Western Civilization - Essay Example

St. Thomas Aquinas ‘Five Proofs of the Existence of God.’ Do you agree with his arguments? Why or why not? Each of the five proofs proposed by St. Thomas Aquinas regarding God’s existence possesses an argument unique from the other four yet these proofs, as they occur to understanding, are bound together by a common principle that deals with or involves the essence of origin. Being the ‘first to move’ and the ‘first to cause’ both signify an entity that bears the potential of infinity and who is a necessary being as well.

To this extent, the fundamental concept delivered via the first three proofs establishes a good foundation to proceed with the endeavor to reconcile faith with reason that God does exist with which I am utterly convinced. In reference to the creation of the universe and the formation of galaxies which are found to have taken place under a great deal of time and evolution, one must figure how indispensable a “first cause” is for according to Aquinas, an infinite series of causes is not possible.

Though the universe seems infinite in space with unfathomable mysteries left to be explored, it has its beginning and thus, a cause which is itself not subject to a prerequisite of a separate cause. This proof serves a link and support to the fourth proof which accounts for the statement that God is the “greatest being”. Scientific efforts have heretofore shown evidence of how vast the immeasurable universe is and that our solar system is merely comprised in the Milky Way galaxy out of the hundreds of billions of galaxies known so far and this fact certainly leads us to imagine how astonishingly immense the Maker is of all these already colossal things.

By the fifth proof, the saint argues “whatever acts for an end must be directed by an intelligent being.” Gravitational pull or force of gravity, as majority are fully aware of, keeps everything in place and puts the universe in perfect order as if it has originated from a thinking source that knows how to calculate, premeditate, and discern the heart of nature with remarkable sensibility. Looking at the symmetry widely present throughout creation within and beyond earth, it is rather difficult to deny that something or someone intelligent is responsible for the orderly structure and state of equilibrium.

Otherwise, neither this world nor the overly extensive dimension it is a part of would have survived if it were to emerge from chances at random instead of through God’s intelligence by which logic and beauty alike are preserved. At this stage, it makes all the more sense to declare the third proof with conviction that God, indeed, is a “necessary being” and his plans of creation are clear as they reflect well in the chronology of events in history since time. Hence, Aquinas states “not everything is contingent” where at a plain knowledge that fertilization of microscopic male and female cells in union does not just produce any sort of creature but a rational human being, an organism of the highest form, who develops and realizes the freewill to act and think in response to the rest of his kind on a common ground, such is far from circumstances of accident.

Just as contingency cannot possibly play a role in God’s wonderful design, so is the “first mover” who could not have been moved prior to His existence. Apparently, Aquinas manages to have adequately justified the ‘Five Proofs of the Existence of God’ on the basis of their sensible connection and metaphysical relevance and for which, I desire to express agreement to the claims these proofs hold in their justice of truth that God undoubtedly exists. Work Cited“Religion B2: Aquinas’s Five Proofs.” 2012. Web.

23 Mar 2012. http://www.jcu.edu/philosophy/gensler/re/r-b2--00.htm.