How Does Aquinas ‘Prove’ the Existence of God?
- Submitted by: asamu10111
- Views: 141
- Category: Politics: Philosophy
- Date Submitted: 10/02/2015 11:49 AM
- Pages: 4
- Report this Essay
God a being or object believed to have more than natural attributes and powers and to require human worship. Does God really exist? This is surely a fundamental question that nearly all humans have pondered with throughout human history. It can be said that all humans have an inmate desire; an emptiness that they feel must be filled.
For a philosopher, however, this concept has proven to be more than a little difficult to solve. Many people have tried to prove the existence of God in many ways. Some used the ontological argument, proposing that if God could be thought of and perceived, then God has to exist. At the center of the ontological argument is the idea or the concept of existence. St. Thomas Aquinas, in the thirteen century, formulated the famous “Five ways” by which God’s existence can be demonstrated philosophically.
The First way according to Aquinas is an Argument from motion. According to him our senses prove that some things are in motion. Whatever is in motion is moved by another thing; this other thing must be moved by something to avoid an infinite regression, we must get to a first mover which is God. The unmoved mover.
The second argument is from the concept of efficient cause. We perceive a series of efficient causes of things in the world, nothing exist prior to itself therefore nothing is the efficient cause of itself, if the previous efficient cause does not exist, neither does the thing that results, therefore if the first thing in a series does not exist, nothing in the series exist. This series of efficient causes cannot extent to infinity into the past therefore, it is necessary to admit a first efficient cause to which everyone gives the name of God.
Aquinas next explains that things of this universe have a transitory nature in which they are generated and then corrupt over time. All physical things, even mountains, boulders, rivers and so on come into being and go out of existence, no matter how long they last. Since it is...
For a philosopher, however, this concept has proven to be more than a little difficult to solve. Many people have tried to prove the existence of God in many ways. Some used the ontological argument, proposing that if God could be thought of and perceived, then God has to exist. At the center of the ontological argument is the idea or the concept of existence. St. Thomas Aquinas, in the thirteen century, formulated the famous “Five ways” by which God’s existence can be demonstrated philosophically.
The First way according to Aquinas is an Argument from motion. According to him our senses prove that some things are in motion. Whatever is in motion is moved by another thing; this other thing must be moved by something to avoid an infinite regression, we must get to a first mover which is God. The unmoved mover.
The second argument is from the concept of efficient cause. We perceive a series of efficient causes of things in the world, nothing exist prior to itself therefore nothing is the efficient cause of itself, if the previous efficient cause does not exist, neither does the thing that results, therefore if the first thing in a series does not exist, nothing in the series exist. This series of efficient causes cannot extent to infinity into the past therefore, it is necessary to admit a first efficient cause to which everyone gives the name of God.
Aquinas next explains that things of this universe have a transitory nature in which they are generated and then corrupt over time. All physical things, even mountains, boulders, rivers and so on come into being and go out of existence, no matter how long they last. Since it is...