relationship.
Paul-Emile Leray
6 months ago
A pure joy to read! This article goes so nicely with the previous one, on faith and reason; particularly, in my opinion, with your clear explanation of the differences between ratio and intellectus.
Paul-Emile Leray

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