Thomas Aquinas

Thomas Aquinas, a Roman Catholic Dominican monk, was a philosopher and a theologian during medieval times. Born at Rocca Secca in the Kingdom of Naples, he was believed by many Catholics to be the Church\'s greatest theologian. At an early age he was very diligent in his studies and was noted as being a faithful prayer and would frequently ask his teachers   “what is god?” Many years after, he came to a conclusion that the existence of God is neither self-evident nor beyond proof. He concluded that faith and reason were the two main elements to obtain true knowledge of god. Aquinas publsihed many works regading the existence of god during his time and the one he is most known for is “quinquae viae” or the “Five ways” This piece consists of five proofs of the existence of god and they are The Argument From Motion, Causation Of Existence, Contingent and Necessary Objects, The Argument From Degrees And Perfection and The Argument From Intelligent Design. This paper will discuss the strengths and weaknesses and the overall success in proving the existence of god, in the first two of the five proofs Aquinas had thought of.



The first proof Aquinas provides is the argument from motion. After studying the works of the Greek philosopher Aristotle, his idea was clear and simple, an object that is in motion is set in to motion by another energy. For example, if the sea level rises and destroys a town, one might ask why the sea level rose? Did the sea level rise because of a temperature drop in the artic? Did the temperature drop in the artic because of global warming? Did global warming occur because of humans? The questions can go on and on. He claimed that nothing moved itself, and everything had a mover except for the first mover who did not need any movement from any other source. That first mover is whom we call god and without his movement there can be no motion to begin with. Thus we would not exist if it were not for the movement of the God. This was the...