We’re using the book “Handbook of Apologetics” by Peter Kreeft and Ronald Tacelli to go over the arguments for the existence of God. We will now begin covering the attributes of God. Dr. Kreeft teaches logic in two major universities, so his arguments tend to be clear, concise and very helpful.
This week we’ll go over God is Intelligent:
God is the creator and sustainer of all things. He is, for example, the creator and sustainer of all physical and chemical elements and all living organisms. Now every one of these things has an intelligible structure, and fits within a system of intelligible structure—a system in which things act and react with each other in certain specific ways determined by the system. This intelligible correlation of part with part (of which our intelligence grasps the tiniest measure) is something established by God. An intelligible correlation of part with part is the kind of thing we normally refer to as a “plan,” as an “act of intelligence.” So it is reasonable to affirm that all the vast intelligibility, which the world is given by its Creator, is the work of intelligence, and therefore, that the Creator is intelligent.
There is a second argument for God’s being intelligent. Something which distinguishes persons from nonpersons is self-possession. Personal intelligence can unify a diversity and hold it together, as in a work of art or a scientific theory. And that single center which holds many things together with itself allows us to escape the sheer externality of matter, and to use, work, and control those things which have no intelligence. But then God, who is utterly immaterial, and who controls and unifies the whole of creation can surely not be unintelligent. His intelligence cannot be like ours, because ours is tied in a way to matter. It must be infinitely greater. But still it is reasonable to hold that the answer to our question, the mystery we call “God,” is intelligent.
Finally, we human beings respond to certain goods, to real values. These are not things we have created, but things we discover, like the value of life or love or honesty. If God creates both the human nature which responds to those goods, and also these goods themselves, it is reasonable to think of God as intelligently designing this congruence between what we are and the goods we need for fulfillment.
Kreeft, P., & Tacelli, R. K. (1994). Handbook of Christian apologetics: hundreds of answers to crucial questions (p. 95). Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.