Term Paper

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Outline

1-Introduction:

The five arguments predicted by St. Thomas Aquinas (1224/25–1274) demonstrate the existence of God.

2- First way-The Argument of the unmoved mover (the argument from motion)

Aquinas’s fist way to explain the nature of God is that he believes that at least something in the world are changing daily and whatever is changing is not changing on their own those must be moved or changed.

3- Second way-The Argument from Efficient causes

Aquinas says that we see things are caused by different means and it never happens that these are caused by themselves and it is impossible for something to be the cause of itself. If those things have caused then the cause should have a cause and it leads to the first “cause”. That first cause is God.

4) Third way – ARGUMENT FOR necessity and possibility:

This way says that there are possibilities of things to be and not to be and there is a necessary being that is that is Imperishable

5) Fifth way- The Argument from ends or Final cause

a) Aquinas says that that ultimate means of intelligence is what we consider as God

6) Discussion

a) The existence of God according to metaphysics

7) Conclusion

Term Paper

Aquinas concept of the existence of God

Abstract

Moral arguments regarding the existence of God are generated with the help of some features of morality and the existence of the moral life given by Him. The interpretation of moral arguments is interesting and the need soundness to interpret. These arguments are important because they reveal any popular religious beliefs and the facts might be supporting any religious beliefs as well. There are various arguments over the existence of God and according to the Catholic theologian and philosopher of the 13 the century St. Thomas Aquinas the existence of this world needs the existence of God. He has used five ways to prove the existence of God and concludes that the natural; world only exist if there is an existence of God.  Aquinas claims that the universe comes into being due to the fact that there is God who created it and without His existence, the universe would not come into being.

Introduction

The five arguments predicted by St. Thomas Aquinas (1224/25–1274) demonstrate the existence of God. These five arguments are called the Five Ways and the Latin word for that is Quinquae Viae. Aquinas has generated theses five arguments based on the theological assumptions of the Roman Catholic Christians and he has mixed that with the philosophical knowledge of Aristotle Islamic commentators (Te Velde, 2017).

First way-The Argument of the unmoved mover (the argument from motion)

Aquinas’s fist way to explain the nature of God is that he believes that at least something in the world is changing daily and whatever is changing is not changing on their own those must be moved or changed. Whatever is changing the changes then that is itself has changed by something else. This chain of changers cannot be infinite and there must be a primary changer who controls all the changes. According to Aquinas, this primary changer is God and he further says that the thing moved and the mover must exist simultaneously.  He generates an argument by saying that the changes in seasons prove things are in constant motion and the thing moves because their optional motion has changed into actual motion. He supports his argument by the fact that only an actual motion can convert a potential motion into an actual one. Nothing can be in both actual and potential motion at the same time and therefore nothing is able to move. Thus, everything that is moving around us is moved by something else and the first mover is the one who has put in motion bi no one else and that is who God is (Te Velde, 2017).

Second way-The Argument from Efficient causes:

 Aquinas says that we see things are caused by different means and it never happens that these are caused by themselves and it is impossible for something to be the cause of itself. If those things have caused then the cause should have a cause and it leads to the first “cause”.  That first cause is God according to the theory of Aquinas. He says that theses causes should be informed of sequential events and the first cause stood first in the hierarchy. The first cause is the principal one and that is God.

However, Aquinas says that nothing exists prior to it's one’s self and nothing could be the cure of itself. Therefore, of the first thing in the line does not exist then there would not be the existence of anything. That first thing in the series is GOD (Te Velde, 2017).

The third way – argument for necessity and possibility:

 This way says that there are possibilities of things to be and not to be and there is a necessary being that is Imperishable. As things exist now this shows the sign on an ultimate being who was there all the time and is the cause of the existence in the universe. This ultimate Being is called God by Aquinas. He has explained this concept by assuming that everything in the universe is contingent being and it is therefore impossible for them to always exists.  There would be a time when nothing would have been in existence and some being do not relate to another being for its existence and that ultimate being is GOD (Kenny, 2014).

 Fourth way- The Gradation of Being

 According to the fourth way, things in our universe vary in degree of truth, goodness, and nobility. There is healthy animal and there are sick animals. There are poorly drawn triangle and accurately drawn a triangle. Judging things as being more or less implies on some standard those are compared with. So, there must be something this is an example of goodness on itself and that standard is God. The prediction of the degree of goodness can be based on the uttermost cause and this example of perfection is God (Te Velde, 2017).

