[Editor's Note: I've evidently had mixed luck in getting our podcasts guests to join in our blogging (Azzurra, Josh, and Sabrina, this means you!), but Robert here is has been eager to join in. You can read much more of him at outsideofeden.com. -ML]
If you find working your way through the Summa Theologica or completing a course in medieval philosophy a bit daunting, you can skip the hard work and take a three minute crash course in the works of Thomas Aquinas courtesy of YouTube instead.
I can't for the life of me figure out why the first 20 seconds involves Thomas Edison, but the rest of the clip is a neat summary of Aquinas' arguments for the existence of God through reason alone. The unmoved mover and the first cause arguments raised here are discussed in some detail in Episode 43.
-Robert Scott
Edward Feser is a very Catholic modern day philosopher and defender of the Aristotle Aquinas tradition. His books and blogs may not persuade the non religious but they do show that the New Atheists portrayal of Aquinas’ 5 ways are not a fair representation, hence their easy dismissal (and ability to be built and implicitly ridiculed in 3 minute youtube sketches).
e.g.
http://edwardfeser.blogspot.com/2011/07/so-you-think-you-understand.html#more
I think both sides do this, not just this atheists. In fact, it may be a general problem with the short attention span of the modern world we live in – how comprehensive can you be in three minutes?