Transcript

As we discussed in our last video, God is the source of what science studies.

Whatever science discovers, the kind of causality that a creature has is never in competition with God's transcendent first causality of the world and of every being in it.

This means that God can bring things about in a radically different way than any creature can.

When creatures are secondary causes, God is always standing behind them as the first cause.

Within the creaturely frame of reference, a reality might be indeterminate, but this doesn't mean that it's uncaused or absolutely random.

God is still the source of its being, of its actuality, and of its causal power.

So, for example, it may be the case that, after exposure to radiation, we'll discover unpredictable genetic mutations in the DNA of an animal cell.

Even if we posit that the mutation that results is undetermined and results from a truly contingent event, St. Thomas would still hold that God, acting as a transcendent first cause, is able to guide this contingent process to its result.

To put it another way, randomness refers to indeterminacy within the framework of this world, within the framework of creaturely or secondary causes.

But God, who is the source of the entire framework and of all the order, symmetry, relations, and causal structures of reality as a whole, and who makes everything have being in actuality, God can activate a particular state of affairs through indeterminate or so-called random processes.

This means that it's possible for God, standing outside of the world as a first cause, to guide the unfolding of the whole of reality and of each thing in the world, whether it's a subatomic particle or an atom, a molecule, or an organism, or even an asteroid.

God can guide them all according to a divine plan of governance or divine providence.

He does this while it remains the case that within the created frame of reference, there may be no determining cause that necessitates any particular event.

Seen from within creation, those events are undetermined and happen by chance.

But nonetheless, they happen according to God's infallible providential plan.

This is true even of physical things and natural realities, according to Aquinas.

But it's also true of a higher realm of indeterminacy, which we call freedom.

Freedom is not just the absence of a materially determining or necessary cause.

Indeed, Aquinas doesn't think that quantum indeterminacy explains our freedom.

Rather, freedom emerges from a higher source.

It belongs to a realm that transcends matter because it's the act of a spiritual nature.

We are creatures made up of matter and spirit.

We have a material dimension that's subject to the laws of physics.

Our bodies, for example, are subject to gravity.

But we also have a dimension of our existence, our minds, our free choices.

And these things are not the act of a bodily organ.

They transcend the limits of matter.

As such, then, creaturely freedom is radically undetermined by material causes.

Even if you could hit me over the head with a rock or deprive me of food or inject chemical substances into my brain and therefore affect my ability to use my mind, even so, the free act of my mind is not caused by material causes.

It emerges from the realm of the spirit.

As we've explained in earlier videos about divine providence, freedom, and evil, God is able to move the free creature, both angels and human beings, to make a truly free act, such that God can bring about a specific result through the genuinely free acts of human beings.

So, within the frame of reference of creation, those free human acts are truly undetermined.

In fact, that's a part of what we mean when we say that the act is free.

And yet, because God is the author of human nature and the creator of every human person, and because he gives to every creature its very power of acting and of willing, God can move us to act freely according to his divine plan.

This means that in the end, and when rightly understood, there is no conflict between God's providence and scientific theories about the Big Bang, quantum mechanics, and evolution.

God guides the unfolding of everything that is, because he is the source and the end of all things.

For readings, podcasts, and more videos like this, go to Aquinas101.com.

While you're there, be sure to sign up for one of our free video courses on Aquinas, and don't forget to like and share with your friends, because it matters what you think!