Fifth way- The Argument from ends or Final cause

Aquinas has generated the argument from the fact that there are a various number of non- intelligent objects that behave in regular ways. Their behavior cannot be due to chance as they would not have behaved that predictable if the behavior they have adopted is by chance. THE OBJECTS ARE NON-Intelligent and they are not aware of how to behave by themselves. Their behaviors must have been governed by something g else and that things must be intelligent enough to control the behavior of the whole universe. Aquinas says that that ultimate means of intelligence is what we consider as God (Kenny, 2014).

Discussion

However, there are various philosophers who do not want to discuss the existence of God as they think that this concept has very little contact to evaluate. These theologists argue on conventional grounds that GOD is a necessary being but it does not mean that the proposition that “God exists “is necessary. When Aquinas argued about the description of God he means that God is highly imperishable.

He is right about the nature of God because the history of philosophy always reveals the existence of the necessary being and the necessary being is the creator of everything in the universe. As Aquinas says that nothing can move without any mover so there is an ultimate creature that is responsible for the regular changes in the universe. As the sign of the universe shows that there is something who has maintained balance and that thing is no doubt more intellectual than the other beings in the universe (Everitt, 2004).

According to the argument generated by Aquinas, There is a creator who created the universe and that is called God. SO the existence of God cannot be denied because if there was no existence of God then there would be no one to falsify anything (Kenny, 2014).

There are various examples from the philosophy of mind, from the philosophy of science and from the philosophy of perception that justifies the existence of God. These examples include the problem of evil and the difficulty of resolving the freedom of human being with the divine omnipotent and Omniscience (Everitt, 2004).

However, some theologian considers religion as a way of life and thus the religious interpretation of God could not be justified to anyone who has neutral thoughts about religion. Such people need a philosophical proved of the existence of God as presented in the five-way arguments of Aquinas. Like everything in motion is a mover and this concept has no religious linkages thus can be accepted by neutral people and it also makes sense that an object cannot come into being without any creator and cannot move without any mover. So the argument of Aquinas presents the rational justification of the existence of an ultimate being that he considers as God (Te Velde, 2017).

 The arguments of Aquinas present the operations of Devine providence which he says compatible to give the permission of bad things to happen to nice people. According to him the present life of the human being does not contain the ultimate goal so good people are not rewarded in this life but they will be rewarded in the life thereafter (Everitt, 2004).

He is right in that regards because the ultimate happiness of people is the reunion with God and this will occur at the time when good people will be benefited for the good deeds and as a benefit, they will be given a chance to meet either the ultimate beings.  He supports his perception by the argument he generated about the various degree in the universe that can be analyzed by comparing with the best one. HE means that the ultimate being is the perfect being and He is the one who is the point of comparison for the good people. Thus good people will meet him at the end and those good features in human being reveal the character of the ultimate being thus every goodness belongs to him (Te Velde, 2017).

Conclusion

However, the arguments generated by Aquinas filled with the principle of metaphysics. Such as he talked about motion, materials potentiality, substance, energy, intelligence, actuality, accidents and essence and all these concepts are used by metaphysic defines the ultimate being.As metaphysics says that the corporal being is formed from the combination of matter and form and all creatures have the sign of essence and existence but the essence of the only first uncreated cause is existence. That uncreated cause is God and thus the arguments generated by Aquinas support the concept of metaphysics that is used to explain the existence of God (Stump, 2008).

Moreover, the philosophy of Aristotle considers metaphysics as the science of being and being in itself is firstly God and the rest of the being depend on himself and his intellect. Aquinas argues about the ultimate being as the hub of the intellect for the rest of the universe thus He is the creator of all universe. So his arguments about the existence of God are supported by the philosophy of science, mind, intellect, and perception thus his ways to define the nature of God are acceptable (Owens,1993).

References

Everitt, N. (2004). The non-existence of God. Routledge.

Kenny, A. (2014). Five Ways: St Thomas Aquinas Vo. Routledge.

Owens, J. (1993). Aristotle and Aquinas. The Cambridge Companion to Aquinas, 38–59.

Stump, E. (2008). Aquinas. Routledge.

Te Velde, R. (2017). Aquinas on God: The’divine science’of the Summa theologiae. Routledge.