(in writing)
To understand what we are saying when we affirm that God exists or that he does not exist, we must have wondered what it means. Who or what are we talking about when we talk about God? There are many ways to exist. What do we mean about God when we affirm or deny its existence?
God has a thousand names. The number of his names is unlimited because the number of his definitions is unlimited: the infinitely generous, the all-powerful, infinite wisdom, the sum of all perfections ...
For a material being, to exist is to act on other material beings. A body manifests its presence through its influence on other bodies.
A living body exists while living.
A spirit exists by becoming aware of his environment and of himself and by acting on his environment and on himself. Truth is proven by deeds. A spirit manifests himself in the world and in the eyes of others as he acts.
To show that a mathematical being exists, it suffices to define it correctly and to reason correctly with its definition.
An ability can exist without manifesting itself, simply because it is available, ready to be used. It can also exist in a much more visible and tangible way when we act effectively.
All possibilities exist as possibilities. They are eternally possible. But only those which are actualised actually exist.
Universal knowledge has a timeless existence. It is eternally true. It exists before it was discovered. But for us it really, effectively exists only when it is discovered, discussed, taught and shared.
Reason is infinite wisdom. It exists both in a potential way, before we even discover it, and in a actual way, when we know it. The reason we know reveals divine wisdom. It is a proof of divine generosity. Divine wisdom and generosity exists, therefore God exists.
The world is of divine beauty, like a magnificent present offered to all spirits. It reveals divine generosity. Even a bit of straw reveals the greatness of God. The world and everything in it can be seen as proof of the existence of God. The beauty of the world is a divine manifestation, as if God lived in the world.
For a capacity to really exist, it must be exercised. We prove the truth of a capacity by deeds. A capacity that is never exercised has no effective existence. If God did not exercise his ability to give his wisdom and the beauty of the world, he would not be infinitely generous. So he gives his wisdom and the beauty of the world. From the principle of the existence of infinite generosity, we deduce the existence of a wisdom that is accessible to us, the reason that we know, and the existence of a world of divine beauty. The principle of the existence of infinite generosity therefore explains what actually exists. A principle that bears fruit is a good principle with which we can develop rational knowledge.
We can develop rational knowledge from the premise that God exists, provided we interpret it correctly. We can think of very many interpretations.
By proving that it cannot be otherwise, we explain why it is so. A good proof is expected not only to establish the truth of its conclusion but also to clearly explain why that conclusion is true.
Possibility and necessity are complementary concepts: what cannot not be is necessary. What is possible is such that its negation is not necessary.
We must distinguish several forms of necessity. Theoretical, logical and mathematical necessity is defined with a theory of all logically possible worlds, all structures, all models, all sets, all theoretical possibilities. It does not depend on the observations of the present world.
In the same way, we define natural necessity with a theory of all naturally possible worlds. A natural possibility is a theoretical possibility which respects the laws of Nature. We know natural necessity from observations of the present world. Pure mathematics alone is not enough to know the laws of Nature.
Sometimes natural necessities appear arbitrary. For example, why do the fundamental constants of physics have these values and not others? The ultimate explanations always have a stopping point: it is so, all observations so far have confirmed that it is so. We do not know why this is so, but we have observed that this is so.
Reason prescribes respect for logical and natural necessities. If we do not respect logical necessity, we let our thoughts wander into absurdity. If we do not respect natural necessity, we let our thought ask for the impossible, desire what Nature cannot offer.
Reason also prescribes respect for ethical necessity. What one cannot not do without failing in one's duty is ethically necessary.
By knowing ethical necessity one also knows ethical possibilities.
We must not see the discipline of reason as a sum of prohibitions which would deprive us of our freedom. On the contrary, it increases our freedom because it enables us to discover the immense spaces of theoretical, natural and ethical possibilities. Submission to necessity is very different from submission to a tyrant. It strengthens our freedom and serenity by increasing our intelligence, our skills and our ability to know and do what is really right.
Since reason is divine wisdom, respecting reason is obeying God.
If God is infinitely good, generous and powerful, why does he allow all the calamities and all the horrors in the world to exist? It seems that the presence of evil in the world contradicts divine wisdom and power.
The world is not of divine beauty, it is monstrously ugly, it is horrible, it is atrocious. And all faith in the goodness of God could crumble.
The presence of evil seems incomprehensible if one believes in the power of reason. Evil puts faith to the test.
We often have the knowledge, the intelligence and the means to reduce the evils that afflict us. Divine generosity is not to give us a paradise in which we have nothing to do, it is rather to give us the intelligence and the means to act and to work to live really well.
Is humanity giving birth in pain to a better world?
Apart from short-sighted interests, is life always vain and senseless?
Is the hope for a better future necessarily an illusion?
Are there reasons for hope?
If we despair when there is no reason to hope, we have gained nothing because there is nothing to gain.
If we despair when there is reason to hope, we have lost everything when we could win.
If we hope when there is no reason to hope, we have not lost anything because there is nothing to gain.
If we hope when there is reason to hope, we can win everything because there is everything to gain.
