The Existence of God
The question of God's existence involves a long and controversial history. Defining the term "God" in and of itself is not an easy task because different people have their own concept of what God means to them. In this piece, I aim to show why belief in a God is a reasonable position to hold. To accomplish this, I will make reference to Aquinas' work on "The Existence of God." Although each of Aquinas' arguments contain premises which can be questionable or flawed, however, I will show how the arguments for acknowledging God's existence is more convincing than to conclude that God does not exist. There are several ways to approach the question of God's existence. Aquinas puts forth his attempt to prove the existence of God into five significant arguments that I will evaluate in this paper. Aquinas' first way of proving that God exists is through the notion that since nothing can move itself and that if every being or objects in motion requires a "mover," then the first of such thing necessarily involves a mover. Aquinas' puts forth this notion of this initial mover as God, as the "Unmoved Mover" (Perry, and Bratman 1999). Aquinas' first argument is convincing because they come from certain undeniable truths that are comm
If there did not exist a first mover, God, then nothing would exist now, and consequently there would be no use for the universe if there did not exist a first mover. Therefore, Aquinas' evidence for the existence of God is a convincing argument because the argument of the first mover provides a sufficient ground and starting point for the existence of the universe. The existence of God is not immediately evident but that it is one that requires demonstration. However, the notion of simultaneous state of potentiality and actuality does not solve the problem of things that exist. Hence, there would ultimately have to be an infinite being that has started on the sequence of these events in which we see God as the first cause of being. We can merely put forward the existence of God, for the necessity for the existence of the universe. In effect, all possible beings in potentiality would then need to be actualized with a first cause, which is God. Since these laws are consistent, the prime mover must evidently be God. However, one may argue that the notion of a first cause does not follow that the entire entity of all possible beings requires a cause. When we look at parts of an existing structure, there may be parts that require a cause but in the end the whole entity does not necessarily require such a cause. According to Aquinas, he states that common sense tells us that certain things work in particular ways in which we can conclude that these were created and specifically designed by God. Since this notion that "nothing comes from nothing" is supposed to be common sense and seemingly true, but it does not necessarily prove whether there is a God. However, the argument is not misleading if we look at the structure as one entity. Aquinas' fifth argument of God's existence has to do with the observable things in the universe and the order of nature.
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Acceptance Essays
