Commentary on Catechism of the Catholic Church Ways of Coming to Know God

We are created in the image of God, this means that we are like God. As declarable, our intellect is like the intellect of God, but God’s intellect is infinitely greater than us. There are proofs of the existence of God, they are not natural scientific proofs, but rational proofs. Before anyone can accept these rational proofs of God, they must first accept that rational proofs are in fact a possibility. Without that acceptance, one cannot reach any knowledge of God. Yet these rational proofs are in fact more certain than the scientific proofs, because the scientific proofs are based on the rational proofs and not the other way around.

There are 2 ways of proving God, from the world and from the self. From the world’s motion, becoming, contingency, and beauty and order we can eventually reach to a knowledge of God. Though I myself do not use these methods. The human person’s desires for truth, beauty, moral goodness, infinity, and happiness all point to the existence of a spiritual soul which is irreducible to mere matter. I myself would use the argument of the intellect to point towards the nature of the soul, and also the purpose of the soul as proof of its irreducibility to matter. However, it seems these are valid ideas as well.

All things attest that they cannot be their own cause or their own end. Instead this cause and end has to be outside themselves, and this reality is which everyone calls God. As such, my argument of necessity from Philosophy 1 and from the Prologue converges with the conclusions of the catechism. The intellectual capacities of man allows them to know the existence of God, but for true union to happen, supernatural revelation is necessary and the grace needed to welcome that revelation with faith. However, the proofs of God help with conditioning man to faith and helping man see that faith does not contradict reason, instead it is the perfection of reason.

Second Commentary

"Created in God's image and called to know and love Him, the person who seeks God discovers certain ways of coming to know Him."

As a person comes to faith, and seeks Him, they will wrestle with doubts and if elected, they shall reason that God is beyond any doubt and can be known with fullness of certainty. The primary cause of this discovery is God, but the secondary cause is the nature of man, which is in the image of God and also called to know and love God. This calling is made efficacious in the elect, but they will not be efficacious in the reprobates.

"These are also called proofs for the existence of God, not in the sense of proofs in the natural sciences, but rather in the sense of converging and convincing arguments, which allow us to attain certainty about the truth."

It would be better if they say proofs of reason, but discerning the audience of this catechism, the description of converging and convincing arguments is also apt. However, it is to be noted that these arguments do not merely convince, they are actually true. The truth rests in the convergent nature of various arguments which eventually point to God. However, the convincing aspect of the arguments, or persuasion, is needed for someone to actually believe. This is yet also the capacity of man to perceive and recognize the truth as it is, thus allowing them to be convinced of the truth. These arguments are certain because they stem from the source of certainty, that is reason and perception, thus for all people elected to have complete and perfect capacities of reason and intellect, these arguments shall be convincing.

"These ways of approaching God from creation have a twofold point of departure: the physical world and the human person."

While we can indeed approach God from creation, I hold to the existential argument for God, that is the argument from necessary existence. However, let us attempt to approach God from these 2 points of departure. From the physical world, we can reason that the world cannot contain its own cause, it must have another cause and that cause cannot have another cause. The world cannot contain its own cause as it is fundamentally finite while the cause of the world has to be infinite. Meanwhile, the cause of the world cannot have another cause because then it would be part of the world. 

From the human person, I infer it speaks about the character of the human person. Perhaps one of the main arguments for God from the human person is the argument of moral recognition. Man's capacity to recognize moral value points to the idea that there is some sort of moral standard which objectively exists. The ability to compare between different moral objects leads to the idea that there is an absolute standard by which we implicitly know and compare everything to. This absolute standard is what everyone calls God. However these arguments I believe are not as strong as the existential argument for God.

"The world: starting from movement, becoming, contingency, and the world's order and beauty, one can come to a knowledge of God as the origin and end of the universe."

In this case I may argue that there is a twofold necessity for the existence of God, that is the world, as the catechism states, and also the necessary existence. For in the end, we compare God with our own perceptions to understand God. So from the facts of necessary existence, we compare it to the world and infer the relationship between God and the world, that is how we understand the attributes of God better. So, motion, becoming, contingency, order, and beauty all contribute to the understanding of God, but it is difficult to alone prove God from these things, natural reason is necessary as well.

"As St. Paul says of the Gentiles: For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them."