Conclusion: we have everything to lose and nothing to gain if we despair. We have everything to gain and nothing to lose if we hope.
To hope is to have faith, if only faith in life, or reason, good will, love, beauty ... A humanist atheist places his faith in humanity. He is not necessarily very different from a rationalist believer.
Reason is not a crystal ball. We must not seek to know what we cannot know. Should we conclude that we should not ask questions about the future?
The being of a being cannot be reduced to what it is instantaneously. Its present being is always related to its past being and its future being. Much of its being is ignored if it is separated from its future. We know a being by situating it in the totality of past, present and future times.
Reason rarely provides the means to foresee the future, but it always provides the means to reason about possibilities. It is natural to project oneself into the future by anticipating possibilities. To refuse to think about the future would be irrational.
The present well-being or ill-being depends on anticipations. Confidence in the future gives present tranquility. If, on the contrary, we believe we are condemned, we suffer immediately even if the present is not threatening.
Faith comforts and consoles. It gives the will, the courage and the intelligence to live well. It awakens the spirit. It educates, heals and saves.
Many believers teach that life on Earth would be made to gain a Paradise that no one knows, and to escape a Hell that no one knows either. The life we know would only be a test to gain a life that we do not know. However, respect for reason is a divine command and it does not seem very rational to orient one's whole life towards a promise that no one can verify.
Hell and Heaven exist before death. When we live badly, we can make our life a living hell.
Choosing a righteous life is choosing the best, because we are ready to welcome the benefits of reason, wisdom, beauty, love ...
Choosing a wrongful life is to deprive oneself of reason, of wisdom and of all that makes life the best, it is to choose a sad and miserable life. Crime is for itself a punishment because it condemns one to deprive oneself of the best.
Whoever drinks this water will never be thirsty again because it is a source from which life springs endlessly. (John 4, 14)
The desire for wisdom is already wisdom. To love love is already love. We are never thirsty again because the thirst is quenched by itself. It is a source from which life springs endlessly. Endless life is not necessarily eternal life after death. It can simply be the life of successive generations.
When we love we always want the best. But the best is always to love. So love is love of love.
Divine life is not beyond all that is available to us for the moment. Divine life is here and now, when we use reason and all our faculties to live well in the love of the spirit. The divine spirit is fulfilled in this world. It is always and everywhere present for everyone. This world is quite sufficient to reveal the greatness of love and therefore to manifest the greatness of God. Another world is not necessary.
Divine life is not beyond all that is for the moment accessible to us. Divine life is here and now, when we use reason and all our faculties to live well in the love of the spirit. The divine spirit is fulfilled in this world. It is always and everywhere present for everyone. This world is quite sufficient to manifest the greatness of love and therefore to manifest the greatness of God. Another world is not necessary.
The matter in the universe, life, spirit and love are manifestations of divine generosity. God has made us capable of loving, of loving him and of loving one another, because he is infinitely generous. He would have deprived us of this capacity that he would have deprived us of the best.
Matter, life, spirit and love are natural effects. They naturally reveal divine generosity. No need for the supernatural to prove that God exists.
Even the development of a culture is a natural effect. It is a natural possibility that comes true. The laws of Nature are not broken.
We can trust the laws of Nature. Nature never transgresses its own laws. Everything happens as if she never breaks her word.
Would our world be any better if it was populated with wizards, monsters or superheroes who continually defy the laws of Nature?
Should we attribute to God a weak will which would make him hesitate to apply the laws which he nevertheless prescribed?
What is natural is divinely natural and naturally divine. The laws of Nature are not opposed to divine power, rather they are the revelation of that power.
A tradition opposes natural theology to revealed theology. One seeks to know God by observing his creation, by reading the great book of Nature, the other, by reading the Scriptures, the Bible. They are opposed because revelation is assumed to be a supernatural event, as if God were directly intervening in his creation, perhaps through angels to reveal truth to inspired spirits, or perhaps even with his incarnation in the body of Jesus Christ.
Natural theology is condemned to ignore the existence of revelation while claiming reason. But reason asks us to look reality in the face, certainly not to deliberately ignore what exists.
One is not obliged to conceive of the revelation as a supernatural event. Consciousness, imagination, emotions, thought and speech are natural effects and they suffice to reveal truth to inspired minds. Revelation is natural. It is part of a culture and the development of a culture is always a natural process.
A point of contention opposes rational theology to the fanatics of revelation. How to tell the difference between a true revelation and a false one? For a revelation fanatic, the answer is simply that the revelation he has chosen is the only true one. He imposes an argument of authority to which he submits himself: it is true because such a prophet has said so. Arguments from authority are fundamentally contrary to reason. To fall under an argument of authority amounts to refusing to give reasons or proofs. Rational theology recognizes true prophets by their fruits. It is their teaching of truth and wisdom that proves that they are true prophets, well-inspired spirits.
