"There is something that moves the things that are in motion, and the first mover is itself unmoved". Aristotle.
I'm not sure if the quote is implying that there is a God behind the theory of evolution, but that's how I interpret it.
What do you think?
2006-11-18 13:38:41 · 13 answers · asked by ? 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Aristotle believed the universe always existed. St. Thomas Aquinas stated that if the universe just began, his proof of God would be trivial.
Given those few words, read Antony Flew, God and Philosophy.
What is truly happening is that science is stuck. And I know math and science very well.
Evolution is a mixed concept: fossil record (true) and how did it happen (????). The issue is, can we show that new DNA information can occur naturally. Not a new breed of dog. Not a new antibiotic resistant strain of bacteria.
A new function, a new species. If this can be shown, religion is dead.
2006-11-18 13:55:54 · answer #1 · answered by Cogito Sum 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No. This is an extension of Platonic ideal forms. Aristotle was a student of Plato. In Aristotle's "Metaphysics", book λ, he discusses a perfect trigger to nature, the "unmoved mover", a perfect start to cause and effect. As per Plato's doctrine of ideal forms, that everything was an imperfect represntation of an ideal form, Aristotle did not harbor thoughts of evolution. Anaximander, Empedocles, Democritus and Epicurus discussed evolutionary concepts.
2006-11-18 23:23:57 · answer #2 · answered by novangelis 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think Aristotle was around about 2 thousand years before the theory of evolution was.
2006-11-18 21:52:23 · answer #3 · answered by Black Parade Billie 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I don't think he could possibly be talking about a theory that was not proposed until thousands of years later..That's impossible. I think that Aristotle was saying that God is the first cause or prime mover. That's about all that statement means to me.
2006-11-18 22:01:43 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Before Darwin, the predominant assumption - way back to Greece and before - was that the world didn't really change at all.
The 19th century saw a revolution in thought in various fields of science, and only by its end did it start to sink in that the exact opposite was true.
So no, Aristotle had nothing to do with evolution.
2006-11-18 21:47:12 · answer #5 · answered by kent_shakespear 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Evolution is a process. Natural selection is the theory. Neither were part of the body of knowledge in Aristotle's day.
2006-11-18 21:44:51 · answer #6 · answered by Skeff 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
There was no theory of evolution when Aristotle lived. It was developed over 2,000 years later. What he said is rather like Deism, that god created the universe and then left it alone.
2006-11-18 21:42:45 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
The quote, which was later paraphrased by Thomas Aquinas in his 10 classic arguments for the existence of God, doesn't deal with biological evolution as such, since the concept had not even been suggested yet, but it does relate to the logical necessity for the existence of God.
2006-11-18 21:42:51 · answer #8 · answered by PaulCyp 7 · 4⤊ 0⤋
He who is unable to live in society, or who has no need because he is sufficient for himself, must be either a beast or a god.
Aristotle(384 BC - 322 BC)
Sounds to me like he was figuring out gravity.
If he was speaking of God it's like he is saying he created everything and then rested, unmoving.
2006-11-18 21:43:43 · answer #9 · answered by Sean 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
That was him wondering about gravity. After he said that, he came to the conclusion that things naturally want to go to the ground, and things like smoke want to go up, etc. He was wrong on all of that.
2006-11-18 21:48:26 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