¶ … Aquinas 'prove' the existence of God? Are you satisfied with his arguments?
In the theory of philosophy Aquinas five arguments for the existence of God builds the ground for the existence of upcoming theories. However, due to emerging logical, ethical and philosophical theories more and updated research is coming forward. In relation to the basics of existence of God Aquinas very simply combines the existence of God with the cognitive ability of human being to understand, realize and make judgments about the presence of usual things happening around (Suto). Whereas, Aquinas following theism and being a priest as well can be biased in his arguments about existence of God, there can be perspectives such as atheism and agnosticism continuously targeting the perspective of theism. Moreover, all of the perspectives have their own concepts and tends to build arguments themselves.
Aquinas gave five arguments as a proof for existence of God. These five arguments can be explained as: "(1) Argument of Motion, (2) Argument of Efficient Causes, (3) Argument of Possibility and Necessity, (4) Argument of Gradation of Being, (5) Argument of Design" (Gracyk). Aquinas have given several reasons and possibilities behind his five arguments, furthermore, Miller discusses the two different kinds of possibilites of Aquinas i.e. relative possibilty and absolute possibility. Both of these possibilties are also supporting each other in terms of existance of all the living and non-living things or more relevantly the whole universe (1). Whereas, the...
However, both of these arguments of Aquinas are supporting each other because both of the arguments are discussing motion of anything, which is actually efficient cause or reaction of an action. Since, due to no proof of the very first mover and efficient causer exist therefore existence of God can be considered.
The third argument of Aquinas discusses the possibility and necessity of existence of living beings, moreover, Aquinas very intellectually explains this argument as the reason for existence of something, which may or may be not contingent (Gracyk). Furthermore, by the use of correct existing reasons arguments can be analyzed and further generalized as well (Suto). However, this statement does not necessarily supports Aquinas third argument. On the other hand, science and technology has given reasons for the existence of eveyrthing on this planet, for example, Big-Bang Theory and Theory of Evolution. Moreover, Miller again puts forward an argument, that if existence is considered as property of anything then if something that does not exist would be equal to lacking of property, furthermore, Miller also puts forward that anything in the universe may or may not have properties therefore existence cannot be set as a criteria (4). Whereas, Aquinas…
God vs Evil Forces There is a major problem in the question of the existence of God as well as the presence of the evil forces. If God is almighty, loving and omnipresent how could there be suffering and evil forces in this world? With all the power God has, He could eliminate each and every evil making the world a peaceful and a beautiful place to live for the people.
If something happens, then it is a belief that somebody caused that thing to happen the way it did, and it is an effect of some kind of action. If then several actions take place one after the other, then the earlier/older happening caused the later event thus, "the first cause is the cause of all things and itself had no cause since it always existed." (Trigilio, and Brighenti
In most religious texts, "God is omnipotent (all-powerful), omniscient (all-knowing), and all-good (righteous, loving, benevolent)" (Wolf 2011). According to this view, apart from being the source of all that is good, God has the ability to know and do everything -- including stamping out all evil. However, there still exists so much suffering and evil in the world. Calamities of every nature do occur occasionally leading to death, displacement
Aquinas Thomas Aquinas was summarily concerned with the compatibility of faith and reason. In The Summa Against the Gentiles (Summa Contra Gentiles) and the Summa of Theology in particular, Aquinas presents his arguments for the synthesis of faith and reason. Aquinas offers a rather ironic glimpse at the nature of reason, which is both capable of intellectual comprehension of God but simultaneously insufficient for understanding God. Thus, Aquinas argues that God
160). Furthermore, Aquinas considers all people as being creations of God and parts of a whole that God represents. God's perfection has been passed on to its creations and thus all humans are perfect in their nature. Aquinas is obsessed with demonstrating the existence of God and this can be seen in most of his writings. F.C. Copleston elucidates the reason for this through the fact that "in arguing for
It is feasible, perhaps, that someone could hold the principle that he should always act rationally but also believe that this rationality should act towards maximizing their individual base pleasures. Clearly, this could be carried out at the expense of other rational beings. This would violate Kant's universal laws of morality because it would reject the elevated nature of humanity in general. At the same time, if this person