Natural and Supernatural

There is a very common usage of the word supernatural by both protestants and Catholics that is not Catholic at all and that probably originated in the literary studies of C.S. Lewis, beloved by protestants and Catholics equally (this present writer excepted). It usually occurs in a context referring to Creation by God. Here is a quotation from Father Robert Spitzer’s New Proofs for the Existence of God, (Eerdmans, 2010):

“evidence of the extremely high improbability of an anthropic universe (one that will allow the emergence of any life form), implying the possibility of supernatural design…”(p.4, number 2)

Another occurrence is on page 13 – where Father Spitzer quotes with complete approval, the words of the Nobel prize winning physicist Arno Penzias:

“Astronomy leads us to a unique event, a universe which was created out of nothing, and delicately balanced to provide exactly the conditions required to support life. In the absence of an absurdly improbable accident, the observations of modern science seem to suggest an underlying, one might say, supernatural plan.” Again, on page 22, we have this statement by Father Spitzer:

“We should begin by clarifiying what science can really tell us about a beginning of the universe and supernatural causation….” – and finally, on page 23: “These seemingly highly improbable conditions – (which are sometimes called “cosmic coincidences”or “anthropic coincidences”) can imply an element of supernatural fine-tuning, if no satisfactory naturalistic explanation can be found for them. This evidence is discussed in Chapter Two.”

In all fairness to Father Spitzer and to a definite shift in his usage in the rest of the book, of which more later, it must be emphasized that he is speaking from within the evolutionary world view which insists upon its naturalism. This encourages, therefore, the usage of super-natural, if one wishes to make the case for some utterly transcendent Cause and Being. And Father Spitzer does this in much later pages of his book, especially in Chapter Six and the sub-section on causality. His shift of terms is noticeable, for example, on page 45, where he states: “This transcendent cause of the universe may also be the cause of time itself..”

Well, of course this transcendent cause is the cause of all things and there is much to be said about time and also about the 13.7 billions of years that Father Spitzer accepts uncritically. But for the moment, it may be useful to make some points about the usage of the term supernatural.

The Remnant Speaks

Refer to the “Holy Land”, by Timothy J. Cullen, in the Remnant, November 25, 2012, pp.11-12.

Mr. Cullen is more of a Catholic creationist, probably, than he realizes, when he calls, as did Holy Ghost Father Denis Fahey, many years ago in The Church and Farming, for Catholics to return to the land. In fact, everything presupposes creation and especially resonant of the original days of Creation Week is the nature of the land, of the earth, out of which, literally, God formed all other corporeal beings except the celestial bodies of Day Four. But notice, not only is the land and earth man’s special place over which he has been given dominion, (Gen.1:26), but far more intimately connected with his very nature, his body part is from the slime of the earth (Gen.2:7) – which indicates the predominant necessity in the human composite for water, perhaps even more so than in other living creatures.

But please, come with me just for a moment to Genesis One and examine just what God tells us He did on Day One. Please don’t pass out in horror! I am not a deluded, fanatical "fundamentalist”,unless you will also include St. Basil, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Gregory (all of them! – all of the Gregory’s). St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Robert Bellarmine, et alia; for I am a Traditionalist in the fullest sense, following the great teachers of the Church from the beginning. So please allow me to point out some indications that I suggest God tells us He created on Day One.

Genesis One tells us that on Day One God created the Heavens and the Earth. And the earth was covered with water. This plainly is a revealing of the greater part of the entire inanimate domain of matter. But the earth was enveloped in darkness and so very quickly (probably instantaneously), God said “Let there be light” and light was made. Here in these first three verses of Genesis One is almost all of Catholic cosmology. And the point I wish to make about the land and it’s intrinsic, essential goodness, even “holiness” – is the fact that God used the inanimate elements of earth to form all the living creatures, and for man, it seems, an abundance of water, because in Genesis 2:7, God specifies that He made man, not only first of all in His own Image and Likeness, specifying most particularly man’s soul, but from “the slime of the earth” – He formed his bodily substance.

So the land of earth is very special for us humans, not only as having been given the stewardship of dominion over it (Gen.1:26) –but also, and more intimately, as being the very constituent of our bodily nature. No wonder we have an almost innate love for this land of ours, what becomes in time the patria – the homeland – the fatherland or motherland of nations and the true basis of all patriotism.

