Aquinas Argument

8/8/2019 Aquinas Argument

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The Cosmological Argument For The

Existence of GodBy Sarah Allen


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St. Thomas Aquinas wasSt. Thomas Aquinas wasbornborn

in the year 1225 and died inin the year 1225 and died in1274.1274.

He was an Italian priest of He was an Italian priest of the Catholic Church.the Catholic Church.

He was the foremostHe was the foremostclassical proponent of classical proponent of natural theology.natural theology.


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+ His 1st argument is based on motion.+ His 1st argument is based on motion.

Aquinas said, The first and more manifest way Aquinas said, The first and more manifest wayis the argument from motion. It is certain, andis the argument from motion. It is certain, andevident to our senses, that in the world someevident to our senses, that in the world somethings are in motion. Now whatever is moved isthings are in motion. Now whatever is moved ismoved by another, for nothing can be movedmoved by another, for nothing can be movedexcept it is in potentiality towards that which isexcept it is in potentiality towards that which ismoved whereas a thing moves in as much as itmoved whereas a thing moves in as much as it

is in act. For motion is nothing else than theis in act. For motion is nothing else than thereduction of something from potentiality toreduction of something from potentiality toactuality except by something in a state of actuality except by something in a state of actuality.actuality.


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This simply means that things only change frompotentiality to actuality because of someexternal influence.

He also says that it is therefore necessary toarrive at a prime mover, moved by no other and this everyone understands to be God

This in someway is like Aristotle's argumentabout explaining a perfect world.


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Aquinas's greatest work was the Summa , and it is the fullestpresentation of his views.

This order is cyclical. It begins with God and His existence inQuestion 2. The entire first part of the Summa deals with Godand His creation, which reaches its zenith in man. The FirstPart therefore ends with the treatise on man.

The second part of the Summa deals with man's purpose, themeaning of life, which is Happiness. The Ethics detailed in thispart summarize the ethics (Aristotelian in nature) which manmust follow to reach his intended destiny.


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HIS SECOND: EFFICIENT CAUSE ARGUMENT

Was madeMake up designer Lipstick

Was made.Publisher.Book

Was made.Trees and nature.Banana


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SUMMARY OF EFFICIENT CAUSE ARGUMENT

He believed that nothing is an efficientcause of itself and that it is not possible for efficient causes to go back to infinity,

because if there is no efficient first cause,then here will not be any following causes.In Conclusion: In the words of St. Thomas

Aquinas, It is necessary to admit a firstefficient cause to which everyone gives

the name God (Summa Theologica)


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THE THIRD: THE CONTINGENCY ANDNECESSITY ARGUMENT

Aquinas wrote: The third way is taken frompossibility and necessity.This means that if everything has thepossibility not to exist, then at some pointnothing existed! But if nothing existed then,nothing would exist now!!Clearly things exist now, so there must besomething that cannot not-exist. This musthave necessary existence which is notdependent upon anything else and this wecall God.


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FACTS ABOUT DAVID HUME

David Hume (1711-76), was a ScottishPhilosopher and Historian.He finished his first philosophical work, ATre atis e of H uman N atu re (1739-40).He was educated at Edinburgh and livedin France( 1734-37).


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HIS ARGUMENT AGAINST AQUINASTHEORY.

David Hume attacked the idea that theFirst cause must be God. He believedstrongly that humans should only drawconclusions about things they hadexperience of ( He was an empiricist). Wedo not have experience of Universes beingcreated, therefore it is simply not possibleto argue from causes we witness withinthe universe to causes of it.


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OTHER ARGUMENTS BY HUME

Hume believed that cause and effectpatterns in our universe do not require anexplanation. They either simply exist asfacts, or are the results of our humanminds trying to shape or find order in our experience. If cause and effectrelationships cannot be assumed to betrue (guaranteed), then it cannot beargued that there was a first cause, ie.

God.


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OTHER ARGUMENTS AGAINST AQUINAS ARGUMENTS.

