Saturday, June 27, 2015
Youcat commented through CCC. Question n. 43 – Part I.
(Youcat answer) No. God, not chance, is the cause of the
world. Neither in its origin nor with respect to its intrinsic order and
purposefulness is it the product of factors working “aimlessly”.
A deepening through
CCC
(CCC 295) We believe that God created the world according to
his wisdom (Cf. Wis 9:9). It is not the product of any necessity whatever, nor
of blind fate or chance. We believe that it proceeds from God's free will; he
wanted to make his creatures share in his being, wisdom and goodness: "For
you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created"
(Rev 4:11). Therefore the Psalmist exclaims: "O LORD, how manifold are
your works! In wisdom you have made them all"; and "The LORD is good
to all, and his compassion is over all that he has made" (Pss 104:24;
145:9). (CCC 296) We believe that God needs no pre-existent thing or any help
in order to create, nor is creation any sort of necessary emanation from the
divine substance (Cf. Dei Filius,
can. 2-4: DS 3022-3024). God creates freely "out of nothing" (Lateran
Council IV (1215): DS 800; cf. DS 3025): If God had drawn the world from
pre-existent matter, what would be so extraordinary in that? A human artisan
makes from a given material whatever he wants, while God shows his power by
starting from nothing to make all he wants (St. Theophilus of Antioch, Ad Autolycum II, 4: PG 6, 1052).
Reflecting and
meditating
(Youcat comment)
Christians believe that they can read
God’s handwriting in his creation. To scientists who talk about the whole world
as a random, meaningless, and aimless process, Pope John Paul II pointed out in
reply in 1985, “Given a universe in which there is such a complex organization
of its elements and such a wonderful purposefulness in its life, talking about
chance would be equivalent to giving up the search for an explanation of the
world as it appears to us. In fact it would be tantamount to accepting effects without
cause. It would be an abdication of human reason, which in this way would be
refusing to think and to search for a solution to problems.”
(CCC Comment)
(CCC 317) God alone created the universe, freely, directly
and without any help. (CCC 318) No creature has the infinite power necessary to
"create" in the proper sense of the word, that is, to produce and
give being to that which had in no way possessed it (to call into existence
"out of nothing") (cf. DS
3624).
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