Sign in or register
for additional privileges

God Man and the Universe Week Three: The Living God

Peter Brown, Author

You appear to be using an older verion of Internet Explorer. For the best experience please upgrade your IE version or switch to a another web browser.

Aquinas' Five Ways


Here are the five ways in very abbreviated form: 

1. All things that are in motion have to be moved by something else. That mover must in turn be moved by still something else. But we cannot have an infinite regress of movers. God is the unmoved prime mover.


2. Everything that happens in the world has an efficient cause. Every cause is itself caused by something else. But there cannot be an infinite regress of causes. God is the uncaused first cause.

3. Everything in the world is either a necessary thing or a contingent thing. A contingent thing depends for its existence on something else. It is evident that the world is full of contingent things the depend for their existence on other contingent things. But there cannot be an infinite regress of contingency. God is the necessary thing on which all other contingent things depend.

4. There is an evidence gradation of the quality of things in the world. Some things are better than others, some things are truer than others and so forth. But the gradation of things in the world makes sense only when there is a being in the universe that is the best, the noblest, the truest. And this being we call God.


5. There is evidently an order to the universe. The universe is evidently designed for a specific purpose but this implies intelligent design, which implies the existence of an intelligent designer. And this being we call God.


As you can see, each of the five ways is really an argument from the shape of the cosmos.
Comment on this page
 

Discussion of "Aquinas' Five Ways"

Add your voice to this discussion.

Checking your signed in status ...