Homework Question on Philosophical Arguments
- I need a paper written on The Ontological Argument by St.Anselm and the five ways of St.Thomas then compare these thoughts to the argumentation/ scientific reasoning of Rowe, Paley, and Collins (all within the module . minimum 2-4 pages.
- This information can be found online and its also is in the text book Encountering the Real ; Faith and Philisophical Inquiry.
Homework Answer on Philosophical Arguments
Ontological Argument
St Anselm was a platonic realist and mostly referred to as second Augustine. He proposed this argument basing on the notion that God exists, and if not there could be an existence of a greater being, but it could definitely be God. Anselm stated that, it’s conceptually true that the idea of God’s existent is in the human mind and in reality, but the existence is greater than the super being existing only as an idea in imagination.
Therefore, the philosopher claimed that the being that humans can imagine to be greatest than any other super -being can only be God and it is the proof that God exists (Elders 68).
Five Ways of St. Thomas Aquinas
Aquinas was a theologian and priest in the Dominican church. He proposed fived ways to proof God’s existence:
- The Motion Argument: Having studied philosophical works by Aristotle, Aquinas concluded that anything in motion is put in that state by other object in motion. The philosopher states that there ought to be unmoved mover that is God, who initiates every movement (Elders 89).
- Existence Causation: This claim is based on the existences issue. Aquinas stated that, no entity made itself into existence. Thus, there is first cause (God), who created objects as well as initiated existence chain.