2003nav.jpg
.::SCHOOL ESSAY ::.

Brian Frantz
Apologetics
9/30/03

Summary of Arguments Regarding the Existence of God in Summa Theologica by Thomas Aquinas:

Proof 1:

  • An object in motion cannot exist without having been moved by some outside being which is in motion.
  • This cannot go on forever. That being which moved the first thing that was ever set into motion must have been in motion beforehand, yet it has not itself been moved by anything else (for it was the first thing to move something).
This being is God.

Proof 2:

  • Everything is the result of a greater previous cause.
  • That which was the cause of the first result must have pre-existed or been its own cause (for it, being the first cause, could not have been the result of anything).
This being is God.

Proof 3:

  • If everything is possible to have not existed then it is possible that at one time nothing existed.
  • If at one time nothing existed, how did anything come into existence?
  • Therefore there must be something that has existed from the “beginning” (whatever that is) and brought into existence all things which could have possibly not existed.
This pre-existent being is God.

(Possible comebacks: How do we know there were not multiple pre-existent beings? All this proves is that anything that could possibly have not existed was created by something which could not have possibly not existed…but there could conceivably be more than one of such things/beings).

Proof 4:

  • Things are termed “better” or “worse,” “more” or “less” in relation to other things.
  • That which is good cannot bring into being something better than itself.
  • Thus, the best thing has been brought into existence by something better.
This being which is better than the best is God.

(Possible comebacks: Fire is the cause of all hot things? Good cannot come from evil?).

Proof 5:

  • Unintelligent beings, such as planets, act in the best way to achieve a certain end (cosmic balance, proper heating of earth, etc. in the case of planets).
  • As they are unintelligent, these cannot have begun acting in their present way on their own.
  • Thus, such unintelligent beings must have necessarily been directed by an intelligent being.
This intelligent being which ultimately controls such vastly large [and small] unintelligent beings is God.

(Possible comebacks: What about laws of nature? Orbit as a result of gravitational pull, for example. A separate argument could show that such characteristics of matter must have been created by some higher being, but this is not mentioned in this “proof.” And couldn’t there be multiple intelligent beings which are greater than all matter?).