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Aquinas' Proofs for Existence of God The purpose of this research is to examine

The purpose of this research is to examine the five proofs for the existence of God by Saint Thomas Aquinas. The plan of the research will be to set forth the context in which these proofs are advanced by Aquinas, and then to discuss each of the five proofs in turn, including an analysis and opinion of, together with a reaction to, each proof.

Aquinas flourished in the middle of the thirteenth century in Europe, as a Dominican teacher and philosophical/theological commentator, at a time when, as Hayes, et al., comment about this period, "Men were absorbed by the attempt to understand the nature of the world and of man and to explain the existence of God and the meaning of creation. . . . To the average medieval thinker, philosophy was not an end in itself. It should lead him to truth, and in particular to theological truth, which he deemed the highest of all."1 In the medieval period, intellectual and religious rivalries and the threat of accusations of heresy confronted and plagued serious philosophical and theological thinkers. It was during this period, indeed, that the Catholic Church was institutionalized as the chief arbiter of society, morals, and politics. Inevitably, then, the nature of God would be considered as a primary philosophical question, and from such questions proceeded considerations of the nature of man and the whole of the universe. Freemantle notes that in his own era Aquinas came under an intellectual cloud as a result of efforts by religious rivals in the church,2 though he outlasted them and was canonized within 100 years of his death.

The scientific method had not emerged by the medieval period; in the thirteenth century, when Europe had emerged from the Dark Ages but had not yet reached the renaissance, the rigorous intellectual methods that were applied derived from classics to which religious writers had access. This method, with its emphasis on the power of reason and rational thinki...

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Aquinas' Proofs for Existence of God The purpose of this research is to examine. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 08:12, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1703357.html