Hello everyone and welcome back to Deeper Waters where we are diving into the ocean of truth. We’ve been going through the doctrine of God right now in the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas. If you do not own a copy of the Summa, you can read it online at newadvent.org. We’re covering a subset in the doctrine of God right now as we discuss the doctrine of truth, something that is very much needed for our modern times. Tonight we’re going to be asking if created truth is eternal. Let’s go to the question!
In a sense, all truth is eternal and Aquinas does admit that. However, he does say that we do bring about truth through our actions and propositions that was not true at one point in time. What I am thinking is for instance a created truth. I am thinking that I am sitting at this residence at this time writing this blog on this topic and no one else could have ever thought that before.
However, while these are truths that do reside in my intellect, they are not true because they reside in my intellect. For one thing, I know I have thought many things in the past that are frankly wrong and in fact, I know I think many things right now that are wrong. “Well why do you think them?” In some cases, I don’t know what they are, but theology is a deep subject and I’m sure that I can’t have all of the answers to the questions right. I’m certain to have some wrong theological beliefs.
On the other hand, there are also crazy beliefs we all have such as phobias. If I have an intense fear of something, I do realize that that fear is not rational, but I think it. This is also the case in the problem of doubt. If I am doubting something, I could very well know that my doubts are not true, but there is a part that makes it hard to convince me of that.
Aquinas does say however that our truths that we think in our mind are only true if they are true in the divine intellect, which should give us pause. For instance, if you like me are constantly self-critical, you should ask yourself “Is this what the mind of God is saying right now?” Let’s suppose what you tell yourself is that you’re no good. What you need to do is look and say “Does God say I’m no good?” If he doesn’t, then you need to start changing your beliefs. Of course, I do realize that is easier said than done and something I work on myself.
For Aquinas also, it is because there is truth in the divine intellect that there can be any truth at all. In other words, if there were no God, there would be no truth for there would be no eternal intellect for that mind but rather several finite and changing minds and why should one of them hold sway over another? How could a truth like 2 + 2 = 4 be true even if no mind was there who understood that truth?
Thus, we conclude that created truth is not eternal but the truth that is eternal is that in the mind of God and that is what we should be seeking.
We shall continue tomorrow.
Support Deeper Waters on Patreon!
