Philosophy 2350-005 Andy Martinez
Does God exist? This question can be very tough to answer, I answer yes God does exist.
I will show you through St. Thomas Aquinas’s “Five Ways” that God does exist. Through observations of nature and the way that the natural world works it is hard to deny that God exists.
Aquinas developed “The Five Ways” as proof of a being that must be unmoved, uncaused, unchanged, and necessary.
When looking at The Five Ways we must understand the principle of sufficient reason and the infinite regress. The principle of sufficient reason or PSR as I will refer to it states: nothing happens without a reason or cause. This is very important to Aquinas’s argument, it shows that in nature all things have a cause or a reason for being. The infinite regress simply means to go back infinity. The infinite regress doesn’t satisfy the PSR because in nature you can go back and find an ultimate cause. Rational thinking would lead you to believe nothing goes back infinitely.
The first way is The Argument from Motion. Aquinas states that all things in motion were put in motion by something already in motion. When we observe the natural world we see that there are things in motion and through logic and reason we can come to the conclusion of what put the object in motion. For instance if I were to grab a ball and throw it across the room I would be putting the ball into motion, this is very easy to see. Now think what put me into motion, or on a larger scale, what put the world into motion? We can come up with answers for these questions and keep going back to what has put something into motion, but logic would tell us that nothing goes back infinitely. To satisfy the PSR that nothing happens without reason or cause there must be an origin for the first motion. Therefore there must be an unmoved mover that started the motion. This as we all know is God.

Philosophy 2350-005 Andy Martinez
The second way is The Argument from Efficient Cause. Aquinas states that all causes have effects, all effects have a cause. Every event has prior events that lead up to the actual event happening. This shows that the future is dependent upon the past, and so on and so forth. In nature every living thing is alive because of another living thing. There is nothing on the earth that is the cause of itself. If my mother were to not exist then I would cease to exist and my son would cease to exist. This would wipe out my future lineage, so you see that if the first cause in the chain were to be removed then the chain would no longer exist. A being is needed to start the initial cause that is free from the dependence of any other being. Therefore you must have a being that is not being caused by any other being; you must have an uncaused causer. God is the uncaused causer.
These first two ways are very similar to each other but I feel Aquinas is using the physical aspects of nature to make his point of why there must be a God. All things in nature have outside forces acting upon them. We all need the sun to survive as well as water, air, and many other things. What is the cause of things, what is setting these causes into motion? It all leads back to an ultimate beginning, that something caused the atoms to collide and spawn entire universes. As we observe things in our daily lives we can see these ways, these proofs that everything has a cause for being, that everything is moving because of something else. We can take something as simple as me pushing a key on the keyboard and a letter appearing on the screen and break it down to more complex and elaborate reasons of how the letter appears on the screen but ultimately there is an answer as to why, an answer for being.
The third way is The Argument from Necessity. Aquinas states that something can’t come from nothing. Go back to the PSR that states nothing happens without a reason or cause.
God is a necessary being because of the fact that something comes from something. A child is

Philosophy 2350-005 Andy Martinez born from a parent; a parent is a child that was born from a parent. Plants create seeds that create new plants, life creates new life. This is the greatness of the planet we live on, we are all part of a growing evolving system that we all have an effect upon. Everything is contingent upon another beings existence, we are contingent beings. Using logic we can conclude that there was a time that all contingent beings did not exist. I was not alive thirty years ago, my dog was not alive two years ago, and my son was not alive five years ago. This logic works on everything from plants to animals to humans to insects. It doesn’t matter what it is everything has a time when it did not exist. Farmers take empty fields and turn them into crops, but in the beginning the crop never existed until the farmer planted the seeds. Using this logic we can conceive a time when no contingent beings existed. If we are all contingent beings and no contingent beings existed, how did any contingent being exist? This is a question that would have no answer, unless there is a being that is not contingent upon another being. Therefore there is a being that exists of its own necessity that we are contingent upon. This being of course is God.
I feel that Aquinas’s third way: The Argument from Necessity is the strongest argument of the five ways. It shows solid logic as to why God must exist why God is the unmoved mover, the uncaused causer, why God is necessary. It is undeniable that everything has an origin, and if we dig enough and use logic we can find the origin. The PSR is very important to this argument because everything in life has a reason, an explanation for being. If you use this fact then it is undeniable that there is a beginning from what everything came from. This is exactly where
Aquinas is trying to lead you. To the fact that there is something that is the cause of all things, something that is not affected by others, something that is necessary for our existence. He wants to show you that the something you know exists is God.

