WOF 096: Aquinas and the Arguments for God (Part 1 of 2)
The Word on Fire Show - Catholic Faith and Culture
Brandon Vogt
4.9 • 5.5K Ratings
🗓️ 9 October 2017
⏱️ 37 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
A viral YouTube video titled "Aquinas and the Cosmological Arguments" (750,000+ views) claims that Thomas Aquinas' arguments for God have been decisively refuted. But have they? Bishop Barron responds to the video and shows that when properly understood, Thomas' arguments are as strong today as ever before. A listener asks whether death is natural.
SPECIAL: Pre-order the hardcover book today for just $19.95 (26% off) and free shipping. You'll also receive three bonus eBooks from Bishop Barron! Just click here to order.
Topics Discussed
- 0:05 - Introduction, Bishop Barron describes the Facebook headquarters
- 5:30 - Why have multiple proofs for God's existence? If a singular argument is truly a proof, should not one be sufficient?
- 8:44 - Where did Thomas Aquinas come up with these arguments?
- 12:50 - Do Aquinas's observations from nature hurt his argument given the fact that modern science has proven some of his examples to be inaccurate?
- 15:33 - What's wrong with using dominos to illustrate Aquinas's argument from motion?
- 26:50 - What's the difference between a hierarchal and a temporal causal series? And why is this so important for understanding Aquinas?
- 31:35 - Did the philosopher David Hume defeat Aquinas's arguments?
- 34:24 - Question from listener: Is death natural?
Bonus Resources
- Books
- Thomas Aquinas: Spiritual Master by Bishop Barron
- Aquinas: A Beginner's Guide by Edward Feser
- Five Proofs of the Existence of God by Edward Feser
- The Last Superstition: A Refutation of the New Atheism by Edward Feser
- Aquinas: An Introduction to the Life and Work of the Great Medieval Thinker by F. C. Copleston
- To Light a Fire on the Earth: Proclaiming Christ in a Secular Age by Bishop Barron
Find bonus links and resources for this episode at http://WordOnFireShow.com and be sure to submit your questions at http://AskBishopBarron.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Brandon Vat the host and the content director |
| 0:09.2 | at Word on Fire joining us is Bishop Robert Barron. Bishop Barron were thrilled always |
| 0:14.1 | to have you. So welcome. Hey Brandon how you doing? I'm doing wonderful. |
| 0:18.3 | You survived the hurricanes and everything. Survived the hurricanes? I just got back from |
| 0:22.4 | a... Yeah we did all right. We did all right. No damage to the house. Lots of debris and |
| 0:27.1 | stuff but surely in light of the people in South Florida, Puerto Rico, Houston, so many |
| 0:34.0 | people suffering through much worse. Listen, last week we weren't live in studio. Instead |
| 0:40.1 | we shared the talk that you gave at Facebook and I promised all of our listeners that when |
| 0:44.4 | you came back this week you'd give them sort of a recounting of this visit to this |
| 0:49.4 | extraordinary place which you described as a millennial heaven. So tell us about the |
| 0:55.2 | visit to Facebook what you saw, what you heard, everything about. It was delight. It |
| 0:59.3 | was through the intervention of four great gentlemen up there in the San Jose Dienesys who |
| 1:04.8 | had followed my work and they all were involved in different ways in Silicon Valley and they |
| 1:08.4 | said, you know, could we arrange for something? Would you cooperate with that? So I said, |
| 1:13.2 | sure if you can arrange something. So God bless them they did. You know, and went up there |
| 1:18.9 | with you and loved seeing Facebook. You know, one of the most... Then we think about it. |
| 1:24.8 | One of the most remarkable places on the planet, you know, a place that is linking the world |
| 1:30.1 | together. I reflected a little bit on Teardas Shardans idea of the Noah's fear. Maybe people |
| 1:37.4 | say don't know that name, but he was very big, you know, when I was going through seminary |
| 1:40.6 | Pierre Teardas Shardan and one of his master ideas was that someday, you know, as the evolutionary |
| 1:46.4 | process went forward, we developed the Noah's fear. So from new meaning mind, there would |
| 1:51.5 | be this great connection of all the minds of the world into one. And it all seemed kind |
... |
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