St. Thomas argues that man exists so that the material world might know itself fully. Those modern thinkers and scientists who argue that man arose out of an unguided process are in fact more right than they know, because the process terminated in the universe knowing itself, and was for the sake of this- and so in this sense it is impossible that there could have been intelligence in the universe itself before the sort of thing that a man is: this, in fact, was the very thing that justified and required his existence.
And so man’s end primarily involves knowing the material world, and he can never lose this purpose, even if he is given another one. And so if it is given to man that he might share in the interior of the divine life, it was necessary that he participate in this life by faith, since everything that is beyond the understanding power of the knower can only be held to by faith.