Why not a endless series of causes?Can there not be something that has alwaysexisted, but may cease to exist at some timein the future?Why should the chain of causes lead back toa single origin might there not be a wholecollection of separate origins.

Aquinas bases his argument on a contingentuniverse but in some ways the universe isnot contingent so not everything applies tothat theory.


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THE KALAM VERSION OF THECOSMOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

Kalam is an Arabic word which means toargue or discuss. The Muslim scholars al-Kindi (9 th Century CE) and al-Ghazali(1058-1111) developed the kalamargument to explain Gods creation of theUniverse.

The Kalam argument says that everythingthat exists has cause of its existence andthis includes the universe as a whole.


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OTHER PARTS OF THE KALAM ARGUMENT

Al-Ghazali also argued that the universemust have a beginning: he rejected theidea of infinite time because of theunacceptable logical paradoxes that wouldresult from this.To conclude: There is a beginning to theuniverse, and the universe has a cause.This cause, at the beginning of theuniverse, is God.


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WILLIAM LANE CRAIG

William Lane Craig developed a modernversion of the argument in his book (1979)called The Kalam Cosmological Argument.

He argued as follows:The present moment would not exist in aninfinite universe since it makes no sense totalk about adding moments to an infinite time.This is essentially the same as the earlier argument but rephrased in terms of timerather than space.


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Craig also said that there couldnt havebeen an infinite series of past eventsbecause then each subsection of eventswould also equal the total number of events.

To conclude: Since everything that beginsto exist has a cause of its existence, andsince the universe began to exist, weconclude, therefore, the universe has a

cause of its existence.


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Craigs argument has two parts: first, heseeks to prove that the universe, logically,must have a first cause and then he triesto show that the act of creation must either

have been the result of choice or of anatural occurrence. Supporters say that asthe rules of nature did not exist before thebeginning of the universe, it cannot be aresult of natural cause. Therefore it has tohave come about by choice indicating apersonal God.


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BACKGROUND INFORMATION

In 1947, there was a debate on BBC radiobetween F.C Copleston and BertrandRussell. Copleston supported thecosmological argument where as Russellopposed it. The debate focused on theThe Principle of Sufficient Reason first

introduced centuries earlier by GottfieldLeibniz (1646-1716).


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COPLESTONS VERSION:

He said: Cause is a kind of sufficientreason. Only contingent beings can have acause. God is His own sufficient reasonand He is not the cause of Himself. Bysufficient reason, in the full sense, I meanan explanation for the existence of someparticular being.In other words, Copleston is saying thatthe most plausible explanation of theuniverse is God.


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COPLESTONS ARGUMENTCNTD.

Contingent things could have beenotherwise, and so do not contain of themselves a sufficient reason for their existence. All things in the universedepend on the other and so nothing in theuniverse can give a sufficient reason for its

existence.The reason for the existence, therefore,must live outside it. This necessary beingis God according to Copleston.


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RUSSELLS OPINION CONTINUED.

Russell concluded that I should say thatthe universe is just there, and thats all.

Hume had made similar objectioncenturies before.He also stated that if God is theexplanation of all, and everything requiresan explanation, then what is theexplanation for God? Why should God beself-explanatory in a way that the universe

is not?


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The Debate details

There is a transcript of the debatein the cosmological argument for

the existence of God.They do not come to a conclusionbut they decide to move on toanother subject.


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Other Modern Arguments John L.Mackie

Mackie responded to the criticisms of Aquinas. Modern science andmathematics had moved on from themedieval world-view, which was veryhierarchal.He defended the idea that there cannot bean infinite regression of causes.He also said that them movement mustbegin with


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Other Modern Arguments

Anthony Kenny (1931 present)He bases his observations on NewtonsLaws on Motion.

Kenny thinks that Newtons Law proves Aquinas wrong. It is possible that an objectcan be in one of two states stationary or moving at a constant rate without any

external force acting on it .This would appear to mean that Aquinasstatement that nothing moves itself isincorrect..


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The End

Aquinas Argument

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