Critics of religion often claim that those who believe in God lack any rational or logical reasons for their faith. Unfortunately, when challenged, many believers don’t have arguments like that at the ready.
Belief in God is more than just blindly believing in an old man in the sky. In “Catholic Central: Proofs of God,” Kai and Libby take you through a few of the rational arguments for the existence of God that Catholics have proposed throughout the centuries, and how faith and logic can work together.
Diving Deeper
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Can you use facts, logic, and reason to talk about God's existence?
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How does St. Thomas Aquinas' theory of causation -- the idea that every event is caused by a prior event, all the way back to the beginning of the universe -- support the idea that there is a God?
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Think about the laws of physics that were perfectly balanced and timed as our universe and solar system began. According to scientists, could a life-sustaining planet have formed if any of these factors (gravitational pull, density, entropy, etc.) were calibrated slightly differently? How might this indicate the existence of God?
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Why would God create us and create the universe? What does this work reveal about his desire to share himself with us?
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Practically speaking, what does it mean to believe in God? How might this belief affect a person's attitude, actions, and understanding of the dignity of others?
Activity
Reflect on a recent positive experience of beauty or love. How did you feel? When you think about it, do you remember just the factual events, or does the experience transcend physical reality with a more meaningful significance?
Consider how neuroscientists can describe the electricity in our brains and analyze our hormones, but they can't explain why we have this capacity and desire for the transcendent. The soul is the part of each person that reaches beyond our physical reality to connect to the transcendent. The soul has its source in God.
Reflection by Father Vince Kuna, C.S.C.
One way to hone your apologetic skills is to follow the lead of St. Thomas Aquinas. His many theological treatises would anticipate his interlocutors’ objections to the existence of God and answer them specifically. Consider the common modern arguments against God. Research what the saints and modern Catholic apologists respond with. Try to put their proofs for God into your own words.
