st. Thomas Aquinas s five proofs of God's existence to answer the question concerning God's existence st. Thomas Aquinas presented five ways or proofs in his most notable work the Summa Theologica these five arguments draw proof or evidence from man's experience with the world which are noticeably influenced by Aristotle and his concept of the four causes the first argument that Aquinas formulated is the argument from motion after observing objects in motion Aquinas was convinced that whatever is currently in motion where once at rest but had changed States when it was moved by something else this mover was something once at rest as well but was also moved by something else and this line of thought would go on and on until it forms an almost infinite series have been current events where the objects are both movers and moved but if this series of events needed something to begin the movement then it is logical to assume that at the very beginning of this infinite series is the first mover which starts the movement Aquinas describes this first mover as to the unmoved mover a label which is quite similar to Aristotle's prime mover as we can see both see this mover as one that is not caused or moved by anything other than itself and for Aquinas this is God the second argument is the argument from causation which builds upon Aristotle's concept of the efficient cause the main idea here is that every object action or event according to Aristotle has an efficient cause or an entity or event responsible for its creation or change just like how a baby finds their efficient cause in their parents and their parents on their own parents and so on and so forth Aquinas uses these examples of dependent relationships to show that every person or object in the world depends on a creator and that this creator also has its own creator and this new creator also has its own efficient cause this cycle much like the arguments for motion can go on infinitely but according to Aquinas it should not be so since in the first place the series would have not begun it is then logical to assume that at the very beginning there is the existence of a first maker or an uncaused cause which as the name suggests is the efficient cause that is not caused by others or anything but itself this and cost cause is of course attributed by Aquinas to the Christian God the third argument is the argument from contingency which necessitates the distinction between necessary and possible beings possible beings simply put our beings that can be created and corrupted or our beings that can exist and not exist an example of a possible being is man is a possible being because we have the potential to exist through birth and the same potential to not exist through death plants animals and structures are among some of the other beings included in this category with this in mind it is then reasonable to think that since most beings in the world are possible beings then there must have been a time that they had not existed at all which means that nothing ever existed and if there truly was a time of pure non-existence then nothing could currently exists because nothingness can only yield nothingness now the only way that our existence at this very moment could be explained for Aquinas is if there was a being that already exists despite the nothingness of the possible beings this being is called a necessary being necessary beings on the other hand are beings that necessarily exist or are beings that cannot be non-existent for Aquinas there must be at least one necessary being to exist at the very beginning for the rest of the beings to be able to exist this being is of course God the fourth argument is the argument from degrees of perfection this argument makes use of man's knowledge of perfection and his tendency to judge or evaluate whether an object or person is more or less perfect this action of judging something to be more or less perfect means that there is a standard that is used for the said evaluation but how could man ever have such standards unless there is a being that is all perfect to compare it to Aquinas affirms the existence of such a perfect being and says that if any other being would be compared or evaluated against such perfection they would always be judged as less perfect he calls this all perfect being God now the fifth and last argument in st. Thomas Aquinas as five proofs of God's existence is the argument from final causes or design some scholars would also call this as the teleological argument Aquinas once again drew on the notions of causality as presented by Aristotle to justify this argument the final cause as described by Aristotle is the fourth cause and is one that refers to the end that for the sake of which a thing is done some scholars will describe it rather simply as the cause that refers to the purpose of which a specific object or entity has been created to fulfill humans and most natural beings in the world have been designed to have a purpose and we behave or act according to that purpose for instance the bird's wings behave in accordance with its design which allows it to fly humans talk using their mouths because this is in accordance with their body's design which allows them to utilize air and various muscles in their body to create sounds for Aquinas if there is some sort of design that is set in our world then there must be a designer this design cannot possibly just be humans or other natural beings themselves as he describes man as imperfect and not intelligent enough to set such a grand design some of the natural beings Aquinas tells us are not even capable enough to know what their end is the design of the world therefore must have been set by a being that is vastly more intelligent than humans and knowledgeable enough to guide them towards their end this of course is God