Proposed Seven Philosophers On The Existence Of God And...

In my Round Table Essay I would like to introduce seven philosophers that we have discussed in class and focus on three specifically for my choice topic. The seven philosophers are as follows: (1) Socrates, (2) Plato, (3) Aristotle, (4) Francis Bacon, (5) St. Augustine, (6) Thomas Aquinas, and (7) Rene DesCartes. The specific three I want to focus on being; St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas and Rene Descartes. Lastly, I will proceed to relate their ideas on the existence of God and their development of these ideas. St. Augustine s epistemology is rationalization. In his argument for the existence of God, he is referring to varying degrees of perfection otherwise know as, an Ontological argument. He believed that in pursuing truth, it†¦show more content†¦While we as humanity searched for the truth, God was the one shining the light for us to see the path. This is part of what he believed to be â€Å"Memoria†, or the information within ourselves that was not the influence of experience. These would include; knowledge of self, truths of reason, ethical truths, values and God himself. (Text) St. Augustine thought that when searching inside of oneself this would eventually lead to a higher elevation of understanding from the physical and self towards the infinite and eternal, then finally, to God which was the greatest of all things. Being that St. Augustine was primarily rationalization and because of his beliefs in God, he claimed that reason could not function properly without faith (Tex). That â€Å"Faith seeks, and understanding finds† (Text), for if we have faith we are guided down a path by God s light so that with reason we can find understanding in our path and purpose. He feels that the evidence of God is in creation but not in our sense perception (Text). That senses and the world can be too changeable to be of any basis for God who is eternal and absolute. From his faith and studies of the Bible, St. Augustine states that we are close r to God than nature because we are made in his image. Next he begins development on his ideas of God s divine freedom of creation and how everything, including time itself came from nothing other than God s desire for it to be so. That God in his divinity