Faith and Reason
Faith and Reason
I'm not certain I buy the premise that one can postulate a rational argument for the existence of God on reason alone. However, I do maintain the simple premise that the first Vatican Council stated--God can be known through His works in the natural world.
What I might debate is whether this knowledge is open to anyone. I think I believe that there are people who lack a faculty for the experience of the divine and therefore cannot experience what is described here. I would further go to say that those people are "innocents" in terms of both theology and God's view and their consistent search for and longing for some indication, sign, reason, or argument, is prima facie evidence of the movement of God--battering from outside, as it were.
I think this is what could be meant by the doctrine of the chosen. However, I would go so far as to say that those who think this chosenness is necessary for salvation are likely quite wrong. God can save whom He wills as He wills--and since it is clear that it is His will that no one be lost--unless a person deliberately choose to divorce himself from God, that person is not lost. The fact that he or she is god-deaf nothwithstanding--and, in fact, arguing much more in support of salvation. "To whom much is given, much is expected in return." Corollary to that--to whom nothing is given, nothing is expected in return.
Or perhaps not. Whatever the case, you know, approximately, what I believe in the matter.
I'm not certain I buy the premise that one can postulate a rational argument for the existence of God on reason alone. However, I do maintain the simple premise that the first Vatican Council stated--God can be known through His works in the natural world.
What I might debate is whether this knowledge is open to anyone. I think I believe that there are people who lack a faculty for the experience of the divine and therefore cannot experience what is described here. I would further go to say that those people are "innocents" in terms of both theology and God's view and their consistent search for and longing for some indication, sign, reason, or argument, is prima facie evidence of the movement of God--battering from outside, as it were.
I think this is what could be meant by the doctrine of the chosen. However, I would go so far as to say that those who think this chosenness is necessary for salvation are likely quite wrong. God can save whom He wills as He wills--and since it is clear that it is His will that no one be lost--unless a person deliberately choose to divorce himself from God, that person is not lost. The fact that he or she is god-deaf nothwithstanding--and, in fact, arguing much more in support of salvation. "To whom much is given, much is expected in return." Corollary to that--to whom nothing is given, nothing is expected in return.
Or perhaps not. Whatever the case, you know, approximately, what I believe in the matter.
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