Chapter 5
We have seen that there is an intelligent and personal God who is the Creator and Ruler of the world. Let us now consider man, for religion means the bond between man and God.
Man is a creature, first of all, with understanding. Mere matter does not understand, so man is more than matter.
Man is also a creature with free will. He can say yes or no, and no one can force him against his will. Mere matter does not determine itself, so man is more than matter.
Man is capable of generalizing, or rising in thought above what his senses perceive. For example, he has ideas of the following things which do not exist in themselves: endlessness, nothing, future, abstract. No one ever saw an abstraction, yet man knows the meaning of abstract. No one ever saw nothing or felt it, or realized it by any of the senses, yet the mind knows what nothing means, has an idea of nothing. Matter cannot abstract and generalize and compare, so again man is more than matter.
There is a power in man which commands his body, forces it to do what he wishes, even forces himself to do what he shrinks from. A man may feel tired, his body may be fatigued, his limbs may be sore and injured, but he can compel his tired body to work on. Mere matter cannot command, so man is more than matter.
Man can originate and compose. The poet gives us lofty ideas, the musician creates marvellous harmonies and melodies, the workman invents new devices. Mere matter cannot thus soar aloft and penetrate into the realms of possibility.
As you read these lines, you are doing your own thinking, and as a result you may alter your plan of life. Matter cannot estimate and decide, so man is more than matter.
That power in man which is not matter we call spirit. Man is therefore a spiritual being, made up of matter and spirit. Religion means the bringing of our spirit into right relation with the Creator. Religion has no connection with matter or animals because they cannot comprehend. God made them as they are, and they are incapable of doing otherwise than as determined.
Matter is subject to fixed laws which no power on earth can change; animals are subject to fixed laws, called instinct, which nothing can change. You can teach an animal a few tricks by force of training, but this is merely artificial, like painting wood to resemble oak. But man is independent; he can do as he likes; he comprehends; he is the only creature who can defy law; he can use his liberty even against his own good. A drunkard, a gambler, a libertine, may know that he is bringing disease and death on himself, but he may go ahead. Man can even defy God himself. And he does. That makes sin, when a man deliberately does what he knows is wrong.
Religion then means bringing man into harmony with God, bringing him into God's way of living, bringing him back to what is right. Man has a tendency to be a law unto himself, to do as he likes. But God gave man liberty to serve Him, to do His will. He could have made man like the rest of nature. subject to fixed laws, but He did not. He made him free to give him the opportunity of showing loyalty and allegiance to Him who so wonderfully made him.
God's law obliges man to direct his life to please God and not to suit himself, and yet we see many people living just to suit themselves. But is God to be trifled with? We must obey the laws of our country. How about God's laws, which are more sacred? Because God is good and patient and does not punish instantly, it does not follow that man can go on sinning.
For after death, the judgment!
We shall next consider the immortality of the soul.
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Adapted from God and Myself, An Inquiry into the True Religion (1917)
by Fr. Martin J. Scott, S.J.
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