How can we show God is being itself?

[MyNameIsDan]

I asked my philosophy professor to read over my paper (which is due tomorrow) and he wants me to add a discussion on theological method on how we can prove God is being (since I am making the assertion that God “is”).

Is there any source (preferably a book available online which I don’t have to buy such as The Summa) I can use which is relatively brief to read? Would the Summa Theologica be helpful in that? I’m looking for a discussion on the method of how we can prove God is being itself.

Thank you and Happy Easter!

 

[Rhubarb]

Your school should have access to databases like JSTOR and… I can’t recall the Humanities one. You might be able to login from the library website through your computer at home. They should be searchable for key words and subjects - God, ontology, being, etc. to get scholarly journals that discuss the keywords.

plato.standford.edu is a fantastic source too that should be considered citeable. It’s all peer-reviewed.

 

[MyNameIsDan]

Your school should have access to databases like JSTOR and… I can’t recall the Humanities one. You might be able to login from the library website through your computer at home. They should be searchable for key words and subjects - God, ontology, being, etc. to get scholarly journals that discuss the keywords.

plato.standford.edu is a fantastic source too that should be considered citeable. It’s all peer-reviewed.

Thanks, Rhubarb! I just did an overview of the theological method by looking at some examples.

 

[Rhubarb]

Good luck! I’d be interested in reading your paper sometime. These debates fascinate me.

 

[ynotzap]

You can refer to the Cosmological Argument, that everything has a cause. You can refer to human experience the criterion of all our knowledge. If things caused themselves they would have always existed, and have no beginning which is contrary to our experience. If we trace back from effect to cause and come to the first cause in the series it will not explain itself. Necessitating a first cause that always existed, and was uncaused. We can not regress infinitely for if we did we would not have a beginning or end. For an uncause cause to exist, it would have to have existence as it’s nature, existence is it’s essence.
For a thing to exist is to have being, to have existence as it nature, is to be Pure Being
You can always refer to empirical science to substantiate the principle of cause and effect, eg. for every action there is a reaction, etc. The Summa will explain it in more detail. Creation has being, creation it is not being, being is an attribute, not creation’s essence. For creation does not possess total being, but has Potency and Act as a condition of it’s nature, a real capacitly to be (potency) to the fulfillment of that capacity (being) eg. from child t o man, from seed to plant etc. Creation always experiences change. In God there is no change, for He is Total Being.

 

[Linusthe2nd]

I asked my philosophy professor to read over my paper (which is due tomorrow) and he wants me to add a discussion on theological method on how we can prove God is being (since I am making the assertion that God “is”).

Is there any source (preferably a book available online which I don’t have to buy such as The Summa) I can use which is relatively brief to read? Would the Summa Theologica be helpful in that? I’m looking for a discussion on the method of how we can prove God is being itself.

Thank you and Happy Easter!

Among those things which share the same perfection in a limited way, none can be the cause of that perfection. All things that exist share the perfection of existence in a limited way. Therefore none of them can be the cause of the limited existence all of them share. Therefore there must be a Being which possesses existence in a perfect way, God. And he gives existence to all other things.

Linus2nd