Weaver 1
Michelle Weaver
Faith & Philosophical Enquiry PHI-110RS-ATWE
Co_PHI-110-ATWE-2018SP1
Dr. DonatienCicura
25 February 2018
Saint Thomas Aquinas: Proof of the Existence of God Saint Thomas Aquinas was a theologian who wrote about proving the existence of God. There are five ways that Aquinas argues to show that God exists and I chose to write about two of those ways. The second way: “Argument from Efficient Causes” meaning that nothing in this world could have been created from itself. I interpret this as such, life wouldn’t exist if there wasn’t someone who existed before it. All beings were created from a higher power prior to having existence in the world. There has to be a cause in order to have an effect. Aquinas calls
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1.11-12) Therefore, I agree with Aquinas on this argument. Things do not happen by chance. I believe that humans, nature, and animals were all created form God. We are wonderfully and intricately made and to believe that we were not created by God is unimaginable to me. Now let’s explore the fifth way that Aquinas argues. It is the “Argument from Design.” Aquinas argues that most innate things lack knowledge and requires guidance or direction by something more discerning. Aquinas uses the example of the arrow, which has no intelligence, being led to its end by the archer. He concludes that something intelligent guides the arrow to its end; and the being is God. No natural thing of itself can attain its end or destination. I also agree with this argument. I believe that nothing or anyone can achieve a goal without having the guidance of someone behind it. Weaver
No doubt the preceding notion was unwelcome to both Catholics and Protestants. For Catholics the source of knowledge is the divine revelation rather than human endeavor. Although the "five ways" of proving the existence of God proposed by St. Thomas Aquinas are rational approaches, all five arguments are based on divine manifestation. Under Anselm 's premise that faith precedes reason, knowledge is a supernatural gift of grace and truth is all that God has revealed because he has revealed it.
Aquinas differs from Paley by arguing that nothing happens by chance and that all things have means and ends. He also believed in a master powerful creator (God) that directed things to their natural end. While, Paley’s arguments did not include the bible or religion. Although, since Aquinas believed that things that don’t have minds can accomplish goals but only if it is controlled with something that does have a mind with intelligence and knowledge.
This work is appropriate to use in this essay because it shows that the belief in God, and even science, is mainly due to faith. Without faith, both science and God would not exist. Bloom, Paul. “Is God an Accident?” Fields of Reading: Motives for Writing.
Philosophy 224 Monday/Wednesday 10-11:15 WORD COUNT In a small village, deep in the South American jungle of Guyana, two men overlook a massacre of over 900 people. Of these 900 people, about 300 were children. The men stand in silence, but only for a moment, they are philosophers… HUME: “This is truly astonishing… There is no way that Jim Jones could have been a prophet…”
The objection addressed the validity of the argument which had the premise 1, nothing is the efficient cause of itself except God and premise 2, a chain of causes cannot be infinite. The argument thus concludes there must be a first cause. This conclusion agrees with my thesis that Saint Thomas Aquinas’s argument formulated in the second way leads to a valid argument, which concludes that there must be a first cause and that God
Aquinas’ First Cause argument is one of a number of Cosmological arguments that aim to prove the existence of God. A Cosmological argument is based on observation and entails the insistence of Gods necessary existence in order to explain the existence of the Universe. The Fist Cause Argument uses the cause and effect of material objects going back into the past in order to find the first cause. It comes to the conclusion of the first cause being an uncaused cause which is said to be the traditional Christian, all-knowing, all-loving and all-powerful, God. There are a number of arguments and objections to the First Cause but I will argue the success of the objection ‘God is More’ objection which objects to the conclusion of the argument that states that the Christian version of God ,with its attached attributes, exists.
