Man's Capacity for God

Each of us has an innate desire for happiness.  Eventually, sooner for some than others, we come to realize that nothing in this world can permanently satisfy this desire.  Some spend their whole lives pursuing a way to fill this emptiness.  This search is our innate desire for God who is the only one who can fulfill us. We can each come to know God in two complementary ways.

First, we observe our world and reason our way up to God.  We have been created with an intellect with an astounding ability to grasp the intelligibility of our universe.  We can see the intricate way the world fits together and see the truth of God in His design.  We can see the beauty of the stars, moon, and sun and see how that must reflect the beauty of their creator.  We can see His power in rivers, waterfalls, lightning, and hail.  The love a family shares is a sample of the love God has for us.  These are all excellent guides, but they cannot show us the entire picture.

God in His infinite majesty reaches down to us.  He reveals the truths of His nature that our reason cannot comprehend.  He shares Himself with us intimately as a Father to His child.  Thus shared, we can glimpse His true nature now and hope patiently to know Him more fully when we behold Him face to face.

Due to our finite nature and the limitations of language we can struggle to describe an infinite God. We can most easily describe God by explaining what He is not.  While accurate, this leaves much to be desired.  A second useful way is an analogy.  All contingent reality bears a resemblance to their creator.  We can speak about God being like those things although in a much more perfect way.

Thus, we can know God in our limited, finite way.  We can reason about what God must be like.  God reveals a deeper knowledge of Himself.  We communicate the truths of God to each other through means of language, although imperfectly.  This knowledge of God binds the teachings of the faith together.