"Yes, we can KNOW God exists by reason alone".
Well, that's a given, if one is Catholic. But what about the scoffers who look to science for all answers? The important point to be gained from this film is not St. Thomas' proofs but to try and educated people that what they thought they believed for decades is no longer tenable.
Did you ever once consider the possible effect a film like this might just lead someone, somewhere to embrace the Faith? Most people, even most Catholics have never even heard of Thomas' five proofs. Therefore, a film like this is indeed important from the standpoint that while 'we' may not look favourably on some of the terms employed, nevertheless, may have a great impact on others.
Incidentally, there is no need to quote scripture as I'm rather familiar with it. Nevertheless, your point is well taken. You're right, some will never believe because of the hardness of their hearts. However, many will, therefore, we need to pray for their conversion.
.
Gwaredd,
I didn't' reply but I read your "losing the faith" thread. I didn't reply because it sounded to me that a better way to phrase the problem was that you were "out of touch with" (or perhaps never
in touch with) the philosophical foundations of theism. And I think your reply here shows that.
.
Science certainly
can point to God, but not as powerfully as philosophy. The reason is that science comes
after philosophy. I mean this logically. The very
existence of any natural science presupposes (that is, it
depends upon) certain truths which science is unable, of its very nature, to prove. These are metaphysical truths, certain axioms about the very nature of radical and ontological reality as such. They include (for instance) the fact that things
exist, the principle of non-contradiction (i.e., that a thing cannot both be and not be at once), the fact that
change or
motion "is a thing" (which science purports to measure), and at least the theoretical possibility of causality (though as we know, many scientists today will
attempt to cast doubt on this). Without these philosophical presuppositions, there
is no science. They all come
before science. And science is incoherent without granting them as true.
.
None of these things have anything
at all to do with religion as such. That's why we find the ancient Greeks discussing them, despite the fact that their religious views were not only wrong, but were highly primitive, imaginative, and anthropomorphic.
.
One of the greatest mistakes of Christian philosophers and apologists (including Catholic ones)
today is that they've given away the store to materialism. They've ceded science's ultimate blunder, mainly, the idea that the only real knowledge that can be had is empirical knowledge. Of course, empirical knowledge can't even
prove this claim, so it's a non-starter, but that hasn't stopped loads of Christian apologists from making ultimately failing arguments against atheism because they are content to argue God as a
probability rather than to demonstrate his
metaphysical necessity. You can
prove God, not as a hypothesis which is more likely than any other, but as a
necessary logical conclusion given a certain set of non-religious philosophical premises.
That is what St. Thomas did-- so his proofs are not "good for Catholics", they're good for
atheists. They're good for people who wouldn't give religion the time of day, because they don't rely on religion
in the slightest to make their case. They rely on the philosophical axioms mentioned above-- non-contradiction, the fact of change, and the rest.
.
What I would recommend is looking into Dr. Ed Feser. He is a contemporary Thomistic philosopher. He talks about this all the time-- the fact that St. Thomas' proofs (which are really Aristotle's proofs perfected) have
never been overcome; not by philosophy, and
certainly not by science. He has several books (and a blog). I would recommend
The Last Superstition especially, since it is entirely devoted to exactly what we're talking about here: how neither philosophy nor science has
ever answered St. Thomas's
completely nonreligious arguments for the existence of God, and that atheism has made strawmen out of those arguments and not engaged what they actually say. I actually think all Catholics should read that book, because there is a very noticeable popular misunderstanding even among Catholics about what these arguments actually say. For instance, the argument from motion is
not that God had to "push over the first domino," and the argument from cause is
not that an infinite regress is impossible (because it isn't, depending on the type of causality we're considering), the argument from design is
not that "things look complicated so they must have been designed by a higher intelligence", etc.
.
Anyways, I'm glad that you think that these videos are useful. I think that modern science
does have some very interesting things to say about the existence of God, and those arguments
do have their place, but their place is entirely subordinate to
philosophical arguments for the existence of God from reason. Because at best, a scientific argument for God can only prove that he's likely as a percentage, which can
never overcome atheism, since there's always the
real possibility that God doesn't exist. The Aristotelian-Thomist proofs avoid this dilemma completely: if their premises are true, then God exists as a matter of logical demonstration, not merely as the most likely hypothesis among several.
ETA: Here's Dr. Feser's blog to get your feet wet:
http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/