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Essay on Aristotle's Position on the Existence of God
Aristotle’s Metaphysics, which I believe is his greatest achievement. It is a disparate set of notes and lectures, making it a very challenging work. Imbedded in this is Aristotle’s epistemology, metaphysics, and theology. Theology, for Aristotle, was much different than for Aquinas or modern philosophers. Aristotle’s God was “derived” as a metaphysical necessity, a force needed for the existence of all other things. Aristotle’s proof-structure has been revamped, abused, and misrepresented by almost every Christian theologian from Aquinas on. The resultant Thomistic “proof” has been discredited through Newtonian physics, even more in Modern Physics. Seemingly, the original demonstration was likewise discredited by the Big Bang theory, which ironically is what many Thomists now use to support their abomination of the proof. I believe, apart from many of the rest of these, that Aristotle’s proof, as it is, has not been damaged or made obsolete by modern science, but rather has been made a stronger demonstration by modern discoveries and developments (Tarnas, 52-53).
Aristotle begins this proof in Metaphysics, where he states he has previously discussed the genus of substances that is sensible, and will now move on to the genus of substances which cannot be sensed, that he calls “immovable” meaning, according to Apostle, ”that which cannot by its nature be moved at all”. This suggests a residue of Platonic idealism, as Aristotle seems to assume that any insensible substance is also unchangeable. It is good, however, that his demonstration implicitly illustrates this, as will be shown later.
Aristotle then discusses, the matter, as the thing that changes between contraries. He speaks of transformation, where matter changes between these contraries, form and privation (a sort of formal “nothingness”), and implicitly within these contraries, say from one form to another. The important portion of this is when Aristotle begins mentioning the motion: that all motion is change from something potential to something actual.....................
