Saint Thomas Aquinas Five Proofs for the Existence of...

Saint Thomas Aquinas Five Proofs for the Existence of God Scientific reasoning has brought humanity to incredibly high levels of sophistication in all realms of knowledge. For Saint Thomas Aquinas, his passion involved the scientific reasoning of God. The existence, simplicity and will of God are simply a few topics which Aquinas explores in the Summa Theologica. Through arguments entailing these particular topics, Aquinas forms an argument that God has the ability of knowing and willing this particular world of contingent beings. The contrasting nature of necessary beings and contingent beings is at the heart of this debate. Aquinas sets up this argument in his discussion of whether or not God exists. His five proofs†¦show more content†¦With these conclusions in mind, Aquinas determines that God is completely simple. From the conclusion that God is ultimately simple, Aquinas goes on in Question 14 to discuss the knowledge of God. In article three, Aquinas discusses whether or not God comprehends himself and he arrives at the idea that God does. Since God is altogether simple, then his intellect as well as his being are one and the same. Therefore, God must know himself perfectly. The intellect must perfectly comprehend all of the other elements of God. Through this concept, God must be all knowing because it is the nature of his being to do so. God’s knowledge extends to contingent beings and everything else insofar as he is the first cause of all of them. The argument follows that if anything is perfectly known, then its power must necessarily be known as well. The conclusions are as follows: God must understand himself and understand all other things besides himself and that this understanding must not differ from his being. Free will is a hotly debated concept. There are many plausible rejections to the notion that God gave human beings free will. For example, if God knows everything and everything that is to be, then are human beings really truly free to make their own decisions? Many other contradictions exists. The idea of a necessary being giving rise to contingent beings, the existence of a perfectly good being and evil in the world that beingShow MoreRelatedThe Achievements of Saint Thomas Aquainas Essay630 Words   |  3 PagesSaint Thomas Aquinas (1225-1272) is fundamentally an Aristotelian, and for some, one of the greatest philosophers, and one of the best theologians. His theological writings became regulative of the Catholic Church and his commentaries on Aristotle, represents a great cultural resource, which are now receiving a greater recognition. As a very catholic man, he tried to prove the existence of God. But How? Thomas Aquinas recognized that there were people who doubted the existence of God. 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