The first mover.

based almost entirely around one of St. Thomas Aquinas' five proofs of god. Note: does not solve anything, only states that the theory requires faith... which is bullshit.

The First Mover 
Proof of Gods Existence. pages 167-175 Thomas Aquinas 
Thomas Aquinas’ theory of the first mover claims that through the theory of the first mover, god is proven to exist. Here I will explain what exactly his theory of the first mover is, and will provide examples, questions, and answers of his work while working towards the conclusion everything here will lead to. I do not believe god to be the first mover, however, the position he has to fill does exist, so following this theory, something like god must exist, something that can move and create things without being pushed or pulled by something else. 

One thing must be moved by another thing in order for it to move something else (pg 172). One thing cannot up and move itself with nothing provoking it to do so. A stone will not throw itself because it feels it should, a stone will only move if it is moved by something else, such as a child throwing it. The something that moves the stone is bound by the same rule, it must be moved to move. A cloud moves across the sky because it is being pushed by the wind. The wind picks up because cold air and hot air are displacing each other. Air heats up from the sun, and so on until infinity. 

The pattern of movers being moved by movers that were moved by movers is a chain, and the chain cannot go on forever (pg 172). There had to have been a first, a mover that moved something else without being moved by something in the first place. What this is saying is that there must have been a first mover, there must have been a rock that moved itself. If you were to kick a soccer ball, as far as the soccer ball is concerned, you are the first mover. The ball had potential energy, it had the ability to be moved by something. The kicker came out of nowhere and moved it. We are the soccer ball right now, but no one knows for sure who or what the kicker is. No one can for sure point to something, or some idea and prove that it was what moved without being moved. There is only one idea that works- God (pg 175). 

God exists through all time, is capable of everything, knows all, and created the universe, so he must have been the first mover. Nothing created god, he has been up there for eternity, longer than time has ticked. The bible even says that god created the world out of nothing, clearly he is the first mover, after all, he is capable of anything and knows everything, so what else could it be? �" Nothing. Nothing else can move without being moved, except for an all powerful being that has the power to do anything he wishes. God must be the first mover. 

A mover cannot move something that exists without existing itself (174). A six armed polka-dotted caveman in a tuxedo will not pick up a stone and break a window with it, because he does not exist. In order to move something, the mover must be physical and be vulnerable to being moved by other physical things. It must have potential energy when it is not moving, and must be able to pass kinetic energy on to other objects. And vice versa, something physical cannot move something that does not exist, there would be nothing to move. If ghosts could move things that exist, then something physical that does exist would be able to move the non-existent thing. 

If this is true, then still believing that god was the first mover, God must exist. God could not do something and have it have any effect unless he existed, if he did, he instantly exists. It’s unavoidable, if you change something, or move something, then you exist. The only things that do not exist are such things that cannot move existing things, and have no empirical evidence of their existence. But having God as the first mover seems like the easy way out of a sticky situation, what other explanations are there? There are none, none that make any logical sense whatsoever, anyways. Okay, so we’ve settled on god then, but that leaves one question. 

What moved god into existence? God may exist, and he may have created the universe, but how did he get there? Where is he? And who or what made him? If god exists he must be physical, so he must take up space, this space must have a place, and god must be sitting there, full of potential energy, waiting to be moved, or punched. If god exists, something must have made him, so god wouldn’t be the first mover. If gods mover existed, then something would have had to make that thing too, so even it wouldn’t be the first mover. What this loop comes down to is that to move something, the mover must exist, but if it exists, something must have moved it into existence, which is a paradox, because this would go to infinity. 

So to recap, nothing can move something without being moved itself beforehand. To move or be moved something must exist and hold potential energy. The first mover theory is a good theory, the only problem with it is that it will go to infinity, which will cause it to never have an answer. It could possibly be proven right, but can never be proven wrong, due the minuscule amount of faith that is required to believe something or someone can have all the properties attributed to “God”. I do not believe this argument proves the existence of god, rather the opposite. It holds that if god cannot be the first mover due to a paradox, then what was being credited with being a god-like ability must have been enacted through some ungodly object. 

Reviews

[Ben Taylor]

" waiting to be moved, or punched. "
Lol a little anger towards God? :)
This is really interesting. I've never heard this theory before (sadly) and it is, of course, unarguable.
Just another way to look at this unsolvable problem :)
If this was written for school, I would say that a fair amount of the language is very casual.
"What this loop comes down to" etc.
Just phrases like that.
I really liked this :)