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Thomas Aquinas's Design Argument

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Hume’s have stated that Aquinas’s design argument should not be based on religion and the intelligent designer lacks the intellectual capability to design a complex universe. These two objections lacks validity and is very subjective. Hume’s provides no reliable source to prove his claim. Aquinas’s presents a valid argument that the world is governed by God. First, he used philosophical reasoning suggesting that everything in the universe operate and moves for an end. As everything is operating and moves towards an end, it is directed by a source with knowledge. For example, the movement of the arrow towards a definite end shows clearly that it is directed by someone with knowledge, so the unvarying course of natural things which are without knowledge, shows clearly that the world is governed by some reason.[13] …show more content…

These things is under the perfect governance of God. Since through governance the things that are governed are led to perfection, so much the better will be the governance to the extent that greater perfection is imparted by the governor to the things governed. Aquinas insists that God “not only makes things to be, but to be causes”, and this reveals “the abundance of his goodness.”[14] Aquinas’s support his argument as he makes reference to Proverbs 16:4a, “The LORD hath made all things for himself.”[15] This verse add validity to Aquinas’s argument. It establishes God as the Creator of all things proving His existence. It establishes God as the first cause of all things and the cause of things to end. He govern all things created,

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Tuesday April 20, 1999 from 11:19 to 12:08 a school shooting occurred at Columbine High School in Columbine, Colorado. Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were the names of the shooters who had planned to murder as many people as they could. Both students were raised in nice orderly fashioned homes and had to worry about anything. When they were home they had no worries, but once the came to school both were bullied for odd reasons. Harris was bullied for his looks and odd behavior.

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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.

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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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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.

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For through Christ, God made all things, not one thing in all creation was made without Him (John 1:3). The Word, Christ, became flesh, full of grace and lived among humanity as a man (John 1:14). For through Him God created everything in heaven and on earth, the seen and the unseen, including spiritual powers, lords, rulers, and authorities. God created the whole universe through Him and for Him (Colossians 1:1).

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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

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Despite this, because of reason and what God is envisioned to be, I agree with conclusions that Aquinas has made. Renick begins by asking the question “Why is there evil in the world?” The answer given by many Christians is that Satan is the reason evil exists since he corrupts God’s creation and history through Eden. Initially, I believed the same thing.

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God willed...human nature…in creating it. Therefore, what is contrary to human nature is contrary to God’s will. God’s will is expressed not merely in His direct commands, but also in His creating nature, and human nature, with natural ends. The reason there is natural law is because all nature is…designed to move toward natural ends…” (118). The Church believes that God wills for us to live to know, love, and serve Him.

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Thomas Aquinas is the second critique of Anselm’s position. Take note that Aquinas assumed that the existence of God is obvious. He supported cosmological argument to prove that God exists. The cosmological argument uses the physical things that exist in the universe to demonstrate God’s existence. In his criticism of Anselm’s argument, Aquinas disagrees with the use of the word “God” and argues only some who hear the word “God” understands what it means (Himma, 4).

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He opines this position by arguing specifically against Aquinas, as mentioned. However, this paper will not focus on arguing that Hume is specifically refuting Aquinas; other critics have argued this idea thoroughly, so I will approach Hume’s opponent as evidently being Aquinas. Hume’s refutation of Aquinas is split into three parts; two of which are solely philosophical, and one that is theological: if suicide is morally impermissible, then it must be a violation of our duty to God, to society, or to ourselves. Hume thinks that suicide does not violate any of these duties, so he concludes that it is morally

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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

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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”.

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It is understood, then, that inasmuch as we understand that the perfection of understanding is in God, the understanding of His creatures can be also attributed to Him perfectly. Thus, God knows all other things by knowing Himself inasmuch as all His effects are in His essence in an intelligible mode, for all things are in God virtually as effects in their cause. St. Thomas argues that the cause of all things is God. He states that

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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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This means going through life when faced with decisions, He does interfere or enforce a predisposed plan upon an individual. Reasoning for this stems from personal everyday actions. Upon waking up, there are many decisions that can be made, all of which can slightly alter the future, yet its feels as though there is no divine power at work when making one of these decisions. Individuals go through mental monologues to come to a decision based on the facts and opportunities presented with them. Saint Augustine claims the very same thing in Book V of the text when he says, “that God knows all things before they happen; yet, we act by choice in all those things where we feel and know that we cannot act otherwise than willingly.”

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