PROVING THE EXISTENCE OF GOD THOMAS AQUINAS

The statement “I believe in God”, was a statement taken for granted for many centuries. Some people think that we cannot believe in an Almighty creator. This question has been tossed about for centuries. One of the most famous collections of proves of the existence of God, comes to us from St. Thomas Aquinas, he famously wrote his 5 ways of knowing the existence of God.

THE FIRST WAY: MOTION The first one can be called the argument from motion, something that is moved has to be moved by something else. So God is the “Prime Mover”, and the starter of all things. It might sound simplistic, but there is proof in the area of Physics, which says that the Universe that is expanding as ours is, has to have had a beginning, that as long as any universal system is expanding, it must have had a starting point. So Thomas Aquinas´ proof for Motion is confirmed by Modern Physics.

THE SECOND WAY: CAUSE The second argument, is the argument from cause, that is, if something is caused, it has to be caused by something else, you can´t have an endless stream of causes unless you have a beginning. So there had to be a First Cause, which is God. Some people might think the universe is eternal, having no beginning and no end. Again physics proves that the Universe is not eternal, in fact it is changing, breaking down or slowing down constantly.

THE THIRD WAY: NECESSITY The third argument is the argument of contingency and necessity. St. Thomas said that all things were contingent , everything that exists, at some point will cease to exist, and the universe will no longer be. So St. Thomas argues that there must be one being that is necessary to hold all things in existence, and that existence is God.

Imagine you doing a painting, your painting can be a landscape or a portrait, it can be a picture of anything. All the things you put in the picture will be contingent, but if you don´t have a canvas, or paint, you have no painting, so you must have something that is necessary, and that is God.

THE FOURTH WAY: PERFECTION The fourth argument is the argument from perfection. You could say for example that something is good or is better; something is strong or is stronger. St. Thomas says that if you´re going to measure anything in some kind of scale, there must be one end of the scale, which is perfection and St. Thomas believes that is God.

THE FIFTH WAY: DESIGN The fifth argument is what is known as the argument of design, the idea that we can look at the order of creation, the design of the universe, we can only imagine that some benevolent creator was behind it. The universe was designed for human life.

The five ways of Thomas Aquinas show that reason can help us to better understand our faith and have every reason to trust the existence of God.