Religion: St. Thomas Aquinas Five Proofs

Proof of Motion

• Things are in motion and act on one another

• There must be a first mover that creates a chain reaction (God)

Proof from the Efficiency Cause

• Nothing can cause itself, everything must have a cause of something that creates effect on another thing

• No first cause, there would be no others; first cause being God

Proof of Contingency

• In nature we find things that come into existence and go out of existence

• Referred to as dependant beings and there was a time it did not exist.

• Since nothing can come from nothing, something is always in existence (God)

Proof from degrees of perfection

• We see things in varying degrees: good vs. bad, truth vs. lies

• There is always a standard against in which it is being judged

• There must be a being of the highest form of good (God)

Proof of Design

Teleological: If something is proposed it must have been desgined to have a purpose

The natural world is complex and works towards a goal

This work has a purpose and is designed by God