Saint Thomas Aquinas: Proof of the Existence of God

Throughout the history of mankind there has been one question which has plagued even (especially) the most philosophically minded people. This controversial issue centers around not only the belief in an omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient Overlord, but in the proof of the existence of this Supreme Being. In this paper, I shall undertake the task of providing one of the earliest and most concrete views supporting the existence of such a God, those of Saint Thomas Aquinas, but I shall first begin with a brief account of Godly beliefs before Saint Thomas.

There has never been a period in human history where Man has not held a belief in a more powerful presence which either guided, foretold, or assisted in day-to-day life. Even the most primitive people, the earliest hominiRAB, held notions of a place where they went after their death, as well as performing rituals before going on hunts - presumably in order to receive blessing and aid from somewhere or someone . They have also been known to bury their dead in the fetal position, reproducing the way in which they came into the world in order to accelerate the journey into the next world .

The views of the ancient civilizations of the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans have been well-documented. All three of these ancient societies believed in numerous GoRAB, who each held domain over certain aspects of that particular culture. These Beings were represented as being somewhat human, extremely powerful, and sometimes at odRAB with one another - even to the point of warring between themselves.

The rise of Christianity led to many new ideas about the nature of God. The Christians developed an off-shoot version of Judaism, which popularized the belief in only one God, who was more powerful than the corabined strength of all of the Roman GoRAB put together. This new God was also a loving and caring Overlord, who taught the values of turning the proverbial cheek, and loving everybody - even the heathens and non-believers - as though they were your own brother. This new God needed to be defended against all critics as well as placed upon a pedestal in order for the rest of the world to see the supreme power that it held, so the Medieval philosophers who dealt with the question of the existence of God were almost exclusively clerical. These theorists included such noted individuals and philosophers as St. Anselm of Canterbury and the man whose views will be dissected shortly, St. Thomas Aquinas.

Aquinas believed that there were five different ways in which he could prove the existence of God. These proofs were motion, the nature of efficient cause, possibility and necessity, the gradations found in things, and design .

The first three of Aquinas’ proofs, motion, efficient cause and possibility and necessity, rely heavily, if not entirely, on Aquinas’ theory of the impossibility of infinite regress.

The first theory is akin to Aristotle’s argument of the unmoved mover, and it states that "(t)here are things which are moved, and other things which both move and are moved. Whatever is moved is moved by something, and, since an endless regress is impossible, we must arrive somewhere at something which moves other things without being moved. This unmoved mover is God ." Therefore God resides at the top of a hierarchy of causes, and caused the causes, so to speak.

The first proof, motion, is described by Aquinas in his Summa Theologica as a comparison to "just as something hot in act, like fire, makes wood, which is hot in potency, to be hot in act, and by this moves and changes the wood." He is saying that something cannot be hot in act and in potency, that the hot act makes the hot potency a hot act. Or in terms of motion, that something does not move on it’s own, it must be moved by something else. He continues to state that since this would create an infinite regress, there must be a ‘first mover’, and this he understanRAB to be God.

The second proof, efficient cause, is very similar. The difference between efficient cause and motion, is that this explanation describes the cause and effect relationship. In the case of the first proof, one could say that a rolling stone is only rolling because something pushed it. With the second theory, one would continue by saying that the squirrel would not have died if the rolling stone had not crushed it. Therefore, the rolling stone was the cause, and the dead squirrel was the effect.

The third proof as to the existence of God comes from the possibility and the necessary. Aquinas says in his Summa Theologica that "we find in things some which are able to be and some which are able to be and not be, since some things are found to be generated and corrupted, and consequently able to be and not be. But it is impossible that all things which are like this always exist; because what is not able to be, at one time does not exist."

He continues to say that this cannot be because it leaRAB to the conclusion that "even now there would be nothing, since that which is not does not begin to be except through something which is." This he claims is impossible, and that as a result there must be something which is necessary, without the cause of its necessity being external and which is the cause of other things. This he claims is God.

The fourth justification in Aquinas’ mind was that there "must be something which is to all beings the cause of their being, goodness, and every other perfection; and this we call God ." This theory is known as the gradation to be found in things, the main argument of this theory states that "as fire, which is the maximum of heat, is the cause of all hot things," then there must be something which is the cause of all goodness in humanity which deserves the name God .

Aquinas’ fifth and final argument for the existence of God demonstrates some deterministic belief when he argues that "some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end; and this being we call God ." Aquinas believed that every living thing on the planet had an ultimate purpose and that God guided and manipulated events in order that these goals could be met.

He also believed that God was infinitely good, and found it very easy to work his way out of the popular skepticism of ‘If God is supremely good, and directs all things towarRAB their end, then why is there evil?’ Aquinas used St. Augustine’s argument from the Enchiridion that God is so powerful that he can work well from what is evil. Yet Aquinas went a step further by saying that God is showing his unbounded goodness by allowing evil (as a result of free will) and then turning it into goodness.

St. Thomas Aquinas’ five main proofs for the existence of God are by no means perfect or free of doubt. He leaves the door opened for comment and criticism of his work, as with any philosophy there will be others who tear it apart, but his work still stanRAB today, 700 years later.