Aquinas for Dummies - Fourth Way - Who Gets the Gold Star?

Have you ever watched a baking contest on TV, where the judges taste a bunch of different cookies and say things like, "This one's pretty good," "This one's better," and "Ooh, THIS one is the best cookie I've ever tasted"?

Notice something? To say one cookie is "better" than another, the judges have to be comparing them to some idea of what the BEST possible cookie would be. You can't say "better" or "worse" floating out in outer space with nothing to measure against. Better and worse only make sense when you're comparing things to some highest standard.

Aquinas noticed this happens with everything, not just cookies:

●        Some people are kind. Some people are more kind. Some people are so kind you'd call them saints.

●        Some answers on a test are wrong, some are true, and one is the MOST true — the actual right answer.

●        Some things are just okay, some are good, and some are the best of their kind — like the fastest cheetah, or the reddest apple in the whole orchard.

Whenever we say something is "more" or "less" of a good quality, we're secretly measuring it against a perfect, maximum version of that quality — even if we've never actually seen that maximum version with our own eyes.

Where's the Ruler Coming From?

Here's Aquinas's big question: if we're going to measure "more good" and "less good," "more true" and "less true," there has to be something that IS the most good, the most true, the most noble — a "gold-medal" example that everything else is measured against, even a little bit.

Think of it like a ruler. You can't measure how long your pencil is unless there's an actual "12 inches" that the ruler is built around. Something has to BE the full measurement for shorter things to be measured against.

So Aquinas said: there must be something that IS goodness itself, truth itself, nobility itself — all the way, at maximum, not just "a little bit good" or "pretty true," but the max. And that maximum thing isn't just the best example on the list — it's actually the reason everything else on the list has any goodness or truth at all, the way the sun isn't just the brightest thing in the sky, it's the reason smaller things can shine.

Even Simpler

1. We compare things as more or less good, true, or noble — this cookie is better than that one, this answer is truer than that one.

2. This "more or less" only makes sense next to a "most" — a maximum, perfect standard.

3. That maximum can't just be an idea floating in nowhere; something has to actually BE the maximum.

4. That maximum thing is also the reason everything else has whatever goodness or truth it has, the way a light source is the reason for everything it lights up.

That maximum being is God: the perfect Good, perfect True, and perfect Noble that every kind act, honest answer, and beautiful sunset is quietly borrowing its "goodness" from.

Stay tuned for next episode…