1.6 Can I recognise God in nature and in the world?
If you look closely at nature, you will find that everything is beautifully coordinated and fits together wonderfully. Doesn’t it seem improbable that all this came into being by pure coincidence? No theory about the origin of life and the universe is complete without a Mind or Creator behind all this. We call this mind God.
Just like an artist, God reveals something of himself in nature, namely that he exists and that he created the world (we call this natural revelation). The main message of faith is that God created the world out of love for human beings.
How is it possible to know God with only the light of human reason?
Starting from creation, that is from the world and from the human person, through reason alone one can know God with certainty as the origin and end of the universe, as the highest good and as infinite truth and beauty. [CCCC 3]
Can we know the existence of God by our reason?
Yes. Human reason can know God with certainty.
The world cannot have its origin and its destination within itself. In everything that exists, there is more than we see. The order, the beauty, and the development of the world point beyond themselves toward God. Every man is receptive to what is true, good, and beautiful. He hears within himself the voice of conscience, which urges him to what is good and warns him against what is evil. Anyone who follows this path reasonably finds God. [Youcat 4]
In respect, therefore, of his being the Maker of this world, that is visible in heaven and earth around us, God was known unto all nations even before they were indoctrinated into the faith of Christ. [St Augustine, On the Gospel of John, Tract 106:4 (ML 35, 1910)]
