RELIGST 3N03 Study Guide - Pirkei Avot, Spritsail, Early Christianity

• School: McMaster University
• Department: Religious Studies
• Course: RELIGST 3N03
• Professor: Stephen Westerholm

Document Summary

Contemplation of the cause of our reason: god. Aristotle was pre-christian and therefore his insights were pre-christian and due to natural reason. This displayed that natural reason can arrive to the conclusion there is a god. Like a ball through ha window there must be a cause of the observable effects you see. Infinite cause we call god says aquinas. Aquinas says we cannot know the nature of god simply by natural reason. Senses perceptible things in the material word must have a cause greater than them but other than that cannot know anything about the greater cause. Finite effects can hardly tell us about the infinite cause that brought them about. Finite minds cannot figure out much about an infinite cause or infinite god. By natural reasoning: yes there is a god, no we know nothing of his nature. By our own powers we can know there is a god but cannot know this god or anything about him.