1. "The unseen things of God
are visible through His manifest works."
Rom. I: 20
2. Reasons to believe in God
from the human person
1. openness to truth and beauty
2. sense of moral goodness,
3. freedom and the voice of conscience
4. Desire to be happy
… how could we have these without God?
… how could we have eyes without light?
4. Aquinas was inspired by this passage to examine God’s
works and prove to the skeptics that there is a God.
St. Thomas Aquinas argued that there are 5
ways to prove the existence of God…
5. The First Proof: The Prime Mover
Consider a bouncing
ball. How did the ball
start bouncing? Did it
fall and if so what
caused it to fall? What
started all the action?
According to Aquinas,
“it is necessary to go
back to some first
mover, which is itself
moved by nothing---
and this all men know
as God.”
6. The Second Proof: The First Cause
Consider yourself and your family
history. You came to be because of
your parents and your parents came
to be because of their parents and so
on. But where does it begin?
Aquinas explains, “if the chain were
to go back infinitely, there would be
no first cause, and thus no ultimate
effect, nor middle causes, which is
admittedly false. Hence we must
presuppose some first
efficient cause---which all call God.”
7. The Third Proof: Possibility and Necessity
Consider things that exist beyond the realm of human control.
How did trees, animals, mountains, stars, and the sun come to
exist? What caused these things to exist? If it was a mere accident
what existed before the universe? If nothing, then nothing can
come from nothing.
Thus, Aquinas argues, “there must be presupposed something
necessarily existing through its own nature, not having a cause
elsewhere but being itself the cause of the necessary existence of
other things---which all call God.”
8. The Fourth Proof:
The degrees found in things
Consider the notion that
there are varying degrees of
love, goodness, and
perfection. Consider the
concept of heat. There are
certainly varying degrees of
heat.
Aquinas points out, “fire,
which is the greatest heat, is
the cause of all heat.” The
cause of the greatest love,
goodness, and perfection is
who we call God.
9. The Fifth Proof: The Cosmos
Examine the natural world
around you. Although it
appears to be chaotic at times,
nature is very structured.
Weather systems, oceans, the
solar system, time, it all has
structure. Who is responsible
for this structure? Who could
have designed such a plan?
Aquinas saw this ordered
structure and argued, “there is
something intelligent by
which all natural things are
arranged in accordance with a
plan---and this we call God.”
10. Design of Our Solar System
The Earth is protected from
comets by the large outer planets
11. Established a unique continental crust,
which allows for recycling of minerals
through tectonic activity.
12. 5 proofs summed up
1. Things are in motion, and so:
there must be is a first mover.
2. Things cause something else, and so:
there is a first cause.
3. Things exist but don’t have to, and so:
there is a creator.
4. Goodness and love exist, and so:
they must come from somewhere – a source.
5. Things appear designed,
and so they must serve a purpose.
13. Sometimes you just gotta have….Sometimes you just gotta have….
F-A-I-T-H !F-A-I-T-H !
Both Aquinas and Fr. Barron
provide a rational proof for the
existence of God. However, it is
not enough to simply think you
know that God exists. You must
believe. If you pray to God and
contemplate on His numerous
gifts and works then He will reveal
Himself to you.
But it takes time and it is difficult.
One of the ways God reveals
Himself to you is through your life
because you are part of God’s
creative plan.
Editor's Notes
The Solar System is unique in that the rocky inner planets are protected from cometary bombardment by two large gas giants. Scientists estimate that the Earth would receive approximately 1,000 times its current level of comet impacts if these planets were not where they are. Such a large number of collisions would have prevented the existence of life on the Earth.
Recent evidence tells us that the earth is unique in many ways, even compared to the other rocky planets in our Solar System. In a recent study, Dr. Roberta Rudnick says that the earth has a unique continental crust, which is different from any other planet in our Solar System (even Venus, our "sister planet"). The mechanisms which resulted in this unique continental crust is not entirely certain as she stated, "Perhaps the greatest dilemma facing those interested in understanding how the continents formed is their composition." The tectonic processes which recycle the crust are extremely important in maintaining life on our planet by recycling minerals and nutrients. Normally, during planet formation, the crust covers the entire planet. Under these conditions, the crust cannot move, since there is no free space for it to do so. However, since a large amount of the earths primordial crust was blasted into outer space by the collision that formed the moon, there was space for the original continent (Pangea) to move and even break up into additional land masses. Because of tectonic activity, continents can exist on a planet that would normally be a water world. Without tectonic activity, the original continent would have eroded into the large ocean, never to be seen again. In fact, planets with large amounts of water are always water worlds because of erosion.