Human wisdom, always rich in points for consideration, has fascinated thinkers of all times. However, this same wisdom kneels and bows down to worship God.
There are all sorts of debates. Some are sudden and momentary, the result of spontaneity, a temperamental outburst or immaturity. There are other, interminable ones, in which the representatives of both sides continue the discussion one generation after another. Arguments are finely honed, syllogisms are dismantled, but there is no end to the dispute.
The debate over God’s existence can be counted among the latter. Particularly in the last two centuries, the most diverse forms of atheism have come to light, such as that of the German philosopher Ludwig Feuerbach. According to him, God did not create man, but rather it was man who invented God.
In general, the atheistic critique stands on the claim that religion builds its principles based on Revelation, that is, on information supernaturally given to man, and which cannot be verified by reasoning and scientific experiment.
Yet is there no way to attest that God exists on the basis of reason alone?
To answer this question, let us leave aside for a moment the arguments provided by Sacred Scripture and Tradition, the sources of Revelation, and let us navigate through the waters of anthropology and ancient philosophy.
Can God be grasped by reason alone?
Before embarking on a project, one should first analyse whether or not it is feasible. Thus, we must ask ourselves: does reason really possess the capacity to seek the Most High?
Church of St. Catherine, Pisa (Italy)
St. Thomas Aquinas explains that, in fact, there are truths which our poor human intelligence could never attain without the help of a divine manifestation. Such is the case with the mystery of the Most Holy Trinity, for example. However, these supreme truths, although they transcend our intellect, neither contradict nor deny it.1 It is not absurd, therefore, to accept them.
On the other hand, the Angelic Doctor 2 goes on to say that there are truths which our reason can grasp, such as the existence of God. We do not see Him, but we see His reflections in creation; through the effects, we glimpse the Cause. The invisible manifests itself in that which is visible.
This was the path travelled by some wise men of antiquity. It is, without a doubt, an arduous and precarious one, for those who walk without the light of faith must find their way by groping, with their eyes closed. Their trajectory, though oriented towards God, was tentative and wavering.
All peoples have a religion
As we look back to antiquity, we find a piece of evidence that no atheist can deny: the existence of a religious phenomenon. It is now a question of identifying the beginning of this phenomenon: when did man “invent” God?
If we consult anthropology, the answer will be: from the beginning. All peoples, in all times, have had a religion. Their societies were built on principles derived from beliefs. These gave rise to rites and precepts from which, in turn, emerged codes of ethics and moral conduct that governed human conduct.
Corroborating this is the following thought of Plutarch, the Greco-Roman thinker of the first century of our era:
“If you travel from country to country, you may find cities without walls, without sciences and arts, without kings and palaces, without riches; cities where money is unknown or not in use, cities without public buildings and theatres; but no one has ever seen or will ever see a city without temples, gods, prayers, oaths, and oracles; a city which does not seek by means of sacrifices and religious festivals to obtain favours and avert evils.”3
It is true that the manner of representing the divine has differed in each people, giving rise to diverse forms of worship, most of them polytheistic. The barbarians of Europe worshipped sacred trees; the Chinese worshipped the sky; many Oriental peoples and the native Indians of America worshipped the sun; others raised altars to their own kings. Legends or myths were also born to tell the story of the deities.
These manifestations of religiosity, although insufficient and deficient, still confirm that the figure of a divine being has accompanied humanity from its beginnings until… the emergence of those who decided to deny it: the atheists.
It is atheism, then, that is an invention, and a relatively recent one.
A problem for philosophy to solve
Man has an inclination to the sacred because he is naturally religious, as Cicero observes.4 It is an instinct which, although devoid of sufficient rational elements, moves towards certainty: “All human beings have a some conception of the nature of the gods.”5
However, the mythological narratives so widespread among ancient peoples did not fully respond to the desires of the human soul to know the origin of the universe. It was then that some Hellenic sages began to seek a rational foundation for their belief in the divine. Gradually turning their gaze away from Olympus, the Greek philosophers began to look to nature in search of a solution.
There was no ancient thinker who did not seek an answer to the question, as Fr. Battista Mondin states: “The problem of God’s existence is a line that runs through the entire history of philosophy; there is no philosopher worthy of the name who has not seriously addressed it.”6
Plato and Aristotle, apogee of Greek thought
The first most significant attempt to formulate proof of the existence of God was Plato, taking as his starting point the order of the universe.
