W6: Aquinas & the Cosmological Arguments

Question 1

Who claimed to have come up with deductive proof of God’s existence through the ontological argument, in the 11th century?

Answer 1

Anselm of Canterbury

Question 2

Who came up with 5 arguments for the existence of God, 200 years later?

Answer 2

Thomas Aquinas

Question 3

What is a cosmological argument?

Answer 3

An argument that all things in the universe depend on something else for their existence.

Question 4

How many cosmological arguments did Thomas Aquinas come up with?

Answer 4

4

Question 5

What were Aquinas’ 5 arguments for the existence of God?

Answer 5

Argument from Motion

Argument from Causation

Argument from Contingency

Argument from Degrees

Teleological Argument

Question 6

What is an infinite regress?

Answer 6

In a chain or reasoning, the evidence for each point along the chain relies on the existence of something that came before it

Question 7

Aquinas’ 5 arguments:

1. Argument from Motion

Answer 7

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

Question 8

Aquinas’ 5 arguments:

2. Argument from Causation

Answer 8

• Some things are caused
• Anything that’s caused has to be caused by something else
• There can’t be an infinite regress of causes
• Therefore there must have been a first causer, which is God

Question 9

Aquinas’ 5 arguments:

3. Argument from Contingency

Answer 9

We can’t have a world where everything is contingent, because then - by definition - it all could easily have never existed

There must be at least one necessary thing, and that thing is God

Question 10

Aquinas’ 5 arguments:

4. Argument from Degrees

Answer 10

Properties come in degrees

For there to be degrees of perfection, there must be something perfect against which everyone else is measured.

God is the pinnacle of perfection

Question 11

Criticisms of Aquinas’ 5 arguments

Answer 11

• The arguments don’t establish the existence of any particular God
• The cosmological arguments don’t prove the existence of a sentient God
• Aquinas was wrong that there can’t be an infinite regress of anything
• Aquinas’ argues that there must be a starting point for everything, which he claims is God, but there is no starting point given for the existence of God