Aquinas
Saint Thomas Aquinas is most notably known for his Five Ways of Proving the Existence of God. Aquinas “believed that both faith and reason discover truth, and a conflict between them being impossible since they both originate in God” (Magee, http://www.aquinasonline.com/). Of Aquinas’ strongest arguments is that of possibility and necessity. This includes the thought that to exist, means that something before it must have existed and generated it, and because this regress cannot go on forever, it is postulated that the very first being must be God. Aquinas notes that “in nature things that could either exist or not exist, since they are found to be generated, and then to corrupt; and, consequently, they can exist, and then not exist” (Bowie, 59). For instance, a butterfly could either exist, or not exist, it cannot be in limbo. All things in nature are also found to be generated, or found to be an offspring of a paternal or maternal being that holds the same characteristics. Aquinas goes on to explain that “for what which can one day cease to exist must at some time have not existed” (Bowie, 59). For all living things that do exist, there must have been some time when they were not in existence, a time when the first
. . .
Some common words found in the essay are:
God Aquinas, God Magee, bowie 59, god aquinas, owe existence, Thomas Aquinas, possibility necessity, cease exist, exist existence, exist exist, existence god, proving existence god, existence god aquinas, question caused, god magee http//wwwaquinasonlinecom/, regress forever,
Approximate Word count = 1168
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
|
 |
