Chapter 1: Knowing God Through Natural Revelation, Reason, and Faith

1. Chapter 1: Knowing God Through Natural Revelation, Reason, and Faith FAITH AND REVELATION

2. 1. Introductory Lesson – for first day of class Syllabus. How the lessons of this text will be taught. Instructional policy. Materials. Homework.

3. 1. Introductory Lesson – for first day of class HOMEWORK Reading • Chapter 1 from the beginning through Knowing God Through Reason, including the sidebar Wisdom 13:1–9.

4. 2. Knowing God Through Reason BASIC QUESTIONS • What is natural religion? • What are the two fundamental ways of knowing God?  KEY IDEAS • Human beings are born with a natural desire for God, which is answered in their natural capacity to know God through reason. • The two fundamental ways to know God are through reason and Revelation.

5. 2. Knowing God Through Reason ANTICIPATORY SET Opening Prayer Reading: • Wisdom 13:1–9 (see sidebar, p. 9). Discussion:  • What does this excerpt from the Old Testament reveal to us about natural knowledge of God, that is, knowledge that anyone can obtain through human reason and human experience?

6. 2. Knowing God Through Reason What is the natural desire for God? It is the yearning for God that every person has in his or her human nature. Why do we have a natural desire for God? God put it in us. What inborn capacity do human beings possess that no other creature in material creation has? The inborn capacity to know God and to be in communion with him.

7. 2. Knowing God Through Reason How does Pope Benedict XVI see the natural desire for God evident in the pagan philosopher Plato? Beauty causes a certain kind of suffering—a nostalgia and longing—in man that keeps him from being satisfied with ordinary life. How does St. Augustine describe our natural desire for God? “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.” According to the Catechism, no. 33, what are some of the signs by which a human being can see that he or she possesses a spiritual soul? Some signs are openness to truth and beauty, a sense of moral goodness, freedom and the voice of conscience, and longings for the infinite and for happiness.

8. 2. Knowing God Through Reason What is the supernatural counterpart to our natural desire for God? It is God’s desire for us. What is God’s supernatural desire for us, and what is its result? God wants us to live in communion with him, and so he reaches out to us and enables us to find him. What are the two ways we can come to know God? Through Revelation and through human reason. What is the overarching subject of this student text? It is how faith and reason work together to help us understand God’s Revelation to us.

9. 2. Knowing God Through Reason GUIDED EXERCISE Free write on the theme you think is the most important (under “In this chapter we will discuss,” p. 3) and why.

10. 2. Knowing God Through Reason KNOWING GOD THROUGH REASON What can human reason lead us to realize about God even without the help of divine Revelation? Human reason alone can lead us to realize that God exists. It can even tell us something about his divine nature. According to the Catechism, no. 31, what is the nature of the proofs that reason can give in regard to God’s existence? They are proofs for the existence of God but not in the sense of proofs in the natural sciences; rather, they are proofs in the sense of “converging and convincing arguments,” which allow us to attain certainty about the truth.

11. 2. Knowing God Through Reason What did the Greek pagan philosophers Plato and Aristotle conclude about God? Using reason alone they concluded there must be a God. What is Aristotle’s “First Cause”? Despite the fact that he lived in a polytheistic culture, Aristotle reached the philosophical conclusion that there is one god. To what other attributes of God did Aristotle reason? He reasoned that God must be eternal and perfect. How did St. Thomas Aquinas expound upon Aristotle’s arguments? He clarified and extended them in the thirteenth century.

12. 2. Knowing God Through Reason What does it mean to say that each person is by nature and by vocation a religious being? We come from God and we seek and desire God. By what two ways can we arrive at the knowledge of the existence of God? Through the light of reason and by the grace of faith. By what two basic ways can we approach a natural knowledge of God? We can be certain there is a God by using reason to examine the message of creation and the promptings of conscience.

13. 2. Knowing God Through Reason Guided Exercise Complete the following table to clarify the four characteristics of our knowledge of God.

