#7 Atheists what would be your LOGICAL rebuttal to this evidence of God's existence?
Thomas Aquinas' argument from motion. Nothing can essentially change itself by its own power. I cannot grow wings or gills because I want or even if need them. Therefore changes in oneself must be performed or created from something beyond the scope of oneself. Ultimately, no matter how many steps in-between this leads to a prime mover which is God. Aquinas lived long before Darwin, but the argument is valid even when considering evolution. Adapting to one’s environment can only take you so far. Major positive change in a living thing must be as the result of an intelligent force outside of the life-form.
Anonymous2018-12-02T11:25:37Z
Maybe Aliens seeded the Earth? Hey I know if humans ever had the chance we’d do the same and seed other planets
I find your argument rather unclear. "Nothing can essentially change itself by its own power. I cannot grow wings or gills because I want or even if need them." You can decide you want to be leaner and stronger, and hit the gym to change yourself.
"Nothing can essentially change itself by it's own power." Caterpillar to butterfly?
Thomas Aquinas was by profession a theologian, a teacher of sacred doctrine who also studied and wrote about philosophy. His own understanding of philosophy was influenced by his religious faith. Thomism is a Christian philosophy.
Nota: All of Aquinas arguments to God's existence are a posteriori. That is, knowledge that proceeds from observations or experiences to the deduction of probable causes.
Dave D., So, an individual cannot grow wings or gills. ( I cannot decide to regrow my uterus now that it has been removed. ) Wings, or gills, or legs are things that evolved over millions of years, with very tiny changes occurring in the generations. There is no prime mover. Tiny changes occur accidentally in DNA, due to sunlight for example, and the beneficial changes continue from generation to generation. Evolutionary adaptions is all we've had, but now, surgeons can give people new knees, new hips, breast implants, and people can be the recipients of a new heart, a new liver etc. With advances in understanding DNA, we might be able to give a blind person new eyes, give people hearts, kidneys etc., with their very own DNA so there will be no rejection. This is due to the natural way that humans evolved to use their brains.