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Yet whatever lacks, knowledge cannot deliberately move to its end unless it is directed by some being possessing knowledge and intellect as the arrow is directed by the archer. Therefore a being exists by whom all beings are directed to their ends and this being men and women call God.
One way to resolve this is to look at the companion proof in the Summa Contra Gentiles. According to Frederick Coplestone [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], The way bodies behave is deetrmined by their form. Yet material bodies of very divers shapes seem to cooperate to create an order that at least lets them thrive. In this sense they achieve an "end." This end is to keep the world ordered.Non-intelligent bodies do not consciously do this. In what sense do non-intelligent bodies "co-operate" ? It makes no sense to say the sheep chews grass to cloth men and women. At best the transition depends on an analogy, an analogy that evolutionary theory tends to increase rather than explain.
Aquinas' Theory on the God of Design
The Analogy of Co-Existent Ends
Thomas Aquinas, "Summa Theologiae Prima Pars Questio Duo. Tertium Articulum". tr. McDermott, Methuen 1989, Aquinas [link widoczny dla zalogowanych] in Anscombe and Geach, "Three Philosophers" Blackwell's, Oxford, S. JAquinas, Penguin, Baltimore 1961.
The Goals of Natural Existence
The argument has been taken up by many natural theologians. Yet it is not a clear how Aquinas achieves the transition from end directedness in boulders and brutes to conscious deliberation. It only seems to work if the assumption is made that all people act unconsciously towards a hidden design. Yet this is very close to a theology of design [link widoczny dla zalogowanych], not a philosophical proof of a designer.
For Aquinas, the governance of the world is such that even stones and animals which lack knowledge uniformity of their act for an end. This is also evident in the uniformity with which their actions tend to the best result. Hence they move not by chance, but by design.
For Aquinas, nothing that lacks consciousness can tend to a goal unless it is controlled by someone who is conscious and has some understanding as well. Stones do not build their own houses. People too are unaware of their proper end, except through understanding which is often speculative . Everything in nature conscious or unconscious is directed to its goal by a being with supreme understanding. This is God.
In simpler terms, the fifth way takes its point of departure from the guided-ness of nature. All bodies even unconscious ones obey natural laws. Their behaviour leads the observer to note that their is little variation and few major disasters thus to conclude that such bodies really tend towards goals and do not hit them by hazard.
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The Change Argument for the Existence of God
The Causal Argument For The Existence of God
A Contingent Argument For The Existence of God
In his philosophy, St. Thomas Aquinas sets out from the fact that everything acts to an end.