β Why you SHOULD believe in God β
Pascal's Wager:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nslXRgLrMTkSt. Thomas Aquinas:
β The First Way: Argument from Motion β
β© Our senses prove that some things are in motion.
β© Things move when potential motion becomes actual motion.
β© Only an actual motion can convert a potential motion into an actual motion.
β© Nothing can be at once in both actuality and potentiality in the same respect (i.e., if both actual
and potential, it is actual in one respect and potential in another).
β© Therefore nothing can move itself.
β© Therefore each thing in motion is moved by something else.
β© The sequence of motion cannot extend ad infinitum.
β© Therefore it is necessary to arrive at a first mover, put in motion by no other; and this everyone
understands to be God.
β The Second Way: Argument from Efficient Causes β
β© We perceive a series of efficient causes of things in the world.
β© Nothing exists prior to itself.
β© Therefore nothing [in the world of things we perceive] is the efficient cause of itself.
β© If a previous efficient cause does not exist, neither does the thing that results (the effect).
β© Therefore if the first thing in a series does not exist, nothing in the series exists.
β© If the series of efficient causes extends ad infinitum into the past, for then there would be no
things existing now.
β© That is plainly false (i.e., there are things existing now that came about through efficient causes).
β© Therefore efficient causes do not extend ad infinitum into the past.
β© Therefore it is necessary to admit a first efficient cause, to which everyone gives the name of
God.
β The Third Way: Argument from Possibility and Necessity (Reductio argument) β
β© We find in nature things that are possible to be and not to be, that come into being and go out of
being i.e., contingent beings.
β© Assume that every being is a contingent being.
β© For each contingent being, there is a time it does not exist.
β© Therefore it is impossible for these always to exist.
β© Therefore there could have been a time when no things existed.
β© Therefore at that time there would have been nothing to bring the currently existing contingent
beings into existence.
β© Therefore, nothing would be in existence now.
β© We have reached an absurd result from assuming that every being is a contingent being.
β© Therefore not every being is a contingent being.
β© Therefore some being exists of its own necessity, and does not receive its existence from
another being, but rather causes them. This all men speak of as God.
β The Fourth Way: Argument from Gradation of Being β
β© There is a gradation to be found in things: some are better or worse than others.
β© Predications of degree require reference to the βuttermostβ case (e.g., a thing is said to be hotter
according as it more nearly resembles that which is hottest).
β© The maximum in any genus is the cause of all in that genus.
β© Therefore there must also be something which is to all beings the cause of their being,
goodness, and every other perfection; and this we call God.
β The Fifth Way: Argument from Design β
β© We see that natural bodies work toward some goal, and do not do so by chance.
β© Most natural things lack knowledge.
β© But as an arrow reaches its target because it is directed by an archer, what lacks intelligence
achieves goals by being directed by something intelligence.
β© Therefore some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end; and
this being we call God.
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β Why you SHOULD believe in God β
Pascal's Wager:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nslXRgLrMTk