Encyclopedia of sacred theology - pagina 163

Chap. II]

FAITH

§ i6.

prove that

it

is so,

since no one can call a

139

phenomenon

into

law does not show itself." And again being in well The law of gravitation, etc., is as certain we say Very but we ask Where is your jjroof? And to us as to you to this question no answer can be given, except that here )/ also faith enters in and makes you believe in the existence and in the absolute validity of such a law. Not that the formula of this particular law rests on faith. The formula is the result of your investigation. But the idea itself that there are such laws, and that when certain phenomena exhibit themselves, you are certain of the existence of such laws, does not result from your demonstration, but is assumed in your demonstration and is the basis on which your demonstration rests, and in the end it appears the means by which your certainty is obtained. Without faith in the existence of the general in the special, in laws which govern this special, and in your right to build a general conclusion on a given number of observations, you would never come to acknowledge such a law. For one of the primordial principles in your logic reads A particulari ad generale non valet conclusio, i.e. no conclusion from the special to Just so, but all your observations deal the general, is valid. with the special only. Hence you would never reach a general conclusion if faith did not give you both the idea of the general and the right to accept it as a fact.

which

this I

:

:

;

i

I

:

Though

this applies to

all

creates no uneasiness in the

the sciences,

man

it

nevertheless

of science, because every

student has the faith, in this universal sense, which

is

neces-

sary for the self-consciousness of the ego, for securing the

axiomatic starting-point and for the forming of general conclusions. This harmony may momentarily be disturbed by the report that some people still believe in the reality of miracle ; but this alarming suggestion is readily dismissed. If miracles are real, they have no place in common science, for the very reason that they are miracles. Thus in scientific investigation faith is virtually taken as a quantity that can be neglected, because it is the same in all, and therefore makes no difference in the conclusion. This, of course,

,

.

^

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