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Faith — what we believe

Creation and providence

Choose an option and you are told at once whether it was right. The answer and the reason wait behind “Show the answer”.

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  1. What does it mean to say that “God created the world out of nothing”?

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    Answer ① That he brought it into being by his word alone, with no material already there to work from

    Creation is not the reworking of material but the giving of existence itself. The second makes God a craftsman tied to the stuff at hand; the third is emanation, the world spilling out of God by necessity; and the fourth sets the world up as something every bit as eternal as God.

    Catechism of the Catholic Church 296-298

  2. Where does the idea that “God made the world and then left it to run by itself” go wrong?

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    Answer ② It overlooks the fact that God is holding his creatures in being at this very moment

    If God were to let go, a creature would fall back into nothing that same instant. Seeing the world as a clock wound up and set down is called deism — a half-truth that grants creation but cuts away God's preserving of the world and his providence.

    Catechism of the Catholic Church 285, 301

  3. Creation was the work of the Father alone; the Son and the Holy Spirit had no part in it.

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    Answer ② No

    Creation is the work of the three persons together. Scripture says that all things came to be through the Word and that the Spirit of God hovered over the waters, and the Church has long spoken of the Father creating by his “two hands”, the Word and the Holy Spirit.

    Catechism of the Catholic Church 290-292

  4. What does the Church teach about why God created the world?

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    Answer ③ Because he willed to show forth his glory and to share his own goodness and happiness

    God created not because anything was missing in him but out of a goodness that overflows. The first and the second make God someone in need, and the fourth turns a free decision of love into something he could not help. God's glory and human happiness are not set against each other.

    Catechism of the Catholic Church 293-295

  5. What is the relationship between the six days of creation in Genesis and scientific research into the age of the universe and of life?

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    Answer ④ They are asking different questions, so genuine science and faith do not collide

    Scripture tells us not how the world works but who brought it into being and for what. The first and the third both mistake Scripture for a science textbook and so make the same error from opposite sides, while the second rubs out the truth of faith that Scripture hands on.

    Catechism of the Catholic Church 159, 283-284, 337

  6. What does “the providence of God” refer to?

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    Answer ① The care by which God leads his creatures toward their completion

    Creation did not end with everything finished; it is on its way toward completion, and God watches over that road and leads it. The second is the fatalism that rubs out human freedom, while the third and the fourth take the care of a Father who counts even the hairs of our head and shrink it to a question of size or of reward.

    Catechism of the Catholic Church 302-303

  7. Even under God's providence, human beings act with real freedom and work together with God's plan.

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    Answer ① Yes

    God gave his creatures not only their being but the dignity of acting for themselves and of being causes for one another. Using providence as an excuse to lighten human responsibility does not honor God's work; it makes it look smaller than it is.

    Catechism of the Catholic Church 306-308

  8. How can we profess that God is good and almighty when there is evil in the world?

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    Answer ② Because God does not will evil but permits it, and draws good even out of that evil

    Joseph, sold by his brothers, and the cross are where this shows most clearly. The first turns evil into a trick of the mind; the third is the dualism that sets up two gods, one of good and one of evil; and the fourth cuts down God's almighty power. Why the road had to run this way we shall understand fully only at the end.

    Catechism of the Catholic Church 309-314

  9. Angels are what people who lived good lives become after they die.

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    Answer ② No

    Angels are purely spiritual beings, created as angels from the start, and so a different creature from us. Saying that the dead become angels sounds warm, but it is not what the Church teaches: a human being rises again and is brought to completion as a human being.

    Catechism of the Catholic Church 328-330

  10. Which of these matches what the Church teaches about creatures other than human beings?

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    Answer ③ Each has a goodness of its own, and, leaning on one another, they give praise to God

    “God saw that it was good” does not mean useful to people; it means good in itself. The first sees creatures as tools alone and lets us handle them however we please, the second rubs out the particular place entrusted to human beings, and the fourth is the old dualism that held matter to be evil.

    Catechism of the Catholic Church 339-344