St. Augustine of Hippo

Faith is what we believe about the God whose existence reason demonstrates.

That God exists is not an article of Catholic faith. Why? Because we know God exists by virtue of reason. The first article of Catholic faith is the Holy Trinity: God exists as three Persons in one divine Being. We can know there is a God by reason, but it takes faith to believe that God is a loving Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. As such, Our Creed does not begin, “I believe in God.” Our Creed begins, “I believe in God, the Father almighty …”

Over the next few days, mixed in with the other thoughts and prayers I post, I will offer four arguments for the existence of God. Believers will not require them to hold for the existence of God, but they may serve to bolster their faith. Non-believers will likely not be persuaded by them, unless they give them reasonable consideration. But it may inspire them to think outside the box the so-called “New Atheists” have put them in – that there is no possibility for God, so all arguments for God are a waste of time. That’s just a cop out.

A point of clarification: we ask the question of whether God exists. But, properly speaking, God does not exist. God is Existence. We speak of whether God is one being among all other beings. But, properly speaking, God is not a being. God is Being. One of the problems modern atheism suffers is the notion that God is one existing being among all the other existing beings in the universe. So, God exists within the universe as a being who is simply bigger, smarter, more powerful, etc. than all the other beings within the universe. But that God is too small to be God. Being Existence itself, God is Being above all Creation, outside of time and space, and independent of the existence of all other beings. So, we have the first argument for the existence of God: how can one argue that Existence doesn’t exist? St. Anselm of Canterbury’s argument is very close to this. But Anselm will have to wait. For now, we consider St. Augustine of Hippo.

BIOGRAPHY

St. Augustine of Hippo is one of the greatest theologians of the Church and, indeed, one of the greatest, most impactful minds in Western civilization. Born in 354 in Tagaste, north Africa (present-day Algeria), he was of Berger ethnicity. His father, Patricius, was a pagan and his mother, Monica, a Catholic. In his youth, Augustine rejected both his father’s paganism and his mother’s Catholicism in favor of a faith/philosophy called Manicheaism which taught of reality as a struggle between good (spirit) and evil (matter). He became a professor of rhetoric and moved, first to Rome and then to Milan, living a dissolute life and fathering a son out of wedlock. Augustine provided for his son, Adeodatus, whom he loved very much. Monica, now a widow who had accomplished with her prayers and witness the conversion of her husband and his mother, moved to Italy with Augustine, continuing to pray for his conversion also. Augustine had read the Bible and was not impressed until he met St. Ambrose, bishop of Milan. Ambrose was very likely the first person he had ever met who was Augustine’s intellectual equal. He taught Augustine how to read the Scriptures in the Catholic tradition of allegory.

One day, Augustine was weeping in a garden, lost over the direction of his life. He heard a child’s voice repeating, “Take up and read!” He opened the Scriptures and found where St. Paul wrote in his Letter to the Romans 13:13-14: “Not in rioting and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh to fulfill the lusts thereof.” Augustine was struck hard, and immediately saw the light of Catholic faith, renouncing his wayward life. He was baptized, along with his son, by St. Ambrose in Milan at the Easter Vigil in 387. Augustine originally desired to live the monastic life, but he was called to the priesthood and then to be bishop of Hippo after returning to north Africa.

Augustine took up the challenge of defending the Catholic faith against the heresies of Donatism and Pelagianism and shared the journey of his soul in his book, The Confessions. He also wrote The City of God in defense of the faith against accusations that the Roman Empire had fallen after it became weak because of its conversion to Christianity. His other works include treatises on grace and the Holy Trinity. Augustine is regarded as essential to the theology of the Church. His writings had a tremendous impact on the Church’s teaching and understanding of herself and, since the Church came to dominate the West, the same could be said of Augustine’s impact on Western Civilization.

St. Augustine of Hippo died on August 28, 430. He was canonized by popular acclimation. He was one of the first four Latin Doctors to be declared a Doctor of the Church in 1298 by Pope Boniface VIII. His feast is August 28.

ST. AUGUSTINE OF HIPPO’S ARGUMENT FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD

In his dialogue De libero arbitrio (“Free Choice”), completed in 395, St. Augustine of Hippo proposes an argument for the existence of God based on our experience of truth.

We experience that some things are always true. It is always true, for instance, that 7 + 3 = 10. It’s true that something can’t be true and not true at the same time and in the same way. It’s true that something cannot be and not be at the same time. These truths are always true. They’re unchanging, not influenced by time, the past, present, or future. They’ve always been true, are true, and always will be true. They are eternal truths.

