St. Thomas Aquinass Arguments for the Existence of God

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St. Thomas Aquinass Arguments for the Existence
of God
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• Next weeks topics are already there
• Metaphysics 4
• Metaphysics 4A

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Lets begin with Bellwork
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Bellwork

• On your Notes Sheet under Bellwork
• Explain the difference between Revealed Natural
  Theology
• Explain the difference between A
  Posteriori and A Priori knowledge

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Todays Objective

• I will be able to explain St. Thomas
  Aquinass 5 cosmological arguments for the
  existence of God

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Notes Sheet 1

• Write down todays objective on your Notes Sheet
  under 1 Objective

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Cosmological

• Cosmological comes from the Greek word Kosmos
  world
• Therefore Cosmology is the study of the universe
  and its origins or beginning
• Cosmological arguments address how the world
  began, what caused it, how things got started,
  etc.

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A Posteriori vs. A Priori

• Cosmological arguments start with our experience
  of the world around us
• Therefore, since they start with experience
  before knowledge, Cosmological arguments are
• A Posteriori

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Notes Sheet 2

• Write down the definition of Cosmology on your
  Notes Sheet under 2 Cosmology

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Notes Sheet 2

• Also under 2 Cosmology on your Notes Sheet,
  write down what Cosmological arguments focus on

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Notes Sheet 2

• Finally, still under 2 Cosmology, identify if
  Cosmological arguments are A Posteriori or A
  Priori

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St. Thomas Aquinas

• He lived 1224 1274
• He came from a very aristocratic family
• At the age of 5, he was placed in a monastic
  order
• When he decided to switch monastic orders, father
  locked him in a tower
• When he was at school, his classmates called him
  the Dumb Ox

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St. Thomas Aquinas

• Regardless of this, he received his masters
  degree in Paris
• While in Rome, he gets noticed by Pope Urban IV
• After he died, he became a saint in 1323
• His philosophy was eventually declared the
  official philosophy of the Catholic Church in
  1879.

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St. Thomas Aquinas

• He was strongly influenced by Aristotle
• Based on this, he tried to prove to
  non-Christians the existence of God with pure
  reason alone
• So he came up with 5 proofs (arguments) of God
• They are the most famous proofs of God ever
  formulated
• All of them a posteriori (demonstrated by sense
  experience)

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Notes Sheet 3

• Under 3 on the Notes Sheet, explain how
  Aquinass philosophy affected the Catholic church
  even after his death.

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Notes Sheet 4

• Under 4, explain how Aristotle may have
  influenced Aquinas to argue for the evidence of
  God based on reason and not faith

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Five Proofs of St. Thomas Aquinas

• The Unmoved Mover
• The Uncaused Cause
• The Necessary Being
• The Perfect Being
• The Intelligent Designer

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Notes Sheet 5

• Under 5 Aquinas Five Arguments, list the name
  of each argument

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Argument 1

• The Unmoved Mover

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The Unmoved Mover

• We find motion everywhere in this world.
• Everything that moves is put into motion by
  something else
• Isaac Newton said that a thing will remain at
  rest until something causes it to move

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The Unmoved Mover

• The act of motion is something realizing its
  potential
• When something has motion, it is no longer a
  potential, but it has reached actuality
• An object can only realize its own potential
  (i.e. be moved) by something that has already
  reached actuality

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The Unmoved Mover

• Example
• A bowling ball has the potentiality of rolling
  down the bowling lane
• But it will not move until something causes it to
  move
• When the bowling ball moves, it has realized
  actuality

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The Unmoved Mover
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The Unmoved Mover

• Lets not forget that the hand that rolls the
  ball has already reached its actuality

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The Unmoved Mover

• So if an object (A) is in motion, some other
  object (B) had to put it into motion
• Another object (C) also had to put that object
  (B) into motion first
• This can go on ad infinitum

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The Unmoved Mover

• So if the world is full of motion, something had
  to put it into motion
• This cannot go on ad infinitum
• There had to be a first mover that was not moved
  by something else
• Therefore, God is the Unmoved Mover that started
  the world in motion

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Notes Sheet 6

• Under 6 on the Notes Sheet, describe in your
  own words the Unmoved Mover argument

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Argument 2

• The Uncaused Cause

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The Uncaused Cause

• This is very similar to Aristotles Efficient
  Cause
• The Efficient Cause helps the object realize its
  final form
• In other terms, the cause helps create the
  finished product

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The Uncaused Cause

• Examples
• The painter is the cause of the painting
• The sculptor is the cause of the statue
• Etc.

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The Uncaused Cause

• Its assumed that without the cause, the final
  product will never come to be
• No painter no painting
• No sculptor no statue

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The Uncaused Cause

• Its also obvious that nothing can be its own
  cause
• Thats because the final product would have to
  exist before itself

Product
Cause
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The Uncaused Cause

• At the same time, we have to understand that
  causes can go on ad infinitum again
• Therefore, God is the Uncaused Cause that created
  every other cause without needing a
  cause

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Notes Sheet 7

• Under 7 on the Notes Sheet, describe in your
  own words the Uncaused Cause argument

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Argument 3

• The Necessary Being

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The Necessary Being

• Everything that exists today did not exist at one
  time
• Therefore everything has the possibility of
  coming into existence
• However, all possible things depend on something
  that already exists to bring them into existence
• The thing that already exists is called the
  necessary thing

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The Necessary Being

• Therefore, if all things were once possible
  things, then at one point, nothing of this world
  must have existed
• But for the Universe to exist now, there must
  have already been something necessary that
  existed to bring about the universes existence

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The Necessary Being

• Therefore, God is considered the Necessary Being
  that brought the universe into existence

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Notes Sheet 8

• Under 8 on the Notes Sheet, describe in your
  own words the Necessary Being argument

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Argument 4

• The Perfect Being

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The Perfect Being

• We can talk about things in degrees of something
  within a category (hot)
• For example, hot, hotter, hottest
• When we describe these things, they are done in
  relation to the ultimate degree (i.e. hottest)
  in that category
• Very similar to Platos Ideas

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The Perfect Being

• Because we can think of the idea of hottest
  which is the ultimate degree in a category,
• then that creates all of the other degrees
  beneath it in the category (hot)

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The Perfect Being

• Something had to give birth to all ultimate
  degrees in all of the categories
• Therefore there must be a ultimate or perfect
  thing or being to cover all categories
• Therefore God is the Perfect Being that gave
  birth to all the categories

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Notes Sheet 9

• Under 9 on the Notes Sheet, describe in your
  own words the Perfect Being argument

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Argument 5

• The Intelligent Designer

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The Intelligent Designer

• All things (alive or not) in the world seem to
  act towards a meaningful end
• The idea is that this did not occur by mere
  chance, but by design
• However, inanimate objects (such as rocks, trees,
  etc.) cannot plan out or design their own end

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The Intelligent Designer

• Therefore something must have designed all things
  in the world towards a meaningful end
• Therefore God is the Ultimate
  Designer of all things

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Notes Sheet 10

• Under 10 on the Notes Sheet, describe in your
  own words the Ultimate Designer argument

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