Critical Mass

4.  Thomas’s Twofold Understanding of Scientific Demonstration

Because it is not self-evident to us, if we are to have scientific knowledge of God, we need to offer some demonstration.  We need to make a demonstration a posteriori (to argue from what is prior relative to us).  We can only know God by means of His effects.  We do not have an immediate cognitive knowledge of God.  Because God’s effects are not proportionate to God Himself, we can only have an imperfect knowledge of God.  At the conclusion of any demonstration of God’s existence, we may know that He exists, but cannot know God.  We cannot exhaust the truth of God.