Ethics, Science, and the Search for God: Exploring Morality and the Universe
105. Virtue
Nobody is called virtuous for having done a single good deed. Virtue is a stable disposition of the will to accommodate moral standards with the repetition of good acts. The perfectly virtuous conduct is essential for humans to strive for. Virtue does not mean a lack of passion but placing these passions in the exact place they deserve.
Aristotle identified four virtues, called Cardinal virtues, which revolve around moral life: justice, prudence, fortitude, and temperance.
- Prudence dictates what must be done in each case so that the action is against the moral order.
- Justice gives to each according to the law it belongs.
- Fortitude makes one brave when subject to risks.
- Temperance contains the desire for pleasure in the right order.
The stable disposition to act immorally is Vice.
107. Two Sets of Duties
- Duties to oneself: To preserve and perfect one’s own being, intelligence (try to know everything you need), and to improve its control (yielding under moral standards). The body and life are necessary conditions for the attainment of their temporal and eternal purpose. This is the natural instrument of the soul and mind. This duty is opposed to suicide, and suicide is an authority that only God can compete with.
- Duties to others: To understand others, one must be truthful because lying is always bad and breaks the foundation of social life (trust). Other duties include the right to preserve reputation and honor, the right to life and health, physical integration, and the right to private property. The latter ensures that independence is necessary for the free disposal of material goods. In addition to this right, it is limited by the demands of social justice. Finally, the legality to a duel.
108. Man and Social Life
Man is destined for social life, neither spiritually nor physically self-sufficient. Think of the conjugal, civil, and cultural partnerships. These are stable unions of several individuals, as well as a moral union with a common purpose.
It remains to point out one essential element: authority, the power to effectively direct the members toward the end of society. Without authority, there would not be effective cooperation because of selfishness and laziness. Ethics is interested in what is called natural, those to which man is destined by nature.
109. Domestic Partnership
The family is a partnership of two partial societies: the married couple and the father. The conjugal partnership is a stable union of man and woman for the procreation and education of children. The essence and purpose of marriage are immutably set by nature.
Procreation and education are the primary ends of marriage. We demonstrate anatomical and physiological traits of each sex and sexuality. For this, it is not enough to be intelligent and free beings. For the generation that should follow, education is given by parents endowed by nature with special skills.
This is the primary reason for their dignity and need, looking directly at the good of the human species, imposing the duty of an intimate, conscious, and constant love of friendship to bear the burden which is the education of children. Finally, it provides the only lawful way to satisfy the sexual instinct. The achievement of these goals requires the stability of the family. Education requires the collaboration of father and mother, and mutual aid is impossible without a stable bond between the spouses.
Marriage must be monogamous, one man with one woman. Polyandry makes the attribution of paternity uncertain, and polygamy seriously jeopardizes domestic peace and puts women at a noticeable disadvantage. Marriage is also inseparable, calling it the dignity of women, education of children, and mutual assistance to be spouses.
Stephen Hawking and Spontaneous Creation
Stephen Hawking, in his book “The Grand Design,” says: “Since there is a law of gravity, the universe could and think of nothing. The spontaneous creation is the reason that there is something rather than nothing, no need to invoke God as the one who created the universe.”
A student of philosophy or empirical science knows that “nothing comes from nothing.” If there is an effect, there should be a cause that made it possible. Before Pasteur admitted the “spontaneous generation,” we cannot return to that absurd explanation. To say that the universe spontaneously appeared out of nowhere is a serious escape from the problem since any effect must have a cause.
Science, Religion, and the Search for God
In the clash between science and religion, religion invaded the field of science—Galileo’s science—and now science invades Theology. The experimental sciences work on the physical and should avoid entering the metaphysical target; it is beyond their field of study.
Reality has physical manifestations that are the subject of scientific research. Another part is not material but is absolutely real. Thought, the soul, and God are real but not material. Thought is based on operations in the brain, only investigated by science in electrical or chemical events, but science is in complete ignorance about the emergence of thoughts, desires, and feelings.
The spirit, substantially united to the body but essentially independent of it in its highest functions: to know, love, hope, resisting or yielding to the impulses of the body. The above experiences are not governed by the laws of matter; our minds are free and can program all acts if they try.
We are not subject to the laws of matter because they are not optional but necessary; they are always met, like the law of gravity. Our bodies are subject to the laws of matter, but our minds work freely and independently of matter, taking a seat in it, and may deny the claims of the body.
The sciences work in the field of material fact and should not exceed the limits of reviewing God. The search for God is a very easy task for some, long and arduous but successful for others, some will seek life, and others will give up the search. The proud will see himself and not care about their fellow men or God. Only a single heart can see the wonders of creation, traces of the Creator. The hidden God is shown to those who seek with humility and perseverance.
It was believed that the best place to find God was the loneliness of the desert. Recognition should be from our limitations. From them, we can sense His presence in the immensity of the universe, the unleashed forces of nature, the relationship between minerals, plants, and animals. God is also behind pain, disease, poverty, and death. He gave us intelligence to solve the evils that result from our imperfect nature.
It all makes sense; we may not like or understand it, but God knows how to assess each of our pains or renunciations. The sense of things as undeserved or cruel will be seen through the perspective that the path gives. Or perhaps the meaning we cannot know in this life. God gives meaning to what seems to have none.
Religion and Science in the Pursuit of Truth
Religion, like science, constitutes a unique power in the effort to reach the desired goal: truth. Each one does it with its tools. The scientific method has had such spectacular success that it wants to claim a monopoly of knowledge and truth. Science becomes narcissistic based on its successes but forgets its limits.
Now we have more things than a thousand years ago, but it is difficult to say whether we are happier. We have complete dominion over all things, but we are fallible and mortal. Poverty, injustice, lack of freedom, and crime have not disappeared.
Maritain emphasizes the primary value of “intuition” in the search for God. Finding the one you love will not be the result of statistics, ratios, or projections we have obtained temporarily. A flash of light does not say it is the person I’m looking for. The same is true with God; we would find God based on the probative value offered by empirical science, but this cannot be. There is no physical evidence of what is real but not material.