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  • Essay / Critical analysis of Thomas Aquinas' arguments on the existence of God

    Thomas Aquinas said that everything that exists is in motion and that to set an object in motion, something would have to enter into it . Therefore, anything that moves must have been set in motion by something else that was in motion. So something must have triggered the movement. He explained that this principle could be applied to time and events, such that a certain event could not occur without something else or another event causing it. He did not agree with the term "infinite regress", an infinite regress implies that every event began without anything having triggered it (or set it in motion) and that it theoretically could have last forever. Thomas Aquinas believed that the world must have a beginning, because this would have meant that the world (or universe) would never have been started by anything, but would still be there forever, for and from eternity . Thomas Aquinas then said that the being who started the movement must have been a deity, God. This was his first argument: “The argument from movement”. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay His second argument was "The Argument from Causation", this varied slightly from "The Argument from Motion" because it talked about reason from cause. Thomas Aquinas said that many things are caused and that everything that is caused must be caused by something else, because something cannot cause itself (there cannot be an infinite regress of causes). He then said that there should be a primary responsible, something/someone who caused everything and that it was God. Aquinas believed that many things could be contingent, but not everything. The meaning of the term contingent is where something could easily have not existed and for everything to be contingent would simply be impossible. Thomas Aquinas said that an infinite regress of contingency (the possibility that nothing at all existed) would be impossible. A contingent being is a being that could not have existed, the opposite is a necessary being, and the only necessary being that could result from this argument is God. He also believed in the correct form of comparison by degree. What one person might perceive as good might be seen as bad by someone else. Thomas Aquinas believed that assets developed in degrees and that for there to be a perception of perfection there had to be something against which it could be measured to judge, therefore God is the only viable perfection. This should be possible because all comparisons between items and objects are considered to be due to a comparison between the item and a pinnacle, the judgment on the goodness or badness of something would then be made by doing (in this case) God, the item that cannot be improved (an A grade) and the item being compared to see how it stacks up against God. The teleological argument states that every object, organism or thing should have a designer. It was first put forward by the Italian philosopher St. Thomas Aquinas, who argued that the obvious complexity and order of the universe is evidence of a superior designer and that this designer was God. The English philosopher and clergyman, William Paley, later added to this point and argument and included a famous analogy describing how Paley found a watch on the ground while he was walking, he admired the complexity of the watch; due to the complexity and detail of the watch, he assumed that it must have been designed by a designer and could not.