445. What does God prohibit by his command, “You shall not have other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2)? (part 6 continuation)
(Comp 445 repetition) This commandment
forbids: * Polytheism and idolatry, which divinizes creatures, power, money, or
even demons. * Superstition which is a departure from the worship due to the
true God and which also expresses itself in various forms of divination, magic,
sorcery and spiritism. * Irreligion which is evidenced: in tempting God by word
or deed; in sacrilege, which profanes sacred persons or sacred things, above
all the Eucharist; and in simony, which involves the buying or selling of
spiritual things. * Atheism which rejects the existence of God, founded often
on a false conception of human autonomy. * Agnosticism which affirms that
nothing can be known about God, and involves indifferentism and practical
atheism.
“In brief”
(CCC 2140) Since it rejects or
denies the existence of God, atheism is a sin against the first commandment.
To deepen and
explain
(CCC 2127) Agnosticism assumes a number of forms. In certain
cases the agnostic refrains from denying God; instead he postulates the
existence of a transcendent being which is incapable of revealing itself, and
about which nothing can be said. In other cases, the agnostic makes no judgment
about God's existence, declaring it impossible to prove, or even to affirm or
deny. (CCC 2128) Agnosticism can sometimes include a certain search for God,
but it can equally express indifferentism, a flight from the ultimate question
of existence, and a sluggish moral conscience. Agnosticism is all too often
equivalent to practical atheism. (CCC 38) This is why man stands in need of
being enlightened by God's revelation, not only about those things that exceed
his understanding, but also “about those religious and moral truths which of
themselves are not beyond the grasp of human reason, so that even in the
present condition of the human race, they can be known by all men with ease, with
firm certainty and with no admixture of error" (Pius XII, Humani generis, 561: DS 3876; cf. Dei Filius 2: DS 3005; DV 6; St. Thomas
Aquinas, STh I, 1, 1). (CCC 36)
"Our holy mother, the Church, holds and teaches that God, the first
principle and last end of all things, can be known with certainty from the
created world by the natural light of human reason" (Vatican Council I, Dei Filius 2: DS 3004 cf. 3026; Vatican
Council II, Dei Verbum 6). Without this capacity, man would not be able to
welcome God's revelation. Man has this capacity because he is created "in
the image of God" (Cf. Gen 1:27).
Reflection
(CCC 37) In the historical conditions in which he finds
himself, however, man experiences many difficulties in coming to know God by
the light of reason alone: Though human reason is, strictly speaking, truly
capable by its own natural power and light of attaining to a true and certain
knowledge of the one personal God, who watches over and controls the world by
his providence, and of the natural law written in our hearts by the Creator;
yet there are many obstacles which prevent reason from the effective and
fruitful use of this inborn faculty. For the truths that concern the relations
between God and man wholly transcend the visible order of things, and, if they
are translated into human action and influence it, they call for self-surrender
and abnegation. The human mind, in its turn, is hampered in the attaining of
such truths, not only by the impact of the senses and the imagination, but also
by disordered appetites which are the consequences of original sin. So it
happens that men in such matters easily persuade themselves that what they
would not like to be true is false or at least doubtful (Pius XII, Humani generis, 561: DS 3875). (CCC 39) In defending the ability of human
reason to know God, the Church is expressing her confidence in the possibility
of speaking about him to all men and with all men, and therefore of dialogue
with other religions, with philosophy and science, as well as with unbelievers
and atheists. (CCC 40) Since our knowledge of God is limited, our language
about him is equally so. We can name God only by taking creatures as our
starting point, and in accordance with our limited human ways of knowing and
thinking. [END]
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