aquinas on the existence of god ~ slide 1 aquinas on the existence of god zaquinas’s arguments for...

Aquinas on the existence of God ~ slide 1

Aquinas on the existence of God

Aquinas’s arguments for God Aquinas’s famous 5 arguments

appear in both the Summa Theologica & the Summa Contra Gentiles

Will examine arguments 2 & 5 only Aquinas’s approach in all of the

arguments



God’s existence can be known through God’s effects, i.e, the created world (SCG, chapter 12)

The 2nd argument 1. We experience causality. 2. Nothing is the cause of itself;

causes are other than their effects.



3. There cannot be an infinite regress of caused causes.

If there were an infinite regress, the effects we experience here & now would not exist.

4. Therefore, there must be some first cause and this we call “God.”



Critique Clarification: a temporal series of

causes vs a dependent series. Aquinas is talking about a dependent series.

Can’t we take the observed causality in the world as a brute fact which requires no explanation?



Possible response: If we accept the Principle of Sufficient Reason, then causality must have an explanation. Why should we accept the P. of

SR? Because it is a necessary

condition for rationality?



Richard Swinburne (The Existence of God, 2nd ed. rev., Oxford UP, 1991) proposes redoing Aquinas’s 2nd argument God is necessary to account for

the existence of & the sustaining of the laws of nature which in turn govern the causality we experience.



God laws

causal events



The 5th argument 1. The experiential datum: things

which lack knowledge act toward ends (goals).

Nature displays goal-directedness; it is purpose-filled.

2. Things which move toward ends must be guided by an intelligence.

Analogy to an arrow shot by an archer.



3. Therefore, there must exist an intelligent being who directs all non-cognitive natural things toward their goals. “And this we call God.”

In the 19th century, William Paley (1743-1805) in his Natural Theology; or Evidences of the Existence and Attributes of the Deity (1802), redid Aquinas’s argument.



Analogy between a clock and the clock-like design and behavior of the universe as a whole and especially living things.



Critique of the design argument The challenge of Darwin’s theory to

all design arguments based on the design of living things The theory of natural selection

(1) Overproduction of pollen, seeds, eggs, & sperm; yet populations remain relatively constant.



(2) There is a high mortality (3) Individuals within a species

are not identical; there are some variations.

(4) Some of these variations are inheritable.

(5) Some individuals are better adapted than others to the conditions of life and to ecological niches.



(6) Because of (5), there is natural selection & differential survival.

(7) Over the long run, (6) results in the rise of divergent stocks issuing from common ancestors.

Darwin’s theory offers a natural explanation for the design of living things. Hence there is no need to appeal to God for this design.



Responses: Can reconcile God with the natural

evolution of the design of living things by stating that God uses evolution to bring about this design. But note that this is not an

argument for God’s existence; it is a statement of the compatibility of God the designer and evolution.



Responses (cont’d) Swinburne: God is required to

explain the existence and sustaining of the laws governing the evolutionary process.



Darwin’s theory is restricted to the realm of life. Some claim we need God to explain the evolution of the cosmos from the Big Bang. The cosmos displays

remarkable fine-tuning directed toward the creation of life and mind. This can only be explained by the existence of an intelligent designer.

aquinas on the existence of god ~ slide 1 aquinas on the existence of god zaquinas’s arguments for...

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