c.l wk 5 phil101

Discussion Prompt

Please pick one of the following questions to answer for the forum this week:

• With reference to Pike’s article, how could it be said that Divine Omniscience challenges the idea that humans have free will?
• With reference to Anselm’s Ontological Argument for the existence of God, evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of his argument as well as his response to Gaunilo.
• Evaluate Aquinas’ argument(s) for God’s existence from efficient causality and/or from motion and evaluate its strengths and weaknesses.

Discussion Guidelines

• Three posts minimum.
• The initial forum response is due by Thursday at 11:59 p.m. EST and should be a substantive response to the Discussion prompt.
• For peer replies, respond to at least two of your classmates by Sunday at 11:59 p.m. EST and give meaningful replies that advance the Discussion.

Before you post, please thoroughly edit your writing to ensure it is professional and academic. For more details about how the initial post and peer replies are graded, see and the linked .

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sharraine Edwards posted Mar 4, 2026 9:13 AM

A significant section of the Summa Theologica is the argument on the existence of God by motion and efficient causality by Thomas Aquinas. In his First Way, Aquinas explains that there must be a mover in motion (actualization of potential). Everything in motion, according to him, must be moved by something, and this regress cannot lead one on and on (Kurtz, 2022). Therefore, First Mover is required, and it is God. In his Second Way, Aquinas asserts that nothing exists without an efficient cause and nothing can cause itself; therefore, there must be a supreme uncaused efficient cause that he refers to as God.

One of the strong points of the arguments presented by Aquinas is the fact that he appeals to common sense and to observable reality (Dimmock & Fisher, 2020). It is intuitively understandable that the things in motion should have been moved by something, and the same is the notion that the effects require the causes. These arguments also advance the principle of sufficient reason according to which everything is supposed to have an explanation. The Aquinas arguments provide a uniform example of how the necessity to have a First Cause, and a First Mover is attained.

The question of why the uncaused Cause or the First Mover would be God is also, however, one of the biggest weaknesses of the arguments by Aquinas. Critics argue that the fact that an uncaused being is required does not necessarily mean that such a being must have the same properties that have traditionally been ascribed to God, such as omnipotence or omniscience (Nyabaro, 2022). Nor is the suggestion that an infinite series of causes or motions cannot exist universal, and there are philosophers who believe that an infinite series would not be inconsistent. Despite Aquinas having a good argument that there is a necessity of a First Cause and Mover, there are also some philosophical issues with his arguments.

References

Dimmock, M., & Fisher, A. (2020). Aquinass Natural Law Theory. Viva.pressbooks.pub.

Kurtz, R. (2022). The Unmoved Mover – Credo Magazine. .

Nyabaro, F. J. (2022). God versus evil; A thomistic persipective.

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Evaluate Aquinas’ argument(s) for God’s existence from efficient causality and/or from motion and evaluate its strengths and weaknesses

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ashley Burress posted Mar 3, 2026 7:45 PM

In Summa Theologiae, Thomas Aquinas presents arguments for Gods existence known as the Five Ways. Two of the most influential are the Argument from Motion and the Argument from Efficient Causality. Both are cosmological arguments because they begin with observable features of the world.

The Argument from Motion, influenced by Aristotle, states that things in the world are constantly changing. Aquinas defines motion as the movement from potentiality to actuality. Whatever is moved must be moved by something already actual. Since nothing can move itself in this way, there cannot be an infinite chain of movers. Without a first unmoved mover, no motion would occur. Therefore, Aquinas concludes that there must be a First Unmoved Mover, identified as God.

The Argument from Efficient Causality follows similar reasoning. Every effect has a cause, and nothing can cause itself because it would have to exist before itself. Aquinas argues that an infinite regress of causes is impossible. If there were no first cause, there would be no subsequent causes or effects. Thus, there must be a First Efficient Cause, which is God.

A major strength of these arguments is that they begin with common experience, change, and causation, which gives them intuitive appeal. However, a weakness is the assumption that infinite regress is impossible. Some philosophers argue that an infinite chain of causes may be logically coherent. Additionally, even if a first cause exists, Aquinas does not fully demonstrate that it possesses the specific attributes of the Christian God. While influential, these arguments remain philosophically debated rather than conclusively proven.