These are just a few of the thoughts brought about in me by reading the article of Mr. Cullen on “The Holy Land.”

 

Final Part of The Material-Formal Cause of the Body of the Universe

Finally, two more important points. One being that fermions, the family of particles to which the electrons belong, have proven impossible to discretize. This is a very strong factor in favor of the basically electrical nature of the substance of the body of the universe. The second point would be that fermions have a very special property and that is chirality. It concerns the spin and force of the electronic particles/waves. In biology, chirality is called handedness. It is a core feature of the standard model of physics. Tong says nothing of chirality being peculiar to living forms. But he concludes his article with these words:

"The standard model, based on three interlinking forces, seems to be an arbitrary construction. It is only when thinking about the chiral fermions that its true beauty emerges. It is a perfect jigsaw puzzle, with the three pieces locked together in the only manner possible. The chiral nature of fermions in the standard model makes everything fit together." (p.49)

But what of the famous Higgs Boson, the so-called "God-particle"? - David Tong says:

"The building blocks of our theories are not particles but fields: continuous fluid-like objects spread throughout space. The electric and magnetic fields are familiar examples, but there are also an electron field, a quark field, a Higgs field and several more. The objects that we call fundamental particles are not fundamental. Instead they are ripples of continuous fields." (p.49)

The fact that particles mutate into other particles when they interact also challenges the basic nature of particle-matter rather than continuous matter. But the problem is solved when one sees the substance as continuous, electric in nature and as substance containing the physical and probably mathematical laws that govern all the mutations and interactions of the atomic structures which are discrete and accidents both proper and less than proper, of the higher substance - the body of the universe. There is much more to be said about this subject, even from this one very provocative article and its references.

I beg all Catholic scientists seriously to consider this application of Aristotelian-Thomistic metaphysical principles to the major problem of modern physical science. For how much longer can the Large Hadron Collider in Cern, Switzerland, go on smashing protons in search of an ultimate particle to explain all the other particles? Such a search is in vain. The only thing that can explain the marvelous order and unity of atomic actions, reactions and interactions is some higher material substance: the first of all created beings: the universe, a "marriage" of heaven and earth, the one body of the world we inhabit with angelic beings who preside over the celestial bodies surrounding our earth and also with the Principalities and Powers - especially who have special guardianship of our earth with its empires, nations, cities, towns and villages - even hamlets like Fatima.

This is the universe over which Our Lady reigns as Queen with Jesus Christ - Word of God - Her Son and Our King - May They be blessed forever!

The Material-Formal Cause of the Body of the Universe-#Three

 

This is a precise description, in terms of modern physics, of how the proper accidents of any substance (or substantial form), obey the laws created in them by God, and thus proceed to function according to the substantial form (nature) of the substance. I love and rejoice that Professor Tong uses the concept of obedience in his description of the atoms as they obey the fixed mathematical rules inscribed in the substantial form of the body of the universe. This obedience is true of all the elements (atomic structures). They obey the fixed mathematical rules of the substantial forms into which enter; plant, animal, human. In this way they climb, as it were, the ladder of the hierarchy of being and even mirror, as I like to think, in their very humble and completely material way, the completely spiritual hierarchy of the celestial choirs of angels from Seraphim to guardian angels, from the fiery plasmic elements down to the most lowly of the minerals, such as lead. And all of this God created, ex nihilo and in toto on Day one of Creation Week.

If the higher principles of Aristotelian-Thomistic metaphysics are followed, the disputes over time and space will be solved. For example, the dimensions erroneously linked with time as an absolutized space-time continuum are really two proper accidents of the body of the universe. Time is essentially related to motion, and most specifically, to the motions of the heavenly bodies: the sun, moon and stars, (especially the constellations). Space is more realistically termed place, as it is in Aristotle's categories. And the theories of mathematician Benoit Mandelbrot bear this out. His maps are all of very real places.

Computer simulations of cosmic models are able only to perform with the discrete-particle type of basic structure, and so, David Tong is forced to conclude that "we do not know the answer..." as to whether the underlying, really governing structure is discrete or continuous. Metaphysical principles seem to favor the continuum native of matter as substantial with the discrete particles as accidents in the Aristotelian sense. In the last analysis, I believe we will be able to say that both Plato and Aristotle were correct. Plato held for the ultimately mathematical nature of matter, but it is Aristotle's analysis of motion that would favor the continuous.

