Faith and RevelationChapter 1

Lesson Objective

Pages 2-5 in text book.

Natural Religion

Fundamental ways of knowing God.

Basic Questions:What will I know?

What is natural religion?

What are the two fundamental ways of knowing God?

Chapter 1 Part I

The Desire to know God is in the human heart.

Every civilization has desired to know God.

"Our hearts are restless O Lord and they remain restless until they rest in thee." -St. Augustine

Natural vs Supernatural

Our desire to know God is natural.

God's desire for us is supernatural.

Why is there a longing in the human heart?

Two Ways to Know God

IMPORTANT!

Reason AND

Revelation

Knowing God Through Reason

It is possible to know God through reason WITHOUT revelation.

Pre Christian thinkers came to know of a God.

Plato and Aristotle

First Cause

St. Thomas Aquinas

Our knowledge of God has 5 Characterstics

Mediate

Natural

Universal

Certain

Easy to attain.

What do I know?

What is natural religion?

Two ways to know God?

4 Characteristics of our knowledge of God?

Definitions

Polytheism

Religious Being

Homework

Read pages 2-5 in text.

Prepare for short quiz.

Knowing God Through Natural Revelation

Communicated through the existence of creation.

Reflects the creator.

All creation exists for the good of the human race.

Observing nature can lead us to God.

Dogma

St. Thomas and the "Five Ways"

St. Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican Monk.

Lived 1225-1274

Reintroduced Aristotle to the West

The Five Ways

Motion

Cause

Necessity

Degree

Governance

The Argument from Motion

Everything that is in motion must have been put in motion by something else.

This process cannot go back indefinitely.

The First Mover

The Argument from Cause

Very similar to the First Mover Argument.

Everything has a cause.

Process cannot go back indefinitely.

First Cause.

The Argument from Necessity

Everything in nature is possible.

Before it existed and after it existed.

However, there could never have been a time that nothing existed.

Therefore there must be one thing that is necessary, always existed.

The Argument from Degree

Some things in nature are more perfect than others.

However, we can only know degree if there is something that is most perfect.

The Argument from Governance

When unintelligent beings act in an ordered fashion there must be some intelligent being that placed order on them.

For example, the planets, sun, and stars.

The arrow and the archer.

The Difference Between Science and

ReasonScience is not reason...it uses reason.

Science can observe you, however there are things that science cannot calculate.

So it is a mistake to use science to draw a conclusion about the existence of God.

Love? Happiness? Trust?

Intelligent Design

The world works in an orderly fashion, therefore we must expect something intelligent designed it.

If the world were governed and created by chance then where would our reason and intelligence come from?

Errors Regarding God's Existence

Atheism

Agnosticism

Rationalism

Fideism

God Makes Himself Known

Natural Revelation is not sufficient for knowing God.

God reveals certain truths about Himself.

Why? Because there are truths about God that our reason cannot grasp.

Our eyes staring at the sun.

"Reason shows us there is a God and tells us something about his attributes."

However, grace builds on that foundation.

The First Mover does not describe the love of the Cross.

Faith Seeking Understanding

Our reason is imperfect.

Because of this we need Revelation.

God seeks intimacy, not just knowledge that he exists.

Faith and Reason are therefore compatible and complimentary.

The Necessity of Faith

God creates us with Free Will and desires intimacy with us.

Free will is necessary for true love.

Because of sin God must reveal Himself to us.

God reveals, but we must accept.

Faith is an assent to the truths that god proposes to us.

Faith reveals the supernatural to us.

Faith is not forced.

Faith is not what we make it, it is what God reveals to us.

Prayer is vital!

Natural Law

The knowledge we can have of what we ought to do even without hearing it from revelation.

Conclusion

How can we know God?

Why does God reveal Himself to us?

Why is this lesson necessary?

What can we know through reason?

Why is revelation necessary?