WHO MAKES YOUR GOD
Introduction
Before the idea
of God it was started by wanderers to wondering. That was happen during the
time of Ionians the time of Thales who says that the composition of the earth
was came from water. The Inescapable
facts of universe--> facts of change, birth, growth, decay and death; spring
and autumn; childhood and old age; coming into being and passing away. Consciousness
of the dark side of existence
a.
Will to Power- constant
fighting among the Greeks and venality of so many public figures. Efficiency is
male power for the Greeks. It knows what one wants and gets it. ARETE-ability
to achieve. Dionysian Frenzy (History of Philosophy)
They started to
ask questions from where these matters come from like water, air, earth and
fire. All of them were not agreed on each other. But clearly implies the idea
of unity. The fact of change and motion suggest the notion of unity though
motion is not explained.
They were
essentially materialists in that they assigned a form of matter in the
principle of unity and primitive stuff of all things, but not in today’s
concept of materialism where distinction of matter and spirit is realized. They
did not stop at sense but they went beyond appearance to thought. They
did not arrive at their conclusions through scientific experimental approach
but by means of the speculative reason: the unity posited is indeed a material
unity but it is unity posited by thoughtàABSTRACT
MATERIALISM- philosophic notion of speculating from data of appearance.
Ionians were
convinced of the reign of law in the universe.
Manàfate as controlling over will to power to live in moderation.
Universeà cosmic laws are there to preserve balance and prevention of chaos
and anarchy.
Thus the Ionians were the first to have
established a scientific cosmology (law-governed universe) over fanciful
mythology (lawless and fanciful domination of one element over another). They
were wise men who were not yet aware of the distinction between science and
philosophy despite coming out with philosophic notions and real scientific
assertions.
As a whole the
Ionians;
•
They were materialist because
they tried to explain the origin of things out of some material elements
•
They were not materialist for
they did not deliberately deny the distinction
between matter and spirit( such
distinction hasn’t been conceived yet during those times)
Ionians did not
raise the critical problem instead they ventured on the naivete of wonder and
joy of discovery.
Discourse
Parts of the
development of the philosophy are the thoughts of PLATO, SOCRATES and
ARISTOTLE. The discussion of God was been long debated over hundreds of
centuries by these three great fathers of philosophy. Unlike the Ionians talked only about matters
but now was developed into deeper understanding considering that MATTERS has
FORM.
The theory of
Form of Plato says;
Forms provide
the objects which are known prior to birth in order to justify Socrates’
undefended insistence that once we
recognize our ignorance we can successfully search for what we fail to know. In
other words Forms are the “things that are”.
¨ Final argument-states that the soul is
immortal and not merely long-lasting due to :
1.Causationàaccording to which what causes something to be, that is, the soul,
like the Form, causes Beauty to be, not the body or any sensible.
2. Partaking
of and being present inàother than resemblance, sensible partake of and is present in the
Forms
3. Essentialismàsensibles are essentially related to some Forms and not to others, that
is, snow is to coldness.
Now if you
notice the development of ideas starting from the Ionians, it was started from
material to something spiritual. These three believe the existence of the soul
prior to the birth of individuals (Theory of Recollection). Before I proceed to
the Idea of God at least I made clear the existence of the spirit for I have
foundation to present my idea of God which is not perceivable by the five
senses.
Knowledge of the
real is to be grasped by faith and understanding, “believe in order that you
may understand”. Thus philosophy for Augustine is pursued so that we may have a
more complete grasp of the objects of faith. Philosophy then is not an end but
a means, a means for a blessed life. (St. Augustine’s CONFESSION) the influence
of Augustine was on the philosophy of Plato. To avoid biases some philosophers
rejected most of the medieval philosophy because of their assumption that most
of the great philosophers that time belong to Christian without considering the
foundation of their thought coming mostly from PLATO and Aristotle and example
to this was St. Thomas Aquinas who was very Aristotelian. The world we perceive
by sight, hearing, feeling, tasting, smelling is the sensible world different
from the other world, an intelligible world of eternal truths.
Strictly
speaking the object of sensory experience are only beliefs not knowledge.
Knowing is not an activity of the body but by the soul. Furthermore, the body
cannot causally act upon the soul. Therefore, sensory ‘knowledge’ cannot be a
matter of the body’s causing, through the senses, certain judgments in the
soul.
Senses
themselves are never in error for they do not judge. Senses merely display how
it is that things appear in circumstances of some particular sort. Judgement is
a function of the soul, not the body
What then are
these claims independent of sense experience?
They are for Augustine the
immutable and eternal truths. He has in his mind the truths of mathematics and
logic as well as moral truths. Such truths are not only necessarily true, they
are universally true.
How are
eternal and immutable truths grasped if they are independent of sense
experience?
They are grasped by all with
reason, not by the senses since such truths are not about this empirical
world. Rather they are truths of the intelligible world.
