Sunday, March 14, 2010

Aquinas' Five Ways

So in my class we're currently reading about philosophy and religion, mainly how different philosopher's in the past have attempted to prove God's existance. One I have found most compelling and fascinating is the work of Thomas Aquinas. He was a theoligist in the 13th century who found many break-throughs in the world of philosophy and theology.

In his huge handbook entitled Summa Theologiae he presented his 5 reasons that God must exist. His argument is a posteriori which means he relies a lot on the senses. This tends to create a very strong argument that many people can relate to, and therefore, believe in. 

A couple of his 'ways' talk about cause and effect. If there is an effect, there must be a cause. Or at least that's how the human mind understands things to happen.  Aquinas places God as this ultimate source of cause. In another 'way', he says that God must be the perfection of qualities that all humans have in common, like beauty and truth. In yet another he argues that if all things are contigent (dependent), then not-existing is a possibility. Yet we do exist, so there must be some necessary source of existance (God).

In his most famous argument, he talks about design. We understand everything to have a designer, so the universe must as well. It's silly to think it doesn't...right? Because most things are goal-directed beings, there must be some intelligent designer of it all. Evolution could explain most of it, but that theory was not around in Aquinas' day.

It's extremely hard to understand his view without actually reading his literature, so I'll leave that part alone for now. What I'd like to explain next is it's affect on me personally.

I've always been on the edge with regards to religion. I'm so grounded in science and logic, that just having faith in something without proof is a step I haven't been able to take. And while Aquinas by no means converted me to believe in the traditional God, he gaves me some ideas. Maybe there's an ultimate state of truth, beauty, justice, goodness, etc in the universe. Not a being, but just a state. It's something to strive for and respect. Of course in my opinion religion should be a personal thing, so take my views with a grain of salt.

Basically what I'm getting at though is Aquinas' argument is really strong and would be a great use to those wanting to prove God's existence without the use of pure faith. Although it's doubtful if a God-type being will ever be proven to 100% certainty.

No comments:

Post a Comment