This leads to the famous objection that he uses the existence of God to establish his doctrine of clear and distinct ideas, and that he uses his doctrine of clear and distinct ideas to establish the existence of God: his argument is circular. It seems that Descartes says that firstly “I am certain that God exists only because I am certain of whatever I clearly and distinctly perceive” but secondly
Success of Aquinas’s Cosmological Argument Thomas Aquinas’s cosmological argument is a posteriori argument that Aquinas uses to prove the existence of God. Aquinas argues that, “Nothing can move itself, so whatever is in motion must be put in motion by another, and that by another again. But this causal loop cannot go on to infinity, so if every object in motion had a mover, there must be a first mover which is the unmoved mover, called God.” (Aquinas, Question 2, Article 3). I do agree with Aquinas’s cosmological argument in proving the existence of God with several reasons. According to the cosmological argument, first of all, Aquinas claims that, “it is impossible that a thing should be both mover and moved, namely it should not move itself.” (Aquinas, Question 2, Article 3) This part of the argument is obviously correct.
According to St. Anselm in his ontological argument, he describes God as an idea or concept of which nothing greater can be conceived (Living Issues in Philosophy, page 388). In this he guides thought by arguing “If the most perfect being existed only in thought and not in reality, then it would not really be the most perfect being. One that exists in the mind and in reality would be more perfect.” Anselm concludes his theory with “no one who understands what God is; can conceive that God does not exist. (A. J. Hoober). Existence is a part of perfection.
Teleological Even though there were five ways written to prove the existence of god, only three are key to the cosmological argument that was originally thought of by Aristotle who was an ancient Greek philosopher, to deal with the idea of flux (change). The first way that Aquinas suggests is that there is a god and this is because an object can only move when external force is applied, for example a person pushing a tin over, this tin will only move if someone applies force to it, and Aquinas believes that if you follow these forces back far enough you will reach a Prime mover, as he believed that the movements of change cannot go back to infinity so there must be a prime mover, and that prime mover must be god. The second way thought up by Aquinas is the concept of an unmoved causer. This unmoved causer is there to suggest that nothing in this world can cause itself and we were all caused by something and everything around us was caused by something. Whether that being our parents or people that make everyday objects that we see around us.
For example, planets could not have put themselves into orbit, yet they are in perfect order and placement so therefore there must be a designer, an intelligent being, that did so. This argument suggests that everything has been designed to have a purpose, even if it is unaware of this itself. Aquinas believed that this designer is God. One of the earliest forms of the teleological argument was formed by Aristotle in the 4th century BC. Aquinas’ design argument was influenced by Aristotle’s ideas presented in his work Metaphysics.
According to Muslim belief, The Quran was given to the world by Prophet Muhammed, whom received divine revelations known as Sura’s. These were written down and checked by Muhammed (Watton) although we have no way of knowing the chronology. Tradition states that the Quran was checked by the angel ‘Jibreil’ before the completion of the Quran by Zayd Ibn Thabit. This ensured the divinity of the Quran. For this reason the Quran is the same across the entire Muslim world because any change would be considered to make it imperfect.
The German philosopher Immanuel Kant raised many objections and criticisms to the ontological argument. In Descartes’ formulation of the ontological argument he states that God is a supremely perfect being and thus has all perfections. He then goes on to argue that existence is a perfection and a supremely perfect being (God) has the perfection of existing. In essence, Descartes argues that existence is a predicate of God. However Kant challenged Descartes argument, he said that an idea of something does not make that something exist.
This evidence is consistent with Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” Paul eluded to this when he said that God’s invisible qualities, eternal power, and divine nature is clearly seen, being understood by what has been made, so that men are without excuse (Rom.1:20). Therefore, we are to worship the Creator and not the creation (1:25). But fallen man do not give God the honor and glory for all the beauty and order He designed in His wonderful universe He created.
Cosmological Argument The cosmological argument is a posteriori argument because it is a on what can be seen in the world and the universe * The argument is based on the belief that there is a first cause behind the existence of the universe. * The argument was first developed by Plato and Aristotle. * Thomas Aquinas has developed the most popular version of the cosmological argument. He developed his five ways to prove the existence of God in his book Summa Theologica. The first of the three ways form proof for the existence of God and are Change (or motion), Cause and Contingency.
However, this would be absurd, seeing as that nothing greater than God can be conceived in anyway. So a being, which nothing greater can be conceived, God, does in fact exist. According to Joel Fienberg’s text, Reason and Responsibility, an Ontological argument is defined as “an argument for the existence of God stating that the very concept or definition of God automatically entails that God exists; because the special nature of the concept, there is no way that God could fail to exist” (pg. 722). This argument is formulated around the idea that God is a being, which no greater being can be conceived.