ipl-logo

St. Thomas Aquinas Proof For The Existence Of God

1435 Words6 Pages

Since the early years of evolution, the human species has been locked in a constant state of deliberation regarding the nature of ultimate reality. Many have put forth the question, “Is there something more out there?” as they pondered the existence of a higher entity. Both individual people, such as William Paley, and institutions such as the Catholic Church have made claims regarding the answer to such a question; however, they are often unable to grasp a true understanding of what is beyond the realm of Earth. In addition to this, most of the given responses lack sufficient evidence in support of their arguments. Focusing on the existence of God, two of the three major proofs for his existence lack significant conviction. For example, St. Anselm’s Ontological Argument, while logical and deductive, can be off-putting due to its complicated and round-about nature. …show more content…

Moreover, the way it provides proof solely through the ideas of contrivance and necessity, leaves one dissatisfied with regards to divine understanding. While the aforementioned theories are unreliable, St Thomas Aquinas’ five proofs of God’s existence are quite the opposite. His arguments, from motion, causation, necessity, gradation and design, are doubtless the most convincing with regards to understanding the nature of ultimate reality. This is due to the amount of supporting evidence it puts forth, the way it is all-encompassing with regards to religion, and the way it allows one to see God from multiple different perspectives. Through Aquinas’ five proofs one can ultimately come to know the truth about the existence of a divine

Show More
Related

Lara Buchak's Can It Be Rational To Have Faith

1347 Words | 6 Pages

In Lara Buchak’s essay, Can It Be Rational to Have Faith? , she asserts that everyday faith statements and religious faith statements share the same attributes. She later states that in order to truly have faith, a person ceases to search for more evidence for their claim, and that having faith can be rational. Although she makes compelling arguments in favor of faith in God, this essay is more hearsay and assumption than actual fact. In this paper, you will see that looking for further evidence would constitute not having faith, but that having faith, at least in the religious sense, is irrational.

Read More

Summary Of Divine Hiddenness And Human Reason By J. L Shellenberg

603 Words | 3 Pages

One objection to Schellenberg’s belief is that creation implies a purpose for creation, and one could say that God’s purpose for creating us is to love us, and due to this, God is in fact loving. One could also object to premise four stating that reasonable nonbelief in God does exist. If there is overwhelming evidence that suggests that God exists, it would not be reasonable for someone to not believe in God, causing premise four to be incorrect. The biggest argument for the inexistence of God is the lack of evidence. It is difficult to obtain agreeable evidence that is sufficient.

Read More

Jim Jones Quotes

1082 Words | 5 Pages

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…”

Read More

Anselm Of Canterbury's Analysis

301 Words | 2 Pages

In relation to the Aquinas’ second proof, Anselm of Canterbury created the ontological argument as evidence for the existence of God. This philosophy suggests that when an unbeliever hears the term “God,” they immediately have an understanding what the term “God” means. Consequently, they understand what they understand (e.g. I know what I know, because I know it). Looking specifically at Abrahamic religions, God is considered to be greater than anything that can be imagined, and is supremely perfect. This Ultimate Reality cannot simply exist in thought or idea because existence in reality is greater.

Read More

Saint Thomas Aquinas Argument For The Existence Of God

871 Words | 4 Pages

In Saint Thomas Aquinas argument the second way, Aquinas argues for the existence of God, making use of efficient causes and premises to help us conclude that God exists. In the following words I would argue 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 exists. Aquinas second way is an argument that God is the first cause and he is essential to everything on earth because nothing would have the power to fuel its self without the intermediate cause which is God. An example is a painter using a paintbrush to paint as he moves his hand, paint is applied on the wall but if he stops, the paint would not fly from the brush to the wall, stopping

Read More

Thomas Aquinas Five Proofs For God's Existence

622 Words | 3 Pages

We have witnessed hierarchy from the start of civilization; it has been both our downfall and a blessing. We have had many forms of hierarchy, but when put forth it starts to crumble from those oppressed. The fourth way of Thomas Aquinas's five proofs for God's existence is degree. The degree is based that everything has order, and in result some are better off than others. There are some flaws in this proof, being equal, natural selection, and behaviors.

