The Proof of God

No less than 96% of U.S. citizens polled believe in God, according to a survey by George Gallup. Pollsters also asked the 96% what they thought was the most convincing argument for God's existence.

The replies, in order of their frequency: "1) The order and majesty of the world around us, 2) There must be a Creator to explain the origin of man and the world, 3) There is proof of God in the Bible (or other church authority), 4) Past experiences in life give me faith that there is a God, 5) Believing in God gives me much comfort." The Heart Strangely Warmed. In favoring the argument based on order in the universe, Americans chart a new swing of an old pendulum. Medieval man also saw God in the order of things, but his universe fitted snugly around him, with the world at the center. Outside the world and inside his head, logic ruled. St. Thomas Aquinas formulated his five famed proofs of God's existence with a respect for logic that is not commonly part of modern man's mental furniture. Aquinas rates the proof derived from order last--the other four: 1) motion--the passing from power to act--implies an unmoved Mover; 2) similarly, there must be an uncaused First Cause that possesses in itself the reason for its existence; 3) the existence of beings whose nonexistence is possible implies the existence of a necessary Being; 4) the scale of perfections evident in the universe implies the existence of an absolute standard, a perfect Being.

In the 18th and 19th centuries science began to drive away the mysteries--and the reason--in faith. Logic and faith were thought of almost as incompatible, and increasingly, religion fell back on emotion.

Emotional arguments for God came into vogue, and an age that was swept with religious revivals looked to John Wesley's "heart strangely warmed." Highbrow believers harked back to Blaise Pascal, who found no God in nature; Pascal put his faith in mystical experience and the idea that God's existence coincides with human aspiration.

Consensus Universalis But science, the 19th century's bringer of light, has become the 20th century's caster of darkness.

Somewhere between the mysteries of the atom and the endless wastes of interstellar space, man seems to drift in helpless ignorance of the powers and purposes that hold him. The universe that once seemed to be clockwork now throbs with awesome power, before which modern men (including scientists) turn to God. On the other hand, Freud and hormones have mechanized man's yearning heart; man's emotions no longer lead easily from him to Him.

The fact that the argument about God's giving comfort (No. 5 in the Gallup poll) appears at all suggests religion gone soft.

But the fact that this "proof" ranks only fifth may indicate that this softness is not as widespread as orthodox churchmen fear.

France's great Thomist philosopher, Etienne Gilson, thinks the choice indicated in the Gallup poll is not bad. The proof derived from order, he noted last week, was the one recommended by St.

Paul.* Referring to Aristotle, Gilson said: "Belief in God has two sources -- the hu man soul and the starry sky." But Gilson noted two significant omissions: 1) the argument by the testimony of moral conscience, which leads man to God through consideration of the presence of truth in the mind, and 2) the proof by consensus universalis, which holds that if there is no God it is very difficult to imagine why practically all peoples should spontaneously reach the conclusion that there is one.

*For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being under stood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead . . .

-Romans 1:20

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