Thomas Aquinas Three Arguments Cannot be a place where reason and faith come together The existence of God is provable to reason alone Rationalists 1 Ontological Argument appeals purely to reason 2 Cosmological Argument invitation to look at the world around us reason backed by observation Empiricists 3 Design Argument based mostly on observation backed by reason Ontological Anselm of Canterbury 1033 1109 Fools non believers That which nothing can be conceived o Humans are capable of thinking about the Greatest possible being Which is greater Great existence or Great existence God greatest God exists Guanilo I can imagine all sorts of things that are greater than things that exist Thinking about what is greatest is no way to go same as imagining the perfect island o Example A perfect island perfect weather food people etc Can t define anything into being they must be so Anselm s reply o Perfect Island limited being lacks existence o God Unlimited being nothing can be lacking Cosmological Thomas Aquinas 1225 1274 Born in Italy Known as a dumb ox in early schooling Often called an equilvalent to Aristotle Official philosopher of Roman Catholic Church First Cause Cannot have an effect without a cause o C E C E C E E o Each cause becomes an effect so where does it start First cause must be a supernatural cause God o Therefore every cause after must be the effect of God Kant Antinomy Premise reason Conclusion Agrees with First Cause but o Antinomy presents the opposite conclusion Why not an infinite regress As a natural being I can only understand natural causes Reason has no reason to pick either conclusion Design William Paley 1734 1805 You can make a conclusion even though you have never seen it before o Example From birth you are marooned on an island all alone and have never seen another human being One day while walking along the beach you find a watch in the sand and although you may not know what it is or anything about it you can conclude it was created by something someone watchmaker Even though we do not have direct evidence of God we can conclude something someone has created what can be observed o In a sense God is the watchmaker
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