Freshman Theology
Mr. Bart Geger, SJ
5 October 1997
Three Ways We Can Come to Know About God
1. Human beings have built-in desires for God (what your Zanzig textbook calls "matters of the heart"). See Zanzig, pp. 38-39, bottom 46, bottom 48.
a. Desire for perfect happiness:
--We cannot help wanting to be happy. No matter how happy we are, we always try to be happier. Is perfect happiness possible?
b. Desire for meaning in life:
--Is my life an accident? Or am I here for a reason? Does everything I say and do really matter in the long run?
c. Desire for immortality:
--Human beings are afraid of death because they're not sure what comes afterward. If they're happy, then they resent death, because it takes away everything they have. Humans would like to live forever, if they knew they'd be happy.
The reason why these are arguments for God: If God does not exist, then our lives our tragic, because there is no way to fulfill these desires. We cannot be perfectly happy, our lives are an accident, and we will not live forever.
2. Reason (logic) gives powerful proofs of God's existence (what your Zanzig textbook calls "matters of the head"). See Zanzig, pp. 39-40, 47-48.
a. St. Thomas Aquinas discovered five proofs (arguments for the existence of God.
--Using logic, Thomas showed that the universe has to have an uncaused cause which is eternal, infinite, and all-powerful.
b. Science provides many reasons for believing in God.
--The "anthropic principle" says that the odds of the universe forming in such a way as to make intelligent life possible are greater than three trillion to one.
--Science also shows how weird and mysterious the universe really is.
c. History also provides strong evidence for faith. How could the Jews, who were a small band of illiterate, superstitious peasants with no technological skills, have outlived the mighty Roman Empire and Ming Dynasty, unless God was with them?
3. God's revelation (God revealing Himself; communicating directly to us). See Zanzig, pp. 49-51.
a. Although God reveals Himself to all people through their reason and built-in desires, He revealed Himself in a special and powerful way directly to the Hebrews (Jews).
--God chose a small, weak, sinful people to teach them about Himself, and to prepare them for the coming of Christ.
--This process began with the Hebrew Abraham about 4,000 years ago.
b. This special revelation of God can be found in two places, Scripture and Tradition.
--Scripture (the Bible) is a collection of books written over a long period of time by many different human authors, but all of whom were inspired (influenced) by God.
--Tradition (the living Faith as handed down from person to person over the years, and is sometimes written down outside the Bible in things like creeds and prayers).