St. Thomas Aquinas gives five arguments for the existence of God; which are cosmological arguments, meaning it starts from how the world first existed, and the existence of God. The arguments are bound to influence individuals to believe in the existence of God. The argument that we’ll be focusing on is the second argument, which is known as the causation argument for the existence of God. The second argument that St. Thomas Aquinas gives comes from the, “nature of efficient cause” (Aquinas: 42). This means that things that happen all have causes, some other thing has caused that thing to happen; there is a cause then an effect. For example, when individuals pray, there was a caused for them to pray either they are thankful for something, something is wrong, need help for something, or simply just wanting to reach out, or also because it makes them feel better. Then the effect is what happens after praying. Basically, this second argument is trying to tell individuals that if it was not for the existence of God in the first place, the world, everything would have not have existed at all. God was the first cause, to everything.
St. Thomas Aquinas’ second argument also tells us that we live in a world were things happen in order, something causes some other things to happen for a reason, in the world there is an order of cause. Things happen in order because it is meant to be that way, if it did not happen in order, things would not be able to happen in the first place. He also give us another reason in which everything has a cause, he states, “There is no case known (neither is it, indeed, possible) in which a thing is found to be the efficient cause of itself; for so it would be prior to itself, which is impossible” (Aquinas: 4...
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...ed God in the first place to exist, there is no casual reason.
St. Thomas Aquinas does give arguments that work, but it still does not prove that God exist. Also, in a chain of existence, at one point a cause did take in part causing itself, since it is a cycle. He says God is the first cause but he does not give an explanation to why God is the first cause, or how he knows God is the first cause. There is always an explanation to causes. If there is no first cause there would be no ultimate or intermediate cause and there is no explanation to why they are those things. This second argument demonstrates good arguments to causes, but it truly does not explain the existence of God. There should be further explanation to why nothing has caused God to exist, why he is the uncaused, and be the first cause of everything, that is why it is still unclear that God exits.
Thomas Aquinas, a leading scholar of the Middle Ages, argued that “Everything in the universe has a cause. Trace those causes back and there must have been a First Cause that triggered everything else. God is that First Cause.” This was known as his “First Cause” argument.
Anselm’s argument can be summarized as, “1. God does not exist. (assumption) 2. By “God,” I mean that, than which no greater can be conceived (NGC). 3. So NGC does not exist. (from 1 and 2) 4. So NGC has being only in my understanding, not also in reality. (from 2 and 3) 5. If NGC were to exist in reality, as well as in my understanding, it would be greater. (from the meaning of “greater”) 6. But then, NGC is not NGC. (from 4 and 5) 7. So, NGC cannot exist only in my understanding. (from 6) 8. So NGC must exist also in reality. (from 5 and 7) 9. So God exists. (from 2 and 8) 10. So God does not exist and God exists. (from 1 to 9) 11. So Premise 1 cannot be true. (by 1 through 10 and the principle of reduction ad absurdum) 12. So God exists. (from 11)” (262). This quote demonstrates how Anselms ontological proof is “God is that, than which no greater can be conceived” in understanding and reality by stating that a contradiction would be made if God didn’t exist in both (262). Aquinas cosmological proof stated that the existence of God could be confirmed in five ways, The Argument- “from Change”, “Efficient Causality”,
In the first part, Aquinas states that the existence of god is not self-evident, meaning that reason alone without appealing to faith can give a good set of reasons to believe. To support this claim, Aquinas refers to “The Argument of Motion”, proposing that:
Aquinas’ third way argument states that there has to be something that must exist, which is most likely God. He starts his argument by saying not everything must exist, because things are born and die every single day. By stating this we can jump to the conclusion that if everything need not exist then there would have been a time where there was nothing. But, he goes on, if there was a time when there was nothing, then nothing would exist even today, because something cannot come from nothing. However, our observations tell us that something does exist, therefore there is something that must exist, and Aquinas says that something is God.
One is that both theories believe that there had to have been a starting point to the universe. They both believe that it was created for a reason and that there will eventually be an endpoint. St. Aquinas believes that everything is constantly changing, and that for the change to start there must have been something to make the change happen. The first source of things moving is of course, God. Aquinas believes that all things trace back to God, who “is a being having its own necessity…” (Philosophical Proofs on the Existaence of God) A key belief in Aquinas’s Design Argument is that if something exists, there is a reason why it does exist and is a necessity. Another comparison is that both the Kalam’s Cosmological Argument and the Aquinas’s Design Argument have is that both believe that the Universe was started by the big bang. The difference between Kalam’s Cosmological Argument is that Aquinas’s Design Argument is caused by motion, an object is in motion it can send another object in motion. All things in the universe that are in motion and changing can be traced back to
Throughout the “Meditations on First Philosophy” Descartes gives a couple of major arguments about the existences of god, he gives one argument in the third meditation and on in the fifth meditation. The argument in meditation three and the one we will focus on is known as the “Trademark Argument”. This argument comes from the fact claimed by Descartes that inside of everyone is a supreme being, which is placed there by whatever created us. From this statement Descartes can say that a mark from a God has been place inside of every one of us. This argument involves the acknowledgement of such an idea is within ourselves, this idea that God is a being who is eternal and infinite and a creator of all things. This is Descartes first premise. His second premise is the “Causal Adequacy Principle.” The p...
Descartes second argument for proving God’s existence is very straightforward. He has four possibilities that created his existence. Through process of elimination he is left with God being his creator.
Have you ever walked 9000 miles? Well Thomas Aquinas did on his travels across Europe. Thomas had a complex childhood and a complex career. Thomas Aquinas has many achievements/accomplishments. History would be totally different without St.Thomas Aquinas. There would be no common law and the United States Government would not be the same without the common law.
While I do agree with some of Aquinas’ claims. Such as the idea that nothing comes from nothing. I believe something has to happen to become. It could be the efficient cause, causing the world to start. Although still having the question what made such a cause to effect everything in the
Secondly, the first and second arguments are invalid because the way the Big Bang happened and the universe was created was left to a good deal of chance and it would have been illogical for God to have created it that way. If God did create it in this form then it would be contradictory to Aquinas' idea of a completely rational, benevolent, and omnipotent God. Aquinas' third argument is unsound because he states that not every entity can fail to exist, but during singularity all of the matter in the universe is suspended in one lawless and unlocatable point. The lack of governing laws and any way to tell where that point would have been is proof that it may not have existed. The scientific proof of the beginning of the universe renders Aquinas' first three arguments from Summa Theologica unsound.
It is my view that God exists, and I think that Aquinas’ first two ways presents a
Aquinas has a separate argument for this. 3. What is the difference between a'smart' and a's The chain of causes can't go back to infinity. 4.... ... middle of paper ...
God can be defined as a being conceived as the perfect, omnipotent, omniscient originator and ruler of the universe, the principal object of faith and worship in monotheistic religions (1). There are many people that do not believe in any religion. People who do not believe in a religion have no reason for believing in a God. People who do not believe in a God and argue against the existence of God are proving something that is completely false. There is a God for numerous reasons.
Thomas Aquinas uses five proofs to argue for God’s existence. A few follow the same basic logic: without a cause, there can be no effect. He calls the cause God and believes the effect is the world’s existence. The last two discuss what necessarily exists in the world, which we do not already know. These things he also calls God.
...roofs of God’s existence are basically the same in that they are all, essentially, examples of cause and effect. This cause and effect does not neccesarily prove there is a God but it does lead one to wonder what may be the highest cause, and for this there is no proof.