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Aquinas Five Proof

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I enjoyed reading The Five Proofs of God by Thomas Aquinas. This reading describes the five arguments supporting God’s existence. The first proof deals with the idea of motion, and states that if something moves it has to be moved by something else other than itself. However, if something moves without the clear distinction of what has caused it to move the original source of motion must be God. The second argument supporting the existence of God is based on efficient cause. This argument is caused by a sequence of causes that creates a final source, for example the first thing is the cause of the next and inevitably creates a final outcome. Because the chain of causes cannot go back infinitely the cause must be God. The third proof deals with possibility and necessity. This explains …show more content…

There are things in the visible world that are good and there are also things in this world that are bad. For example, the greatest origin of anything is the cause of everything that relates to it. The author gave a great example in this reading, they state that, “fire, which has the greatest heat, is the cause of everything hot” (350). I find that example to be a clear way of describing the evidence for this claim. The fourth proof focuses on the theory that everything perfect in this world must be caused by a supreme entity, which would be God. The final and fifth proof deals with how things are directed. This evidence focuses on how something reaches a goal, because most things operate for an end goal. This theory claims that these things reach their goal only from directedness from God. Humans who are unknowledgeable of the future are guided towards a goal by a knowledgeable being, God. In the reading by Gottfried Leibniz, the main focus is the free will of man. If men are free to choose what they want they can choose to be good or bad, but if God is all powerful he must control the actions of

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Craig validates that his argument, “the universe has a cause of its existence”, is true by assuming the initial premise that everything that

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As being a theist, I find Aquinas 's fifth argument significant because the universe is in a perfect order: the cycles of life and death, the seasons of the year, and the mysteries of the human body can 't be just simply explained by science. This order and balance is not unplanned or random. The world and everything in it has been created with a perfect plan by all knowing and all powerful "God". Despite of Aquinas 's fifth argument being one of the most prominent argument for the existence of God, there are some limitations to the fifth argument. The expected limitations especially from the atheists can be applied to this argument due to its nature in the fact that it’s inductive, meaning we can never be 100% certain of its correctness.

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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

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I am right writing this letter to inform you about how life been after graduating from UNCG and the career I chose after graduating. The semester before graduating, I was doing an internship that was involved with my major. The internship was to go work as an assistant for a well-known physical therapist for about 5 months and gain experience under my belt. After the internship, I learned that I wanted to become a physical therapist assistant and have to gain even more experience. When the time for graduation came, I already have over 500 + hours of volunteer hours that involves with customer service and also physical therapy.

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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

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So the first cause argument proves that God does not exist assuming the first cause argument is sound then there must be some other cause because it is not God. In summary the notion of omnipotent is a miss-name because it implies the potency, power, causality when in fact all that it does is imply logical entailment, it implies that if it wills something you can deduce from the statement that something exists, you do not need a causal step, it is a logical deduction and therefore the first cause argument argues from causes in the world

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Thomas Aquinas argued that God does exist, and there is evidence to assist in proving his theory on the matter. Thomas Aquinas had many reasonings in believing in a higher power, such as a God, and two of those reason are the argument from motion and the argument from design. In Thomas Aquinas’ belief and idea he discusses an argument he refers to as the argument of motion. In the argument of motion he discusses, how our senses prove that some things always have the potential for motion.

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St. Thomas Aquinas perceives that there were some people who mistrust the existence of God, so he forms five ways to prove that God exist and these proofs were based on his own reasoning and observation. First way is the proof from Motion, which he said that an object cannot move by itself so in order for that object to move it needed a first mover whom itself is unmoved (pertaining to God).Second way is the proof from Efficient Cause; he stated that nothing exists prior to itself so there was an efficient cause (a maker) who is the maker of all things on earth. Third way is the proof from Possibility vs. Necessity, he stated that things on the world has the possibility to exist or not to, but those acts need to be done by the one who is already

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Among the many points raised in these readings I was particularly interested in the five proofs of the existence of God that Aquinas puts forward in the Summa Theologiae. I was particularly interested in the first proof that Aquinas makes. In his first proof of God he suggests that our senses show us that things are in motion and the only way something moves is if a potential motion changes to actual motion. Since only actual motion can convert potential motion then things cannot be potential and actual at the same time and thus each thing placed in actual motion is done so by something else in actual motion. This sequence of transferring potential to actual motion cannot continue on forever and thus something or someone must have been the

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There have been an innumerable amount of arguments for the existence of God for hundreds of years. Some have become much more popular due to their merit, and their ability to stay relevant through changing times. Two arguments in particular that have been discussed for a very long time are the ontological and cosmological arguments. Each were proposed in the period of the high middle ages by members of the Roman Catholic Church. They each have been used extensively by many since their introduction.

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“The lack of any conclusive, formal (deductive) proof that God does not exist provides no reason whatever that God does exist” (Hanson 310-311). 2. There is no need for God to prove that he is there becasue “God cannot be conceived not to exist. --God is that, than which nothing greater can be conceived”(Anselm 4). 3.

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The second states how God is the creator of all existing things and is the only creator that was not created himself. The third way states that God’s existence is internal because God existence does not depend on anything. The fourth is based on the perfection that we find in the things we see. It just explains

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Third point stated that when there are physical things around, and these things have been created by someone, and that someone is God. The fourth point described that everything in being in this world, have some kind of goodness. Like, humans can be bad or good, but perfection won’t be there, so there must be perfection at its maximum, and that perfection would be found in God. The last point claimed that all things in this world are designed in a particular order, and some designer could only do that, and that designer is God (Stefon,

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Therefore if there must be a cause for at least some things, not to assert their must be a necessary cause, leads to an infinite series of causes, and this fails to provide an definitive explanation for the existence of any contingent thing or being . The atheist, H.J. McCloskey does not claim, in his article, that such a necessary cause does not exist, for the universe as a whole or a collection of its parts, the objection is in this necessary cause as a necessary being, a creator. McCloskey states that using the causal argument the most which can be claimed is for an imperfect cause capable of causing the world we know, not a necessary being whom is a perfect omnipotent being

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As the last proof is not as secure as the first two. The “infinite perfection of god” stands out the most promising as it capitalizes on the perfection of a single being. It is irrefutable that the perfect being is infinitely perfect since perfection is ideal. As well as the ability of the universe to only produce one perfect simple God. If there were to be many perfect Gods, they would be one in the same and the same being.

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