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List and give a brief explanation of the five proofs for the existence of God given by Saint Thomas Aquinas.

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Final answer:

Saint Thomas Aquinas proposed five proofs for the existence of God: the Argument from Motion, the Argument from Efficient Causes, the Argument from Possibility and Necessity, the Argument from Gradation of Being, and the Argument from Design.

Step-by-step explanation:

Saint Thomas Aquinas, a prominent Scholastic philosopher, proposed five proofs for the existence of God. The first proof is known as the Argument from Motion and states that since everything in the world is in motion, there must be an unmoved mover that initiated this motion.

The second proof, the Argument from Efficient Causes, posits that for every effect, there must be a cause, and there can't be an infinite chain of causes, so there must be a first cause known as God. The third proof, the Argument from Possibility and Necessity, claims that everything in the world is contingent, meaning it relies on something else for its existence, but there must be a necessary being that doesn't rely on anything else, which is God.

The fourth proof, the Argument from Gradation of Being, suggests that things in the world possess different degrees of qualities, such as goodness and truth, and there must be a being that has these qualities in their fullest form, which is God. Lastly, the fifth proof, the Argument from Design, argues that the order and purpose in the world point to the existence of an intelligent designer, which is God.

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