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So, catholicism doesn't hold that a god exists, then?
by zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC 9y ago
So, catholicism doesn't hold that a god exists, then?
- foldr 9y agoIt holds that God's existence can be established by rational argument.
- zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC 9y agoWhich itself is an irrational position to hold, so if that is indeed a position they hold, they hold it by faith.
- foldr 9y agoNo, they hold it on the basis of certain arguments for God's existence.
- zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC 9y agoHow do irrational arguments for the existence of a god support the position that that god's existence can be established by rational argument?
- foldr 9y agoI am not taking a position on whether the arguments are good or bad. But supposing the arguments are bad, sincerely believing something on the basis of a bad argument is not the same as believing it by faith.
- zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC 9y agoWell, unless that argument is built on an assumption that in turn is held to be true on faith, which makes this belief transitively also held to be true on faith.
- foldr 9y agoThe arguments that Catholics use typically are not based on such assumptions. See e.g. Aquinas's Five Ways, which are based, more or less, on premises from Aristotelean metaphysics.
- CharlesW 9y agoAs a former Catholic (with a decade+ of Catholic schooling), I can share that that was never proposed or demonstrated.
- foldr 9y agoIt's an official dogma of the Catholic church that God's existence can be proved by the unaided reason. Did your Catholic education somehow omit any mention of the Five Ways? http://www.ewtn.com/library/councils/v1.htm http://www.ewtn.com/library/councils/v1.htm >If anyone says that the one, true God, our creator and lord, cannot be known with certainty from the things that have been made, by the natural light of human reason: let him be anathema." I am not a Christian, and I'm certainly not going to start defending Catholic arguments for God's existence here (!), but the arguments definitely exist.