Posted by christopher on September 17, 1999 at 09:12:17:
In Reply to: Re: The existence of God. posted by Philosopher on September 13, 1999 at 12:31:12:
: First, St. Thomas was a master of logic, so it supremely ignorant to blithely label his arguments as illogical.
: Second, before taking up the question of proving God's existence, St. Thomas first prooves that it is possible to offer proofs of God's existence; in other words, that faith alone is insuficient to establish God's existence. In fact, it is the position of all Thomistic scholars, and indeed of the Catholic Church that God's existence is not merely an article of faith, but rather one that can be proven by reason.
: Third, if anyone doubts this then consider that St. Thomas bases his proofs on the work of Aristotle, who was a pagan, and hadn't the influence of a theistic culture, yet who concluded that there must be some kind of sumpreme being.
: Finally, try it for yourself. There is motion and this motion must have started somewhere; therfore, there must be a Prime Mover. This is simple logic. If this kind of logic and reason are denied--even if to affirm the value of faith--then all we are left with are leaps of faith, so we could never know if what we land on is solid ground.
: I think St. Thomas's argument on God's existence are vague. He has valid or convincing premises and yet he did not explain or give an exact answer why God is the Prime Mover ( the argument on Unmoved mover). He just merely umed that God is the Prime Mover; what if i do not believe that there is God? How can we prove God's existence if we ociate and attach all impossibilities and mysteries to God? We merely attach to a Supreme Being our frustrations and desires. For example we are finite then we long to be infinite,and from the fact that this is impossible we then attach our desire to a supreme being so that our life will have meaning.
READ THE GREAT BOOKS
TERM PAPERS, RESEARCH PAPERS, ESSAYS