Apologetics Journal

1. In this section of apologetics, Catholicism maintains that evidence for God can be classified under two general categories, the natural world and the human person-It is within these realms that we find the sources of our reasons to believe. Also in this section, many teleological arguments are given to try to explain the beginning of the universe. Teleological Arguments, coming from Greek literally meaning “end” or “purpose”, attempt to show through logical arguments that the universe was purposely created. These arguments that are explained in the section are: William Paley’s Analogy of “The Watch and the Watchmaker”, C.S. Lewis’ Moral Argument for the existence of God, The Golden Ratio, The Anthropic Principle, Kalam’s Argument, Pascal’s Wager, and Plato and Aquinas’ Argument from Degrees of Perfection.

William Paley’s Analogy of “The Watch and the Watchmaker”
An argument that says everything in the world has an intelligent design (Watch) and therefore it has an intelligent designer (Watchmaker). The universe is an intelligent design, therefore and intelligent designer created it and this designer is God.

C.S. Lewis’ Moral Argument for the existence of God
An argument that says there is a universal moral law that exists in society. Because there is a universal moral law, there must be a moral law giver and therefore this moral lawgiver is God.

The Golden Ratio
An Argument that says that there is a certain ratio or set of numbers that are stumbled upon so many times in nature that it seems as if these were not a coincidence. Therefore this universe was not merely a coincidence and was brought about by some higher power.

The Anthropic Principle
An argument that says sciences of chemistry and physics are tuned and just right for life. They are the values necessary to produce life.

Kalam’s Argument

An argument beginning with the question of did the universe have a beginning? States that everything that begins to exist has a cause outside itself, and the universe began to exist, therefore the universe had a cause outside it self and this cause is God.

Pascal’s Wager

An argument that says there is no way to know whether God exists and we have to bet or wager one way or another whether or not there is a God.

Plato and Aquinas’ Argument from Degrees of Perfection

Aquinas believed that there was a graduation of things that were better than each other. This argument deals with perfection or complete harmony with nature, reason, and man.

Also in this section, knowledge of God via the human person was covered and this stressed the ideas of argument from religious experience, man’s need for meaning, the mystery of death, the thirst for happiness, and the pain of loneliness. These ideas or considerations all led to one conclusion and this states that if there is no God, what happens to the space within ourselves that only God can occupy? Our human existence would be doomed to be eternally frustrated if there was no God! The five basic inclinations of human nature were also discussed in this section. These five inclinations were (1) to seek happiness, (2) to preserve oneself in existence, (3) to unite sexually, (4) to be in community with others, and (5) to use intellect and will, to know the truth. These inclinations are self evident and any decent, positive, man-made law is based on them.

2. The three important ideas that I want to remember from this section are the (1) ideas of teleological arguments, (2) the argument from conscience, and (3) man’s need for meaning. (1) I am fascinated by teleological arguments and the most appealing to me is C.S. Lewis’ Moral Argument for the existence of God. I am most convinced by this argument because humans do have a conscience and a moral code. Where did this come from? It obviously didn’t just happen over time, and this must have had a beginning and the belief that God initiated this code of moral conduct makes perfect sense to me because I personally experience this conscience everyday and this argument explains the origin. (2) The argument from conscience also is intriguing to me because this too asks questions about the origins of conscience, asking questions like “why does my conscience occasionally bother me,” and “why should my gut tell me otherwise?” I believe that this source of absolute authority is God and he initiates the gut feeling and intuition that humans get in certain circumstances. (3) Man’s need for meaning also interests me because I do think that we are all here for a reason, each and every one of us. Even though Jean Paul Sartre tried to live his life as if he believed it had no meaning, on his deathbed he confessed to a friend that he had always refused to believe that his life was meaningless. All life has meaning.

4. Even though I sometimes doubt the whole story of Jesus and sometimes doubt it played out the way it is said in the bible, I believe that Jesus exists. I believe that there is a greater being or someone watching over me and I believe that this is Jesus. I feel like he is a person that knows me, knows all of my reasons for everything, keeps me on track, and is not a scrutinizing teacher, but an understanding one. I believe that Jesus is saying, “I know, I know, I’ve been there and understand what you’re going through and why you did what you did,” instead of an stubborn scrutinizer saying, “You shouldn’t have done that, you’re screwed.” Jesus is my friend and he knows everything about me, I can talk to him and can count on him to listen with an open ear, not a shunning one. Did it happen the way the bible said? I’m not sure, but I do believe that I have a friend off of this earth that listens to me named Jesus.

Back To My Home Page Mr. Sciuto's Jr. Faith Website