In other words
The Idea of God is independent by our five senses since it is not part of the
sensible world but rather it is belongs to the intelligible world, therefore it
is grasped by REASON alone not by senses (fedis quaerines intellectum) faith
seeking for reason.
How is it possible for
a human being to gain access to this intelligible realm of eternal truths?
It
is through “divine illumination”à a
restatement of Plato’s theory of recollection but with a Christian doctrinal
adaptation to override unacceptable theological implications. The source of
this doctrine is undoubtedly Plotinus’s doctrine of emanation and Plato’s own
discussion of the Form of the good as that which illuminates both the Forms and
the mind. Central to this doctrine is that the divine light is always present
in the human soul. And this is the divine light or illumination, which enables
us to “see” truths which possess immutability and necessity. These immutable
truths are sometimes spoken of as divine ideas, thus with access to divine
truths, we have access to God’s ideas.
Reaction proper
A question of who makes your God is
something very important to understanding in philosophical perspective. It is
the main stream of the history of humanity. Even primitive people believe that
there is a supreme being exists in this sensible world. In fact they attributed
to the nature that produces phenomenal events such as typhoons, volcanic
eruptions earthquakes to the point they worship to this nature as such of their
beliefs that supremacy exists.
The knowledge of these must be credited
considering that they acknowledge the forces produce by the nature itself. Even
to this advance technology, materialism and existentialism are considered most
influenced to the mind of every human being.
I as
observe we go back to the time of Ionians which they started thinking the
composition of the earth out of material alone. Without considering that there
are forces binding beyond the capacity of our five senses to be grasped at. The
materialistic outlook overrides the eternal and immutable truth as the only
access to God by illuminating our soul.
Atheist have their own philosophical
thoughts denying the existing of God relative to the sceptics who says that the
THRUTH is unattainable but if you try to look up it very closely considering
their claim that TRUTH is unattainable but we are CERTAIN that they are sceptic
(doubting).
PERSONAL STAND
“Who
makes your God” the answer is none. The
question cannot reconcile the truth of non existing Being to “being” that has
their own existence. The non existing Being can be proved by reason alone
through logical mathematical and abstractions. While the other can be prove
through physical and appearance.
If everything has a cause then it will
follow the question that causes the existence of God. The existence of
necessary being is needed to be discussed. It will not affect as a candle in
the absence of fire. The
Matter and Form: basic constitution of substance which can
neither exists without the other. Form serves as the property of matter which
by itself (matter) has no property although it has the potential to take on
properties. Likewise properties have no existence except in matter, they are
what make matter into actual substance.( ex. Consider 2 books one is reading.
What makes them different, though they have same properties, is their matter,
not their properties or form. If there were no matter, there could not be
multiple instances of the book, or of anything else.)
Forms
of substance: substantial form and accidental forms
Substantial formà it is what makes a thing the
kind of thing that it is, or without which it would not be that kind of thing.
Accidental formàa property that a thing happens
to have, but could exist without(ex.hair style is accidental form one can have,
but hair style can be changed without necessarily affecting the human person) .
Substantial
form is the rational intellect or soul without which the person wouldn’t be the
substance he isàa human being.
Example on potentiality to actuality
Bronze statueà the bronze out of which the
statue is made is like matter; the shape it takes on in becoming the statue is
like form. It can then be said that the
bronze out of which the statue is made has the potential to become a statue. The form of the statue- its shape- is what makes
the bronze into an actual statue.
(However, the bronze in itself is a kind of
substance that can exist by itself)Ultimately, the matter out of which all
things are constituted is prime or first matter, which has no properties but
has the potential to take on any property.
Conclusion
Aquinas thinks that even though they have no
matter, incorporeal substances have potentiality, they are not pure
actuality. He believes that only God is completely actual. In addition, since matter individuates
particular substances, and incorporeal substances have no matter, there can
only be one incorporeal substance of any given time. (There can only be one
angel of its kind)
Necessary being must exist (God) in order
things must be also exist (contingent being). A coconut tree (necessary being)
is necessary to exist in order that coconut fruit (contingent being) brought
into existence. The coconut will never change even if she has not bearing
fruits. The same with God never change of his essence and existence even without
the existence of humanity.
The very fact that these intelligible truth
can be grasped at by reason, it must be not put into taken for granted as if
the denying of their existence is the denying of truth. Human dimension as
mentioned even in the field of psychology considered the spiritual aspect as
part of human being. The composition of body (matter) and soul (form) is the
proof of unity to form “life”. Therefore it is natural for human being to go
beyond physical (metaphysics) seeking understanding and to search for meaning
of life. “Who makes your God” falls into absurdity as I presented the necessary
Being and the contingent being governed to this sensible world. The motion or
movement of the planet in the universe must be move by the other the prime-mover.
Things are not sufficient by itself, as a machine cannot move by his own, a
necessary force coming from outside of the machine (man) to ignite the engine,
the machine now performing a movement cause by the outside force. God is not created but he is necessary to
exist.
Prepared by:
Jeffrey Paloga
Eng’g Building room 308
Humanity 2. Philosophy