The cosmological argument looks to the world to prove God’s existence rather than pure definitions. The proponent of the cosmological argument was St. Thomas Aquinas, a theologian in the eleventh century CE (Solomon). He proposed that everything that exists must have a cause, and that the cause was God (Aquinas). Aquinas’ first point was based off of motion, that nothing can be both the mover and moved. An item sitting in place has the potential to be moving, but cannot move unless something that is already moving imparts motion to it
In chapter three of Aquinas for Armchair Theologians by Timothy Renick, Aquinas’s philosophy on evil in the world and the free will of humans is heavily discussed. Renick describes a very complex topic and transforms it into something the average person can read and understand. Aquinas answers the questions of whether evil exists, did God create evil, why does evil exist, and if evil exists, who or what removes it. He also answers the questions of whether humans have the free will to make decisions or has God predetermined every decision and its outcome according to his plan. While I found this article somewhat easy to follow, I can understand how some of Aquinas’s arguments can lead to debate or confusion on the nature of God, evil, and free will.
Dominican philosopher and theologian, St. Thomas Aquinas, created the “Five Ways” of God’s existence – motion, causation, contingency, gradations, intelligence of design – in which the first two are cosmological arguments. Aquinas’s argument from motion states that it’s obvious some things in the universe are moving, and if they’re moving, something else must have caused them to move, and something else must have caused that to move… and so on. However, the pattern of movements can’t go on forever since there wouldn’t be that one thing that started the whole series. Therefore, there must be an “initial mover, an extraordinary being that started the universe moving but is not itself moved by anything else – and this being we call God,” (Vaughn, Lewis. Pg. 65).
The objection against premise three states: “There can be an infinite series of numbers; why can’t there be an infinite series of past causes (PowerPoint 384)?” Thomas Aquinas is a famous philosopher who is well known for his theological writings. Here, Aquinas steps in to defend this premise saying that “if there were an infinite regress of causes, we could not have gotten to the present moment because we would have had to go through an infinite series to get here, and it is impossible to go through an infinite series (PowerPoint, 384).” William Lane Craig then comes in and discusses the claim of premise three and Aquinas’ defence and states that, “the idea of an actual infinite number of anything leads to contradictions. Both Thomas Aquinas and William Lane Craig’s defence claims help show that premise three is true, proving that the first half of the first cause argument is a sound
If god doesn’t cause my existence, then I am caused by myself, my parents or a lesser cause. There is no infinite regression, so I my existence isn’t caused by my parents or lesser cause, Therefore, God is the cause of my existence (AD 51). As well I am not God, If I created
PAPER #2 History of philosophy: Philosophy 20B Thomas Aquinas reasons that “God is one” in the Summa theologiae, part one, question eleven, article three. Using three proofs, one on “Gods simplicity,” the second on “the infinity of Gods perfection” and the last based on “the unity of the world.” The following will be Dissecting and providing explanations along with criticism. As well, what it is meant by “God is one”.
b.2.1. The Divine Intellect God causes things by His knowledge. Having this question answered by St. Thomas, the argument of which leaned towards the discussion of the divine causality through His knowledge. In the previous discussion, it is concluded that the esse of God is His own act of understanding. With this, it can be said that “He must understand Himself perfectly, which includes a perfect understanding of all that He causes, which is everything.”
In this essay, I will set out to prove that Thomas Aquinas’ First Cause Argument does not show that God exists and the conclusion that God exists does not follow from the premises of the first cause argument. I do think that the conclusion is valid and could be sound/or has the potential to be, but the premises fail to provide the basis upon which to reach such a conclusion. Hence, I will be raising some objections to the premises and will try to disprove any counter-arguments that could be raised in its defense. This would be done by examining Aquinas’ First Cause Argument and trying to disprove it whilst countering arguments in its defense.
St. Anselm and Descartes are known for presenting the first ontological arguments on the existence of God. The word ontological is a compound word derived from ‘ont’ which means exists or being and ‘–ology’ which means the study of. Even though Anselm and Descartes’ arguments differ slightly, they both stem from the same reasoning. Unlike the other two arguments on God’s existence (teleological and cosmological), the ontological argument does not seek to use any empirical evidence but rather concentrates on pure reason. The rationale behind this school of thought