Reason does not exclude intuition, inspiration or revelation. To reason well, we need good principles. And we have to find them. Where do good principles come from? From anywhere. Even a madman who has become incapable of reasoning could have a brilliant intuition which can be made one of the great principles of science. Good principles are recognized by their fruits, not by their origins. Traditions, prejudices, generalizations of observations, opinions of learned and less learned, dreams, delusions, intuitions, inspiration and revelation can all lead us to good principles with which to develop the sciences.
All forms of anti-rationalism denounce the weaknesses of human reason. Our little reason on its own would be far too faint a glimmer of light to enlighten us on divine truths. How could a finite mind know infinity?
What is the largest natural number? It is easy to prove, by reduction to absurdity, that there is none. If there was one, it would suffice to add one to it to find a larger natural number. If the number of the natural numbers was finite, there would be one natural number greater than all the others. Therefore the number of natural numbers is infinite. We know it because we can prove it. So we can know infinity.
Reason as we know it provides the means to know all the possibilities, theoretical, natural and ethical. Its present limits can always be overcome, because rational knowledge can always be advanced. We know of no ultimate limit. No one knows where science will take us. Reason as we know it is not stopped by human weaknesses because we always have the means to overcome them.
Reason as we know it is much more than weakly human knowledge. It reveals more an infinite wisdom than a wisdom limited by human weaknesses, because it gives the means to reason about all that is.
All purely theoretical, logical or mathematical truths exist in a timeless way, as if they had always been there and it was enough to think about them to discover them. To attribute omniscience to God is to assume that he knows all these truths, all the theories and all their theorems, all mathematical beings, all structures, all models, all logically possible worlds. He also knows all the theories that are used to evaluate the theoretical possibilities.
Our Universe can be identified with a logically possible world, because we can make a mathematical model of it that represents it with precision. A logically possible world always exists in a potential way but our Universe exists more, it actually exists, effectively. The omnipotence of God is to be able to make actually exist all that potentially exists, all the theoretical possibilities. He is the creator of our Universe because he gave it actual existence. It is a manifestation of his power.
The infinite bounty of God is to give actual existence to all that is good.
If God is the creator of the Universe, he created everything in it and everything that happens in it. Everything that happens to the beings of the Universe and everything that they do has been willed and actualized by God. But then it seems that there is no more room for our freedom. How could we exercise it if God decides everything?
A good leader does not decide everything. He delegates responsibilities commensurate with each person's skills. He does not take all the responsibilities on himself because the best is to leave everyone the freedom to reveal their skills.
How can God be the creator of all that is and allow us the freedom to be the creators of our own destinies?
Quantum physics provides an answer. Our Universe and all the beings it contains do not have a unique but an incalculable number of destinies which coexist in parallel in the same space-time. Each being has before itself a tree of possible destinies. The destiny of a system is like a forest of the entangled destinies of all the beings it contains. God created all these destinies by giving them their actual existence. His generosity looks like prodigality because he has given all beings in the universe countless actual destinies.
A human being can know only one destiny among all those that God has given him and which are before him. Since a destiny depends on all the decisions made previously, we have a power of partial control on our own destinies. We can make decisions that determine what we become. We can freely choose among all the destinies God has given us. God creates all our destinies and he leaves us the freedom to choose the one we live.
We can imagine many possibilities, we can evaluate them and sometimes realize the ones we think are good. We thus do on a small scale what God does on a large scale. He knows all the possibilities and he realizes all the good ones.
God shares his wisdom and power with us. He gives us the best because he is the best, because he is generous and because the best is to give generosity.
I immersed you in water. He will immerse you in the Holy Spirit. (Mark, 1, 8)
The body must be washed when it is soiled. The same goes for the mind. The body is washed with water. And what is the mind washed with?
Reason not only requires correcting our errors of reasoning, it also and above all requires being just and good. For a rationalist, it is natural to identify the proper use of reason with a purification of the mind within the mind, similar to that foretold by John the Baptist.
For a rationalist believer, it is natural to identify the Kingdom of Reason and the Kingdom of God, because God asks to respect Reason and because Reason asks to respect God. Reason is divine wisdom as far as we can know it.
Neither John the Baptist nor Jesus were rationalists. They announced the end of time. John announced the condemnation of all who turn away from God. Jesus announced salvation for all who turn to God. We can, however, interpret their teaching in a rationalist way without projecting this interpretation onto them. They can be considered sources of inspiration for rationalism even if they are not rationalist thinkers.
The Father is the truth as it is from all eternity.
The Son is the truth as it is revealed to us.
The Holy Spirit is the truth as we must share it.
3 = 1, because the Father gave all the truth to the Son, and because the Son gave us all the truth given by the Father, the truth that we must share. It is always the same truth, whether it is from the Father, the Son or the Holy Spirit.
Just as we have eyes to see the light, we have an imagination to perceive divine wisdom.
If the Buddha, Jesus or Mohammed were here, what would they think, say, do?
Imagination is the perception of the absent as if it were present. This is why the great sages are always present. We just have to not forget them and let them inspire us.
Imagination reveals the greatest truths to us, if we are willing to accept them. But it can also deceive us, when we expect it to confirm us in our errors.
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