Awakened by Aristotle’s classification and metaphysics, Augustine conceded the possibility that essence of man or rational being pre-existed, or rather planted by God, in the evolvement of animals just as all material and efficient causation existed passively or potentially in the stars or basic stuff of reality. The domain of human experience is what makes for the concept of God or First Cause in the face of feeling inadequacy in contemplating the mysteries of our world. Just as DNA presupposes the emergence of person whether moron or genius, we dare not think we alone are responsible for the material and efficient cause of our unique existence, any more than we can conceive of the Big Bang as its own primal cause; for indisputably there existed a pre-condition to set the stage, which conceivably was the dying waste matter of a previous bang eventuating into ineluctable destruction, or perhaps simply the mischievous play of childish gods. From primitive to modern times the limitation of ourselves inevitably led to having to think outside ourselves to conclude that there is indeed a greater contemplative, underlying being that produces all that there is.
In today’s polemic sphere is engendered the theological and biological leap of intelligent design and natural selection, respectively. Intelligent design presupposes a supra natural imposition in the matrix of material and efficient causes and is no less officious than the ethereal concept of natural selection. There is a difference, however negligible in theory, which rests on the degree of skill and patience on the part of the leaper in the arduous race of unfolding life and meaning out of obstinate inorganic/organic matter. “Let there be instant light” as opposed to the frustrating search for light at the end of an infinite tunnel. In either case the light may not lead to the Final Cause — the ultimate revelation of a designing Deity or a jeweled crowned supra emperor of natural selection — but rather rudely take us to but another First Cause generating the Sisyphean process all over again.
Copyright © 2005 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: December 7, 2005.
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