Natural Theology: Aquinas’s Five Ways and Metaphysics

Natural Theology

Studying God through reason and the natural world.

Cosmology

The study of the universe and its origins.

Metaphysics

The study of reality, being, and existence.

Act

What something currently is or has become.

Potency

What something has the potential to become.

Act and Potency

Explain change; God is pure act with no unrealized potential.

Ipsum Esse

"Being itself"; God is the source of existence.

Ens Summum

"Highest being"; describes God as the supreme being.

Ipsum Esse vs. Ens Summum

God is Being itself, not merely the greatest being.

Transcendence

God exists beyond and is greater than creation.

Immanence

God is present and active within creation.

Adam and Eve's Mistakes

They tried to become like God and hid as if they could escape His presence.

First Way: Motion

God is the First Mover; explains change.

Second Way: Efficient Cause

God is the First Cause; explains causes.

Third Way: Contingency and Necessity

God is the Necessary Being; explains why contingent things exist.

Fourth Way: Gradation

God is supremely perfect; the ultimate standard of goodness and truth.

Fifth Way: Governance/Design

God is an intelligent designer; explains order and purpose.

Principle of Sufficient Reason

Everything has a sufficient explanation or reason for existing.

Material Cause

What something is made of; BT: bricks and concrete.

Formal Cause

The structure or organization of something; BT: the school's design.

Efficient Cause

What brings something into existence; BT: the people who built the school.

Final Cause

The purpose of something; BT: educating students.

Hierarchical Series (Per Se)

Causes depend on one another here and now.

Linear Series (Per Accidens)

Earlier causes do not need to remain active.

Essence

What something is; its nature.

Existence

The fact that something is.

Being

Anything that exists or has reality.

Contingent Being

A being that could fail to exist or cease to exist.

Necessary Being

A being that must exist and depends on nothing else; God.

Evidence of Design

Order, complexity, organization, patterns, and purpose.

Premise: Everything that comes into being comes from something existing.

Argument from Efficient Cause.

Premise: Things come into and go out of being.

Argument from Contingency and Necessity.

Premise: Something is better when measured against an absolute standard.

Argument from Gradation.

Caterpillar Becoming a Butterfly

An analogy for the Argument from Motion (Change).

Who Caused God?

God is the uncaused First Cause and necessary being; He does not depend on anything else.