God Exists...
The Five Proofs by St. Thomas Aquinas, (1225-1274):
The demonstration of GOD's existence in Church teaching is not based
solely upon revelation. It is and has been declared, following St. Paul's
statement: "GOD's eternal power and divinity, have become visible,
recognized through the things He has made" (Rom 1:20), that human
beings can by use of reason, deduce the certitude of GOD's existence. As
stated by St. Pius X in his 'Moto Proprio Sacrarum Antistitum' (Those in
Charge of Holy Things) of 1910, this is a kind of proof called demonstration.
One knows through faith of GOD's existence, but humans should always seek
the amplitude of knowledge or the highest truth that is knowable. Thus
apart from faith, GOD can best be known from material things or things
existing within human experience, by reasoning from something secondary
in being to something prior or first, a prime or first cause, GOD. In Catholic
thought, the first formerly presented proofs for GOD's existence, were
the five most valid proofs offered by St. Thomas Aquinas...
1. The first argument
reasons from motion to a prime or first mover, which means that something
progresses from a state of potentiality to actuality, with a cause bring
about such movement without the movement acting independently.
2. The second argument
reasons from an order of efficient causes to a first efficient cause, or
things happening in a reasonable manner, which could not happen without
being subordinate to a prior cause.
3. The third argument
indicates the necessity of a being or one who brings material being, because
matter cannot of itself generate into existence and then go on to corruption
or dissolution.
4. The fourth argument
goes from the degrees of goodness, truth, nobility, or beauty, which are
observed in things and could not be present unless they had their origin
in a cause that has these qualities to their highest perfection.
5. The fifth argument
arises from the purposefulness of things, which is observed in nonknowing
things, for this demands an intelligent agent or cause, because man of
himself cannot order things to intelligent, effective ends, so there must
be a supreme source from which purposefulness arises.
In all of these arguments the cause is GOD, manifest in
the observed truths that man's reason declares to him. The metaphysical
truth is attained, not without effort, by seeing the entire universe in
its dependence upon GOD as the prime mover, the efficient cause, and the
perfect being worthy of our faith.
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