The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #73222   Message #1268067
Posted By: M.Ted
09-Sep-04 - 08:01 PM
Thread Name: BS: Is there a god or not?
Subject: RE: BS: Is there a god or not?
With all due respect, this stuff has all been run through, and long, long ago, by better minds than we are likely to find here--

Here Thomas Acquinas' fifth proof, from the Summa Theologica, article II Whether the existance of God is Demonstrable:

The fifth proof arises from the ordering of things for we see that some things which lack reason, such as natural bodies, are operated in accordance with a plan. It appears from this that they are operated always or the more frequently in this same way the closer they follow what is the Highest; whence it is clear that they do not arrive at the result by chance but because of a purpose. The things, moreover, that do not have intelligence do not tend toward a result unless directed by some one knowing and intelligent; just as an arrow is sent by an archer. Therefore there is something intelligent by which all natural things are arranged in accordance with a plan---and this we call God.

--in other words, order is impossible without intellect, so the fact that there the universe is ordered proves that there is a maker or planner behind it all--

This gem of reasoned thought is the underpinning of modern science, because it reconciled science with the idea of faith--without it, it would have been impossible to study science in Christendom--