You Would Have to be a Half-Wit…

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God is the cause of the universe, a cause which does not depend on any other cause. This is the teaching of our eyes when we look at the ordering of nature. Our eyes observe visible objects and note how they are perfectly stationary and at the same time on the move, if it were possible to call immobility mobile. Through visible objects is made apparent the ordering of nature whereby reason is able to deduce the Author of the universe. How indeed could the universe have begun to exist, and how could it be still in existence, if God had not given it existence and were not sustaining it day by day now? When we see a musical instrument that is well-made and well-tuned, or when we hear the sounds it gives out, we think at once of the person who made it or of the person who is playing it. We do not perhaps know him personally, but we think of him. That is how it is with the Being who has made the world, who gives it motion and sustains it. His existence is indisputably clear to us. We do not understand him perfectly, but we think about him. You would have to be a half-wit not to arrive at these conclusions, not to accept what nature shows us, not to recognize God, that is, the Being of whom our spirit is an image and of whom reason gives us an idea. Granted, we are speaking of partial knowledge. If we had complete knowledge there would be no need to continue the search. We should already be in possession of the object of our desires, the goal of our whole life, the aim of our whole soul.


GREGORY OF NAZIANZEN Oration 28, 6

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