Beginning of Essay
What is God? Who is God? Why do some people conclude that a God exists? Saint Thomas Aquinas goes from the fact that there must be a first efficient cause to the conclusion that God is that cause. Why must Aquinas make the extraordinary jump from there being a cau ....

Middle of Essay
.... prior to it, was it's cause. Therefore, if no first cause exists, neither will any other being exist. Therefore, there is a first efficient cause--God. This argument assumes that a first cause is needed to explain the existence of anything. Aquinas also assumes this first cause to be God. How can anyone rationally conclude that there is a God from the simple statement that a first cause is necessary? Therefore, a first cause does not prove God, it only assumes that there is a God, at best. Could one not put matter in the place of God in Aquinas' argument and still assume there is a first efficient cause? The theory that matter "is", is just as plausi ....