St. Thomas Aquinas 5 Proofs (1)

St. Thomas Aquinas “Five Proofs” of God’s Existence

Aquinas was inspired by the passage to examine God’s works and prove to the skeptics there is a God.

January 28 is the feast of this great saint and doctor of the Church, the patron of students and Catholic schools. Thomas is one of the most brilliant philosophers and theologians the Catholic Church has ever had. 1. He was born and grew up in a castle.Thomas was from a well-to-do family in Roccasecca, Italy. He had three brothers and five sisters. 2. He had a lifelong fear of storms. That’s probably because when he was a toddler, his infant sister was killed by lightning when they were both taking a nap in the same room. 3. When he was a boy he was sent to study at the famous monastery of Monte Cassino. 4. He ran away from home to follow his Dominican vocation. 5. He was stubborn.

5. con't When his family found out he had joined the Dominicans, a band of soldiers led by his brother Rinaldo captured Thomas and brought him back home. He spent about a year under a sort of house arrest while his family tried to persuade him to give up his dream. He did not. 6. He was called the “dumb ox.”This is often misunderstood. It didn’t mean that the other students thought he was unintelligent. They called him that because he was very quiet and didn’t talk much. 7. He had terrible handwriting. 8. He could dictate to two or three secretaries at once. 9. He never criticized people; he only critiqued ideas. 10. He was extremely humble and submitted all his work to the judgment of the Church.

Facts continued

The First Proof:The Primer Mover

Consider a bouncing ball. How did the ball start bouncing? Did it fall and if so what caused it to fall? What started all the action? The Argument from Motion: Our senses can perceive motion by seeing that things act on one another. Whatever moves is moved by something else. Consequently, there must be a First Mover that creates this chain reaction of motions. This is God. God sets all things in motion and gives them their potential. THIS IS GOD!

Take a rock for example. If a rock is on the ground, it will not get up and fly through a window by its own power. It will just stay there on the ground. This is because it cannot put itself into motion. However, if a person were to pick up the rock and throw it, then it would go through the window— not because of its own power, but because that person put it into motion.

1st Proof

Now, how did that person first go into motion? From his parents, and their parents put them into motion, and their parents put them into motion, and so on. So how does this “prove” that there is a God? Think about the very beginning of time, to the very first atom. What put that in motion? According to science, something had to— otherwise the universe would still be just that one atom. The only way to explain it is that there must have been a "prime mover". "Prime" means "first". This prime mover put that first atom into motion. And since there was nothing to put that prime mover into motion, it must have been omni-present. To be omni-present means that it has no beginning and no end. We call this omni-present prime mover God. God has no beginning and no end.

This means that one thing is caused by another. In the example above, the window was broken because the rock went through it. The rock went through it because a person threw it, and so on. Again, as above, there had to be some eternal or omni-present being to cause that first atom to split and start a second atom, which in turn made another atom and so on— to the point where our universe now exists. This eternal being and the First Cause is what we call God.

The Second Proof:The First Cause

Consider yourself and your family history. You came to be because of your parents and your parents came to be because of their parents and so on. But where does it begin? The Argument from Efficient Cause: Because nothing can cause itself, everything must have a cause or something that creates an effect on another thing. Without a first cause, there would be no others. Therefore, the First Cause is God.

The Third Proof:Possibility and Necessity

Consider things that exist beyond the realm of human control. How did trees, animals, mountains, stars, and the sun come to exist? What caused these things to exist? If it was a mere accident what existed before the universe? If nothing, then nothing can come from nothing. The Argument from Necessary Being: Because objects in the world come into existence and pass out of it, it is possible for those objects to exist or not exist at any particular time. However, nothing can come from nothing. This means something must exist at all times. This is God.

Human beings, plants and animals are what we call "contingent" beings. Something that is "contingent" depends on something else for its existence. We don't have the power to make ourselves exist, nor can we control death. Since we don't exist by our own power, there must be some being, some non-contingent being, whose power makes us exist. Now the question is, "what do all of these contingent beings depend upon?" We cannot depend upon another contingent being because that being would have no more power than we do. There must be some type of being which is not contingent and does not depend on anything else for its existence. We call this being a "necessary" being; its existence does not depend on anything at all, and nothing can make it stop existing. We call this necessary being that we depend upon for our existence God.

The Fourth Proof: The degrees found in things

We judge all things to be more or less perfect than other things. This has been a common trait for all people throughout all of history. Where does our standard of perfection come from? There must be some absolute perfection, something that we can compare everything else to— otherwise we would have no idea of what is actually good. We call this all-perfect being who gives us an idea of what is good God.

The Fifth Proof: The Cosmos

Examine the natural world around you. Although it appears to be chaotic at times, nature is very structured. Weather systems, oceans, the solar system, time, it all has structure. Who is responsible for this structure? Who could have designed such a plan? The Argument from Design: All things have an order or arrangement that leads them to a particular goal. Because the order of the universe cannot be the result of chance, design and purpose must be at work. This implies divine intelligence on the part of the designer. This is God.

All things work together to perform an ordered task. For example, trees take in carbon dioxide and give off oxygen. Humans then take in that oxygen and give off carbon dioxide, which is then taken in again by the plants. This is just a small example, but all of nature works like this.

Intellectual Proofs for God’s Existence Summary 1. The Unmoved Mover – whatever is in motion must be moved by something else 2. First Cause – nothing causes itself 3. Everything Comes from Something – “nothing” cannot create “something” 4. Supreme Model – we can only speak of different degrees of qualities (truth, beauty, goodness) by comparing them to a reference point. 5. Grand Designer – the beauty, immensity, symmetry, and power in the world forces us to conclude that a Grand Designer made it all

Thomas Aquinas "Things are in motion, hence there is a first mover.

Things are caused, hence there is a first cause. Things exist, hence there is a creator. Perfect goodness exists, hence it has a sourcer. Things are designed, hence they serve a purpose."