THE METAPHYSICS THOMAS AQUINAS USED TO PROVE GOD'S EXISTENCE
1 Argument from MOTION
All bodies are either potentially or actually in motion. But nothing can be changed from potentiality to actuality except by something in a state of actuality. Nothing can be both of those at once. Therefore nothing can move itself, it must be put into motion by something else. If there were no first mover moved by no other there would be no motion.Therefore there is a first mover, God.
2 Argument from CAUSATION
Nothing is the efficient cause of its own existence. Efficient causes are ordered by a first cause, through intermediate causes, to ultimate effect. If there is no first cause there cannot be any ultimate effect. Therefore there must be a first cause of things, God.
3 Argument from CONTINGENCY
We find in nature that it is possible for things to be and not to be. Therefore everything is either necessary or contingent. At one time there was nothing. Therefore it is not possible for contingent things to have always existed. That which does not exist begins to exist through something already existing. Nothing times nothing equals nothing. Therefore there is a necessary first being, God.
4 Argument from PERFECTION
There are grades of perfection to be found in things. Some are better, wiser, stronger, more beautiful etcetera than others. Things are X in proportion to how strongly they resemble that which is most X. It follows that if anything is good there must be something that is most good. And there must be something which to all things is the cause of their goodness and every kind of perfection. This is God.
5 Argument from DESIGN
We observe that natural bodies act towards ends. Anything that acts towards an end either acts from knowledge or under the direction of something with knowledge. Many natural beings e.g. fruits and vegetables lack knowledge. Therefore some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end, and this is God.
Cosmology is the study of the origin and structure of the Universe. Each of the 5 arguments predicated is a reflection on conditions which must have been in place in order for the Universe, or some observed feature of the Universe, to have come about.
George Warner
