Explanation for the Existence of God, by Using Aquina's Second Way: Efficient Causation

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Recommended: The Existence of God: Argument for and Against

Does God exist? Since the appearance of mankind on the earth and up until today--would probably continue in the future--this question brought people to think, reason, and come up with the evidence, to present the best satisfactory answer.

Back in 1200s, St. Thomas Aquinas has provided "five ways" to prove for the existence of God, which I am persuaded by, and hopefully others would see the same 'light' in this argument--unfortunately, it does not provide sufficient answers regarding the 'nature of God' (Bailey and Martin, 2011, 37). All five arguments share the "form of logic called syllogism," "initial premise, starting from the empirical facts," and the existence of "transcendent cause" to everything (Bailey and Martin, 2011, 25). Here, I will choose the second way, the argument of "efficient cause," which I feel it as the most compelling argument and sums up other arguments to demonstrate for the existence of God. 'God,' here is defined as the God introduced in the Bible of Christianity.

In essence, the second argument said that there must be cause--or beginning--to everything, which ultimately, gives rise to effect, result, or the end. Consequently, second effect must be created and caused by the "first element of series" (Bailey and Martin, 2011, 34); therefore, the effect and existence of nth (equals to the last or end) element in series are ultimately caused and created by the 'first element,' which we call God. It is probable that first element may give direct rise to nth element. Other than God, nothing is considered infinite. So, God does not have a cause; and hence, it would have no effect.

Think of any person. What gives rise to that person? The answer is his or her parents--parents (sperm and egg) are necessa...

... middle of paper ...

...in God.

Reasoning like this, alone is not sufficient to prove the existence of God, but it provides us with firm ground to rationally approve and understand the existence of God. One must have faith, to truly acknowledge and believe in the existence of God because as God is perfect and we are not, we cannot see or know the true perfect with full confidence, unless God intervenes--"faith is the gift of God" (Ephesians 2:8).

Works Cited

Bailey, A and Martin, R 2011, "First Philosophy" Second Ed.

Classnotes, Jon, Miller, Phil 115, 2011, Queen's University

Hubble, Edwin. 1929, "A Relation between Distance and Radial Velocity among Extra-Galactic Nebulae" Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Volume 15, Issue 3, pp. 168-173

The Holy Bible, 1973, 1978, 1984. New International Version. International Bible Society

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