St. Thomas Aquinas' First Two Arguments In Defense of God

Essay by istealpants February 2009

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St. Thomas Aquinas realized that those who doubted the existence of God did so because to them logic could not explain God's existence. So he decided to take up the task of attempting to prove through logic alone that God must exist. In one of his major works, Summa Theologiae, he offers five proofs in defense of God's existence, two of which are based on logic and observation of nature in proving God's existence to those who could not accept God on faith alone.

Aquinas' first argument is based on motion, and he believes it to be the simplest way of proving God's existence. This first argument, the argument from motion, tries to prove the existence of God as the first mover which is unmoved. Now, it is certain as a matter of human senses that some things in this world are in motion. Whatever is in motion, Aquinas states, is moved by something else.
