The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1914-07-18
CAN WE KNOW eoD2

KNOW GOQI we 90 kuOW GOuS Tie
thing has been done; therefore it can
he done. God makes Himself known
to us in many ways. He speaks to us
in His Church, with which He is all
DAYS to the end of the world. He
speaks to us in our own hearts, in the
secret recesses of our own con-
sciences. He speaks to us in His Gre
alton; all things tell us of Him to
whom they owe their being. He speaks
to us in the unanimous voice of all
men, our brothers, raised in prayer
and in praise to our Father in heaven.
We hear His voice, we trace His guild
ing Hand in the course of human his
tory, which apart from it's Divine pur-
pose is tale without n meaning.
Holy Mother Church teaches that
God-beginning and end of all things
can, through created things, be known,
with certainty, by the natural light OF
human reason. Human reason is able
to prove with certainty the existence
of God. This ability is natural; it does
not imply any special, supernatural IL
Elimination. The data of the proof
the facts from which it is derived and
on which it is based, are simply the
objects, the happenings of the world
around u.s. In these facts, says Lord
Kelvin, one of the leaders of modern
Science, we find abundant evidence OF
the existence of a Creator. Human
reason, using this evidence honestly
and fairly comes to know with certain
ty the existence of the One, true God,
our Creator and our Lord.
There are men who deny this. In
different ways and for different rea-
sons they deny it. In nearly all OF
them, however, we may observe a
strange contradiction. They profess
to base their denial upon lowly esti-
mate of human reason; yet they loud
ly proclaim that human reason is the
measure and the judge of all things
They shrink back from the knowledge
of God, because they say, our weak,
poor, limited minds are unable to deal
with the infinite Nay more, many of
them declare that we can know nothing
except what the senses of the body
make known to us. Thus we could not
know even our own souls, or even that
we have souls. They go on to insist
in many ways that We are really not
superior to the beasts that perish,
from which, indeed, according to them
we are descended. This disparage-
ment of human nature and of human
reason is to be found in many of the
popular books and periodicals of the
day; it shares in the passing notoriety
and prestige of the best sellers. Thus
plain, sensible folk, who want only to
live quiet life and to mind their own
business, are sometimes impressed and
even cowed by what is no better than
common vulgar advertising. Don't be
over-awed by the billboards; take a
sample of the article in your hands
and put it through a plain, simple
test: ask a few sensible questions
about it. 1t will turn out not to be
such a formidable thing, such re
spectacle and impressive thing after
all. Observe that all this disparage
ment of human reason and of human
nature is part of the stock-in-trade OF
the very people that pose as the cham
pions of human reason and of human
nature. Their stand for the dignity Of
this human brute is like nothing sc
much as the antics of the denizens Of
a certain cage in the zoo.
What is the true dignity of man
To know, love and serve God. Better t.
know little about God than to know
all that is to be known about every
thing else. And we can attain to the
knowledge of God. We have attained
to that knowledge; we do not neet
that anybody engage in long argu
ment to show that the knowledge o.
God is attainable. Yet in these days
of shallow thinking, and of hasty de
NAL of simple, obvious truth, it will
strengthen us to know what God Him
self says about the possibility of know
ing Him. And here is what He says
"All men are vain in whom ther'
is not the knowledge of God; and who
by these good things that are seen
could not understand HIM WHO. is
neither by attending to the work
have acknowledged who was the work
man; but have imagined either tn
fire or the wind or the swift air, o
the circle of the stars or the grea
water, or the sun and moon to be thu
gods that rule the world. And if, de
lighted with the beauty of thos
things, they took them to be gods, lie
them know that the Lord of them i
more beautiful than they; for the frs
author of beauty made all thos
things Or if they admired their pow
er and their effects, let them under
stand by them that He that mad
them is mightier than they. For b
the. greatness of the beauty and of tn
creature, the creator of them may b
seen, so as to be known thereby. Blu
vet as to these they are less to b
blamed. For they perhaps err, seeE
ing God and DESTROYS to find HIM. Fo
being conversant among His work
they search; and they are persuade
that the things which are seen ar
good. But then again, they are not t
be pardoned. For if they were abb
to know so much as to make a iuds
ment of the world how did they no
more easily find out the Lord thereof
But unhappy are they and their hop
is among the dead" (Wisdom Is,
10)