sly be potentially hot, though it may simultaneously be potentially cold. So, it is impossible that in the same respect and same manner anything should be both mover and moved. In this, Aquinas means that nothing can move itself. Therefore, if something is in motion, it must have been put in motion by something else, which must have been put in motion by yet another thing, and so on. However, this cannot go on to infinity because there would never have been a first mover and, consequently, no subsequent movers. After all, second movers do not move except when moved by a first mover, just as a stick does not move anything except when moved by a hand. Thus, this leads to the conclusion that there is a first mover which is not moved by anything, and this first mover is what we understand to be God.Summarizing Aquinas’ first way, the argument states that objects are in motion, and if something is in motion, then it must be caused to be in motion by something outside of itself. That is, an object in motion is put in motion by some other object or force. There can be no infinite chain of movers/movees so there is a first, unmoved mover. Therefore, in conclusion, the unmoved mover exists and is called God.Aquinas’ second way in proving God’s existence is based on the nature of efficient causation. Now, causation itself is “making to be” in the sense that the cause makes there be the result. Efficient causation, however, is the production of the result, or the activation from being merely possible or potential into accomplished fact. Thus, the efficient cause is what brings about the result to be effectively realized as actual. In the observable world we discover an order of efficient causes, but no case is found, or ever could be found, of something efficiently causing itself. Such a thing would have to be prior to itself, which is impossible. Now, it is impossible to go on forever in a series of efficient causes...
