The Mystery of God

Part 1: "Proving" the Existence of God

Recently, I was rereading a book called The Mystery of God by Fr. Desmond Forristal. In the 80's the book was a religion textbook written for high school students in Ireland. I very much enjoyed several chapters of this book and I think you may also enjoy reading excerpts from the book especially if you tend to be reflective and philosophical about God and faith. The next several columns will be excerpts from The Mystery of God. Unfortunately this book is currently out of print.

Generally, my columns are not philosophical in nature. My guess is that most of us do not use that part of our brain very much; but, when we do, we may be surprised how stimulating that may be. So, put on your philosophical hat and see what happens. This following excerpt, which is taken from chapter four of the book, contains some beautiful quotes from poets, philosophers and mystics.

This column and some succeeding ones may be very helpful to young people or not so young people who sometimes have questions about the existence of God. Fr. Forristal writes:

Our surest and clearest knowledge about God comes from Divine Revelation, from what he has told us about himself. But, there is another way in which we can know about God; that is, from reason. Even if God had never revealed himself directly, we could still know about him by looking at the world around us. Our reason tells us that the world must have been made by someone, and that the Being who made it must be all-powerful, all-wise and all-good.

In this chapter we shall see some of the ways in which people have applied their power of reasoning to the question "Does God exist?" and have been able to show that he does.

The great designer

When we speak about proving the existence of God, we must be clear what is meant by "proving". The clearest kind of proof is mathematical proof, which is found in arithmetic or geometry. When we prove that one and one are two, what we really do is examine the idea of one and one and find that it is the same as the idea of two. When we prove that the angles of a triangle are equal to two right angles, what we really do is examine the idea of a triangle and find that it involves having angles equal to two right angles. We can only have this kind of proof in something completely abstract, such as pure mathematics.

In matters involving real life, we cannot have mathematical proof or mathematical certainty. In the physical sciences, in the human sciences, in the science of theology, we cannot prove so completely as to exclude every possibility of doubt. We can keep adding more and more evidence until the case is over-whelmingly convincing; but; there is always room left for someone to Say "I don't believe it". We can say that a person is unreasonable if he refuses to accept convincing arguments; but we cannot force him to change his mind. In a later column, we shall see why some people refuse to accept the proofs for the existence of God and call themselves atheists.

Even the most committed atheist has some moments of doubt. For he lives in a world made by God, where everything points to its maker. No matter how hard he tries, he cannot shut out the signs of God that are all around him. Robert Browning's warning to the atheist is well known:

Just when we are safest, there's a sunset touch,
A fancy from a flower-bell, someone's death,
A chorus-ending from Euripides, -
And that's enough for fifty hopes and fears
As old and new at once as nature's self
To rap and knock and enter in our soul . . .

Many other poets, all down the ages, have looked on the beauty of the universe and have seen in it the hand of God. Almost a thousand years before the birth of Jesus, his ancestor King David saw in the sun and moon and stars the reflection of God's glory.

The heavens proclaim the glory of God
And the firmament shows forth the work of his hands.
Day unto day takes up the story
And night unto night makes known the message
(Psalm 19:1-2)

In the last century, the Irish poet, Joseph Mary Plunkett (1887-1946) described the presence of God in creation in much the same way:

I see his blood upon the rose
And in the stars the glory of his eyes.
His body gleams amid eternal snows,
His tears fall from the skies.

This awareness of God in creation is not, strictly speaking, a proof for the existence of God. In order to turn it into a proof, we have to state it in the form of an argument, that is, we have to set out the different steps by which we come to the conclusion that God exists. We have to show that the world could not exist if it had not been made by God and that God must therefore exist.

The argument that goes from the existence of the world to the existence of God is called the cosmological argument, ("Cosmos" is the Greek word for world). The argument can be stated in many different ways. The way that appeals to most people is called the argument from design.

The best-known statement of the argument from design is found in a book by the English theologian, William Paley (1743-1805). He begins with these words:

In crossing a heath, suppose I pitched my foot against a stone, and were asked how the stone came to be there, I might possibly answer that, for anything I know to the contrary, it had lain there forever; nor would it perhaps be very easy to show the absurdity of this answer. But suppose I found a watch upon the ground, and it should be inquired how the watch happened to be in that place, I should hardly think of the answer which I had before given-that, for anything I knew, the watch might have been always there.

The reason is that a watch is composed of many parts, specially designed and fitted together for the purpose of telling the time. The watch could not have happened by chance. It must have had a watchmaker, someone who designed the parts and made them and put them together to form the finished watch.

In the world of nature we find many things more wonderful than any watch. The humblest insect or plant, the smallest living organism, is far more skillfully designed than the most perfect watch. No camera is as intricate as the eye. No computer is as resourceful as the brain. If a watch or a camera or a computer must have had a designer, then now much more must the natural world have a designer, who can be no one else but God.

Most people find this the most convincing argument for God's existence. It expresses the feeling that comes to us when we look at any of the works of creation from the greatest to the smallest, when we gaze at the myriads of stars that fill the night sky or peer through a microscope at the perfection of a single human cell. These things can only have been made by God.

This is how it has always been. Sixteen hundred years ago, the young St. Augustine tried to hide from God among the things of the world; but everything he met pointed back to God.

I asked the earth and it answered, "I am not he",
and everything in it said the same.

I asked the sea and the deeps and the creeping things
and they answered, "We are not your God: Look higher".

I asked the moving air, and the air and everything
in it answered, "Anaximenes was wrong. I am not God".

I asked the heavens, the sun and moon and stars, and
they said, "We are not the God you are looking for either".

Then I said to all the things that pressed upon my
senses, "You have told me that you are not my God.
Tell me something about him".

And they cried out with a great voice, "He made us".
I had questioned them with my thoughts and they
answered with their beauty (Confessions, Book 10).

In Part 2, I will share with you the rest of chapter four of The Mystery of God, which treats, among other things one of the famous Five Ways or "proofs" which St. Thomas Aquinas used to point to the existence of God.