Thomas Aquinas God's Existence

In his writing, Thomas Aquinas discusses his position on the topic of the existence of God, which is that God’s existence is not self-evident, God’s existence can be demonstrated, and that God does indeed exist. In the first section, which he calls “Article One,” he asks, “whether God’s existence is self-evident.” Aquinas tells us that those who disagree with him believe that both God’s existence and truth are self-evident. Aquinas, however, insists that God’s existence is not self-evident. For something to be considered self-evident, it must be something obvious or something that requires no demonstration or explanation. He suggests that the statement “God exists” is self-evident, but actually knowing that God exists and knowing his essence is not. He states, “Now because we do not know the essence of God, the proposition is …show more content…
The first is motion. Things in motion are put in motion by another thing. Essentially, there must be a beginning or starting point for motion, and God is the “first mover.” The second way is nature of efficient cause. There is nothing out in the world that is the “efficient cause of itself.” There is a cause for every effect and God is that first cause. The third way is “possibility and necessity.” Aquinas says, “that which does not exist only begins to exist by something already existing.” He argues that the existence of a being is necessary for all other things to exist. That being is God. The fourth way is by thinking of things in terms of a scale. He says we can think of things as either “more” or “less” than others, but argues that at the end of the scale there must be perfection, and that perfection is God. The fifth way is by looking at creation. Aquinas states that “some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end.” A creator must have been behind all of creation, and that is