|
State of the question. We are inquiring here about the
fact, not the possibility, of the numerical unity of the
world. It seems that there are many worlds: 1. because
God could create many worlds; 2. because many worlds
would be better than one, since many goods are better than
a few; 3. as man is multiplied, the world ought also be
multiplied. Democritus thought that many worlds resulted
from the concourse of the atoms. The question asked here
is not the same as that about the plurality of worlds in
the sense of the stars being inhabited. The opinion that
the stars or plants are inhabited is not contrary to the
conclusion of this article, since the stars and planets
and everything that moves in them constitute one universe.
Reply. St. Thomas' reply is that the world is
unique.
1. This is proved from the language of the Scriptures:
"The world was made by Him."[923]
2. It is proved also from the divine ordination to one
and the same end. All the things that are from God have
a relation to one another and to God Himself, that is,
all things are coordinated and subordinated and thus
constitute a complete whole, which is called the
universe. The unity of the world, therefore, is a unity
of order.
Reply to first objection. From the unity of order
existing in things, Aristotle reached the conclusion that
God the governor is one: "Beings are averse to being
ill disposed, and a plurality of principles is not good.
Therefore there is but one principle."[924] This
text of Aristotle is adduced to prove that for him God is
not only the ultimate end of the world, attracting all
things to Himself, but also the governor, at least of
the genera and species if not of individuals, as Averroes
contended. From this argument it also follows that by
His ordered power God cannot make many worlds without
some relation to one another; they must at least be
coordinated with regard to the same ultimate end, since it
is the part of a wise being to put things in order.
Reply to second objection. No agent intends a material
plurality as an end because a material multitude does not
have a definite terminus and because it can always be
increased; the material multitude must be ordered to
something higher as matter is ordered to the form. From
this it follows that there would be no reason for God to
create two similar worlds only numerically distinct. We
may ask why two worlds rather than three or four or more?
Reply to third objection. St. Thomas says: "It is
not possible that there be another earth besides this one
because every earth would be borne naturally to the same
middle point," that is, to the center of the world.
This is the opinion of the ancients proposed by
Aristotle, but it was not proved.[925] Cajetan
says that St. Thomas was speaking not of an absolute
impossibility but of a physical impossibility under the
present laws of the universe according to the Ptolemaic
system.
Doubt. Whether God could create two unequal worlds?
This does seem to be impossible because such worlds would
be subordinated by reason of their inequality.
|
|