Philosophy 2350-005 Andy Martinez
The fourth way is The Argument from Degree. This argument states that there exist different levels of intelligence. Humans are smarter than bears, and bears are smarter than birds.
What is smarter than a human? Dolphins, sharks, monkeys, who knows, but what is know is there is higher and lower levels of intelligence. Aquinas uses what he sees in nature and his ability to reason about what he is seeing to come to this conclusion. This is something we can all do. I can look at a tree, study it, and observe its behavior. When I come to the conclusion that I am smarter than the tree I am proving there are different levels of intelligence. This would lead you to believe there must be a highest degree of intelligence. This is a straight forward concept that we can see in nature and to satisfy the PSR by avoiding the infinite regress there must be a highest intelligence. Therefore God is the highest degree of intelligence.
The fifth and final way is The Argument from Design. All things in nature have a reason for being; they have a purpose to fulfill, a design to follow. This is very evident with plants and trees. The purpose of a tree from what we can observe is to grow. How does this tree know to grow and be the tree that it is suppose to be? How does an apple tree know to make apples instead of oranges? The apple tree grows and fulfills its purpose or design to be an apple tree.
The apple trees design is for it to make apples not oranges. Another example that can be done is if you take a bow and arrow and shoot the arrow at the target. The goal of the arrow is to reach the target, or to put it another way, the design of the arrow is to reach the target. The arrow does not know how to get to the target on its own. The bow did not know to pull itself back and shoot the arrow. A more intelligent being (the archer) had to direct the bow and arrow to reach its goal
(the target). Therefore using the logic of natural beings following a design to fulfill their purpose we can come to the conclusion that there must be an intelligent designer. This intelligent designer is of course God.

Philosophy 2350-005 Andy Martinez
Aquinas’s five ways is a very strong, well thought out argument. Edwards points out some deficiencies he has with Aquinas’s argument. He starts with the PSR that also states: there can be no unexplained or brute facts. Edwards points out that God would seem to be a brute fact.
Therefore God would not satisfy the PSR. There are other necessary things in nature such as: gravity, and atoms. These other necessary things satisfy the PSR as much as God does. Edwards also points out that the infinite regress is shown in numbers. Numbers go on infinitely and they are used to solve many things in nature. Edwards raises many questions about “The Five Ways”, but what I feel he is getting at is that there are other explanations to the questions besides God. If
God is not the only answer then God would not be the Supreme Being. I feel that Edwards is finding inconsistencies to the argument but not making the observations of nature untrue. It is very hard to argue that something can come from nothing. This goes against the laws of nature; we see this on a daily basis. On the other hand we have never seen God, and it would seem that there are other explanations of where things came from. This is what I feel Edwards is doing, he is putting doubt to Aquinas saying that God is the explanation.
After going through Aquinas’s five ways, and reading Edwards responses to them, I feel that Aquinas makes the stronger more logical argument. I cannot deny the fact that I came from my parents. I know that if my parents or my grandparents were removed that I would cease to exist. It would be very irrational thinking to think otherwise. This rational thinking is throughout his Ways. This is reasoning that we can all look at and exam for ourselves. I myself have started to observe nature in a quest for more understanding of how it works, and what could have made everything work. I can see that a tree is a tree, and this tree will grow as a tree should. Now is this by design, it would seem that it is. One could argue that it is not design if only a few beings followed the design, but it is very apparent that all being follow a design to fulfill their purpose.

Philosophy 2350-005 Andy Martinez
Aquinas has created a very strong scientific, mathematical, and fascinating argument of why God must exist.
In closing I would ask of you to observe nature, use Aquinas’s logic, and apply it in your own life. Think about where you came from and how trees grow. Think about the dolphins swimming in the ocean, and how smart they really are. Look at your parents and think of where you would be without them. Think about where we would all be if a Necessary being didn’t start the chain and allow us to grow, live, and have wonderful experiences. Exam yourself and you will see that God does exist, and that God must exist.