Read More

Aquinas Five Proofs For God's Existence

569 Words | 3 Pages

Since the beginning of the earliest civilizations, humanity, not just philosophers, has faced the ongoing debate of whether or not such a thing as God truly exists. Among one of the many renown philosophers in history, Thomas Aquinas, a medieval thinker, proposes an argument in favor of God’s existence, developing five different proofs of what he considers solid evidence. Aquinas’ five ways serves as the most efficient and convincing argument to prove the existence of God not only because of its incorporation of universal objective truths, but also through its application of common human experiences to develop logos and pathos, respectively. Aquinas’ first three proofs greatly hinge on consistent and undebatable concepts that logically flow and thus appeal to the mind’s need for rationality. For example, his Argument from Motion and Argument from

Read More

Thomas Aquinas Research Paper

470 Words | 2 Pages

Aquinas continues to remain relevant because he helps us with the problem of we can reconcile religion with science, and faith with reason. Aquinas was both a philosopher and a saint. Refusing either to lose his faith or mindlessly believe, he developed a new understanding of the place of reason in human life. Aquinas’s monumental

Read More

Alvin Carl Plantinga Research Paper

858 Words | 4 Pages

• There is no evidence or at any rate not sufficient evidence for the proposition that God exists. Alvin Plantinga has canvassed them lucidly in his books Does God have a Nature? A substance’s essence, says Plantinga, will be a certain one of its properties – that conjunctive property which includes as conjuncts those properties which all which the substances has in all possible worlds in which it exists. So if God is identical with God’s essence, then God is identical with a property. But God, being a person, is not a property.

Read More

Thomas Aquinas First Cause Argument Analysis

1797 Words | 8 Pages

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.

Read More

The Cosmological Argument For The Rationality Of Believing In God

627 Words | 3 Pages

Some people have come to the conclusion that faith in God is inconsistent with reason because of the scientific method, which places an emphasis on direct evidence and testable ideas. Moreover, the existence of sin creates a serious obstacle to the reasoning of belief in God. However, many often cite the lack of proof to challenge the concept of a divine being. Some people have come to the conclusion that faith in God is unbreakable because of the scientific method, which places a focus on evidence and testable ideas. Likewise, the rationality of the belief in an all-powerful and good God is seriously challenged by the problem of evil.

Read More

Summary Of The Problem Of Evil By J. L. Mackie

1356 Words | 6 Pages

Be that as it may, the scholar can, in the event that he wishes, acknowledge this feedback. He can concede that no discerning confirmation of God 's presence is conceivable. Also, he can in any case hold all that is key to his position, by holding that God 's presence is known in some other, non-judicious way. I think, notwithstanding, that an all the more telling feedback can be made by method for the convention issue of shrewdness. Here it can be appeared, not that religious convictions need discerning backing, but rather that they are emphatically unreasonable, that the few sections of the crucial philosophical convention are conflicting with each other, so that the scholar can keep up his position in general just by a significantly more amazing dismissal of reason than in the previous case.

Read More

Anselm Vs Descartes Ontological Argument

945 Words | 4 Pages

In other words, Anselm stipulates that God must exist since we can’t think of something greater than God but Descartes says the main reason why God exists is because he is a perfect being. St. Anselm and Descartes arguments are without doubt the most important arguments to the existence of God. They formed the basis for further discussion both by those that agree to these schools of thought as well as those that saw the arguments as weak and decided to show why. Both philosophers agreed that the comprehension of the concept of God was sufficient for anyone to believe in the existence of God even though Anselm argument was skewed towards our inability to conceive a more powerful being while Descartes mainly concentrates on the perfect nature in

Read More

Summary Of The Teleological Argument For God's Existence

1187 Words | 5 Pages

Who made the world we live in? This question has been debated for thousand of years and it is been the main fuel in many philosophers work. The Teleological Argument for God's Existence also known as the argument from design; it is the argument that our world and the universe surrounding it are complex that it was not created by accident, it was however designed by a intelligent designer. In 1802, William Paley created his analogical version of the teleological argument using an analogy of a watch. According to Ernest Nagel, Teleological argument is based on empirical evidence.

Read More

Essay Ontological Argument For The Existence Of God

818 Words | 4 Pages

Argument for the existence of god is being proposed in several ways. Some based on science while some are about personal experience and some on philosophical arguments such as ontological arguments, first cause arguments, arguments based on deign, moral arguments. Each of these support conception. Ontological argument say that if you inculcate the idea of god , we can see him . There is a saying that “Nothing comes from Nothing but something comes from something”.

Read More

More about St. Thomas Aquinas Proof For The Existence Of God

Related Topics

Open Document