Augustine argues that, since these truths are eternal and never changing, they can’t be the product of human minds, because human minds are always changing, and they’re not eternal. “If truth were equal to our minds,” Augustine argues, “it would be subject to change. Our minds sometimes see more and sometimes less, and because of this we acknowledge that they are mutable [subject to change]. Truth, remaining in itself, does not gain anything when we see it, or lose anything when we do not see it.” Truth isn’t created or in any way dependent on human beings. Truth is not created at all. Truth is discovered.

Yet, such eternal truths don’t exist outside of a mind. Consider again the truth that 7 + 3 = 10. This is true. It’s eternally true. But it doesn’t exist outside of a mind to consider it. Numbers aren’t physical object, but abstract objects. They are concepts, not entities. The number 7, for instance, doesn’t exist independent of a mind that’s thinking about it. There may be seven things: seven trees, seven dogs, seven rocks, or seven people. But the number 7 doesn’t exist in and of itself. There’s no number 7 floating about like some Platonic form, existing independently of a mind to think it. The truth of 7 + 3 = 10 does exist, but only as an abstract object in a mind.

Yet, human minds can’t be the minds in which these eternal truths reside, for human minds, as we’ve said, are mutable and contingent. Human minds are not eternal. There must, then, be a mind that is itself eternal, which has always had these eternal truths in mind. This we call God.

But isn’t this a circular argument? We need eternal truths to prove the existence of God, and we need God to prove the existence of eternal truths! Not if we distinguish between truth and reality. For instance, it’s true that 7 + 3 = 10. But this eternal truth can’t exist in reality except in an eternal mind. So, the truth of God’s existence is demonstrated by eternal truths, while the reality of eternal truths is dependent on God’s existence.

ST. AUGUSTINE’S ARGUMENT FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD

1. There are eternal truths, truths that have always been true, are true, and always will be true (7 + 3 = 10; something cannot be and not be at the same time, etc).

• Eternal truths exist as abstract objects rather than physical objects.

• Human minds cannot be the minds in which these eternal truths exist because human minds are not eternal.

• There must be an eternal mind in which these eternal truths exist.

• This eternal mind is God.

CRITICISMS OF AUGUSTINE’S ARGUMENT and RESPONSES

Inference from knowing truth to its nature:

The argument has been criticized for improperly inferring the eternal nature of a truth from the fact that the eternal mind of God knows it, rather than directly from the truth’s own nature. 

Response: No. The truth is recognized as eternally true, not because it exists in God’s mind, for all truth exists in God’s mind, but not all truths are eternal. Some are contingent on the circumstances of the day.

Simpler explanation for truth’s objectivity:

Using Ockham’s Razor, it’s argued that if a truth is perceived by multiple minds, it’s simpler to believe it exists independently of them rather than positing it as existing in a divine mind, which can be seen as unnecessary baggage. 

Response: First, Augustine does posit that the truth exists independently of the multiple finite minds that perceive it. That’s the point. Eternal truths cannot exist in the minds of finite humans. We discover them, but they do not exist because they are in our minds. They exist in the eternal mind of God. Everything that exists, exists in the mind of God, because God is existence. Furthermore, everything that is true is true because it participates in the truth that is God. The truth of 2+2=4 can only exist within a mind. Positing an eternal mind where eternal truths exist, then, is not “unnecessary baggage.”

Contingent v. Necessary truths:

“It is a straight contradiction to say that some claim P is both necessarily true and contingent on god. Or to pose it as a dilemma, if P is necessarily true, then there’s no need to invoke god, but if P is contingently true, then the argument doesn’t get started.”

Response: First, everything that exists does so because they participate in the existence of God. Everything that is true is so because it participates in the truth that is God. So, there is no contradiction in saying that something can be both necessarily true and contingent on God, because everything is contingent on God. God, if He is God, is the source of all truth, both eternal and contingent. Eternal truths would not exist if God did not exist, because if God did not exist, nothing would exist. Second, if P is necessarily true then we must invoke God, because being eternal, God is the only Being whose mind can contain eternal truths. If P is contingently true, we still must invoke God because God is the source of all truth. Why isn’t this just relying on faith about what we believe about God and not reason? Because, rationally speaking, if God did not have these attributes, He would not be God.

Source: https://www.catholic.org/saints/saint.php?saint_id=418

Proofs of God: Classical Arguments from Tertullian to Barth by Matthew Levering, Baker Academic, 2016

Five Proofs for the Existence of God by Edward Feser, Ignatius Press, 2017

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.