{"id":5144,"date":"2021-08-21T00:42:10","date_gmt":"2021-08-21T00:42:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/?p=5144"},"modified":"2025-05-28T23:05:17","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T23:05:17","slug":"secondary-causes-both-and-not-either-or","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/brendans-island.com\/catholic-citizen\/secondary-causes-both-and-not-either-or\/","title":{"rendered":"Secondary Causes: Both\/And, not Either\/Or"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

How the Grand Canyon was formed depends on who’s talking.<\/p>\n

Scientists say it’s what happened as a river cut through the Colorado Plateau.<\/p>\n

Since I think scientists are right about the Colorado River’s role in making that mile-deep gulch, and<\/strong> think that both are part of God’s creation, maybe an explanation is in order.<\/p>\n

To begin with, I’m a Christian and a Catholic, so I must believe that God made and makes everything. Which doesn’t mean I see God as a supercharged Paul Bunyan.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Origin Tales, Science, Logic and Me<\/h4>\n

\"William<\/a>
\n(From William B. Laughead, via The Red River Lumber Company, Project Gutenberg, used w\/o permission.)<\/span><\/p>\n

American folklore says Paul Bunyan made the Grand Canyon by absent-mindedly dragging his axe, or maybe a ski pole. And credits the giant lumberjack with making many of my country’s other landmarks.<\/p>\n

I enjoy my homeland’s origin myths, but don’t see a point in trying to impose profound spiritual principles on them. As for why I’m also not upset that myths aren’t “true” in a hardwired American literalist sense, that’s another topic.<\/p>\n

Anyway, getting back to Paul Bunyan and secondary causes \u2014<\/p>\n

\"Climate<\/a>A fair fraction of Paul Bunyan stories come from North American lumberjacks via publications like the Duluth News Tribune and The Red River Lumber Company’s “The Marvelous Exploits of Paul Bunyan.”<\/p>\n

Since the written tales grew from oral traditions of lumberjacks, with roots going back at least to the days when companies clear-cut forests,1<\/a><\/sup> I could put on an ‘environmentalist activist’ hat and call for a ban on P. Bunyan tales.<\/p>\n

Because they glorify destruction of forests and cause global warming.<\/p>\n

But I won’t.<\/p>\n

That’d be as silly as slapping the “Satanic” label on Paul Bunyan stories, and insisting that God<\/strong> made the canyon by dragging an axe. Or that, since there’s no scriptural reference the Grand Canyon or Arizona \u2014 neither exists. Because they’re ‘not Biblical.’<\/p>\n

I’d like to think that nobody could be quite that crazy.<\/p>\n

<\/a>I’m [not] a “Belivir”<\/h5>\n

<\/a>But then there’s this discussion, from about eight years back:<\/p>\n

#3
\n“Two errors in posted image:
\n1) The dates are significantly too long ago.
\n2) The Flood, which caused the immediate burial of dinosaurs, etc needed for good quality Fossilization, is absent.”<\/p>\n

#5
\n“Not sure if serious or trolling..”<\/p>\n

#6
\n“Please cite the Bible as your source, so that everyone can be keenly aware you have made no distinction between mythology and science, and thereby safely ignore you.”<\/p>\n

#7
\n“As a beliver in the one true God who created all things, who is over all things even science, and logic…..”
\n(Google Developers post, Google+ (October 11, 2013))<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

<\/a>\"Orlando<\/a>If I thought the “beliver” and an earnest young chap who told me the sun goes around Earth because the Bible says so were typical Christians, then I might be an atheist today.<\/p>\n

Or, more likely, since I’ll willingly think that spirit exists, maybe an agnostic or Buddhist; maybe a Hindu; all of which were popular options in my youth.<\/p>\n

But my parents were both Christian and<\/strong> accepted that this universe is considerably older than Ussher’s six and a quarter millennia.<\/p>\n

I don’t know how many American Protestants are still faithful Ussherites, much less why some Catholics apparently believe that accepting an anti-Catholic British bishop’s chronology is vital to being Catholic. And that’s yet another topic.<\/p>\n

My faith isn’t built on science and logic, but I don’t have to ignore either.<\/p>\n

As for how I can think that God makes everything we see and<\/strong> that stuff like erosion and gravity are real, it’s basically about secondary causes. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 306-308)<\/p>\n

<\/a>“…God Fixed a Certain Order….”<\/h4>\n

\"Detail,<\/a>St. Thomas Aquinas talked about that sort of thing. At length:<\/p>\n

“…God’s immediate provision over everything does not exclude the action of secondary causes; which are the executors of His order, as was said above (Question [19], Articles 5, 8)….\u201d
\n(First Part, Question 22, Article 3)
\n“…For the providence of God produces effects through the operation of secondary causes, as was above shown (Question [22], Article 5)….”
\n(First Part, Question 23, Article 5)
\n“…The fact that secondary causes are ordered to determinate effects is due to God; wherefore since God ordains other causes to certain effects He can also produce certain effects by Himself without any other cause….”
\n(First Part, Question 105, Article 1)
\n“…God fixed a certain order in things in such a way that at the same time He reserved to Himself whatever he intended to do otherwise than by a particular cause. So when He acts outside this order, He does not change….”
\n(First Part, Question 105, Article 6)
\n(“Summa Theologica<\/a>,” Thomas Aquinas (ca. 1265-1274))<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Briefly \u2014 I suspect St. Thomas Aquinas didn’t say anything<\/strong> briefly \u2014 and that’s a very brief excerpt \u2014 I think God creates everything.<\/p>\n

