Aquinas's 5th way

• Aquinas observed that natural objects do not behave randomly but move towards a certain goal or purpose (end/telos)
• Objects in the world act in a regular, goal-directed way to attain their purpose
• Aquinas highlights that objects like flowers, acorns, water in the water cycle, and planets orbiting the Sun behave in a goal-directed manner
• Non-intelligent or insufficiently intelligent things in the world cannot direct themselves towards an end; they need an intelligent being to direct their behavior
• Aquinas uses the analogy of an archer directing an arrow's behavior to illustrate that objects need an intelligent being to move with a purpose
• God's ability to direct the behavior of things in the world is through creating natural laws that govern and regulate the behavior of all objects towards the end that God has in mind for them
• Just as an archer makes an arrow goal-directed, God makes everything in the world goal-directed, leading to the conclusion that there must be a God directing the universe
• P1:  The behaviour of objects is goal-directed towards an end, because they follow natural laws.

  P2:  Natural laws cannot have been created by objects themselves, since they are non-intelligent or insufficiently intelligent.

  C1:  Natural laws must have an intelligent designer. ‘That thing we call God.’