St. Thomas Aquinas

Biography

     Saint Thomas Aquinas was a Dominican  friar, Catholic priest, and Doctor of the Church. He is also known as the DoctorAngelicus and the DoctorCommunis. Thomas Thomas embraced several ideas put forward by Aristotle whom he called "the Philosopher"and attempted to synthesize Aristotelian philosophy with the principles of Christianity. The works for which he is best known are the SummaTheologiae and the SummacontraGentiles. His commentaries on Scripture and on Aristotle form an important part of his body of work. Furthermore, Thomas is distinguished for his eucharistic hymns, which form a part of the Church's liturgy. 

     Thomas Aquinas is considered one of the Catholic Church's greatest theologians and philosophers. Thomas was most probably born in the castle of Roccasecca, located in Aquino, old county of the Kingdom of Sicily. According to some authors, he was born in the castle of his father, Landulf of Aquino. Though he did not belong to the most powerful branch of the family, Landulf of Aquino was a man of means. Thomas thought about philosophy as the discipline that investigates what we can know naturally about God and human beings, he thought that good scriptural theology, since it treats those some topics, presupposes good philosophical analysis and argumentation.

Philosophy

     The Quinqueviæ or translated as "FiveWays" or "FiveProofs" are five logical arguments regarding the existence of God summarized by the 13th-century Catholic philosopher and theologian St. Thomas Aquinas in his book SummaTheologica. They are Unmoved mover, First Cause, Argument of Contingency, Degree of Perfection and the Design. Aquinas expands the first of these – God as the "unmoved mover" – in his SummaContraGentiles. He omitted those arguments he believed to be insufficient, such as the ontological argument due to St. Anselm of Canterbury.The 20th-century Catholic priest and philosopher Frederick Copleston devoted much of his work to a modern explication and expansion of Aquinas' arguments.

     The Argument of the unmoved mover means that in the world we can see that at least some things are changing. Whatever is changing is being changed by something else. If that by which it is changing is itself changed, then it too is being changed by something else. But this chain cannot be infinitely long, so there must be something that causes change without itself changing. This everyone understands to be God. 

     The Argument of the First Cause, In the world we can see that things are caused. But it is not possible for something to be the cause of itself, because this would entail that it exists prior to itself, which is a contradiction. If that by which it is caused is itself caused, then it too must have a cause. But this cannot be an infinitely long chain, so therefore there must be a cause which is not itself caused by anything further. This everyone understands to be God. 

     The Argument from Contingency, In the world we see things that are possible to be and possible not to be. In other words, perishable things. But if everything were contingent and thus capable of going out of existence, then, given infinite time, this possibility would be realized and nothing would exist now. But things clearly do exist now. Therefore, there must be something that is imperishable: a necessary being. This everyone understands to be God.

     The Argument from Degree, We see things in the world that vary in degrees of goodness, truth, nobility, etc. For example, sick animals and healthy animals, and well drawn circles as well as poorly drawn ones. But judging something as being "more" or "less" implies some standard against which it is being judged. Therefore, there is something which is goodness itself, and this everyone understands to be God. 

      And the last one is the Design, We see various non-intelligent objects in the world behaving in regular ways. This cannot be due to chance, since then they would not behave with predictable results. So their behavior must be set. But it cannot be set by themselves, since they are non-intelligent and have no notion of how to set behavior. Therefore, their behavior must be set by something else, and by implication something that must be intelligent. This everyone understands to be God.

Analysis

     For me, Thomas Aquinas made this proof to prove that God really does exist. He wants us to believe that God is he one behind everything, and that is the truth. These five ways is made to be passed from generation to another generation so that the young people even the old ones who doesn’t know Gog will finally have an idea about where everything really came from. Thomas Aquinas used is faith to make a very important philosophy which contributed a lot on the history and on the religion. The Summa Contra Gentiles is a way to understand the very reason on why we should believe that God really exist. Adopting Aristotelian principles and concepts, Aquinas attempts to explain the origin, operation, and purpose of the entire universe and the role that everything in the universe plays in the attainment of that purpose. Aquinas never doubts the truth of the tenets of his faith. Rather, he employs techniques of argument that he learned in the disputatios to state, defend, and elaborate those tenets. Aquinas writes not only as a philosopher who is intellectually interested in the pursuit of truth, he writes primarily as a Catholic who is convinced that the salvation of humanity itself is at stake. This conviction propels him toward a rational exegesis of topics the truth of which is ultimately derived and founded on divine revelation. 

Conclusion

     I conclude that Thomas Aquinas’ philosophy is very important for everyone to know. His five ways was very meaningful and it proved that science and religion can be used in the same time to discover something good. He both has faith in God and he also believes in reasons bit it did not affect the way he thinks that God truly exist.