 

The Material- Formal Cause of the Body of the Universe #Two

 

The present point of emphasis is that here in an article of Scientific American, a professor of Theoretical Physics at Cambridge,  England, is describing for us, very precisely and beautifully, the material cause; but this material cause only of the universal substance with its accidents of the body of the universe. This body of the universe is also the first of all secondary causes, created on Day One of Creation week.

With these facts in mind, listen to the words of David Tong, Cambridge physicist:

"Wilhelm Oswald...pointed out that the laws of thermodynamics refer only to continuous quantities such as energy. Similarly, Maxwell's theory of electromagnetism describes electric and magnetic fields as continuous. Max Planck, who would later pioneer quantum mechanics,...Despite the great success that the atomic theory has so far enjoyed, ultimately it will have to be abandoned in favor of the assumption of continuous matter." (p.48) Two important points here:

1. Discrete or digital matter will never be abandoned, as Tong later shows, because all accidents are beautifully discrete and..... 2). even continuous matter is still quantitative; in fact, measurable.


What makes it stable, even immutable, is its form. The formal principle (and thus causes) of the universe is its sphericity within which all realities are hierarchically arranged. The first and fourth ways of St. Thomas' demonstrations of God's existence manifest these two formal principles of the substantial form of the universe. But for all corporeal beings, of which the universe is the first, quantity or measurability is the very essence of its being along with its spherical-hierarchical form.

The next quote to give is the following: "The integers labeling chemical elements - are objective....The integers in atomic physics are here to stay...Another example occurs in spectroscopy - the study of light emitted and absorbed by matter. An atom of a particular type can emit only very specific colors of light, resulting in a distinctive fingerprint for each atom. Unlike human fingerprints, the spectra of atoms obey fixed mathematical rules. And these rules are governed by integers...But in the functioning of the system, see what happens. Tong says it is a little bit of mathematical magic...Take the hydrogen atom: the electron orbits the proton at very specific distances. These fixed orbits translate into the spectrum of the atom. The atom is analogous to an organ pipe, which produces a discrete series of notes even though the air movement is continuous." (p.48)

Tong is obliged to describe the integers in terms of evolutionary, emergent quantities. But form precedes function, the entire body or system is present, by creation ex nihilo and in toto, with all parts present, before functional processes begin, and therefore: "In systems such as the hydrogen atom, the processes described....mold discreteners from underlying continuity. (p.48)

 

The Material-Formal Cause of the Body of the Universe

Without using the proper scholastic terminology, Dr. David Tong, Professor of Theoretical Physics at the University of Cambridge in England, describes the Material-Formal cause of the body of the universe. He uses the terminology of modern physics which readers of Scientific American may be assumed to understand without any difficulty. And so, his article in the December 2012 issue of this magazine, “The Unguantum Quantum”, is truly a breakthrough for Catholic cosmology. The sub-title of the article (on page 48) – sums it up: 


“Quantum theorists often speak of the world as being pointillist at the smallest scales. Yet a closer look at the laws of nature suggests that the physical world is actually continuous – more analog than digital.” (p.48).

David Tong understands that this debate about the ultimate nature of the material world – “is one of the oldest in physics; whereas the atomists conceived of reality as discrete, other Greek philosophers – such as Aristotle, thought of it as a continuum…”

Now to put it all in a philosophical nutshell, and in Aristotelian-Thomistic terms, the continuous nature of the material universe describes the substance, while the discrete, atomic structures describe the accidents or properties of the physical universe.  I am assuming that the universe, as a whole, (the totum of Lateran IV) was created ex nihilo and in toto on Day One of the Genesis account; the Heavens and Earth, water and light (Genesis 1:1-3).  This is the body of the universe; a wholly material substance, with no soul but the formal aspect which is circular or spherical and manifested itself immediately in the temporal rotations of light and the concentric spheres around the central earth.  As St. Thomas frequently insists, matter never exists without form.  And material substances, therefore, never exist without their proper accidents.  What David Tong is describing in physical terms is the substantial but material nature of the universe.  This substance, which includes the Prime Matter of the scholastics, is continous in nature, thus always in motion, and, indeed, the very nature of motion which requires (1) an agent, and (2) time. 

