The Existence of God

In Thomas Aquinas’ book, Summa of the summa, he attempts to explain the purpose of the world and everything that is in it. He bases his arguments off of his faith, and he never doubts what he says. Aquinas writes this from his point of view as a Catholic and a philosopher. Throughout the book, he uses logical thought processes to examine a certain topic, as well as his Catholic point of view. Many people have abandoned God and no longer have faith in him. The second question of the book is about the existence of God and whether he exists. Romans 1:18-20 states, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” Aquinas uses his religion and faith to try and disprove the arguments against God by using one big question; does God exist? Many people ask this question and many people will tell you no. As well as the one big question, he asks three separate questions and puts them in the text as articles; they are whether the existence of God is self- evident, whether it can be demonstrated that God exists, and, the same question as the big one before this, does God exist.

In the first article, Aquinas gives a few objections to why people think God is self-evident. Aquinas states, “A thing can be self-evident in either of two ways; on the one hand, self-evident in itself, though not to us; on the other, self evident in itself, and to us.”(Aquinas 55). Being self evident in itself means the predicate is logically identical with the subject of the matter. On the other hand, being self-evident to us is when it meets all the needs to being self-evident in itself, but as well as it containing things that we know how or can define by knowing what they are. Aquinas states, “To know that God exists in a general and confused way is implanted in us by nature.” (Aquinas 56). Aquinas argues throughout the book that it is to develop himself towards the image of God, and not away from him. That man’s purpose is to follow God. Aquinas says “man naturally desires happiness…”, if a someone naturally does / goes to what makes them happy and  if a person’s purpose in life is to follow God, then it would only seem fitting that God is the one who fulfills their happiness.

Everything in this world has a cause. Every single cause has to depend on the cause before that. If there was not a first cause then there would be no final cause. So since we exist, there was a first cause, and people believe that is God. Aquinas states, “Demonstration can be made in two ways: One is through the cause , and is called a priori, and this is to argue from what is prior absolutely. The other is through the effect, and is called a demonstration a posteriori, this is to argue from what is prior relatively only to us.” (Aquinas 58). In the same sense, at some point in time, something or someone had to start it all: the world and life. If nothing was an object or it didn’t exist, then how did we get here? For instance, if a volleyball is sitting on the ground, it won’t move unless something or someone moves it. Once something moves it, it won’t stop unless something or someone stops it. Therefore, the volleyball has a mover. Well, since the world and life are evidence to being created, we can conclude that God is the first unmoved mover because there was an existing unmoved object that was existing outside of the laws of nature.

I believe people just don’t want to believe just so they can ‘rebel’. People can side with science, but I do not believe we have the scientific capability to disprove the existence of God.  In my opinion, it takes just as much faith to believe in God as it does not to. In Job 37:14-16 states, “Hear this, O Job; stop and consider the wondrous works of God. Do you know how God lays his command upon them and causes the lightning of his cloud to shine? Do you know the balancings of the clouds, the wondrous works of him who is perfect in knowledge,”. It is okay not to understand how God exists, but just because you don’t get it, doesn’t mean it’s not true.