Over the years there has been many different views on if there is sufficient evidence to support belief in God. There have been many philosophical thinkers who have looked into this controversy. Is there a God and if there is how can we prove this is true? There were many philosophical thinkers that had an opinion on this topic, some of the most important in stating sufficient evidence proving gods existence were Saint Augustine, Saint Anslem, and Saint Thomas Aquinas. Saint Augustine was dealing with God and the future. Augustine thought that God knew the future and if he did then everything would unfold exactly in accordance to his knowledge (Palmer, 117). If the events in the future occur due to Gods foreknowledge of them then they are
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The first proof is with motion. He explains this by saying first and foremost that things move (Aquinas: Five Ways). When change happens this means that something is moving from potentiality to actuality (Aquinas: Five Ways). Something that is in the potentiality stage cannot act upon itself so something in the act must act upon it making it act (Aquinas: Five Ways). All motion depends on prior movers; if there was no first mover there can be no motion (Aquinas: Five Ways). That being said Aquinas believed that God was this unmoved mover (Aquinas: Five Ways). To sum that up basically everything needs to be acted upon by something to make it move and if you follow that back and back you would get to the unmoved, which would be God. The Second proof was the efficient cause. There are efficient causes that produce causes (Palmer, 142). Nothing can be the cause of itself (Palmer, 142). There cannot be an infinite regress of essentiality based on efficient causes, if there were not first cause there would be no causality (Palmer, 142). That being said Aquinas believes that there had to be a first uncaused efficient cause of all efficient causality and that is God (Palmer, 142). Again to break that down basically one thing causes another, nothing can cause itself, if you trace this back to the beginning there has to be an uncaused efficient cause God. The third proof is possibility and necessity. It starts off by saying that beings begin to exist and cease to exist (Aquinas: Five Ways). That being said not all beings can be possible beings because, what comes to exist does so through what already exists so nothing cannot cause something (Aquinas: Five Ways). There must be a being who is necessary for existence, one that never came to be will never cease to be this being is God (Aquinas: Five Ways). Breaking it down, there are beings that exist because of something else. Everything that comes of
The first proof is with motion. He explains this by saying first and foremost that things move (Aquinas: Five Ways). When change happens this means that something is moving from potentiality to actuality (Aquinas: Five Ways). Something that is in the potentiality stage cannot act upon itself so something in the act must act upon it making it act (Aquinas: Five Ways). All motion depends on prior movers; if there was no first mover there can be no motion (Aquinas: Five Ways). That being said Aquinas believed that God was this unmoved mover (Aquinas: Five Ways). To sum that up basically everything needs to be acted upon by something to make it move and if you follow that back and back you would get to the unmoved, which would be God. The Second proof was the efficient cause. There are efficient causes that produce causes (Palmer, 142). Nothing can be the cause of itself (Palmer, 142). There cannot be an infinite regress of essentiality based on efficient causes, if there were not first cause there would be no causality (Palmer, 142). That being said Aquinas believes that there had to be a first uncaused efficient cause of all efficient causality and that is God (Palmer, 142). Again to break that down basically one thing causes another, nothing can cause itself, if you trace this back to the beginning there has to be an uncaused efficient cause God. The third proof is possibility and necessity. It starts off by saying that beings begin to exist and cease to exist (Aquinas: Five Ways). That being said not all beings can be possible beings because, what comes to exist does so through what already exists so nothing cannot cause something (Aquinas: Five Ways). There must be a being who is necessary for existence, one that never came to be will never cease to be this being is God (Aquinas: Five Ways). Breaking it down, there are beings that exist because of something else. Everything that comes of