we cannot deny: being

as a second "proof" thomas posits
the certainty of BEING

it is the primary intuition of cognitive life

it is the silent affirmation in every discovery

i like to use the example of
shuffling around in an attic at night
all of a sudden my foot is racked in pain
i cry out
i kicked "something"

always our perceptions are given to
this first principle of knowing

perhaps it is a misunderstanding of descartes
but from a simple and basic psychology
undifferentiated in every human who confronts and
embraces the world
it is impossible to doubt BEING

so for monsieur rene' to declare
"i can doubt everything except my thinking"
is to impose an epistemological abstraction
upon the most basic intuition for human understanding

BEING IS!!
BEING BE(s)!!

and while thomas is concerned here with simply stating
a well formulated doctrine from greek philosophy
while simply restating a proof given more than once by Aristotle
he (thomas) is intent of clarifying the metaphysical precepts
which are prior to the consideration of the physical reality of BEING

so he states ( i paraphrase...for i do not have the summa theologicae at my side-
....nor the summa contra gentiles...nor the seminal work ON BEING and Essence)
' we know that things are!'
our minds are formed in the certainty that we perceive with the senses
and then know by means of education and judgement
that the objects of our world are immediately known to us
when we see something for which we have no previous understanding
we seek out the knowledge of it's essence
we want to know the name of this "thing"
yet we are never in doubt that it is in fact "existing"

but then we might ask
from whence comes things that exist
we know by observation that animate things of all shapes
and sizes and species exist by means of previous existing things
like things give rise to the existence of other like things
flowers beget more flowers
trees beget more trees
bears beget more bears
salmon beget more salmon

what do we know about the extended history of
all these things in our world
we can say
that as long as there have been humans
there have been ants
and the ants are for the most part
indistinguishable from their million year old ancestors
of which we perhaps have only an imprint in stone

so we can ask about the seeming endless sequence of begetting
until we have to acknowledge that we are dealing with
infinite speculation

(science may or may not be able to
give some data which highlights the march of development
of this or that species)

so thus we are faced with the question
"from whence cometh being?"

must it have come from some "thing"
or some "one"?

are we beholden to the thinking that
more or less assumes that nothing arises into existence
of it's own accord
and therefor must we accept
can we say it?
a CREATOR

(o how very silly indeed)

but we are faced with the fact that the turtles' undershell
is quite beautiful
(o yes just by chance)
we are faced with the fact that every species of bird
goes about it's mating with behaviour unique to its kind
(o yes...just a little quirk of evolution)
and don't forget the songs

oak trees have been growing the same way
for longer than i can remember
for longer than i can imagine
with those amazing rings
that are only rings
when we cut one through the trunk
but before that
are a series of "cloaks"
worn by the trees
like underwear beneath the bark

there are designs everywhere one looks
(happenstance i suppose)

yet thomas concludes then
that something must have established the
conditions upon which being can be
and brought about being so that being can flourish

and defy the questionable theories
of limited naturalists

for the natural world reveals intricacies
that the evoltionists miss

this is not to say that life did not evolve
but to say that amounts to about the same thing
as saying: creatures breathe
life grows
change is constant

yet the proof still challenges

"all that we see and hear and feel and taste
carries a logical principle of origin"

therefore
being was caused to be

SOME"THING" SOME"ONE" CAUSED

a further development in this line of thinking
concerns the notion of MATTER and FORM

Matter=Being
Form=Essence

considering both aspects
leads to considerations we can only term
METAPHYSICAL