Thomas Aquinas' Five Ways to Prove the Existence of God

from http://guava.phil.lehigh.edu/aquinas/fiveways.html

1. The First Way: Motion.

- observing movement in the world as proof of God, the "Immovable Mover";

2. The Second Way: Efficient Cause.

- observing cause and effect and identifying God as the cause of everything;

3. The Third Way: Possibility and Necessity.

- concluding that the impermanent nature of beings proves the existence of a
necessary being, God, who originates only from within himself;

4. The Fourth Way: Gradation.

. The act of progressing by regular steps or orderly arrangement; the state of being graded or arranged in ranks.

. The act or process of bringing to a certain grade

- noticing varying levels of human perfection and determining that a supreme,

perfect being must therefore exist; and

5. The Fifth Way: Design. 

- knowing that natural beings could not have intelligence without it being granted
to them it by God. Subsequent to defending people's ability to naturally perceive proof
of God, Thomas also tackled the challenge of protecting God's image as an all-powerful
being.

General Remarks:

* Later thinkers classed all five ways as variants of the cosmological argument for the existence
of God. Cosmology is the study of the origins and structure of the universe; each of the five ways
is a reflection on the conditions which must have been in place in order for the universe, or some
observed feature of the universe, to come about.

A priori and a posteriori are Latin phrases used in philosophy to distinguish types of
knowledge, justification, or argument by their reliance on empirical evidence or
experience. A priori knowledge is independent from current experience. Examples
include mathematics, tautologies, and deduction from pure reason

A posteriori, Latin for "from the latter", is a term from logic, which usually refers to reasoning that works
backward from an effect to its causes. This kind of reasoning can sometimes lead to false conclusions
A priori is a term applied to knowledge considered to be true without being based on previous
experience or observation. In this sense, a priori describes knowledge that requires no evidence. A
priori comes from Latin and literally translates as “from the previous” or “from the one before.”)

* The fourth way looks, at first blush, like a variation on the ontological argument. But like the
other four ways, it's a posteriori. Anselm's argument is a priori. It is criticized by Aquinas in
Summa I.II.1 (p. 417). Further, says Aquinas (I.II.2), any demonstration of the existence of God
must be from the effects of God known to us; it must be a posteriori.

* The fifth way resembles a version of the teleological (showing evidence of design or
purpose, especially in natural phenomena.) argument, or argument from design. Though the
canonical argument from design is of much later vintage (17 Century), Aquinas might not object
to this identification. The teleological argument, after all, is a posteriori. 

Potentiality-  the inherent capacity for coming into being

Actuality- the state of actually existing objectively

The First Way: Motion

1. All bodies are either potentially in motion or actually in motion.

2. "But nothing can be reduced from potentiality to actuality, except by something in a state of
actuality" (419).
3. Nothing can be at once in both actuality and potentiality in the same respect.
4. Therefore nothing can be at once in both actuality and potentiality with respect to motion
5. Therefore nothing can move itself; it must be put into motion by something else.
6. If there were no "first mover, moved by no other" there would be no motion.
7. But there is motion.
8. Therefore there is a first mover, God. 

The Second Way: Efficient Cause (a prime mover.)

1. Nothing is the efficient cause of itself.

2. If A is the efficient cause of B, then if A is absent, so is B.
3. Efficient causes are ordered from first cause, through intermediate cause(s), to ultimate effect.
4. By (2) and (3), if there is no first cause, there cannot be any ultimate effect.
5. But there are effects.
6. Therefore there must be a first cause for all of them: God. 

 
The Third Way: Possibility and Necessity

1. "We find in nature things that are possible to be and not to be:" contingent beings.
2. Everything is either necessary or contingent.
3. Assume that everything is contingent.
4. "It is impossible for [contingent beings] always to exist, for that which can not-be at some
time is not."
5. Therefore, by (3) and (4), at one time there was nothing.
6. "That which does not exist begins to exist only through something already existing."
7. Therefore, by (5) and (6), there is nothing now.
8. But there is something now!
9. Therefore (3) is false.
10. Therefore, by (2), there is a necessary being: God. 

The Fourth Way: Gradation

1. There is a gradation to be found in things: some are better (hotter, colder, etc.) than others.
2. Things are X in proportion to how closely the resemble that which is most X.
3. Therefore, if there is nothing which is most X, there can be nothing which is good.
4. It follows that if anything is good, there must be something that is most good.
5. "Therefore there must also be something which is to all beings the cause of their being,
goodness, and every other perfection; and this we call God" (420). 

The Fifth Way: Design

1. We observe that natural bodies act toward ends.

2. Anything that acts toward an end either acts out of knowledge, or under the direction of
something with knowledge, "as the arrow is directed by the archer."
3. But many natural beings lack knowledge.
4. "Therefore some intelligent being exists by whom all natural things are directed to their end;
and this being we call God" (420).

Source:

https://home.csulb.edu/~cwallis/100/aquinas.html