Posted by Philosopher on September 17, 1999 at 11:37:31:
In Reply to: Re: The existence of God. posted by christopher on September 17, 1999 at 09:12:17:
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St. Thomas' argument is, I suppose, from the standpoint that it does not establish any of the characteristics of God--ie that He is personal, or the Doctrine of the Trinity, etc. But that is not the point of this particualr argument. He gets much more specific in other places. St. Thomas' style is such that he answers very fine questions one at a time.
St. Thomas does not ume that God is the Prime Mover; this is only logical position given his premises--ie all things are in motion; all things that are in motion are moved by something else; but the mover-moved realtionship cannot go on to infinity, because that would be absurd; therefore, there must be an unmoved mover, which we call God. It is absurd to hold that there is both a God and a Prime Mover distinct from one another.
We do not attach all imposibilities and mysteries to God; that's what pagans do when they say, for example, that thunder is caused by Thor. Reason is used precisely to solve mysteries; reason also involves recognizing that some things cannot, by their very nature, be so; in other words some thigs must be impossible. I think what your trying to say is that when we cannot use reason to explain something we immediately turn to God to explain it away. However, though some unsophisticated Christians may do this it, is not necessary. Reason tells us, quite definitively, that there must be some sort of Creator, or Pride Mover, which we call God. Remember, all Aquinas is trying to do at this point is to prove that a God of some sort actually does exist.
Your final comment rings of Freud's ertion that God is just something humans make up to deal with their own deficencies; belief give them comfort, nothing more. While it is true that every one of us longs for a kind of infinity, this does not mean that we are weak; rather, it means that there is a place inside of each of us that longs for God. To prove this, simply ask yourself why is it that people who don't believe in God, who know that they cannot be infinite still have that feeling. It Freud were right, then these people would have overcome their dependency of God and could lead wonderful live, but they don't.
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