THE02

Okafor Daniela, M 1A19

APPLICATION PAPER
I grew up in a Christian family background. As such, my parents imbibed in me the love of God. I have always had unquestionable believe in Him. Then I saw a group on face book It was about a group of atheists proclaiming that God is dead . They posted some pictures intended to mock God. And then I began to ask myself who and what is God? What if he truly doesn t exist? There was no proof that He truly existed or in existence. These doubts started to build up in me and I felt there was no answer to these questions until . It was my first year in high school and I had Theology 1 as one of my courses. One significant topic I had was The Five Ways of St. Thomas . St. Thomas outlined five proofs for God s existence without any supernatural connections. These includethe arguments on motion, causality, contingency, gradation and design and governance. I critically pondered on these arguments. The first three proofs are related in the sense that they explain the existence of the world. In the first argument he stated that the series of motion necessitates a first mover. Scientifically, the law of inertia best explains this- everything that moves has to be moved by another thing. But this chain of movers cannot go on to infinity. The planetary motion which causes seasons to change I believe can only be the sustaining handwork of God. A pot will not appear from a bowl of clay without the handwork of a potter. Same for humans and thus God is the unmoved mover. Another proof is the argument on causality. This uses the principle of cause and effect- that we cannot have the latter (effect) without the former (cause). This means that there would be nothing in the world, if there was not an original cause of everything. As such, the world and the universe cannot be infinite (i.e. have always existed). There must be a first cause which is God. The third way- contingency is taken from possibility and necessity. Let s look at a pen for example. A pen could not have existed without the ink and other substance used to make it which also could not exist without something already existing prior to it (existing before it) and so and so forth. Therefore, there must also have been a time when nothing existed. For Aquinas, the only thing which has always existed is God.

THE02

Aquinas saw no way to explain how anything was here, unless something was already in existence prior to it. Thus if God did not exist, nothing else would exist. The fourth argument simply points to God as a perfect being who is the source of all goodness. Finally, the fifth argument which I find most convincing is the argument on design and governance. Aquinas' design argument here is basically suggesting that inanimate objects (E.g. Planets), could not have ordered themselves-got themselves into the orbits because they lack the intelligence to do so. Yet as the planets are aligned so perfectly, this means it must have been done so by a being with the intelligence to do so. Now although humans are intelligent, they cannot move planets, so that leaves us with God. Also, I observed the nature around me. Nature suggests a realm of order, in that things seem to have an innate sense of purpose. Anything which has a sense of purpose requires a guiding hand. For instance, an arrow only hits the target, because it has been fired by an archer. Thus nature s guiding hand is God. In conclusion, I thought to myself that if truly there wasn t a God our world came into existence without any cause- everything just happened. That life on earth is just a product of randomness. Man is without a spirit, death terminates existence and that human existence was just an accident. That morality is societal in origin; therefore no one can make value judgments on others- no universal good, no universal evil. Having said all this, I m convinced beyond reasonable doubt that God exists and is the reason why I still exist. Going back to the group of atheist I found on facebook whose motto is God is dead ...i thought to myself; how can God be dead if in the first place he didn t exist?