Aquinas Fifth
Aquinas' fifth way does prove the existence of God by showing how he directs all natural things to their end. The fifth way explains how we observe that natural bodies act toward ends. Anything that acts toward an end either acts out of knowledge, or under the direction of something with knowledge, "as the arrow is directed by the archer". But many natural beings lack knowledge. "Therefore some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end; and this being we call God". By use of the analogy of the oak tree and Paley's watchmaker, I shall prove that God's existence is true Aquinas' fifth way say's that natural bodies without knowledge act for an end, and it is always in the same way so as to obtai
They were ordered by a being with intelligence who could; which would be God. How else could one account for the amazing adaptations of animals and plants? Only an intelligent designer could have created them, just as only an intelligent watchmaker can make a watch. For Aquinas logically believed that inanimate objects, such as planets, could never have organized themselves, obviously lacking the intelligence to do so. Whether it be the analogy of the oak tree or the watchmaker it is evident that there must have been a designer of all things in the universe. The argument as to whether Aquinas' fifth way proves the existence of God is a decisive one. It goes on by saying how the watch is too complicated for it to have just been sitting there on the beach for all eternity, that there must have been a watchmaker who constructed it some time ago. Seeing this happen every year it would be absurd to suppose that it is an accident, clearly the oak tree and the squirrel do what they do to accomplish these purposes. Living organism's, Paley would argue, are even more complicated than watches. That designer must have been a person. It produces and drops acorns every year, providing food for the squirrels. The watchmaker analogy explains how a man walking along a beach finds a watch, describes it as being made of several parts and put together for a specific purpose.
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Acceptance Essays
