Aquinas' ways

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  • Aquinas' wayz
    • First way
      • Motion or change
      • Everything is constantly moving and changing, in consequence from the change before that.
        • It is impossible that it has been going on forever (infinite regress)
          • Needs to be something that started the motion
            • This is God
    • Second way
      • Causation
        • Nothing that exists is the cause of itself to exist
          • This means it is impossible that it has been going on forever
            • This means there must be something that came into existence
              • This is God
              • Aquinas does not explain why there cannot only be secondary causes
                • First way
                  • Motion or change
                  • Everything is constantly moving and changing, in consequence from the change before that.
                    • It is impossible that it has been going on forever (infinite regress)
                      • Needs to be something that started the motion
                        • This is God
      • Objects coming into existence
    • Third way
      • Necessity to contingency
        • Everything in the world relies on something to exist
          • Need a necessary being (God) which doesn't depend on anything else to survive
            • Leibniz
              • If the Universe has always been in existence it would still require an answer or a sufficient reason for its existence
    • Fourth way
      • Goodness
        • All things are more or less perfect
          • In order to know the process of becoming perfect, implies a being that is to that decree.
            • Maximum perfection = God
    • Fifth way
      • Design argument
        • Everything in nature is following it's natural laws
          • There must be something that has directed the law/purpose in the first place
            • God
          • E.g when an arrow is fired at the target, it did not launch itself. It was launched by an archer

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