Reasonable Faith 

Is it reasonable to believe in God? The Church at the First Vatican Council (1869-70), in its document Dei Filius, declared infallibly that “God, the principle and end of all things, can be known with certainty by the natural light of human reason from created things.” This means that human beings on our own can reasonably conclude with certainty that God exists. A recent book titled God: The Science, the Evidence, by French authors Michel-Yves Bollore and Olivier Bonassies, claims that scientific developments over the past century bolster theism as the most reasonable explanation for the existence of the universe. 

In a recent interview featured in The Pillar, Bollare said that in the end there are only two possibilities – God either exists or He does not. He argues that, based on current scientific knowledge, those who deny the existence of God can only offer the “multiverse” (popularized as a plot device in superhero movies) as the explanation of the universe’s existence. Proponents of it argue that our universe is just one among an infinite number of universes that is without beginning or end, and that ours just happens to be one in which there exist the necessary conditions for life, including intelligent life. But Bollore argues that this is a pseudo-scientific theory, impossible to test or disprove because there is no actual evidence for it. Rather, it is a theory developed to fit an atheistic conclusion that refuses to consider the possibility that the conclusion itself is wrong. 

On the other hand, Bollare argues that one may come to certainty about the existence of God by considering various and independent examples of evidence that seem to support that same conclusion. “The independence of the evidence is very important. For example, the evidence of the thermal death of the universe is independent from the expansion of the universe. These are two very different things, as is the [existence of living things in a material world].” Scientific evidence, combined with philosophical inquiry, the experience of consciousness, questions of morality, unexplainable events we call miracles – these things considered together seem to point towards the existence of God. “You can always say it is not enough for you, but if you are a reasonable man you have to make a decision.” And it seems that a conclusion in favor of God’s existence is far more reasonable than the alternative. 

That said, while we can conclude that God exists by the natural light of human reason, reason on its own cannot tell us who God is. The existence of different religions is evidence of the human desire to know not just that God exists, but to know God. For this we need revelation.  As Catholics, we believe that God has introduced Himself to us in the most magnificent and wondrous way, as we hear in the Letter to the Hebrews: “In many and various ways God spoke of old to our fathers by the prophets; but in these last days He has spoken to us by a Son, whom He appointed the heir of all things, through whom also He created the world.” Jesus Christ is the fullness of God’s revelation of Himself to us. And together, through our lives in the Church, we come to know Him and live in eternal friendship with Him who created all things. 

posted 10/26/24