14. 2. Knowing God Through Reason

15. 2. Knowing God Through Reason Guided Exercise Read Supplementary Reading 1 (Rom 1:14–25, p. 23) and write a bullet-point summary of what St. Paul reveals in regard to (1) our ability to know God through reason and (2) the consequences of our refusal to see God.

16. 2. Knowing God Through Reason CLOSURE Write a paragraph explaining how God gives us both a natural desire for him and a natural means of reaching him.

17. 2. Knowing God Through Reason Homework Assignment Reading • Knowing God Through Natural Revelation. • Sidebar: St. Thomas Aquinas and the Five Ways. Study Questions • Questions: 1–5. Workbook • Questions 1–8.

18. 2. Knowing God Through Reason ALTERNATIVE ASSESSMENT Based on the sidebar from the Old Testament (p. 5) and the Supplementary Reading from from the New Testament (p. 23), discuss: What do these readings say in regard to our natural ability to know the existence and nature of God, and how does this knowledge relate to idolatry and other human evils?

19. 3. Knowing God through Natural Revelation BASIC QUESTIONS What is our natural knowledge of God? What are the “Five Ways” of St. Thomas Aquinas? KEY IDEAS We can discover both the existence of God and certain of his attributes with the light of reason in the things that he has made. St. Thomas Aquinas offers five ways of proving the existence of God based on reason.

20. 3. Knowing God through Natural Revelation Anticipatory Set Think of any object made by a human being, e.g., a work of art or technology. How does it reflect something about the person who made it?

21. 3. Knowing God through Natural Revelation What is natural revelation? It is what God communicates through the existence of creation. When God creates he imprints a “mark” on his creation, and through that mark we can learn something about him. What is the starting point for “naming” God through creation according to the Catechism, no. 41? The perfections of creatures—their truth, goodness, and beauty—reflect the infinite perfection of God. How is God’s likeness to his creations different from a human being’s likeness to his or her creations? Since God’s creative action is stronger and deeper than a human being’s, the likeness between God and his creatures is deeper than the likeness between man and his crafts or products. On the other hand, since the distance between God and his creation is infinitely greater than the distance between a human being and his or her products, what creation tells us about God is infinitely less proportionate than what human products reveal.

22. 3. Knowing God through Natural Revelation What are some (divine) attributes about God we can learn from his creation? The existence in God of goodness, unity, simplicity, infinity, wisdom, and omnipotence. What doctrine does the Magisterium of the Church teach about our knowledge of God’s existence from reason alone? “God, the origin and end of all things, can be known and demonstrated with certainty by the natural light of reason starting from the created world, that is, from the visible works of creation, as a cause is known through its effects.” According to the Catechism, no. 32, what are some of the starting points we can use to prove God’s existence from reason? Movement, becoming, contingency, and the world’s order and beauty are starting points for knowing that God exists.

23. 3. Knowing God through Natural Revelation Sidebar: ST. THOMAS AQUINAS AND THE “FIVE WAYS” Why are St. Thomas’s proofs of God’s existence still valid even though the methods of science has changed so much in the past eight hundred years? It is still true that a thing in motion must be set in motion by something else, that something cannot come from nothing, and that everything in nature is contingent and hence must have some necessary cause as its ultimate origin. Why is it reasonable to believe in God? Reason shows that God exists. Can philosophy absolutely prove that God exists? No. Not everyone wants to be convinced.

24. 3. Knowing God through Natural Revelation Guided Exercise

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26. 3. Knowing God through Natural Revelation Guided Exercise Perform a focused reading of the two paragraphs beginning “St. Thomas’s proofs” and “The principles set forth” (pp. 7–8) using the following question: How do St. Thomas Aquinas’s arguments relate to the modern understanding of the universe?

