God Is The Final Cause Essay

For my book review I chose The Reason for God by Timothy Keller. I have read this book before, but I wanted to go through again, summarize and analyze it. The purpose of this paper will be to summarize The Reason for God and analyze it’s writing style and arguments. The Reason for God defends knowledge of God and is naturally an apologetic work. Interestingly enough though, it reads more like a pastoral than it does an apologetic work.

The Prime Mover becomes the efficient and final causes of the universe. Its ‘action’ in the universe is passive. It exists in a state of ‘pure actuality’ incapable of change, only contemplating its own existence. This is Aristotle’s god. Things are attracted towards the perfection found within its ‘pure actuality’. This is why the Prime Mover is known as the great attractor. Objects that move from potentiality

In this regard, there is a stark contrast between Aristotle and Descartes. While Aristotle tries to explain change and growth by referring to the nature of the matter and the form that is changing and that everything in the world will change and move in order to find its rightful place, Descartes has a radically different idea of what brings about change. This is rooted in Aristotle’s natural teleology that can be explained as the belief that natural entities have intrinsic

In Metaphysics XII, Aristotle elaborates on a need for a “first mover that initiates motion without being moved” (Met. 12.7, 1072a26). This primary, or unmoved mover, he believes is the source of all motion in the universe. In this essay, I will explain his conception of such a mover. I will then elaborate on how this unmoved mover initiates motion. Finally, I will explain his rationale for believing there is such a mover.

In order to prevent an infinite regression of argument, Aristotle came up with the his famous idea of the "Prime Mover," which exists outside the earth somewhere in the heavens and is ultimately responsible for all change on earth.

Aristotle has formulated an economical and clear argument, but the passage that contains it fails to connect all the premises to other parts of the text to lend them supporting arguments. Aristotle extended his approach of starting from what is commonly believed to even this human function argument which is crucial to the whole work. As a result, many readers may be left unconvinced.

Aristotle specifically separates causes into four different categories, material cause, formal cause, efficient cause, and final cause. He defines these causes as “that from which, as a <constituent> present in it, … the form i.e., the pattern, … the source of the primary principle of change, … something’s end” . Respectively, these describe what something is made of, the form or pattern to which is corresponds, the original source of change (closest to what we would associate with a “cause”), and the purpose of the change. Using the creation of a sculpture as an example, Aristotle provides the bronze of a statue as a material cause, the shape of the state as the formal cause, the actual sculpting of the statue as the efficient cause,

Aristotle completely rejects natural progression. Instead his prime mover theory is used to support the four causes. He believed that all movement is dependent upon there being a mover (efficient cause) to exist. To Aristotle, movement not only referred to something travelling from one point to another but it also had to include different types of altercation such as cooling, growth, heating, melting and so on. Similarly to a predecessor of his, Heraclitus, Aristotle recognised that the universe and its contents were in a constant state of flux. He argued that prior to all movement there must have been a chain of consecutive events that initiated the movement in. Aristotle claimed that this sequence must lead back to something which moves other entities but is by its own nature unmoved. He refers to the unmoved mover as the ‘Prime Mover’. Aristotle regards change as something that is finite but eternal. “Aristotle’s universe is finite and eternal” for example. There could not have possibly been an initial change as change implies that something existed previously. Something must of had to of moved prior to that change, which implies another change of the this itself would have been a change. We can reference infinite regression, rejected by Aristotle, once again. To

Aquinas' second proof is similar to his first in that it relates to cause and effect. St. Thomas reasoned that in a world of order there is an order to all cause and effect. And , since there is a cause for the existence of all things there must be a cause that caused all things and had no cause itself. He points out that nothing in creation existed prior to itself and the causality cannot be traced back infinitely. If the efficient or first cause did not exist then nothing would exist. That first or efficient cause is God.

According to Aristotle, things are seen as taking course and will eventually come to a stop when potential is reached. The entire process of potential to actuality is call causation. Aristotle sees human life as the search for happiness and term happiness as the fulfillment of all potential. We are molded through the decisions we make. I see this as a cycle and

In verse 15, Paul writes, "We who are Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners" Paul seems to be telling his gentile reader that the Torah has no bearing on their salvation. I feel that he purposely or inadvertently gives the law merit more merit than intended by suggesting that Jews are not sinners because they received the law. He draws a distinction between himself and "the gentile sinners" yet he is telling his audience that the ways, some of which are still a part of his own way of life, are irrelevant. He seems to almost make a separation of culture and religion. He seems to be saying that the rectitude of the Jews dates from birth, because the Jewish religion is a part of their culture. Peter claims to

In Physics II, Aristotle speaks to the four causes that can explain any changes in the science of nature. First, he says there is a cause that explains what something is made of, such as the bronze of a statue (194b25). Second, there is a cause which is related to the form to which a thing is made into (194b27). Third, there is the original, primary source of change. It is what makes of what is made and what causes change of what is changed, like that of the father to a child (194b30). Lastly, there is the end cause, which is the intended purpose of the change or the reason behind why a thing is made or done (194b35). An example of this would be health, which is the cause of walking around.

Faith and reason can be viewed as opposites. Faith is an element of belief, something an individual does not necessarily require a reason for accepting without reason. For example, an individual’s reason for believing in God may not seem too rational when they are trying to explain them. They may not even stand up to criticism. On the other hand, reason is constructed as a formula. Faith is basically something we believe in, like something we learn in church. Reason is something we learn in school, such as a math formula.

&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;The existence of motion to the existence of a first mover as the cause of movement, was argued by Aristotle. This first mover he called God. The reason for this was that nothing caused God to move yet God was responsible for the motion of all other things. Thisargument is based on presumptions in other cosmological arguments. The first was that something could not cause itself, second something cannot come from nothing, last there could not possibly be an infinite amount of cause and effects.

The bible was written as an account of what many viewed that God had accomplished so his actions and words could be passed on for generations. Some believe it is a literary account and some believe it is a historical account. The word of God in the bible comes in many forms and is left up to interpretation by the reader. Some believe that the word of God should be the only word and should be strictly followed. Some believe that the words are meant as a guideline to help us through life. Whatever your belief is you can always seem to find the meaning behind your belief through the word of God in the Bible.