Thomas Aquinas and the Existence of God The

* Thomas Aquinas and the Existence of God

*The Five Ways (or Proofs) of St. Thomas Aquinas. *We can come to know God through reason. *Consistent with an understanding of truth and God being accessible by both faith and reason. *St Thomas Aquinas *He wrote these within his Summa Theologica *The Five Ways *

*The universe is in motion, it is expanding. *That motion must have commenced somewhere - a ‘mover’ was needed. *Everything starts from a state of potentiality and moves into a state of actuality. *Something had to start in the state of actuality to be the ‘first mover’. *Something is an ‘unmoved mover’. *That thing is God. *

*All things in the universe are caused. *Something must have caused all other causes. *Given nothing we know is the cause of itself – the universe must have been caused by an ‘uncaused causer’. *The universe cannot be infinite – it has to be caused. *The causer is God. *

* Everything in the universe either exists or it does not. * To exist it must be contingent upon another being. If everything was contingent, the universe would not exist. Why? * Because everything is finite. * Something must not be contingent. Something must exist outside of this pattern of contingency. A being that is necessary. * That is God. *

*In the universe, there are varying degrees of perfection. *Eg something is good and something else is better. *If we evaluate all things on a scale, there must exist an ultimate perfection. *The pinnacle of perfection is God. *

*The universe is designed in such a way that natural bodies have intelligent ends. *These are not sentient, intelligent beings. *However, acting towards an end is a sign of intelligence. *Something must guide these bodies towards an end. *This is God. *