Alright, so you wanna know about this Thomas guy and his thinkin’ on stars and stuff, huh? Well, lemme tell ya, it ain’t easy like plantin’ corn, but I’ll try and make it plain as day.
This Thomas Aquinas, he was a smart fella, real smart. But he didn’t have no fancy telescopes like them city folks do now. He just looked up at the sky and thought real hard about it, like how I look at my chickens and figure out which one’s gonna lay an egg next.
He figured there had to be a big somethin’ that started it all, see? Like, somethin’ had to get them stars movin’ and them planets spinnin’. He called that big somethin’ “God.” Now, some folks might call it somethin’ else, but that’s what he called it, and it makes sense if ya think about it.
- He had these big ideas, like dominoes fallin’. One thing makes another thing happen, and that thing makes somethin’ else happen, and on and on it goes.
- But somethin’ had to push that first domino, right? That’s what he was gettin’ at. That first push, that first mover, that was God.
He didn’t go around sayin’ how many stars there were or what they were made of, not like them scientists today. He was more interested in who made them and why. It’s like, I don’t need to know every feather on a chicken to know it lays eggs, ya see?
He thought science and faith could get along just fine. Said they both pointed to the same thing, just in different ways. Like lookin’ at a cow from the front and lookin’ at it from the back – it’s still the same cow, right? That’s what he was sayin’, kinda.
Now, he talked about “motion” and “causation” and big words like that, but what he meant was pretty simple. Everythin’ that moves, somethin’ made it move. Everythin’ that happens, somethin’ made it happen. And if ya keep goin’ back and back, ya gotta get to somethin’ that started it all, somethin’ that didn’t need nothin’ else to make it happen.
And that, for him, was God. He didn’t see no conflict between lookin’ at the stars and believin’ in God. Heck, lookin’ at them stars, that’s enough to make anyone believe in somethin’ bigger than themselves, ain’t it? It’s like lookin’ at a field of wheat, all golden and wavin’ in the wind – makes ya wonder how it all got there, who planted the first seed, ya know?
He had a bunch of arguments, fancy talk for reasons, to prove God was real. They weren’t about telescopes and math, though. They were about common sense, like sayin’ if there’s smoke, there’s gotta be fire. And if there’s motion and things happenin’, there’s gotta be somethin’ that caused it all.
So, this Thomas Aquinas fella, he didn’t do astronomy like them NASA folks do. He did astronomy thinkin’ about the “why” of it all, not just the “how.” And his thinkin’ was that God was behind it all, the big boss of the whole universe, the one who set them stars a-twirlin’ and the world a-turnin’. He made it sound sensible to me, even if I ain’t never been to school past third grade.
And that’s about as plain as I can make it. It ain’t rocket science, but it’s somethin’ to think about when you’re lookin’ up at the night sky.
In short, Thomas believed that God started it all, like setting up the whole darn farm. He wasn’t about measuring stars, he was about figuring who put ’em there. He used his brain, not fancy gadgets, to understand God. And he thought science and faith were two sides of the same coin, like my good hand and my workin’ hand, both doin’ different jobs but both belongin’ to me.
He saw proof of God in the world around him, just like I see signs of a good harvest in the spring rain. He thought everything that happens has a cause, and if ya keep goin’ back, ya get to God, the first cause, the one who started it all. And that’s the gist of what that Thomas guy thought about the stars and everything else.
Tags: [Thomas Aquinas, Astronomy, Theology, God, First Cause, Cosmology, Philosophy, Faith, Reason, Motion]