Saturday, June 1, 2019

Existence of God Essay -- Literary Analysis, Suma Theologica

In the Suma Theologica, by Saint Thomas Aquinas, Aquinas combines the doctrines of Christianity with Aristotelian philosophy, through the assertion that as a result of observation, exercise of the senses, and an empirical mindset, ace can substantiate the existence of immortal. Aquinas holds the conception that in the quest for Gods existence, philosophy and theology are twist together and both play complementary roles. He infuses numerous theological doctrines, mainly from Saint Augustine, alongside Aristotelian ideals such as, the first mover, to corroborate his note for the existence of God. Instead of basing his argument on human reason and rationality like his predecessor, Saint Anselm of Canterbury, Aquinas holds that it is instead through an empirical mindset that one is able to ascertain and comprehend the existence of God. Aquinas deems that all knowledge acquired originated from the experiences of our senses. He believes that by experiencing events, the human being is aware of the fact that there exists an strength for every action that is undergone. Through this realization, Aquinas recognizes that there must(prenominal) exist a cause that triggered that event into existence, culminating in the conclusion that everything in existence must be characterized by a cause. This argument presented defines the cosmogonical argument, a belief that there is a first cause, which is God, who is seen as the source of the cosmos that sets in gesture a cycle of cause and effect. To prove this argument, Aquinas presents five different variants, each with subtle distinctions that display two reoccurring themes, the importance of sense experience and the fancy of causality, to prove the existence of God. In Aquinass first argument, he lin... ... cause and effect halt at the Big Bang, as it does to claim it stopped at God. The Big Bang Theory, which has no previous cause, could have easily prompted the chain of cause and effect. Why must we presume the worl d to have a beginning and claim that the cosmos could not have been a cause of itself? Since Aquinas, at the time, does not fully understand the workings of the Universe, his claim that the infinite turnaround arbitrarily stopped at God, is misleading, since the regression could have stopped as the universe itself prompted the chain of cause and effect. I wholeheartedly agree that Aquinas cosmological argument proves the existence of an uncaused cause, however I believe that it fails in acknowledging other means of creation and holds no validation that the first cause attributes the characteristics of the God of Islam, Christianity, and Judaism.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.