27. 3. Knowing God through Natural Revelation What do the arguments for the existence of God presented by Aristotle and St. Thomas Aquinas reveal? These arguments reveal the existence of a single being who is responsible for the causation and governance of reality. They also give us a certain understanding of his nature. What are some things that reason can show about the nature of God? God must be unlimited in all of his perfections: power, truth, knowledge, and goodness.

28. 3. Knowing God through Natural Revelation Closure Write a paragraph arguing that it is reasonable to believe that God exists.

29. 3. Knowing God through Natural Revelation Homework Assignment Reading • Science and Reason. • Sidebar: Principal Errors Regarding the Existence of God. Study Questions • Questions 7–8. • Practical Exercise 2 Workbook • Questions 9–13.

30. 3. Knowing God through Natural Revelation Alternative Assessment Complete Practical Exercise 2 (p. 29) on things you can observe in nature that might lead you to the conclusion that there is a God.

31. 4. Science and Reason BASIC QUESTIONS What is the relationship between science and reason? What is scientism? Can modern science support the idea of God? What are the principal errors regarding the existence of God? KEY IDEAS Science is a particular, highly successful form of reasoning, but it is only a portion of what can be known through reason. Scientism is a view that parades as science but is an unscientific philosophical error that reduces all valid knowledge to what can be known through the methods of science. The findings of modern science can be the grounds for philosophical reflection, which can lead one to belief in God. Some principal errors in regard to the existence of God are atheism, agnosticism, rationalism, and fideism.

32. 4. Science and Reason Anticipatory Set Read the opening paragraph of this lesson, beginning “We can conclude” (p. 9). Deduce from this paragraph what the basic question of this lesson will be.

33. 4. Science and Reason How are science and natural theology similar? Both use human reason and the observation of natural phenomena. Extension: Natural theology is the branch of philosophy that looks at what can be known about God from reason. What is modern science? It is the practice of systematically observing the behavior of nature to understand better the laws and structures that govern it. What does it mean to say that science is a restriction of reason? Science limits itself to those truths that are able to be demonstrated through the control and manipulation of natural phenomena. What are some important facets about the human person that science cannot study? Those which are not mathematically measurable—such as the fact that you can think and that you have a free will, your distinct personality with all of your thoughts and beliefs, your life experiences, your education, all that you hope to do, and the love you have for your family.

34. 4. Science and Reason Guided Exercise How does the “Hamlet vs. stack of papers with random words” example (p. 9) reveal a limitation of science?

35. 4. Science and Reason Guided Exercise What does it mean to say that reason contains science but that science does not contain reason?

36. 4. Science and Reason What is scientism? It is the error that reasons that because science can measure some things well, it can measure everything well, and that things that cannot be measured scientifically either do not exist or cannot be known. What is the view of God derived from scientism? If science cannot prove the existence of God – and it cannot – then we cannot be sure that there is a God. Why cannot God be proven by science? Because God cannot be physically measured. Is scientism scientific? No. Scientism is not provable by science because it cannot be tested by a scientific experiment.

37. 4. Science and Reason What will keep scientists from denying the existence of God? Scientists are unlikely to deny the existence of God as long as they acknowledge both the limitations of science in ascertaining truth and how reason can give us knowledge beyond that which is scientifically provable. However, if scientists (and anyone else) mistakenly believe that only things that can be measured are real, then they will, to a large extent, deny many of the characteristics that make us truly human. How can philosophy use the findings of modern science to indicate that God exists? The extremely intricate “fine tuning” of the universe which science has discovered, without which the universe and life would not be possible, suggests that there is an intelligence behind them which we call God. How does a philosophical reflection on the deep intelligibility of reality allow us to infer that God exists? If the universe were the result of only random accidents of chance we would not expect to see deep intelligibility, that is, that the universe is knowable through consistent laws. Deep intelligibility can only be caused by an even deeper intelligence, and that Intelligence is God.