I’d better, if I’m going to be a Catholic. (Genesis 1:1-2:3, 2:4-25; Catechism, 279-314)<\/p>\n

Before I go on, an explanation: why I said “God creates” instead of “God created.”<\/p>\n

<\/a>Genesis and Bemidji, Minnesota<\/h4>\n

<\/a>
\n(From Wikimedia Commons, used w\/o permission.)<\/span>
\n(“Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox” in Bemidji, Minnesota. (2006?))<\/p>\n

<\/a>\"ESO\/INAF-VST\/OmegaCAM,<\/a>Several decades back now, I read a discussion of why God probably doesn’t exist, and anyway couldn’t be all that all-knowing or all powerful.<\/p>\n

The author pointed out that nothing can travel faster than light, so if all Hell broke out and God was a light year away, the “all-knowing” deity wouldn’t have a clue until a year later.<\/p>\n

That almost makes sense.<\/p>\n

If God was like us, an entity existing in a particular part of time and space, then God couldn’t know everything.<\/p>\n

But since I’m a Catholic, thinking of God as a supercharged Paul Bunyan, living in Bemidji, Minnesota, or any other spot in this space-time continuum: that’s not an option.<\/p>\n

God isn’t ‘in<\/strong>‘ time and space. Not the way I am, at any rate. He’s ‘there,’ immediately aware and present at every time and every place<\/strong>: past, present and future. (Catechism, 300, 600)<\/p>\n

So “In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth \u2014,” as Genesis 1:1 puts it, is accurate enough: from our viewpoint. The moment at which this universe began is in our past, hence “God created.”<\/p>\n

But God, again, isn’t ‘in’ time and space. Although the Almighty is still ‘here and now,’ and “at every moment, upholds and sustains” every creature. (Catechism, 301)<\/p>\n

So that’s why I use present tense when talking about God creating this universe. It’s my way of saying that God’s actively engaged in creation in whatever “now” I’m in at the moment.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Talking About God, Appreciating God’s Work<\/h4>\n

\"My<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Illustration<\/a>God is large and in charge. (Catechism, 268)<\/p>\n

“Our God is in heaven
\nand does whatever he wills.”
\n(Psalms 115:3)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I figure God could make stars, planets and people pop in and out of existence: but that’s not how this universe works.<\/p>\n

I’m assuming that God isn’t also updating our memories to make reality in the current ‘now’ closely resemble ‘five minutes ago’ and ‘last year.’<\/p>\n

At any rate, I think that God weaves knowable physical laws into reality’s fabric. What we observe are parts of creation acting in ways determined by their nature. (Catechism, 268, 279, 299, 301-305; “Gaudium et spes,” 5, 15, Second Vatican Council, Bl. Pope Paul VI (December 7, 1965))<\/p>\n

Folks who converted the Genesis narratives and other parts of Sacred Scripture from oral tradition to writing had a habit of giving God credit for events in this universe.<\/p>\n

I could claim that, since they didn’t discuss the Friedmann-Lema\u00eetre-Robertson-Walker metric,2<\/a><\/sup> Biblical authors were ignorant and simple-minded; but that would be silly.<\/p>\n

As I see it, they were talking about God: and recognizing that God is what philosophers call the first cause. (Catechism, 304-308)<\/p>\n

On the other hand, recognizing that God makes reality possible does not<\/strong> mean I must try hard to ignore \u2014 or at least not think about \u2014 this wonder-filled universe.<\/p>\n

Everything \u2014 every grain of sand, every galaxy, every butterfly, every scientific law, everything<\/strong> reflects a facet of the Creator\u2019s truth. What it reflects comes from its nature. (Catechism, 301-308)<\/p>\n

And since I believe that God creates everything, learning about this universe gives me more reasons to admire God\u2019s work. (Catechism, 159, 214-217, 282-283, 294, 341)<\/p>\n

I’ve talked about that before. A lot.<\/p>\n

<\/a>“…Who’s Right?”<\/h4>\n

\"Bill<\/a>Billy asked a good question last Saturday:<\/p>\n

“The ranger said the river dug the canyon, Mommy, and you said God did it. Who’s right?”
\n“The Family Circus,” Bill & Jeff Keane (August 14, 2021)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

As I see it, since I think God creates everything and maintains a universe in which creatures produce effects according to their nature, they’re both right.<\/p>\n

God made the river, made both the rock and water which form their substances and determined the physical laws they follow; so God is the first cause.<\/p>\n

Water, rock, gravity, and all natural laws involved in forming the canyon exist because God wills it, so they’re secondary causes.<\/p>\n

Which reminds me of natural law: something I haven’t talked about for some time.<\/p>\n

I asked a priest about natural law and how it’s defined, this was a month or three ago now.<\/p>\n

Up to that point, based on what I’ve read, I’d taken natural law to mean ethical principles written into reality’s source code.<\/p>\n

The priest defined natural law as that subset of God’s rules for how things work \u2014 what we call physical or scientific law and<\/strong> ethical principles \u2014 that we’ve noticed.<\/p>\n

That makes sense, particularly since we’re starting to learn that altruism has specific and measurable effects.3<\/a><\/sup> And that’s yet again another topic.<\/p>\n

Finally, the usual links to more stuff:<\/p>\n