Five Ways to Prove God Exists (Aquinas 101)

“Ever since the creation of the world his invisible nature, namely, his eternal power and deity, has been clearly perceived in the things that have been made.” (Romans 1:20)

The writings of ancient pagan philosophers confirmed the biblical teaching that it is possible for human beings to know the existence of God without having ever read the Bible. For this reason, Aquinas taught that human beings have a natural knowledge of God, that we can know the existence of God by using our reason. We may not directly see Him, but from what we do see and experience of the natural world, we can infer that something must be behind it all. Something is responsible for the greatness, the beauty, and the order of the world; and this is what all men call God.

The Five Ways (Aquinas 101) - Fr. James Brent, O.P.

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[ckokomo]

As someone raised Catholic and moved away from the Church and faith, I found myself wondering/wandering in other spiritual directions. Upon reflection, I found myself with a “hole in my heart” seeking something which I didn’t understand. At first, I dismissed it as just my upbringings and “brainwashing”. I wandered into Yoga and some New Age ideas. These had inklings of spiritual Truths which satiated my heart on a surface level, but I found myself moving on. Much like the prodigal son, I am finding myself on the road back home- back to the Church. There are still plenty of doubts, but people/channels/The Church Fathers are places in which I’m finding knowledge and more importantly, wisdom. Thank you for sharing the brilliance of St. Thomas. I will continue to watch and (hopefully) grow closer towards God.

[rosiegirl]

This brings St. Josephine Bahkita to mind. She was an African child who was brought into slavery, in the 19th century, following the killing of her parents. She had never heard of the Christian God. Though she would look up at the sun and the moon, and say, who ever made those has got to be very powerful! As she grew into a young women, she was bought by an Italian man who brought her back to Italy to care for his young daughter. At that time, she stayed at the convent with the nuns, who introduced her to the Christian God, for the first time. She ended up joining those Sisters...and amazingly went on to become a Saint! One would have thought she would have been consumed by anger and hate, following the abuse she suffered at the hands of her captors..but she wasn't! It's a beautiful story of love! 🌹

[gestiperiferici]

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your course and channel. I’m studying for an exam on medieval theology and I’m so grateful for these videos, both informative and peaceful! They help me to understand better the books I’m studying!

[justfortomorrow]

I am Mexican. I was raised catholic. I lost my way in my teens and became an atheist. I am now 34 and there is a strong conviction in my heart that sometimes I feel, and I wonder if it’s too late for me for God to accept me back 😢

[neliborba]

The intelligence behind the creation is God. His power is not perceived by human beings but is there all the time. God is intelligence and almighty power, He permeates all things.

[robertm]

I have seen a number of descriptions of the Five Ways, all of which were fairly impenetrable to me. This is the first which explains it in a graspable form. Thank you, Father James.

[stephenjohnson]

I love that Thomas Aquinas assures all the faithful that God exists as well as provides a way to know this ourselves.

[Nymaz]

The other day I was driving down the road and saw smoke, yet I could not see the cause. Thus we can logically infer the existence of fire giants. How could you have smoke without fire giants? Therefor the most logical response is to worship Odin in order to entreat him to protect us from the fire giants.

[proinloin]

the most comprehensive explanation I''ve ever heard in 31 years.

[antonjuust]

I know, the fear of the Lord is everything and good. Thank you good Man for stressing this point which is clear.

[mordec]

