Proofs of God's Existence

Begin with Empirical observation of Five Features in the cosmos:

Motion, Causality, Contingency, Imperfeection, and Order
First Proof: Argument from Motion
• “ It is certain and evident to our senses that in the world some things
are in motion. Now whatever is in motion is put in motion by another.
For motion is nothing else than the reduction of something from
Potentiality to Actuality except by something in a state of Actuality.”

• Motion- not only movement, but any kind of Change.

• The principle behind this argument is what Philosophers called the
“Principle of Sufficient Reason”

Principle of Sufficient Reason- nothing simply happens without a

reason. Nothing just pops into existence.
Second Proof: Cosmological Argument
• Efficient cause or causes of Existence.
• “There is no case known, nor is it possible, in which a thing is found to
be efficient cause of itself, for if so, it would be prior to itself, which is
impossible.”
• “To take away the cause is to take away the effect”
• This proof is different from the First proof in that it's about the “cause
of Existence” not just the “cause of Change”.
Third Proof: Argument from Necessity
• “Therefore, if at one time nothing was in existence, it would have
been impossible for anything to have begun to exist, and thus even
now nothing would be in existence--which is absurd. Therefore, not
all beings are merely possible but there 'must' exist something whose
existence is necessary.”
Another Attribute to God:
• Necessary Being
• Eternal Being
• Being that cannot ever lose its Being.

Without God, once the Universe dies, it can't start up again, becasue
out of nothing comes nothing.
Fourth Proof: Argument from Gradation
• “...so there is something which is truest, something best, something
noblest, and consequently something which is uttermost Being... and
this is what we call God.”

• The argument could be summarized very simply:

One thing is better that another, and “better” presupposes “best”, and
“best” is another word for God.
Fifth Argument: Teleological Argument
• “Now, whatever lacks intelligence cannot move toward an end unless
it be directed by some Being endowed with knowledge and
intelligenc, as the arrow is shot to its mark by another”

• “Therefore, some intelligent Being exists by whom all natural things

are directed to their end; and this Being is called God.”