Is anyone there?
The restless heart that keeps asking.
In short. The Church teaches that the desire for God is written in the human heart, because man is created by God and for God.1 She also teaches that God can be known with certainty from the created world by the natural light of human reason.2
Key points
- The desire for God is written in the human heart.1
- The ways to God are converging and convincing arguments, not proofs in the sense of the natural sciences.3
- They start from the physical world and from the human person.3
- There can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason.4
Try this, this week
- Read Acts 17:22-28. Paul speaks to people who did not share his faith, starting from what they already sought.
- Look at something beautiful for five minutes. Ask yourself where beauty comes from.
- Write down your biggest objection. Bring it to a priest or a Catholic friend.
- Read the first page of Augustine’s Confessions. It is short, and it is written as a prayer.
“That they should seek God, if haply they may feel after him or find him, although he be not far from every one of us.”
Watch out: what this does not mean
- The Church does not claim that reason alone is enough: people experience many difficulties in coming to know God by the light of reason alone.5
- Our words about God really attain to God himself, though they cannot express him in his infinite simplicity.6
Common questions
Can you prove God exists?
The Church speaks of “converging and convincing arguments”, which allow us to attain certainty about the truth, rather than proofs in the sense of the natural sciences.3 She teaches that God can be known with certainty from the created world by the natural light of human reason.2
Does science make God unnecessary?
The Church teaches that methodical research, carried out in a truly scientific manner and respecting moral laws, can never conflict with the faith, because the things of the world and the things of faith derive from the same God.4
Remember: Asking the question honestly is already a beginning.