By Magis contributor David Persyn
The age of the enlightenment gave rise to many new ideas. Science was making new discoveries at an accelerating pace, and applied science was bringing about technological changes that had huge impact on basic human existence. Philosophy, too, was undergoing big change, including philosophy that was, and is, the rational basis for belief in God.
There is a branch of philosophy called Metaphysics. It is the study of that which is real; what is there, and what is it like. Metaphysics has a branch, in turn, called ontology. Ontology deals with being, existence, and reality. First causes, unconditioned causes, and the like are ontological constructs.
During this period, Immanuel Kant observed that ontology fails as a proof because it is meaningless, even if valid. We are human, and we cannot derive meaning outside of experiential, empirical knowledge. Ontology validly delivers meaningless conclusions – Kant’s indictment of ontology, put briefly in my own words.
This resulted in disfavor among philosophers for ontological methodology during the 19th century, and well into the 20th. Possibility of change in this status came when Father Lemaitre postulated the “Big Bang” in the opening decades of the 1900s. Now a familiar term, it was, for a time, a term of derision for Father Lemaitre’s ideas. The joke eventually became the household term for a “standard model” of early cosmology because in the latter half of the 20th century, the Big Bang went from pure hypothesis to established theory. This came to pass with the discovery of the predicted presence of the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation – the “echo” of the Big Bang. Here is the scientific evidence for an experiential premise for a valid and meaningful Ontological argument. Kant’s objection to a priori ontology is overcome with this empirical (a posteriori) evidence supporting such ontology.
The Church has long believed in the use of reason as a valuable tool in the exploration of our faith; modern cosmology is a very important nexus, because if we can show that it is reasonable to believe in a transcendent first cause, then we can engage secular society concerning moral realism – as opposed to a morality based on biological determinism or other derivatives of philosophical nominalism. The relevance of a Creator to human existence makes possible an intellectual evangelism. Relevance overcomes the relativism prevalent in modern Western thought. When we have established a purpose to life, we can show through revelation in the Logos – the expression of redeeming love for creation from that creator – that there are precepts that have absolute value because they come from the absolute existence. We can truly begin to answer the questions of life based on the revealed virtues of Faith, Hope, and Love, and we learn to engage in the most loving act there is: Helping others to reach the ultimate good, which is an eternity of the beatific vision. It all began with a Big Bang, but it ends with us returning gently to our loving creator and our own beatific vision. Creation itself urges us to share Christ, the Logos, with all people, bringing them to this ultimate home of perfect beauty. Regardless of how we are called to serve, this is what we are called to do.