This afternoon, just before the conference call really got started, someone said that they wanted to ask me a question about Calvin.  I think it was Julanne, but I am probably wrong.  Later on in the call the question was raised about Calvin and proof for God.  I was very quiet.  I think of myself as an historian, not a theologian, and I am certainly NOT a Reformation theologian.  I know virtually nothing about Calvin.  Institutes of Christian Religion.  TULIPs.  That's it.  However, if you want to talk about proof for the existence of God and if you somehow want to relay that to cause and effect, I can give some advice.

     I would look at St. Thomas Aquinas'  Summa Theologiae and, in particular, the Quinque Viae or the so-called Five Ways.  The third question in the first part of the Summa asks "Does God exist?"  St. Thomas proceeds to answer in five ways, one of which says that (vastly simplified) for everything in the world there is a cause.  Each antecedent cause has, in turn, its own cause.  Carry that back for about 8 billion different effects and cause and eventually you must come to "the uncaused cause," that which we call God.  You can find this section of the Summa on www.NewAdvent.org by searching for the Summa Theologica and looking in the Prima Pars.   

     Likewise, you might want to look at St. Anselm's Ontological Proof for the Existence of God found in the Proslogion.  Anselm argues that it is better to exist really than to only exist in theory.  If God is, by definition, that thing by which no greater thing can ever be imagined, then, by definition, God must exist because if He didn't we could imagine a god that did exist which would be greater and therefore collapse our argument.  It's a bit circular but would be a wonderful exercise in logically attacking an argument. 

     Gold, silver, and anything worthwhile on Calvin have I none, but what I have I give to you.