St. Thomas Aquinas Essay, Research Paper
What is the Best Way to Prove God? A Comparison of St.
Thomas Aquinas St. Thomas Aquinas is one of the greatest
theologians that has ever been. He recognized that there
were some people who doubted the existence of God because,
to them, logic did not allow for or explain God’s existence. Being a
devout Christian, he naturally believed in God, but he wanted to
prove God’s existence to those who could not accept things on
faith alone. As a result, we have five proofs of the existence of
God by St. Thomas Aquinas, all of which are based on logic and
observation of nature. One of his proofs is based on the idea of
a first mover and another is based on the idea that intelligence
is necessary to direct non-intelligent objects. I believe that
this fifth argument is better that the first. St. Thomas
Aquinas’ first argument tries to prove that there must be a
first mover. He calls this first mover God. He proves this by
saying that whatever is in motion must have been put in motion
by something else. He then defines one type of motion as the
reduction of something from potentiality to actuality, and says
that nothing can make this movement except by something that
is already in actuality in the same respect as the first object is
in potentiality. He goes on to say that no thing can be both
actual and potential in respect to the same aspect and, thus,
that nothing can be both moved and mover. In this, he means
that nothing can move itself. Therefore, if something is in
motion, it must have been put in motion by something else, which
must have been put in motion by yet another thing, and so on.
However, this cannot go on to infinity, as St. Thomas Aquinas
explains, because there would never have been a fist mover and,
thus, no subsequent movers. This leads to the conclusion that
there is a first mover, and this first mover is what is called
God. His fifth argument is actually much more simple. Just by
observing the world, we see the non-intelligent things always
act toward an end. (It is this observation of the universe that
is the basis for the sciences, especially the science of physics.)
We also see that non-intelligent things cannot move toward
their end unless directed by an intelligent being. As an example,
St. Thomas Aquinas uses an arrow. An arrow will not achieve its
purpose (that of reaching its mark) unless directed to do so by
an archer. Obviously, humans are the intelligent beings that
direct the small objects of our world, but there must be a
greater intelligence that directs the larger bodies of the
universe, such as the stars and the planets, since we obviously
have no control over them. This higher intelligence is what we
call God. These two arguments approach the problem of proving
God’s existence in two completely different ways. One goes the
route of saying there must be something that started
everything, and the other says there must be something that
controls the things that are here, even if “it” did not create
them. Both of these arguments seem, at first, to be good and
valid in their separ
have one major flaw as I see it. St. Thomas Aquinas says that
the line of movers cannot go on to infinity, which common sense
would tell you to be true. He thus establishes the arbitrary
endpoint of God. The problem I see is that this argument could
always be tested to be false by asking the question, “What
Moved God?” St. Thomas Aquinas would probably answer that
nothing mover God because God has always existed. I personally
believe this to be true, but, to prove his first argument, St.
Thomas Aquinas must accompany it by another argument that
proves God has existed forever. Then, God would not need to
have been moved since He would have always been. This would
make for a kind of circular flaw in logic or paradox, in that he
could not prove God existed until he proved God has existed
forever, and he obviously cannot prove that God has existed
forever until he proves that God exists at all. Because of this, I
do not believe God can be proved by means of St. Thomas
Aquinas’ first argument or by any similar means. In St. Thomas
Aquinas’ fifth argument, however, I do not see any flaws in
logic and I do not thing it needs to rely on any other arguments
to be valid. Just by observing the universe, we have found that
it operates according to certain rules or laws. However, it
seems very unlikely that these laws just appeared out of
nowhere, that they emerged with the creation of the universe.
According to currently accepted scientific theory, the universe
started with the big bang. This theory also states that, if
anything existed before the big bang, we cannot predict what it
was like because physical laws did not govern the universe at
that time. So, it seems, physical laws must have just appeared as
a result of the big bang. Science, which traditionally tries to
explain the universe without the “crutch” or involvement of
God, cannot and could never explain why these laws exist in the
first place. The only explanation I can see is that God has put
them there to govern the universe. This is the same argument
St. Thomas Aquinas uses, and it seems to be completely self-
supporting and free of any flaws in logic. For these reasons, I
believe this argument to be better than the first argument.
Proving the existence of God is a worthwhile task. If someone
did come up with a complete, foolproof argument for the
existence of God, the people of the world would have no choice
but to believe in His existence. However, even though St.
Thomas Aquinas makes a worthy effort, I believe that such a
task is not possible through logic and reasoning alone. There is
an element of faith that must be present for people to believe,
and if that element is not there, no matter how foolproof an
argument seems to be, there will always be those who do not
believe. In his fifth argument, St/ Thomas Aquinas makes as
close to foolproof argument that I believe anyone could make,
and, for me, it does prove God’s existence. However, if that
element of faith is not there, I do not think you can completely
prove God’s existence to everyone.