Consequences of Knowing God and Divine Truths Through Reason Alone By St Thomas Aquinas

If a truth of this nature were left to the sole enquiry of reason, three disadvantages would follow;

1.)The knowledge of God would be confined to a few. The discovery of truth is the fruit of studious enquiry. From this, very many are hindered. Some are hindered by constitutional unfitness, their natures being ill-disposed to the acquisition of knowledge. They could never study knowledge of God. Some are hindered by Sloth. The knowledge of the truths that reason can investigate concerning God presupposes much previous knowledge. Indeed almost the entire study of philosophy is directed to the knowledge of God……Thus only with great labour of study is it possible to arrive at the searching out of the aforesaid truth; and this labour few are willing to undergo for sheer love of knowledge.Others will be hindered by needs of business and the ties of the management and property. There must be in a human society, some men are devoted to temporary affairs. These could not possibly spend time enough in the learned lessons of speculative enquiry to arrive at the hghest point of human enquiry.

2.)The discovery of the aforesaid truth would take a long time over it, on account of the profundity of such truth, and the many prerequisites to study, and also because  in youth and early manhood, the soul, tossed to and fro on the waves of passion, is not fit for the study of such high truth; “only in settled age does the soul become prudent and scientific,” as the philosophers say. Thus, if the only way to open to knowledge of God were the way of reason, the human race would dwell long in thick darkness of ignorance; as the knowledge of God, the best human instrument for making men perfect and good, would accrue only to a few, and those few after a considerable lapse of time.

3.)Owing to the  infirmity of our judgement and the perturbing force of imagination, there is some admixture of error in most of the investigations of human reason. This would be a reason to many for continuing to doubt even the most accurate demonstrations, not perceiving the force of demonstration, and seeing the divers judgements of divers persons who have the name of being wisemen….And therefore it was necessary for the real truth concerning divine things to be presented to men with fixed certainty by way of faith.

ST THOMAS AQUINAS, PRAY FOR US.