A User's Guide to Reason/The Revelation of Reason
This chapter explains why reason reveals God by revealing that he reveals reason, and why God reveals reason by revealing that it reveals God.
Understanding that God reveals reason helps us understand reason. God reveals reason because he is the source of all knowledge for the good of all minds. Reason dictates that we be a source of knowledge for the good of all minds, and therefore follow the example set by God. By giving us his example, God helps us understand reason and how to use it wisely.
Reason reveals God
[edit | edit source]Is reason divine or merely human?
We create science; we bring all knowledge into being when we develop, teach, discuss, or apply it. Without our work as producers of truth, reason would not exist. It is our invention and our creation.
"God made human beings in his image, and they have repaid him well." Is the wisdom we attribute to God merely a projection of human wisdom?
An invention is always a discovery, because we discover that we are capable of inventing. We discover a possibility that already existed, as a possibility, before it was invented.
Everything that is possible is absolutely possible, because what is absolutely impossible is always impossible. Absolute means unconditional. An absolute truth is always eternal because it has no limiting condition. Therefore, everything that is possible is eternally possible. When we invent, we discover an eternal possibility.
Conditioned knowledge always reveals absolute knowledge. Let A be a truth conditioned by the conditions C. If C then A is unconditional knowledge, therefore absolute. The knowledge that knowledge is conditioned by conditions is an absolute necessity.
Reason reveals absolute knowledge, therefore eternal knowledge.
We do not invent reason, we discover it. It is what it has been for all eternity. When we do science, we discover an eternal possibility.
Reason is necessary. It cannot be otherwise than it is. We do not decide what it is. It does not depend on our arbitrary decisions or our whims.
When we discover reason, we discover at the same time that we are capable of discovering it, but we do not decide how to discover it. Reason shows us how to discover reason. It is wrong to say that we make reason; the truth is that reason makes us.
By providing knowledge about knowledge, reason provides the ideal of knowledge, because a statement is knowledge if and only if the laws of the ideal of knowledge are respected.
A good ideal provides sufficient knowledge to realize it. It precedes the reality to which it leads, as if it were creating the reality it inspires.
The ideal of knowledge grants the power to acquire all knowledge. Therefore, knowledge about knowledge gives the power to know to all those who have the will to know.
An eternal knowledge that grants the power to acquire all knowledge is divine. Therefore, reason is divine knowledge. It reveals God by revealing his knowledge.
Reason reveals God by revealing itself, because it is divine knowledge.
God reveals reason
[edit | edit source]“It is impossible for the divine to be envious.” (Aristotle, Metaphysics, Book A, 983a)
I have the power to make myself more powerful because I can learn and thus become more competent and more powerful. But I have not had the power to give myself the power to make myself more powerful. To give me the power to make myself more powerful, I would have had to not already have it, and if I did not have the power to make myself more powerful, I also did not have the power to give it to myself, because I would have made myself more powerful.
The power to make myself more powerful is a power that has been given to me, not a power that I have given to myself.
Our force lies first and foremost in receiving all the force that is given to us, in letting it come and allowing it to act within us. If the force to give us force were not given to us, we would not have such force.
I have the power to seek and find reason. But I haven't had the power to give myself the power to seek and find reason. To give me the power to seek and find reason, I would have had to not already have it, and if I did not have the power to seek and find reason, I also did not have the power to give myself that power, because giving myself such power would be to find reason.
The power to seek and find reason is first and foremost a power that has been given to me, not a power that I have given to myself. I can increase this power, but I cannot give it to myself from the beginning. It must be given to me.
Reason is divine knowledge. The power to reveal divine knowledge is divine. God reveals reason by giving the power to seek and find reason.
The existence of proofs is proof of God's existence, because it is God who reveals proofs.
God is the first to have the power to reveal reason. We have this power only by delegation, because God has given it to us.
By revealing reason, God reveals that he is wise, good, and generous, because he gives the power to know to all who have the will to know, for the good of all minds.
By revealing reason, God reveals himself, because he reveals that he is wise, good, and generous.
By revealing himself, God reveals reason, because reason calls us to be wise, good, and generous.
God gives the power to know to all who have the will to know, for the good of all minds, and he asks us to also give the power to know to those who have the will to know, for the good of all minds. God reveals reason by giving his example and asking us to follow him.
We have the power to give power only by delegation. The primary source of power is always God. Only God truly has the power to give power. We have the power to give power only if God wills it.
God’s greatest goodness is to teach us how to be good. And by teaching goodness, he teaches us at the same time how to teach goodness, because the power to teach goodness is part of goodness itself.
It is through love that God reveals himself as love, because by revealing himself in this way, he makes us more capable of loving.
"No one has ever seen God. If we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made real in us. We know that we are in him and he is in us by the breath he gave us." (1 John 4:12-13)