Indeed, through natural revelation God has revealed many things to the gentiles, those who do not receive the supernatural revelation of the Jews. So were they to sin, they are justly held accountable as they become their own revelation for themselves, through the law of God which is written in the hearts of man. Every man possess this mysterious revelation, not only as something they have to discover by the means of active reason, rather it is already written in their very soul as an innate knowledge. Therefore, by both innate law and active reason, they can reason towards God. But this will all be effective only if God has elected it to be effective in them, otherwise they shall be damned on account of their sins.

"Ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature, namely, His eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made."

This is true, while it requires the existential argument to firmly ground the existence of God as something absolutely necessary that can be proven in any condition, it requires the knowledge of the world, the general understanding of the world to prove what God's relationship is to the world. Because God is Power only in respect to the world. He actualizes the world and is capable of actualizing whatever else that may exist. As such from existence we understand that He exists, and from essence we understand that He is powerful.

"And St. Augustine issues this challenge: Question the beauty of the earth, question the beauty of the sea, question the beauty of the air distending and diffusing itself, question the beauty of the sky...question all these realities. All respond: See, we are beautiful. Their beauty is a profession. These beauties are subject to change. Who made them if not the Beautiful One who is not subject to change?"

If we observe the beauty of the world, we must conclude that there is a common property to them, that is the property of beauty. The property of beauty itself must be immutable and common to all of these objects. As beauty is a form of goodness, we reason that it is the existence of all things which constitutes their beauty. God is Beauty alone, and all other things participate in His eternal and immutable Beauty, which really is Existence itself. However, this argument is still not as strong as the existential argument for God.

"The human person: With his openness to truth and beauty, his sense of moral goodness, his freedom and the voice of his conscience, with his longings for the infinite and happiness, man questions himself about God's existence. In all this he discerns the signs of his spiritual soul."

While this reasoning is not perfect, it helps us to understand better the relationship between God and the soul. From reason we acquire that God has to will the good of the creature, and these signs of spiritual soul in man verifies that reasoning. Man has to be able to recognize truth, goodness, beauty, and also desire these things were our reasoning about God be correct, and these things are correct. We do recognize truth, goodness, beauty, and desire them. This verifies our reasoning to be correct.

"The soul, the seed of eternity we bear in ourselves, irreducible to the merely material, can have its origin only in God."

I find it difficult to infer from the character of the soul that the soul has to be from God. Instead I would go about and prove God first and then infer that the soul must come from God. In fact, that souls are created by God at conception and do not preexist the body is a supernatural revelation of God. We cannot possibly know from reason that the soul has a beginning in God directly and not from a generation from matter. Perhaps it is possible to infer that from the nature of the intellect which we observe in ourselves, it has to be immaterial, but otherwise I do not know how to do it.

"The world, and man, attest that they contain within themselves neither their first principle not their final end, but rather that they participate in Being itself, which alone is without origin or end."

For we have established that only God is the first principle and final end of all things which are created by God. Only God is pure goodness, to which all other beings are directed to in their motion. All other beings possess Being itself, otherwise they will not be beings at all. All things which do not possess God in separation from God, is united already to God Himself. They are in fact in simple union with Existence Himself, God Himself. For that reason, God alone is without origin and end, while all other things originated in God and ends in God, if God elects them to be so.

"Thus, in different ways, man can come to know that there exists a reality which is the first cause and final end of all things, a reality that everyone calls God."

Among those ways are the existential way and the way of creation. I prefer the existential way, or to be accurate, I only understand the existential way as the primary way of proving God while the world serves as additional understanding of God.

"Man's faculties make him capable of coming to a knowledge of the existence of a personal God. But for man to be able to enter into real intimacy with Him, God willed both reveal Himself to man and to give him the grace of being able to welcome this revelation in faith."

For man's nature alone is never sufficient to enter into a deep union with God for which man is created. Man is always defective, he always requires aid from God in addition to his natural capacities to actually enter into union with God. Revelation is first perceived in temporal life, but it is perfected and fulfilled completely in eternal life. 

"The proofs of God's existence, however, can predispose one to faith and help one to see that faith is not opposed to reason."

In the elect, these shall be effective, that the presentation of the proofs of God's existence can actually be the instrumental cause of one's salvation by God. However in the reprobates, no amount of proof will be sufficient for the salvation of these people, because God has not chosen to save them, and in a different way of expression God has chosen them to abandon them in their sins to damnation.