The quest for an enlightened truth about the mystery of God, the world, and the universe has plagued the human civilization since time immemorial. In pursuit thereof, some prominent political philosophers in medieval times, like St. Thomas Aquinas, attempted to fuse faith and reason to explain them. However, a careful perusal of his book “Summa Theologica” would reveal a lot of unanswered questions about life’s mystery. This essay will explain and refute St. Thomas Aquinas’ theological and philosophical assumptions in relation to what had transpired in some biblical narratives in the annals of time.
Science finds most of the religious scriptures such as the Bible to be faulty and inconsistent. Some stories in the bible including the Creation of Universe, Adam and Eve & The Great Flood are the most illogical stories to be written on the Bible. Creationists believe that the Universe has come into existence because of God. God’s creation of the earth is found in the book of Genesis and consists of the following seven days of creation: God made light the atmosphere on the first day; dry ground and plants on the second and the third day; sun, moon and stars on the fourth day; birds and sea animals on the fifth day; land animals and human beings on the sixth day; and the Sabbath of rest on the seventh day.
God, as defined by the Christians, is an omnipotent and omniscient God. He possesses boundless prowess and intellect. Premised on the definition, it can be argued that the God defined by the Christians is not powerful because it took Him seven days to create everything when He could have created everything in a day. Noteworthy to point out also why the God, as perceived by the Christians, is not powerful because He rested on the seventh day. It is, therefore, absurd to ponder on that an omnipotent entity could get physically exhausted. Because of this, the belief in a powerful God has been tainted with doubt. As a result, atheism was born.
Doubt also prompted the people throughout the years to inquire into the veracity of the Great Flood in the Bible. In fact, the Great Flood was one of the most debated stories in the Bible. The Bible narrated that God saw how great wickedness had become, which provoked God to wipe humankind off the face of the earth. But one righteous man, among all the people of that time, Noah, found favor in God’s eyes. To secure salvation, God told Noah to build an ark for him and his family in preparation for a catastrophic flood that would destroy every living thing on earth. God also instructed Noah to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, both male and female, and seven pairs of all the clean animals, along with every kind of food to be stored for the animals and his family while on the ark. Noah obeyed everything God commanded him to do.
After Noah and his family had entered the ark, rain fell for a period of forty days and nights. The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days, and every living thing was destroyed. As the waters receded, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. Noah and his family continued to wait for almost eight more months while the surface of the earth dried out. Finally, after an entire year, God invited Noah to come out of the ark. Immediately, Noah built an altar and offered burnt sacrifices with some of the clean animals to give thanks to God for deliverance. God was pleased with the offerings and promised never again to destroy all the living creatures as he had just done. Later God established a covenant with Noah: “Never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.” As a sign of this everlasting covenant, God set a rainbow in the clouds.
Later in time after the Great Flood, several inquiries were raised to shed light or cast doubt on the truthfulness of the narrative. Guided by faith and reason, St. Thomas Aquinas defended the narrative through his propositions in Summa Theologica. First, St. Thomas Aquinas explained the proof of Motion. According to him, everything is undergoing motion. Since nothing can be at once in both actuality and potentiality, it is therefore necessary to arrive at a first mover, put into motion by no other; this primary mover is God. Second, he discussed the proof of Efficient Causes. We perceive a series of efficient cause of things in the world. He stated that nothing exists prior to itself. Thus, it is necessary to admit a first efficient cause, which we refer to as God. Third, he explained the proof of Contingency. We find in nature things that are possible to be and not to be, that come into being and go out of being. Some being exists of its own necessity, and does not receive its existence from one another being, but rather causes them. This all men speak of as God. Fourth, the proof from Gradation of being; there is a gradation to be found in things: some are better or worse than others. Hence, there must also be something which is to all beings the cause of their being, goodness, and every other perfection; and this we call God. Fifth, the proof of Design; we see that natural bodies work toward some goal, and do not do so by chance. Most natural things lack knowledge. Therefore some intelligent being exists which designed by a supreme being called God.
Contrary to the postulated ways of St. Thomas, the succeeding points argue the falsity of his logic on God’s existence. The omnipotent God allowed the Great Flood to happen to cleanse evil; however, the absurdity of the apocryphal tale makes us question more the veracity of the great flood. A God, based on the prior definition, could have just let evil men vanish on a split-second, but it seems there have been discrepancies on the scriptures. No matter how extreme the rain would get, it cannot flood and cover up the entire land since the water would just end up flowing through the seas. In order to completely cover up the entire surface of the land on earth and ocean with rainwater – including Mt. Everest (which is about 28,000 ft. high) it would roughly need to have 4,525,000,000,000 cubic kilometers of rainwater (approximation) excluding the sea water. This is impossible because the waters on the sea only measures to 1,386,000,000,000 cubic kilometers. Moreover, the longest streak of rain in the history was recorded in Hawaii lasting for 247 days but it didn’t flood the entire globe after the rain.
There are roughly 1,200,000 species of animals that have been catalogued (many more haven’t been yet). If 42,981 cubic meters would be divided to 2.4 million, each animal would have a living space of 26x26x26 cm excluding the quarters of humans. As such, in this three-story Ark, there would no longer have enough space for food and provisions. In addition, carnivores aboard don’t have any source of food. They have been inside for a year without refrigerators; even if they had had preserved meat provisions, there are 2,000,000 species of insects inside the ship, hence, making carnivores impossible to survive inside the ship for a year. Supposing all of the carnivores have survived inside the ship, they won’t still have meat to consume thereafter.
Countless arguments are raised regarding the loopholes of the bible. It is no wonder why there has been a clout for agnosticism and atheism by some ardent scientists and evolutionists. They argue the accuracy of the writings on the Bible and the history of religion depicts the grimmest truths in the course of human civilization. It has been written by several authors and truth revisionists for the purpose of widening their powers and land. Despite the existence of thousands of gods, we must be vigilant to seek enlightenment. Never settle for what has been indoctrinated upon us. Let us be skeptical and radical to strengthen our beliefs.
“In this world, there are only two kinds of God, the one who created everything—and the god we created.” Concoction of faith and reason was the highlight of Scholasticism. It brought reason at par with faith. It became easy of the later thinkers to drop faith in favor of reason in their thinking towards a secular and egalitarian society and state. Given that we are already on the verge of reaching the pinnacle of human intellect, let us use this gift as an instrument to arrive at enlightenment and truth so that we can liberate ourselves from ignorance.