The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-03-04
POPULAR APoLoGETlcs.
Adapted from the German of Rev.
Peter Mikes, S. j., by Rev.
James Watcher.
xxxlV, The Eternity of Matter.

Objection: You assume an eternal,
self-existing God, who created the
world; /, on the contrary, assume
eternal, self-cXisting matter aud force;
then the Creator is Supcriluous.
Answer: Cd Even then an altwise
God is Just as necessary to form some
thing reasonable out of mass OF un-
thinking matter and blind forces. Your
eternal matter without Intelligence
would have remained eternally inert
and could never have formed itself
into this wonderful system of the
world, every part and atom OF which
prociaims an all-wise Builder and Gre
atOr
(2) Besides, eternal, self-eXisting
matter is a contradiction in itself.
Whatever is self-cXisting must neces-
sarily be just as it is, that is, it must
he Interchangeable; for essence and eN-
istencc (the concrete, definite reality
are in this case one and the same; es-
sence, however, is always unchange-
able (the essence of a thing is that
which makes the thing to be what it
is; from which it necessarily follows
that if the essence of thing were
changed, the thing itself would cease
20 be the same thing); hence, the
whole being, that is, the definite, pres
ent reality must be Interchangeable.
That thing must, therefore, be just so
and can not be otherwise, and hence
Interchangeable.
Compare with this matter, both life
less and living. What constant change
in all nature, What enormous change
from the original gaseous state to the
present completion of the world! A
thing so changeable as the world can
impossibly be self-eXistent, otherwise
it would have to be Interchangeable.
.t3) The world shows III every way
The characteristics of arbitrarinesS; it
is so constituted that it could also not
exist; instead of this space and time
it could also occupy another space and
time; it could be twice, ten times,
hundred times smaller or larger; or
should there be possible only this def
mite number of the present, existing
molecules and OF this definite size?
The famous Scottish scientist Max
we'll CT1S79) says: That there is just
SO much matter in every molecule of
hydrogen and no more, is a special dis
position-o of matter, which we can think
without difficulty to be otherwise than
it is. Hence, he concludes, q molecule
in its concrete form is plainly not nee
essary; hence, we must conclude,
there must have been somebody who
made it just so and not otherwise, and
this Being in the beginning did not
only form heaven and earth, but also
created the matter out of which they
were formed" (Cf Kneller, Christen-
tum, p. 94)
1T is scientific to hold that the world
is of limited size. In September, 1907
at the Dresden congress of the Ger
man physicians and scientists atten-
ton was called to the following: All
calculations point to the fact that with
in measurable distances the density of
the stars becomes zero tNaturWisscn-
schaftlichc Rundschau 1907, p. 534).
From this we conclude that if the
world-machine is finite, it could also
lie greater -. But if in spite of
all this it would be infinite, it would
have to be subdivideI into finite sys-
tens, because no central power could
reach the limits of this infinite sys-
TEN and could keep it together and
rule it; and thus it is hard to see why
not one system, with or without the
abolition of another system, could not
be thought enlarged" lotto thinner
mann, S. j., Ohne Grenzen und Enden
Without Limits and Ends, Frei-
burg 1908, y 49,
The world, therefore, is something
arbitrary 1t does, therefore, not ex-
list by intrinsic necessity, but is the
product of a free agent.
1t could be larger or smaller, more
perfect or less perfect. But who de-
termined its present existing size?
Mere chance is no explanation. The
reason for its existence is not its es-
sence, otherwise it would have to be
Interchangeable, and could not be
thought greater or smaller than it
actually is. But there must be rea-
son for this definite limit of its perfec.
ton, and this reason can only be the
will of the Creator, Who chose just
this degree of perfection and no other.
The world is, therefore, not self-ex.
listing nor eternal (Cf. Gutberlet,
Apologize l., 120..., HI. Pesch,
Weltraotsel H., II. 53S)