1.1 God
God and the Infinite
God is the Supreme Intelligence, the First Cause of all things.
The infinite is that which has neither beginning nor end: the unknown. All that is unknown is infinite.
To say that God is the infinite would be an incomplete definition. Human speech is too impoverished and insufficient to define that which transcends human intelligence.
God is infinite in divine perfection, but the infinite itself is an abstract concept. Thus, to say that God is the infinite is to replace the thing itself with one of its attributes; it is to define something unknown by referring to something else that is equally unknown.
Proofs of the Existence of God
Proof of the existence of God may be found in an axiom applied to all the sciences: “There is no effect without a cause.” If one searches for the cause of whatever is not the work of human beings, reason answers the question.
To believe in God, we need only behold the works of creation. The universe exists; therefore, it must have a cause. To doubt God’s existence would be to deny that every effect has a cause and to believe that something could have resulted from nothing.
All human beings have within them the intuitive sense of God’s existence. From this we conclude that God exists; otherwise, where would such a sentiment come from if it were not based on something real? This is an application of the principle that there is no effect without a cause.
This inner sense of God’s existence cannot be the result of education or the product of acquired ideas, because if that were the case, members of so-called primitive cultures would not have this intuition.
If the sense of the existence of a Supreme Being were only the product of education, it would not be universal. Like all scientific ideas, it would exist only in the minds of those who had received such education.
The first cause of the formation of things cannot be found in the innermost properties of matter. Even if it could, what in turn would be the cause of those properties? There must always be a first cause.
To attribute the first formation of things to the innermost properties of matter would be to mistake the effect for the cause, since such properties are themselves an effect that must have had a prior cause.
The idea that attributes the first formation of all things to an accidental combination of matter—that is, to chance—is another absurdity. How could anyone with common sense believe that chance is an intelligent agent? Moreover, what is chance? Nothing.
The harmony that governs the forces of the universe reveals definite combinations and designs, and thus an intelligent power. To attribute the first formation of things to chance would be nonsense, because chance is blind and cannot produce intelligent results. An intelligent chance would no longer be chance.
In the first cause we see a Supreme Intelligence, superior to all other intelligences. “The workman is known by his work.” So look at the work, and you will find the Workman. Pride is what creates disbelief. Human pride believes in nothing above itself, and that is why people think they are so powerful. Poor beings! A mere breath from God could blow them over!
We judge the power of an intelligence by its works. Since no human being could create what nature produces, it is obvious that the first cause must be an intelligence superior to humankind.
Whatever may be the marvels accomplished by human intelligence, that intelligence itself must have a cause; the greater the results, the greater the first cause must have been. No matter what name you give it, that intelligence is the first cause of all things.
The Attributes of the Divinity
Human beings cannot fathom God’s innermost nature, because they lack the capacity to comprehend it.
They will be able to fathom the mystery of the Divinity when their spirits are no longer eclipsed by matter, and when they have purified themselves enough to approach God; then they will see and comprehend God.
The limited nature of human faculties makes it impossible to fathom God’s innermost nature. While humanity is in its infancy, people often confuse God with God’s creatures, attributing to God their own imperfections. Yet as they ponder the nature of things more deeply and their moral sense develops, they acquire a truer—though always incomplete—idea of God, one that better conforms to reason.
Even though we cannot fathom God’s innermost nature, we can form some idea of the divine perfections. Human beings comprehend them more clearly only as they progressively overcome matter, but they can at least glimpse them through thought.
When we state that God is eternal, infinite, immutable, immaterial, one, all-powerful, and supremely just and good, we have, from our own point of view, a complete idea of God’s attributes, because we believe that in naming them we have named them all. Nevertheless, there are things that transcend the intelligence of even the most intelligent person, things our language cannot define because it is limited to our ideas and sensations. Reason tells us that God must possess these attributes in perfect fullness, for if God lacked any of them, or were not perfect in them, God would not be superior to everything else and thus would not be God. In order to be superior to everything else, God must not be subject to any change and must not be imperfect in any way.
God is eternal. If God had had a beginning, then either God would have sprung from nothing or would have been created by a being that existed previously. By reasoning in this way, we arrive little by little at the idea of eternity and the infinite.
God is immutable. If God were subject to change, then the laws that govern the universe would have no stability.
God is immaterial. This means that God’s nature differs from everything we call matter; otherwise, God would not be immutable but would be subject to the transformations of matter.
God is one. If there were several gods, there would be no unity of design or power in the organization of the universe.
God is all-powerful because God is one. If God were not powerful above all else, it would mean that there was something more powerful, or at least as powerful. It would mean that God might not have created all things, and those God did not create would have had to have been the work of some other god.
God is supremely just and good. The providential wisdom in the divine laws is revealed in the smallest things as well as in the greatest, and this wisdom makes it impossible for us to doubt either God’s justice or goodness.
Pantheism
God is a distinct being, not the result of all the combined forces and intelligences of the universe. If the latter were the case, God per se would not exist, because God would be an effect and not a cause. God cannot be both cause and effect at the same time.
You cannot doubt that God exists, and that is the point that matters. Do not try to go farther. Do not get lost in a maze from which you will not be able to exit. Trying to go farther will not make you any better; instead, it will probably only add to your pride by leading you to imagine that you understand something when you actually understand nothing at all. Therefore, set aside all theories on this matter. You have much more important things to be concerned with, beginning with yourselves. Study your own imperfections in order to rid yourselves of them; that will be far more useful than trying to penetrate the impenetrable.
The opinion that all the bodies in nature, all beings, and all globes in the universe are components of the Divinity, and that taken all together they comprise the Divinity itself, is the pantheistic doctrine. Since human beings are unable to make themselves God, they would like at least to be a part of God.
Adherents of this theory claim that it demonstrates some of God’s attributes: since there are an infinite number of worlds, then God is infinite; since a void or absolute nothingness is nowhere, then God is everywhere. God being everywhere, because everything is an integral component of God, God infuses all the phenomena of nature with divine intelligence. Reason refutes this viewpoint. Reflect on it carefully, and there will be no difficulty in seeing how absurd it is.
The pantheistic doctrine views God as a material being who, even though possessed of supreme intelligence, is nevertheless only a larger version of us. Furthermore, since matter is continually changing, God would have no stability and would be subject to all the changes and needs of humanity. God would thus lack one of the essential attributes of the Divinity: immutability. The properties of matter cannot be linked to the idea of God without impairing our conception of God, and all the subtleties of sophistry will never be able to solve the issue of God’s innermost nature. We do not know all that God is, but we do know what God cannot fail to be. Pantheism contradicts the most essential divine attributes by confusing the Creator with the creature. It is like regarding an ingenious machine as an integral component of the machinist who invented it.
God’s intelligence is revealed in God’s works, just as an artist’s is revealed in paintings; but God’s works are no more actually God than the painting is the artist who conceived and painted it.