The Five Proofs Of God's Beliefs By St. Thomas Aquinas

St. Thomas Aquinas, a catholic priest, was a philosopher, theologian, and scholar. Along with some of his own ideas, he was also influenced by the previous famous philosopher- Aristotle. Under the influence of Aristotle, Aquinas asked himself the question of whether we can have knowledge of God’s existence or not. Then he forms the argument of the five proofs of God’s existence. In order to prove these five existence he also includes Aristotle’s four causes- material cause, formal cause, efficient cause, and final cause. Aquinas’ five proofs are- proof of motion, proof of efficient cause, proof of necessary versus possible being, proof from degrees of perfection, and proof from design. With this, St. Thomas Aquinas answers his question of whether we can have knowledge of God’s existence or not.

As St. Thomas was influenced by Aristotle, he then had to appreciate what Aristotle believed. Aristotle was a firm believer that knowledge was knowledge of nature. In order to understand how things in nature were created, he then creates the four causes and calls the “good”, the prime mover. Each of the four causes are designed to define how an object is created. Starting with the material cause, Aristotle asks the question of what is the object made of. Secondly, the formal cause, asking what

He focuses on transcendental: being, goodness, truth. Everything that exists participates in these transcendental in degrees analogues to each other. For example: plants have being, as well do animals but animals have a higher degree. Humans also have being, but an even greater degree of being than animals and plants. As the series goes up so does the perfection of the transcendental. Since none of these things possess this perfection in its fullness, just as they don’t possess existence in its fullness. It receives it at every moment from someone who