So from the good things that are seen they were unable to know Him who exists, nor did they know the Craftsman by paying attention to His works. But they supposed that the gods who rule the world were either fire or wind or swift air, or the circle of the stars or violent water or the luminaries of heaven. If while delighting in their beauty men assumed them to be gods, let them know how much better than these things is their Lord, for the Creator of beauty created them… For from the greatness and beauty of created things comes a corresponding perception of their Creator.             (Wis 13:1-5)

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DAILY CONTEMPLATION

December 30, 2025 ~ Kiahk 21, 1742

In regard to the making of the universe and the creation of all things
there have been various opinions, and each person has propounded the theory that suited his own taste.
For instance, some say that all things are self-originated and, so to speak, haphazard.
The Epicureans are among these; they deny that there is any Mind behind the universe at all.
This view is contrary to all the facts of experience, their own existence included.
For if all things had come into being in this automatic fashion,
instead of being the outcome of Mind,
though they existed, they would all be uniform and without distinction.
In the universe everything would be sun or moon or whatever it was,
and in the human body the whole would be hand or eye or foot.
But in point of fact the sun and the moon and the earth are all different things,
and even within the human body there are different members, such as foot and hand and head.
This distinctness of things argues not a spontaneous generation but a prevenient Cause;
and from that Cause we can apprehend God, the Designer and Maker of all.

St Athanasius, On the Incarnation
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