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.
However, it is important to note how the man on the mountain does not influence any choices and so just because one sees what is happening, this does not mean that it in any way influences the decisions made. Boethius adds to this by stating, how if God can see past, present and future but He cannot change or influence anything, as it is all happening at once to Him. This then means we can logically state that God does not answer with actions, as He is not with us temporally on earth. This means that there is a contradiction
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.
Is Simon Greenleaf Still Relevant? By Robert R. Edwards, B.A., B.S., J.D. Part I SIMON GREENLEAF DIED October 6, 1853. Born on December 5, 1783, Greenleaf was an agnostic, some say atheist, who believed the resurrection of Jesus Christ was either a hoax or a myth. No stranger to truth, and to the proof of the truth, Greenleaf was a principal founder of the Harvard Law School and a world-renowned expert on evidence.
Explain the main challenges of the teleological argument for the existence of God The word ‘telos’ derives from the Greek meaning end, goal or purpose. The teleological argument is the argument that the world was designed by a designer and this designer is God. Throughout history there have been many points to support the teleological argument however there have also been many that challenge it. In “dialogues concerning natural religion” David Hume offers three key criticisms of the teleological argument. His first point was that the universe is bound to look designed because it has to be this way for us to be here to observe it, any solar system or planet which provided the conditions for conscious life to exist will seem to have been designed for our purposes.
In the Whether God Exists article, Mr. Aquinas states, “The existence of God can be proved in five ways”(1). One argument that Aquinas makes that I believe is a very strong argument, and seems very logical, is the one in which he states that everything is taken from “possibility and necessity.” He goes on to explain God must exist, because if nothing had ever existed in the world, then it would not be possible for anything to exist today. He then goes on to explain, “If at one time nothing was in existence, it would have been impossible for anything to have begun to exist.” Furthermore, he then concludes that God must then be the cause of the existence of everything. Although this argument might seem a little weak to some people, I personally believe that it does make a whole lot of sense. Furthermore, in the article, Aquinas states that if God exists, he is considered to be “Infinite Goodness.” It also states, “If god existed then there would be no evil discoverable, but there is evil in the world.” I believe that this is a good argument made against God because it is so true.
Existence is a part of perfection. While the ontological argument can be approached without the use of consciousness or awareness, cosmological and teleological arguments require a closer focus on the cause and the design of the universe. In earlier years Plato, then Aristotle stressed the cosmological argument as cause and motion, whereas Thomas Aquinas’ concept focused on life having a cause or a starting point. According to his premise the universe is a series of causes and the first cause would be what everyone understands to be God. This concept leads to other debates that mock the well-known adage “Which comes first, the chicken or the egg”.
Christianity and Platonism by Christopher Bunge Religion and philosophy both seek an explanation for the way things are. They attempt to answer the hard questions of humanity origin, purpose and eventual destination. Religion usually purposes a divine or supernatural reason for existence and wherein spiritual entities act as guiding forces throughout humanities history. Religion is as old as human kind is with evidence of ritualistic behavior being observed as early as some 50,000BCE. Philosophy as we understand it on the other hand was invented by the Greeks in the 6th century BCE.
For example, St. Anselm of Canterbury proposed the first, and best-known Ontological argument in the 11th. Century A.D. In his Proslogion, St. Anselm claims to derive the existence of God from the concept of a being, which no greater can be conceived. St. Anselm reasoned that, “if such a being fails to exist, then a greater being, namely, a being than which no greater can be conceived, and which exists, can be conceived” (Philosophy Encyclopedia). However, this would be absurd, seeing as that nothing greater than God can be conceived in anyway.
The rulers held sway not just over their own people but over the Mediterranean, Europe and North Africa” (Menzies). The Greek philosopher, Plato, wrote the above description of Atlantis in 355 B.C. Plato had originally planned to write a trilogy of books on subjects such as the creation of the world, the nature of man, the story of Atlantis as well as other subjects. The first book, Timaeus, was completed, Critias, which contains the story of Atlantis, was incomplete, and Hemocrates, was never written (Levy). The story of Atlantis is one of the oldest myths of mankind, a lost paradise and the most popular of all supposed advanced prehistoric lost civilizations.