Thomas Aquinas five proofs for the existence of God

The evidence of the existence of God

God is the first in the order of beings apart from human knowledge though God is invisible. It is therefore, essential to demonstrate that God exists while being invisible. Thomas elaborates that five ways to come to prove that God exists.

The five proofs of God

In the Summa Theologica Thomas points out five proofs of God by way of reason. The procedure used by Thomas relies on considerations relating to Aristotle's unmoved mover, and the arguments are start from the empirical experience of the need to reach the claim of a First Principle. Thomas can perceive only sensible things; cannot penetrate the secrets of the divine substance. To investigate the divine, he can refer only to reason, a method, however, indirect and limited, but nevertheless justified by the fact that reason is God's creation and therefore, very effective method.

First Mover

The first way is that of the motion and, derived from Aristotle. It starts from the principle that everything that moves is moved by something else. This means that Thomas accepts the meaning of becoming and change the same way as Aristotle, or as a transition from power to act. This step needs a something that allows things to move. There is therefore, a rough (something that changes from potentiality to actuality), and a motive (something that generates the blur, which generates the passage and moves).it is necessary to reach the first motor driven by another, and everyone recognizes that it is God. This motion is not only mechanical and physical but metaphysical: wherever there is motion and thus become not just to him, there is no imperfection that has its explanation in itself and requires the intervention of God (St, 1).

First Cause

The second way is causal. In the world, there is an order of efficient causes (efficient cause is what gives rise to something) but, it is impossible that a thing is the efficient cause of itself. Again it is impossible to process ad infinitum, and then we must admit a first efficient cause "that everyone calls God”. All things have an efficient cause that produces them (that make them effective). In turn, the cause that produces something is behind another cause and so on. This causal relationship clearly cannot be infinite, there must be an Uncaused Cause, and a cause without another cause behind it commences uninterrupted chain of causes and effects, or God. Compared to the first path, here is the efficient causality, which depends not only becoming but the being of things. Therefore, God is not only the principle of becoming, but also cause, the origin of all that is supreme, which was preserved and created by Him, without eliminating the action of secondary causes (St, 1).

Necessary Being

The third way is based on the relationship between the possible and necessary. There are things that may or may not be. In fact, some are born and end, which means precisely that they may be possible, ...