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August 09, 2005
Ch. XII. Q. 73. Opposed Systems
3. OPPOSED SYSTEMS
i. THE chief systems opposed to the doctrine of creation are pantheism, dualism, eternal creation and atheism.1
ii. Pantheism confuses the universe of substance with God, and describes all events as necessary phenomena of divine substance. Like all theories of ultimate origins, including the doctrine of creation, this system can neither be proved nor disproved by unaided reason. Our only source of sure knowledge is supernatural revelation. But it has been shown elsewhere2 that pantheism has difficulties, especially moral ones, which make its acceptance unreasonable.3
iii. Emanationism is a pantheistic theory which explains the world as caused by a series of evolutions or devolutions of divine substance. It was maintained of old by the Gnostics, and more recently by Swedenborg. This theory is inconsistent with divine immutability and incurs all the difficulties of pantheism. The only emanations possible in God are the eternal processions which constitute the Trinity.4
iv. Dualism emphasizes the essential difference between God and the world; but like pantheism regards all substance as eternal. God is merely the Fashioner of things. Its axiom is ex nihilo nihil fit, which is considered elsewhere.5 It is to be noted that the appearence of manufacture, of adaptation, inheres in the most elementary forms of finite substance which scientists have investigated; and dualism has difficulties. (a) It impugns the infinity of God, which precludes the existence of independent reality; (b) To hypothecate two "ultimate principles is unscientific when one such principle sufficiently explains the universe.6
v. The theory of eternal creation represents an attmept to retain belief in the eternity of matter without falling into dualism. It makes the universe a needed objective and sphere of the personal life and operations of God, but insists that all things are grounded in God and dependent upon his will.7 This theory derives plausibility only from a non-trinitarian standpoint; for, according to the Christian doctrine, the relations between the divine Persons afford all necessary conditions of personal life and operation in God.8 The theory is inconsistent with divine infinity, since it implies a subjection of God to external necessity.9
vi. Atheism, by denying the existence of God, precludes belief in creation.10 It usually adopts the materialistic hypothesis, which declares matter to be the ultimate ground of all reality.11 In the more subtle form of naturalism, it denies reality to anything that cannot be described in the terms of physical science.12
1 Creation,ch. ii. 7; H.P. Liddon, Some Elem., pp. 55-60.
2 Previous vol. Q. 36.
3 On pantheism, Being and Attrib., ch. ix. 4; Baldwin, Dict. of Philos., q. v.; Cath. Encyc., q. v.; R. Flint, Anti-Theistic Theories, Lecs. ix-x; Th. Christlieb, Modern Doubt, pp. 161-190.
4 Cath. Encyc., s. v. "Emanationism."
5 Cf. Q. 72.3.
6 On Dualism, Baldwin, Dic. of Philos., s. vv. "Dualism" and "Manichaeism"; H.P. Liddon, Some Elem., pp. 142-148; St. Augustine, de Civ Dei, xii. 6, et seq..
7This theory was supported by Origen, de Prin., ii. 4; iii. 5; Jas. Martineau, Religion Vol. I., pp. 381-390.
8 Trinity, ch. vi. 11.
9 Being and Attrib., p. 142, note 1; Creation, pp. 61-63.
9 Q. 33, in Vol. I.
11 Q. 34, in Vol. I.
12 On Naturalism, Evolutionism pp.21 et seq.; Creation, pp. 109-112: R. Otto, Naturalism and Religion.
Posted by AKMA at August 9, 2005 11:34 AM