The expressions “laws of nature”, “food chain” and “ecological balance” are part of our everyday vocabulary. However, we rarely notice that they could never have arisen in an entirely spontaneous way: if there are laws, there must also be a lawmaker; if there is a chain, someone must have first arranged things in sequence; and if there is harmony or balance in nature, it is because someone has established an order.
For this reason Plato thought that there must necessarily be an “organizing mind” for the universe.7 The immense and complex disposition of beings cannot be the work of chance. How can we explain that the enormous variety of plant and animal species has its origin in “nothing”? How to believe that the perfect movement of the heavenly bodies is the result of a mere “accident”?
His disciple Aristotle went a little further. Contemplating the world around him, he observed that everything develops; everything moves. The stars and the animals are in continuous movement, the vegetables have their own cycle of growth, and even the rocks undergo geological transformations. But who started this wonderful synchrony?
Everything that moves is moved by another. No one is born spontaneously, someone has to engender them; no stone rolls without being propelled, even if by gravity; no plant grows without having been planted; these are indisputable truths.
Now, when did all of this movement begin? Who was the “mover” that set everything in motion? This agent, in turn, cannot have started to move by itself. If we were to keep asking these questions, we would never find the first “mover”, because there would always have to be a previous being to move it…
Therefore, the universe had no beginning? To admit this would be absurd! Since it is impossible to regress to an infinite sequence of “movers”, the existence of a supreme “mover” becomes necessary, one that is not moved by anyone and, at the same time, started the universal movement.8 Here enters the figure of God, who moves everything without moving.
Aristotle formulated yet another proof: “In general, where something better is found, there is also the best. Since, then, among the things that exist, some are better than others, the best of everything also exists, which, to be precise, is the divine.”9
Cicero: how could the universe be the result of chance?
Let us leave the Greek world of the fourth century before Christ and move on to the Roman Republic, where the well-known orator Marcus Tullius Cicero will give us one of the simplest nevertheless most profound arguments in favour of God’s existence.
In his work De natura deorum,10 the famous tribune takes up the proof suggested by Plato and Aristotle on cause and effect, but adds a didactic example: to believe that the universe, with all the perfection it contains, is the result of mere chance, is as absurd as to believe that a handful of letters tossed into the air would by themselves form one of the books of Enius, a Greek-Roman poet.
Putting it into even more tangible terms: it would be as if someone were to cut out, one by one, the vowels, consonants and punctuation symbols that make up Camões’ The Lusiads and, throwing them to the wind, were to wait for them to constitute, by themselves, without external action, the Portuguese classic.
Truly, the probability that the earth could have taken form as it is – with conditions for life to thrive and adorned with so many wonders of nature – without the intervention of an intelligent being, is so infinitesimally small as to amount to impossibility.
When did man invent atheism?
Therefore, let us be sure of this: if one day we could converse with the wise men of Antiquity and ask them their thoughts on the existence of God, they would all offer a positive word.11 For what we might call “militant atheism” only appeared in the 19th century…
Feuerbach, the most influential mentor of the humanist atheism that preceded Marxism, claimed that man forged the idea of God, when it would be more appropriate to say that man invented atheism. Belief in the divine has always been present among peoples, sometimes in an incipient and puerile form, in other cases, backed up by rational analysis.
However, the Catholic Church possesses the treasure of Revelation and the mysteries of God. In the face of such a wonder, reason reverently and submissively bows, lends its assistance and shows that our Faith is not absurd, but rather true, wise and divine. ◊
Notes
1 Cf. ST. THOMAS AQUINAS. Summa contra gentiles. L.I, c.7.
2 Cf. Idem, c.12.
3 PLUTARCH. Adversus Colotem, XXXI.
4 SHEEN, Fulton John. Philosophy of Religion. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1948, p.216.
5 ARISTOTLE. On the Heavens. L.I, c.3, 270b, 6-7.
6 MONDIN, Battista. Quem é Deus? Elementos de Teologia Filosófica. São Paulo: Paulus, 1997, p.196.
7 Cf. PLATO. Phaedo, 97b-98c.
8 Cf. ARISTOTLE. Metaphysics, L.XII, 1072a, 7.
9 ARISTOTLE. Diálogo sobre Filosofia III, frag.16. In: Fragmentos dos diálogos e obras exortativas. Lisboa: Imprensa Nacional-Casa da Moeda, 2014, p.63.
10 Cf. CICERO, Marcus Tullius. De natura deorum. L.II, 93.
11 Atheism is attributed to only two philosophers of antiquity. Even so, their real position is debatable, for in those times, whoever cast doubt upon the gods of Olympus – without necessarily denying the existence of the divine – could be labelled an atheist, as happened with Socrates.
