Saint Thomas Aquinas Argument For The Existence Of God

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In his work Summa Theologica, Saint Thomas Aquinas ponders the existence of God and debates a series of questions, culminating in an overview of his five ways to prove there is a God. In the fifth way, now better known as Thomas' "Argument from Design", the philosopher uses a teleological approach to assert nature is governed, or directed, by an intelligent being known to man as God. Aquinas states that everything has an order, which can be explained only by a purpose, or design. Since design and purpose are both associated with intelligence, nature must be guided by an over-seeing designer. There are many objections to Aquinas' final argument. Some claim the assumption that everything has a purpose, including the universe as a whole, commits the Fallacy of …show more content…
The material cause is essentially the matter of which something is made. For example, the material cause of a house would be the bricks and mortar. The formal cause is the essence of something. In the case of a house, the formal cause would be the structure, and shelter the bricks provide. The efficient cause is the agent responsible for making or moving. This would be the construction workers who built the house. Lastly, the final cause is the end reason, or purpose for existence. For a house, this would be the warmth and security it provides. This final cause can be further explained as the result of an effective cause. For example, if lightning is the effective cause of forest fires, then forest fires are the final cause of lightning. Circumstances such as these are extremely common in nature, and are examples of inanimate objects being directed towards a specific effect beyond itself. It appears as though nature exhibits patterns. These patterns, or regularities, are the focus of Aquinas' "fifth
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