 

The first and always necessary agent is God the Creator - our Triune God, Father, Word and Holy Spirit, all explicitly present in the opening verses of Genesis.  God is Creator ex nihilo and in toto only in the beginning.  Thereafter, He is necessarily present as Governor and Sustainer-Maintainer - (the 5th Way of St. Thomas). 

Mission Statement for this Blog - Part Two

The Importance of Creation and the Church - Part Two

God said as much when He commanded the animals and humankind to “increase and multiply.” He did not say this to the plants because, as He explained, their seed is within them and they reproduce without the copulation of individual plants, as with animals and man. The point to grasp is that there must be chickens before eggs; there must be cats before we can have kittens, dogs before puppies and mom and dad before Junior. (The implications here for cloning and all such artificial reproduction are tremendous.) And all of which abundantly proves that everything presupposes creation.

This absolute primacy of creation is further proven by the fact that if creation by God alone is obscured, or worse, falsified, that is, made to seem false by an evil ideology such as evolutionism, then not only the supernatural order of Divine Grace is polluted in its very essence, but the natural order is effectively destroyed. We see this clearly demonstrated in such abominations as the legalization of abortion, homosexuality and the alleged dissolution of the marriage bond between one man and one woman, “till death do us part”. Destroy the primacy of creation and of the order that it established, and all else falls like a house of cards. Until Catholics understand this and until a holy pope restores the primacy of creation, just as narrated in Genesis I, the present disorder will only increase with the loss of inumerable souls that could be saved by a proclamation of the truth.

This is the task of the one true church founded by Our Divine Lord and personified by His Immaculate Mother.

She alone must guard and teach the truth of all things, to counter and finally destroy the synthesis of all heresies that today is destroying civilization.

In conclusion, listen to St. Paul writing to the Colossians: ….giving thanks to God the Father, who hath made us worthy to be partakers of the lot of the saints in light, Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness and hath translated us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in Whom we have redemption through His Blood, the remission of sins; Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature; for in Him were all things created in heaven and earth, visible and invisible, whether Thrones or Dominations, or Principalities or Powers: all things were created by Him and in Him. And He is before all, and by Him all things endure. And He is Head of the Body, the Church, Who is the beginning, the first-born from the dead; that in all things He may hold the primacy, because in Him it hath well pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell and through Him to reconcile all things unto Himself, making peace through the Blood of His cross, both as to the things that are on earth and the things that are in heaven. (Colossians, 1:12-20)

Those who think an emphasis upon creation would somehow detract from Jesus Christ, should ponder well this passage from St. Paul. And of necessity all consideration of creation must include Genesis 3:15 and Apocalypse 12:1, for the Son cannot be separated from the Mother, the woman of Genesis and the Apocalypse, in these eternal enmities.

How is it that Catholics, who for how many centuries heard at the close of every low Mass, the opening words of St. John’s gospel:  "In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by Him, and without Him was made nothing that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of man; and the light shineth in darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it…." (John 1: 1-14)

Even more so than the atheist for whom, according to St. Paul there is no excuse (Rom. 1:20) – even more so can there be no excuse for Catholics to deny the Genesis narrative so fully explained by St. Paul and St. John in terms that approach the mystical. They absolutely proclaim the literal, historical truth and thus refute all attempts to reduce them to myth or mere allegory. The entire historical and literal veracity of Genesis I-II must be restored in continuity with the Hexaemera of the Fathers and their unanimous belief in geocentricity.

The fact is that a literal Six-Day creation week, including a geocentric cosmology today, may call forth only ridicule and even persecution. But truth is truth and every Catholic is obliged by baptismal vows to say with our Divine Lord: “For this was I born, for this I came into the world – to give testimony of the Truth” (John 18:37)

Furthermore needed, is the interior life of prayer and mortification (as taught by all the great classics of the spiritual life from the Desert Fathers and Benedictine Monasticism up to and including the great Carmelite Saints – John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila; Therese of Lisieux and Elizabeth of the Trinity and after them – St. Francis De Sales and so on. All true spiritual life leading to mystical union with God must, of necessity, be based on the truths of both reason and faith and thus on a true theology of creation. The only alternative has already been demonstrated for us in the false mysticism of Teilhard de Chardin. His false mysticism is the source of all so-called New Age Spiritualities. The Monitum against his works issued by Pope John XXIII has not been adhered to or heeded by the rebellious spirit of Vatican II, which encouraged all heretical novelties – giving rise to the triumph of Modernism that is now destroying the Church and World.