From: "Roland Francis" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
<<<I too along with Santosh and Cornel feel that you are
completely spinning what the Cardinal said.
***Read the full lecture and try to understand it. Like Dr.Santosh and
Cornel you have not understood well the full lecture.
<<< In other words, he has in one stroke and in one statement removed
the battle of whether God exists or not, by placing Him in the
unprovable realm. Scientists have no weapon against this.
***The Cardinal affirms the living reality of God. God is not object to be
verified like the objects of empirical sciences. God does not belong to the
phenomenal domain of Science and of the Scientists. Read it carefully.
"God is the meaning that secures the meaning of all that I do, all that I
am, all that we can be as humankind. His objective reality as goodness,
truth and love secures the significance of all that happens, of all that is.
God is not a fact in the world, as though God could be treated as one thing
among other things to be empirically investigated, affirmed or denied on the
basis of observation. Many who deny God's existence treat God in this way,
and they simply don't know how to ask the proper question about God. God is
why the world is at all, the goodness, truth and love that flows into an
astonishingly complex and beautiful cosmos, and we are the part of that
cosmos, consciously and freely open to goodness, truth and love; and we are
frustrated when this openness is blocked. We are designed for ultimate
meaning and purpose, unrestricted truth and love: that is why Julian Barnes,
atheist though he may declare himself, 'misses' God. God is at the heart of
every person. And until that is acknowledged, we will always feel his
absence".
Very clearly the Cardinal states:
"I believe in the God revealed to us by Jesus, who is the father who
forgives us, accepts us, and loves us. He is the God who speaks to us about
who we are, how we should live and teaches us the ways that will lead us
into a responsible exercise of our freedom. If we close our hearts and minds
to him, if we forget or exclude God, then our lives lose both meaning and
hope".
> Simply put, I like many others believe in God but cannot prove that
God exists. An argument that the Cardinal is making by deviating in a
significant way from the teachings of the Church today.
***Our Reason does direct us to God, but Science cannot prove nor disprove
the existence of God. Verifiability of faith is not like verifiability in
the domain of empirical sciences. The Church has never taught otherwise. The
mystery of God has been revealed by his Son, Jesus Christ.
This is what the Cardinal is repeating:
"We should remember that the proper response to God is that of faith, not
absolute certainty. God is said by Christian theology to be ineffable,
beyond our categories and thought capacity. St Thomas Aquinas after all is
quite clear that 'imperfect knowledge belongs to the very nature of faith'.
And there is a good reason for this - we have no positive grasp on the
mystery of God. 'The divine substance,' Aquinas says, 'surpasses every form
that our intellect reaches. Thus we are unable to apprehend it by knowing
what it is.' God 'is greater than all we can say, greater than all that we
can know; and not merely does he transcend our language and our knowledge,
but he is beyond the comprehension of every mind whatsoever.' " God is
beyond the comprehension (adequate, exhaustive knowledge), we experience in
love the God that has been revealed by Jesus of Nazareth, who is the Son of
God.
Regards.
Fr.Ivo
