Tuesday, November 23, 2010

Arguments for the existence of God and accountability

I am learning about St. Thomas Aquinas in my philosophy class. He wrote 5 arguments for the existence of God. Here they are grossly summarized:

1. It is impossible for something to move itself. Everything in motion must have been moved by something else until you must eventually get to an unmoved mover—this is God
2. Everything that happens has a cause, tracing causes back will take you to the first cause of all things—There must be a first causer—this is God.
3. Somethings can exist or not exist, but they cannot change from existing to not existing or vice versa because then there would have been a time when nothing existed, and nothing could have begun to exist. Our existence is due to something that necessarily exists which owes its necessity to no cause outside itself—this is God
4. Things are better or worse. Therefore, there must be something that is best—this is God.
5. Things act intelligently and they must have received their intelligence from somewhere—it must have been God.

Even though Aquinas makes these arguments sound a lot smarter, they are all flawed. In our earthly existence, I do not believe that we will ever have a logical proof for the existence of God.

The reason why I do not think that we will ever discover a logical proof is because God loves us. As soon as we know something we are accountable to God for that thing. People would not change their behavior if they discovered an incontrovertible proof. Therefore they would be more accountable for their actions. Alma 32:19 says, "And now, how much more cursed is he that knoweth the will of God and doeth it not, than he that only believeth, or only hath cause to believe, and falleth into transgression?" Therefore, I think that God protects us by requiring that we develop faith. Our innocence and ignorance can sometimes be a blessing.

Now, to say that there is no proof does not mean that there is no rational evidence for believing. We can know that God exists through experience and witnesses. We often have spiritual experiences, but we do not always recognize them. We must first start with the foundation that God exists in order to see the evidences of Him. As Alma said, "The scriptures are laid before thee, yea, and all things denote there is a God; yea, even the earth, and all things that are upon the face of it, yea, and its motion, yea, and also all the planets which move in their regular form do witness that there is a Supreme Creator." I do not believe that Alma meant that one can look at these things and discover God, but that once we know God, we can then see His hand in our lives.