A very brief summary of the line of reasoning which leads us to God: we know there are dependent things all around us - things which do not have to exist, and which therefore do not exist solely by themselves, but are dependent on causes. Fire, trees, people, planets, molecules, atoms, stars, and so on. Naturally, there must be a cause or explanation for why and how all dependent things exist. Even if there were an infinity of dependent causes, one producing another, this would still not be an explanation for why the totality of dependent things exist - why do all of these things and causes exist, rather than nothing, or some other totality of things? How can any totality - even if infinite in number - of dependent things manage to exist in the first place? The only explanation is if there is a Foundation of things which is itself independent, self-sufficient, necessary, unconditioned, which could not even in principle have failed to be. A Foundation which is the ultimate cause and ground of the existence of all dependent, conditioned things.
Why is this Necessary, Unconditioned, Absolute Foundation of reality called God? Here are a few brief reasons. First, the Foundation is all-powerful, because it is the ultimate cause of all possible dependent things. Every existing thing and reality ultimately derives from this Foundation. Secondly, the Foundation, besides being necessarily-existing, self-sufficient, unconditioned, eternal, all-powerful, etc., is also very plausibly personal and intelligent, since A) all powers and realities ultimately derive from the Foundation, which means the Foundation has all powers and all its configurations, including intelligence, and B) the order and harmony of dependent reality, which has regular natural laws instead of chaos, and life, consciousness, complexity, and so on, makes it very plausible that the Foundation/First Cause is intelligent.
Much more could be said, but I'll leave this here as a brief summary.

[eric]

Great Video. I'm hoping that The Thomas institute expands to other Christian Theologians and Apologists beyond just Thomas Aquinas. Aquinas is not the only Theologian out there to study.

[lokijam]

Thomas Aquinas was a most interesting man. His teachings should be more prevalent.

[arthurcuesta]

Praised be the Lord for the wisdom infused in Aquinas. The argument of the Uncaused Cause was enough to break the despisable Humean view of causation and Descartes empirism, heavy weights during my conversion.

"For an accidental category 'cause' can't exist in a 'non-being', i.e., nothing."

Saint Thomas Aquinas, pray for us!

[WhiteScorpio]

Your sore throat analogy is perfect. Because just because we have a sore throat, doesn't mean we know what causes a sore throat. And all the reasons we came up with before science actually figured stuff up were not even close to the truth. Also note that illnesses were often thought to have supernatural causes, until science figured the natural one, as is always the case.

[markrudis]

If i thought that i would be exposed to this kind of wisdom i would surely join the Catholic Church. Ive studied eastern wisdom for years and what i believe as a result is evidently what St Thomas taught. Thank you.

[nigelhunter]

Even though I'm protestant theologically I did appreciate this exposition of Aquina' s 5 points. Thank you.

[canisrah]

I really needed this. Really needed it. Thank you so much. It is such a work of mercy just going to the trouble of preparing, filming and circulating this video. God bless you.

[banquos]

Wow. Fr.Brent makes it so simple. Thanks, Father...God bless TI

[philliprobinson]

Hi T.I. Very good video. I did philos. 101 about 50 years ago and still enjoy tinkering with thinking.

6/ Three proofs of God from freewill premise.

Thomas Aquinas didn't develop a "proof of God from freewill", despite freewill being a unique characteristic of life. Non-life (rocks) can only follow deterministic laws and cannot make choices, only life has the possibility of freewill. I assume freewill exists because the difference between non-life and life is stark and undeniable. This leaves "hard determinist" materialism in a quandary.

1/ If life is solely material life, then before life began, life and freewill must have been determined to begin to exist. However "a freewill that is determined to begin to exist" is a contradiction, because by definition, determinism cannot choose to change itself into freewill. The quandary is resolved by accepting that originally life was non-materialistic, which proves God.

2/ Carbon forms four covalent bonds and is the defining element in organic chemistry. Materialists claim carbon with its four "choices" is in a limited sense "alive", but if this is true it means life is built into the physical universe pan-theistically, which also proves God.

3/ Without freewill, consciousness has no function and would not have evolved beyond the simple "stimulus-response" reflex of an amoeba. Even in an evolutionary universe, there's a necessary link between freewill and God.

Freewill is atheism's "Achilles heel", explaining why atheistic materialists vehemently reject freewill, and must argue the absurdity that there's no philosophical difference between non-living matter and living matter.

Thomas Aquinas' "proof from first cause" indicates he was locked into the apostle Paul's concept of deterministic predestination, which was official Church dogma. This probably explains why he didn't develop a proof of God from freewill. Like many other great mediaeval thinkers, his work was subject to strict ecclesiastic approval.

Thanks for your good work. Cheers, from soft determinist, P.R.