38. 4. Science and Reason Sidebar: PRINCIPAL ERRORS REGARDING THE EXISTENCE OF GOD What is atheism? It is the denial of the existence of God. According to Gaudium et spes, is atheism natural or spontaneous in man? No. It is an unnatural development that has both intellectual and moral causes. Atheism presupposes the mystery of sin, which turns the hierarchy of values of the person upside-down.

39. 4. Science and Reason

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41. 4. Science and Reason Closure Write a paragraph explaining why being a scientist is no obstacle to believing in God.

42. 4. Science and Reason Homework Assignment Reading • GOD MAKES HIMSELF KNOWN TO MAN. Study Questions • Questions: 9-12, 24. • Practical Exercises 1, 3, 5-7. Workbook • Questions 14-18.

43. 4. Science and Reason Alternative Assessment Class discussion question: Until the early twentieth century, atheism was extremely rare, and while most persons still believe in God today, atheism is on the increase. Why might this be?

44. 5. God Makes Himself Known to Man BASIC QUESTIONS Why is supernatural religion necessary? What does faith do for reason? KEY IDEAS The knowledge of God which comes from contemplating creation is not sufficient to fully know God; instead we need faith in supernatural revelation to attain the goal God has for us. Faith heals, perfects and elevates reason in terms of religious and moral truths that either can be known through reason but with great difficulty or which exceed reason’s power.

45. 5. God Makes Himself Known to Man Anticipatory Set Create a bullet point summary of the quote from Humani Generis in CCC 37 (see “From the Catechism” at the end of this chapter, p. 30).

46. 5. God Makes Himself Known to Man What does the phrase “a personal God” mean? Extension: It means God is a person, a being with reason and will. According to CCC 35, what is the purpose of the proofs of God’s existence? They are to predispose man to faith and to help him see that faith is not opposed to reason. Why has God revealed himself to man and given him grace? So that man can have real intimacy with God. What is the relationship between faith and reason? Faith is above reason because it reveals truths which are outside the grasp of human reason alone. How is God’s plan of Revelation realized, according to Fides et Ratio? God makes real his plan of Revelation by deeds which reveal and confirm the truths he speaks and by words which proclaim and clarify the meaning of the deeds.

47. 5. God Makes Himself Known to Man a. Natural Revelation Alone Is Insufficient to Fully Know God What are the two types of truth which God has revealed? God has revealed truths which are beyond human understanding and truths which are within reason but which God wanted man to know with ease and certainty and without error. Extension: The doctrine of the Trinity is an example of a truth which reason could never reach on its own. The Ten Commandments are moral truths which reason can discover on its own but that many people find difficult to reach. How is the periodic table an example of “natural” faith? Very few people can actually do the mathematics to prove that the periodic table is true: most take it on faith and use the periodic table as a basis for studying chemistry.

48. 5. God Makes Himself Known to Man a. Natural Revelation Alone Is Insufficient to Fully Know God How is faith in the periodic table like faith in truths about God? Most human beings cannot discover the quantum mechanics which provide the basis of the periodic table on their own. Similarly, people are unable to arrive at the ultimate truths about God without help. What foundation does reason give us for understanding God? Reason shows us there is a God and it tells us something about his attributes. Reason also leads us to the natural law—the knowledge of what will perfect and fulfill human nature and the obligation to use that knowledge to do good and to avoid evil.

49. 5. God Makes Himself Known to Man Guided Exercise What does it mean to say, “Grace builds on nature”?

50. 5. God Makes Himself Known to Man Why do we need God’s help to aid reason in understanding even truths which can be known by reason? Because of original sin, our reason is darkened. Also, sometimes we use reason to justify what we want to do instead of using it to find out what we ought to do. Revelation gives us certainty. Where does God reveal himself to us? In history, in Scripture, and in the Church. What is God’s motive in revealing himself to the world? God’s motive is his gratuitous love which desires to bring men to salvation. Why do we need grace in regard to knowing truth? Sin and error prevent us from reaching a perfect knowledge of God and his will for us in our lives. Why do we call grace supernatural? It is a power above and beyond our human nature.