Cosmological Argument For God's Existence

The cosmological argument for God’s existence has been called the empiricists’ form of argument. This is because it starts on the basis of human encounter with the physical universe. There are forms of this argument in the philosophies of Plato and Aristotle. However, its most eloquent representation is found in the philosophy of Saint Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican priest. He was basically an Aristotelian philosopher. In his time, he argued for the existence of God not minding the existential atheism that surrounded him. St. Thomas Aquinas states that the argument for the existence of God begins from the known to that, which is not known. He therefore suggests that it should begin from what we observe in the universe. Thus, Aquinas adduced five arguments for the existence of God, which he called in another term “the five ways”. The five …show more content…
Motion cannot be reduced from potentiality to actuality, except by something in a state of actuality. This first argument as we have seen is based on the fact of motion in the universe. So, this motion is a transition from the state of potency to the state of act. But nothing can bring itself from the state of potentiality to the state of act except through the agency of another being. Only a being in actuality can bring a being from potentiality to actuality. This means therefore that nothing can move itself, that is, nothing can be the ultimate cause of motion, not even man, as Feuerbach would assert. Therefore, whatever moves is moved by another; hence, we find a series of movers in the universe. But this cannot go on till infinity, because, then, there would be no first mover, and consequently, no other mover; seeing that subsequent movers move in as much as they are put in motion by the first mover. Therefore, it is necessary to arrive at the first mover, put in motion by no other and this everyone understands to be