The existence of God

 
We present in this issue the topic #57 from the Systematized Study of the Spiritist Doctrine, that is being presented weekly, according to the programme elaborated by the Brazilian Spiritist Federation (FEB), structured in 6 modules and 147 topics.

If the reader uses this program for a study group, we suggest that questions proposed be discussed freely before the reading of the text that follows. If you would like to study alone, we ask you to try to answer the questions at first and only then read the text that follows. The answer key can be found at the end of the lesson.

Questions

1. What are the most relevant principles of the Spiritist Doctrine?

2. The materialists are opposed to the existence of God, an interesting point deemed unanswerable for them. What are they trying to get at?

3. What is the main point presented by the Spiritism as an evidence of existence of God?

4. How does the Spiritist Doctrine define God?

Text

The existence of God is a fundamental point in Spiritism

1. One of the key points of the Spiritist Doctrine is the existence of God as the Creator of everything that exists. Another, likewise fundamental, is the existence of Spirits, as His creations; another one is the principle of spiritual nature of the human soul, considered as incarnated Spirit, who makes up the conscientious, permanent and endless uniqueness of the man.

2. Everything else the Spirits revealed – the plurality of worlds, the incarnation and reincarnation, the Law of cause and effect, the need of probations as a way to progress and expiations –, all this, that reveals the supreme wisdom of the Creator, is a natural consequence of those basic points. It stands out, though, first and foremost, the principle of the existence of the Eternal Creator.

3. Kardec began “The Spirits’ Book” with a chapter totally focusing God and evidences of His existence. In this book, the Compiler asked the Spirits where we could find the evidence that God exists, and so they answered: “The axiom which you apply in all your scientific researches, 'There is no effect without a cause.' Search out the cause of whatever is not the work of man, and reason will furnish the answer to your question." (4).

4. In “Genesis”, his last work, after explaining, in chapter I, the Spiritist Revelation, the Compiler once again talks of the existence of God, as soon as he starts chapter II, showing that it is the most important aspect of the Doctrine.

God won’t show Himself, but through His works

5. The compiler of Spiritism examines as it follows the question of those who oppose to the existence of God the thought that the works from the so-called Nature are produced by material forces that act automatically, because of the law of attraction and repulsion, where everything occurs, both in Plantae and Animalia Kingdom, with automatic regularity where no intelligence is required. The man – according to the oppositions – moves his arm when and how he wants to. The one, though, who moved it the exact same way, since the crib until the grave, would be a robot. So, the organic forces of Nature are purely automatic.

6. All of this is correct, said Kardec, but these forces are effects that must have a cause. They are material and mechanical, but they are put into action, distributed, proper to the needs of everything by an intelligence that is not the man’s. The useful application of these forces is an intelligent effect, which qualifies it as an intelligent cause.

7. Spiritism gives the man an idea of God, through the sublimity of the Revelation, which is according to the most perfect rationality.

8. We are convinced by the existence of the Creator not needing to use other evidences that do not come from the sheer contemplation of the Universe, where God is revealed through wise laws and admirable works that makes up such a set of harmony where there is a perfect adequacy of the means to the ends, and it turns out to be impossible not to see behind such a mechanism the action of a Supreme Intelligence, as the Spirits made a point of emphasizing in the answer given to the opening question of “The Spirits’ Book”: “God is the Supreme Intelligence - First Cause of all things.” (The Spirits’ Book, question 1).

The celestial mechanics cannot be understood by itself

9. This is how they understand, in an unborn feeling of His existence and power, all of those who did not let themselves got totally dominated by the terrible numbing of intelligence and human feelings, which is pride, figuring in the harmonious mechanism where lies the universal movements the invaluable existence of a first transcendental engine. “The celestial mechanics cannot be understood by itself– Léon Denis wrote -, and the existence of a starting engine is a must. The primitive nebula, mother of the Sun and the planets, was animated of a spinning movement. But who would make such a movement? “We answer promptly: God”

10. As admitted Léon Denis, already enlighten by Spiritism, so did Albert Einstein, with all the rigours of his logical thinking. Much he thought searching the truth, Einstein acquired a high degree of intuition which led him, the same ways as other things, also admitting the existence of God, as the necessary source of energy that makes everything to move in the Universe.

11. Prior to Einstein, so Isaac Newton had to admit the necessary existence of a transcendental cause and of a first engine to explain the movement of the planets. Despite finding out the great law of universal gravitation, that would probably solve this millennial problem, in the end of his book “Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy” the great mathematician declared he was powerless to explain those movements only under the laws of Mechanics.

Answer Key 

1. What are the most relevant principles of the Spiritist Doctrine? A.: The plurality of worlds, the incarnation and reincarnation, the Law of cause and effect, the need of probations as a way to progress and expiations –, all this, that reveals the supreme wisdom of the Creator, is a natural consequence of those basic points. It stands out, though, first and foremost, the principle of the existence of the Eternal Creator.

2. The materialists are opposed to the existence of God, an interesting point deemed unanswerable for them. What are they trying to get at? A.: Those who oppose to the existence of God the thought that the works from the so-called Nature are produced by material forces that act automatically, because of the law of attraction and repulsion, where everything occurs, both in Plantae and Animalia Kingdom, with automatic regularity where no intelligence is required. The man – according to the oppositions – moves his arm when and how he wants to. The one, though, who moved it the exact same way, since the crib until the grave, would be a robot. So, the organic forces of Nature would be purely automatic.

3. What is the main point presented by the Spiritism as an evidence of existence of God? R.: The axiom which you apply in all your scientific researches, 'There is no effect without a cause.' Search out the cause of whatever is not the work of man, and reason will furnish the answer to your question.

4. How does the Spiritist Doctrine define God? A.: "God is the Supreme Intelligence-First Cause of all things".

5. Were Albert Einstein and Isaac Newton, geniuses of Physics, atheist? A.: No. Einstein acknowledged the existence of God as the necessary source of energy that makes everything to move in the Universe and Newton, prior to him, declared he was powerless to explain those movements only under the laws of Mechanics.

Bibliography:

The Spirits’ Book, by Allan Kardec, item 1.   

Genesis, by Allan Kardec, chap. II, items 1-6.

The Great Puzzle, by Léon Denis, FEB, 6^a. Edition, pages. 70 and 238.