The existence of God

Question 1

St. Thomas 5 ways

Answer 1

5 ways we can know anything invisible causes, by inferring it from it’s visible effect

Question 2

St. Thomas 5 ways

Answer 2

5 ways we can know any invisible cause, by inferring it from it’s visible effect

1. Argument from motion

Objects are in motion. Everything in motion was put in motion by something else. There can’t be an infinite regress of movers. So there must be a first mover, itself unmoved, and that is God

There must be a first mover, or unmoved mover, or an ultimate source for the change in things

2. Argument from causation

Some things are caused. Anything that is caused has to be caused by something else. (since nothing causes itself). There can’t be an infinite regress of causes. So there must have been a first causer, itself uncaused, and that is God.

3. Argument from contingency

Necessary being: A being that has always existed, that always will exist, and that can’t not exist

Contingent being: Any being that could have not existed

There are contingent things. Contingent things can cause other contingent things, but there can’t only be contingent things. Because that would mean that there’s an infinite regress of contingency and a possibility that nothing might have existed. An infinite regress is impossible. So there must be at least one necessary thing, and that is God.

4. Argument from degrees

Properties come from degrees. In order for there to be degrees of perfection, there must be something perfect against which everything else is measured. God is the pinnacle of perfection.

5. Teleological argument

Teleological: Goal orientated, or purposeful

Things without intelligence cannot work for the sake of an end unless a higher intelligence is directing them.

God is present in things, moving them, causing them, , giving them being, and directing the course of everything

Question 3

Argument from change

Answer 3

Nothing changes itself. Even apparently self-moving objects, like animal bodies, are moved by desire or will, something other than mere molecules. When the animal dies, the molecules remain, but the body no longer moves because the desire, or will, is no longer present to move it.

A seed cannot cause itself to grow, it requires an external input and stimulus. It cannot give itself that which it itself does not have, and therefore cannot cause itself to grow.

If there is nothing outside the material universe, then there is nothing that can cause the universe to change, but the universe does change, and so there must be something that exists outside of the universe itself, outside of time, space, and matter. The unchanging source of change

Question 4

infinite regress

Answer 4

In a chain of reasoning, the evidence for each point along the chain relies on the existence of something that came before it. which in tur relies on something even further back, and so on, with no starting point.

Question 5

Arguments against Aquinas 5 proofs

Answer 5

1. Even if correct, they don’t seem to establish the existence of any particular
   God, certainly not a personal God that one can pray to. It also Doesn’t rule out polytheism
2. Don’t prove the existence of a sentient God.
3. Aquinas was wrong in his insistence that there cannot be an infinite regress in anything. Aquinas takes it as a given that there has to be a starting point for everything. It is unclear why that is necessarily true.
4. His arguments are self-defeating. If everything has a cause that God also has a cause, and if God is exempt from this rule, then why can’t other things be exempt from this rule. If things can exist without God being responsible for them, then we don’t need God to establish things in the first place.