It is impossible to doubt the existence of God

1 year ago
18

According to Saint Bonaventure:

That “God exists” cannot be doubted if dubitable is understood as a truth for which evidence is lacking in itself, or in its proofs, or in the intellect that apprehends it.

If a mind apprehends, judges, and concludes correctly, then That “God exists” cannot be doubted

Nonetheless, because of human weakness, doubt can arise from the viewpoint of the knower due to incorrect in acts of apprehending, judging, and analysis.

Because of human weakness, it is possible that some one might doubt the existence of God because of three types of defects in the mind of the knower:

(1) Apprehending:

Doubt arises when one does not correctly and fully understand what is signed by the term “God,” This is an error of conception, that is, a failure to understand fully and correctly the meaning of the word “God” but understands it only in terms of a particular element.Thus, the pagans thought God signified whatever was superior to man and could foresee future events. Therefore, they believed that the idols were gods and adored them as gods since they gave some true information about future events. This is an error of conception, that is, a failure to understand fully and correctly the meaning of the word “God.”

(2) Judging:

Doubt arises when the argument is based on partial knowledge, as when the foolishness man sees that justice is not apparent in the case of the wicked and he concludes from this that there is no law in the universe. From this, he concludes that there is no first and highest ruler in the world.

(3) Analysis:

When the mind is not capable of resolving beyond those things which are evident to the senses. For this reason, some have thought that the visible sun was God since they did not know how to resolve things further to an incorporeal substance nor to the first principles of things.

Given the inability to resolve, that is, to pass beyond the appearances of things and discover their first principles, then error and doubt are possible as to God’s existence, but not for an intellect that defines, reasons, and concludes correctly.

But for the intellect which fully understands the meaning of the word “God” not only is there no doubt that God exists, but the non-existence of God can not even be thought

Loading comments...