Teleological Argument - Aquinas By the end of today’s lesson you will have: •Re-capped what you have learnt about the historical background of the teleological argument • Been introduced to Aquinas’ teleological argument • Have compared it to that of Plato’s and Aristotle’s
1. Teleological Argument - Aquinas By the end of todays lesson
you will have: Re-capped what you have learnt about the historical
background of the teleological argument Been introduced to Aquinas
teleological argument Have compared it to that of Platos and
Aristotles
2. Starter Quick Fire Q. What name did Plato give to the
designing creator? Q. What evidence does Aristotle suggest points
towards the existence of the Gods? Q. How does the allegory of the
cave explain Platos ideas on the design of the world?
3. Starter Bin Shoot When paper is crumpled, ripped and
finished with, we throw it in the bin Have a go at throwing the
unused paper into the bin Could the paper have got into the bin by
itself? The aim of getting the paper into the bin had to be helped
by an intelligent being - YOU
4. Aquinas 5 ways 13th Century Catholic Monk Was heavily
influenced by Aristotle Aristotle saw intelligence in the universe
Aquinas came up with 5 arguments to prove the existence of God. The
teleological argument falls under the 5th way in which Aquinas
argues that God must exist.
5. Aquinas: Fifth Way In pairs, read through the sheet on
Aquinas fifth way Create 3 questions on the text to ask another
pair Try and make them difficult the pair who get the most
questions right (without looking at notes) wins!! Extension
task:Complete the missing words from the section A summary of
Aquinas Fifth Way
6. Aquinas: Fifth way You tube clip How was Aquinas influenced
by Aristotles thoughts on the 4 causes, material, formal, efficient
and final causes? What does an intelligent designer mean? How is
this similar to what you learnt for
7. Aquinas: Fifth way Aquinas links Aristotles idea of a Final
Cause to God. For Aquinas, the final reason that things have a
particular design, goal and purpose and follow natural laws is
because God caused this.
8. Aquinas: Fifth way When you look at the natural world you
can see that everything in it follows natural laws even if things
are not conscious, thinking beings. If things follow natural laws
they will tend to do well and have some goal or purpose.
9. Aquinas: Fifth way However if a thing cannot think for
itself it does not have any goal or purpose unless it is directed
by something that thinks: Take an archer as an example. It can only
be directed to its goal and used for its purpose by someone, such
as an archer.
10. Aquinas: Fifth way Aquinas conclusion: Everything in the
natural world that does not think for itself heads towards its
goals or purpose because it is directed by something which does
think. This something we call GOD.
11. Aquinas: Fifth way Everything in the natural world follows
natural laws, even if they possess no intelligence. (E.g. Gravity,
the regular movement of the stars etc). By following these laws,
they fulfil some purpose or end goal (telos). They couldnt do this
by themselves (as they lack knowledge, so must be directed by an
intelligent being GOD!
12. Aquinas: Fifth way Aquinas conclusion: Everything in the
natural world that does not think for itself heads towards its
goals or purpose because it is directed by something which does
think. This something we call GOD.
13. Design Qua Regularity Qua= Latin word meaning by virtue of.
Design qua regularity = design by virtue of regularity. TASK: Read
Design Qua Regularity. Summarise how Aquinas argument is design qua
regularity in no more than three sentences.
14. Teleological Argument - Aquinas By the end of todays lesson
you will have: Re-capped what you have learnt about the historical
background of the teleological argument Been introduced to Aquinas
teleological argument Have compared it to that of Platos and
Aristotles