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Thomas Aquinas Argument Against Motion Essay

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Philosophers have widely debated the existence of God. Among these philosophers is the Catholic priest Thomas Aquinas. While Thomas had five arguments for the existence of God, I will only be focusing on his argument from motion. Aquinas’ Argument from Motion attempts to prove there is a “first mover” and without this first mover there could be no other mover. In Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica, he argues “it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, put in motion by no other;” this first mover, according to Aquinas, is understood to be God. However, however, his Argument from Motion is far from perfect. One flaw I will touch upon is his assumption that there could not be an infinite regress of movers. He says this because in an infinite regress of movers, there would be no first mover which in turn means no subsequent movers. His reasoning for an impossibility of …show more content…

In physics, we have Newton’s First Law which is as follows: an object at rest will stay rest and an object in motion will stay in motion unless an external force acts upon it (Lucas). We can use this law when looking at the standard model of the Big Bang Theory. Most scientists believe that before the Big Bang, there was no matter, energy, or space-time (McRae). With the Standard Model of the Big Bang, there is scientific evidence of a definite beginning. The Big Bang is also believed to have started the continuous expansion of the universe. Going along with Newton’s First Law, the Big Bang, which initiated motion, would have to have been caused by an external force. We can take “external” to mean outside of the physical universe. So, outside the universe, this first mover would become immaterial and thus no longer bound by physical law, making it possible that this first mover is unmoved itself. Aquinas would say, the only thing that could be outside the universe is

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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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From this, there are two possibilities, an infinite series of causes or a first cause. According to this argument, the infinite series is not possible, so the only alternative has to be true, which is a first cause, or God. This argument points to the conclusion that a first cause, or an unmoved mover, God, exists and created the

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To further go off my last two objections, I, Parmenides, state that motion does not exist because in order for there to be motion, there would have to be change and for change to exist that would mean things would have to come to be and pass away. In order for something to change, there would have to be either creation or destruction of a previous property that would account for that change. In order for something to exist, it can neither come to be or pass away because if something came to be then it either came from something or nothing. Something cannot come from nothing and if being came from something, then it would come from something that always was, which contradicts. For something to pass away, it would become un-being and as previously

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Reproducing a Ruthless Withdrawal: The Big Bang Theory The Big Bang theory is a well established cosmological model for the early development of the universe. The theory suggests that the universe was denser and hotter in the past; the key idea is that the universe is expanding. In addition, the model suggests that at some moment in time, all of space was contained in a single point (this is considered the beginning of the universe).

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Thus favors the concept of creation, ex nihilo. Transcending Material Realm Proponents of creation ex nihilo argue that metaphysical principles support the idea of a universe with a finite beginning, transcending the constraints of the material realm. This perspective suggests that the existence of the universe itself points to a reality beyond the material realm, inviting contemplation of the ultimate origins and meaning of existence. Metaphysical speculation extends beyond the tangible boundaries of the physical universe, delving into realms of existence that transcend empirical observation. By positing a transcendent cause for the universe's existence, proponents of creation ex nihilo invoke metaphysical principles to elucidate the mysteries of cosmic origins, offering insights into the nature of reality that transcend scientific inquiry alone.

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Thomas Aquinas begins by making the not too startling observation that things move and that there is

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Response: I, Democritus, state that there is motion in the world, due to the fact this is how one can account for the perception of different qualities. There are two realities we must account for: atoms and the void. The properties of the atoms are they are basic, indivisible units that do not come to be or pass away, do not change and are unified. Atoms are infinite in number, come in different shapes and postures, have existed for ever and are all uniform. The atoms are too small to be detected by the senses, but they make up everything in the world.

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Why can’t the universe itself be the uncaused cause? Or the unmoved mover? The argument also contradicts itself – if nothing can be uncaused (the universe) then neither can this first cause, God. If God can be uncaused, then so can the universe. One answer to this is a twist on the Cosmological Argument, the Kalam Cosmological Argument.

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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

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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).

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In this argument we already assumed that there may be possibility that God exist and finally we reached where we started. So this argument does not give us the exact information about existence of God. There are many objections on this argument but still it is a powerful argument. In my opinion, this argument is not much satisfactory. It describes that existence is greater than imagination.

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