Bishop Barron on Why Do We Believe in God?

That's the great question [how] do we know there's a gun why do we believe in God at all that's the foundation for the whole spiritual life and The Great Theologians and spiritual teachers have used different approaches this question over the centuries One of my favorites is the approach that begins with desire We human beings desire the truth our minds seek the truth and we get it sometimes But no matter how much truth we get out of this world It's never enough the mind remains unsatisfied [I] Will seek the good and they find it a lot of ways in this world But no matter how many goods we attain were never really satisfied We seek Justice in all kinds of ways And [we] achieve it sometimes to a remarkable degree think of in our own time [a] civil rights movement the end to apartheid the Breakdown of the soviet Union all those were wonderful things that [were] attainment of justice But no matter how much justice we attain we never have enough There's something in us this desire for the good the true the just that pushes us Beyond this world This approach is called the argument from Desire You can't desire what you don't know Therefore if we're desiring something that transcends anything in this world in Some way we must already know it Therefore [we] do know the truth itself We do know the good itself. We do know justice itself, and that's who God is God is not one of the true things in the world But God is the truth itself which has seized the mind of any scientist any philosopher any seeker after the truth God is not one more good thing in the world But God is goodness itself which has seized anybody when he's living the moral life or seeking the ethically good God is not one more just thing in the world But God is justice itself which has seized the will Of the lawyer or the judge or anyone seeking justice the Bible talks about the primacy of God When you're seeking God the most important to realize is You've already been found by God Remember the Russian cosmonauts went up into space and they kind of sarcastically radioed back to Earth Well, we're up in the heavens, and we haven't found God Of course any biblical person would know he'll never find. God that way of course not you don't find God Anywhere in the cosmos he's made, but God is the creative source of all that exists in the cosmos So that's one approach to God beginning [with] our own deep desire Here's a second approach and it comes from our present pope who wrote a great book in 1968 called introduction to Christianity in [that] book he formulates this argument and what I like about it. Is it shows the link between Religion and science because very often those two were seen as enemies. He says [know] At their depth religion and science come together here's why? What does every scientist assume? Whether you're a physicist [a] chemist biologist [psychologist], whatever you are you assume that? being is intelligible That means that the world can be known look even though even the name psychology you know Designates logos word the scientist goes out to meet a world that's imbued with meaning Well, how do you explain [that] how do you explain the universality of [the] meaningfulness of the world? Rotzinger said it's because it's been thought into being in other words the world is not just dumbly they're Rather the world is filled with lagos. It's filled with reason with mine. Which is why when we? Understand the truth. We say we recognize it. He says right you Recognize it you think it again because it's already been thought into being by God so he argues from the objective intelligibility of the world to the existence of a great Intelligence which has thought the world into being here's a third approach the philosophers and theologians have used It's called the argument from contingency. It's a fancy way of saying that the world as we know it Exists, but doesn't have to exist You and I are here, but we don't have to be here. There's nothing Necessary about our being and it's true the world. We know it is fleeting. It's passing Therefore we have to go outside the world to God God who does exist through himself and who therefore? Grounds and creates the whole of the world that we know relatedly dorothy day When she was in the process of coming to the church she was going through a process of conversion. She had a child and One day when [she] was on the porch of her house and she was she was holding her child She said I felt a gratitude that was so enormous That I knew it would correspond to nothing in this world. There was nothing nobody in this world. She could possibly thank That would correspond to the gratitude. She was feeling. That's it. That's exactly it what she was sensing was God This world myself my child none of it has to be here yet. It's here and the proper responses Thank you to the person who made you

Channel: Bishop Robert Barron

Views: 311,318

Rating: 4.6709108 out of 5

Keywords: faithclips, faith, clips, God, believe, truth, human, Christian, Jesus, Christ, Holy, Spirit, Father, Son, priest, Robert, Barron

Id: qP2rLgrBtTI

Length: 6min 22sec (382 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 11 2007

Reddit Comments

[u/demalteb]

I've had a history of love/hate/fascination with Robert Barron. At times I hate his smugness and seeming arrogance; at times I feel his intelligence, how well-spoken and clearly well-educated he is. At times I just hate all the apologist BS he spouts.

In this video, he's really just rehashing tired old arguments for god. And I can't help but feel sad for him. It's obvious to me he really believes this stuff.

He really believes that "scientists all assume that the universe is intelligible, therefore it really is intelligible, therefore it is meaningful - and you have no explanation, therefore god". I totally don't think that he's lying. He really means it. He really falls for this.

It's incredibly sad.

[u/MisterBlizno]

I glanced at the comments under the video. All that I saw in my brief glimpse were from Bishop Barron!

I checked sorting. It was set to "top comments". I changed it to most recent and saw comments from other people. Did the bishop set his comments to be the top ones?