Aquinas: God’s Existence
Throughout the study of philosophy, there have been many arguments for and against the existence of God in the Universe. ... Thomas Aquinas formed the best argument for God’s existence; however it did receive staunch criticism from Bertrand Russell. In order to prove Russell’s criticism false, we must examine Aquinas’ argument as well as the works of other authors such as St. ...
In an attempt to answer two primary objections to God’s existence, St. Thomas Aquinas explained “The Five Ways,” in Summa Theologica. The first objection that he wished to disprove was one that denied God’s existence based on the fact that in His assumed infinite goodness, God still created a world filled with evil. Aquinas did not believe that just because one could find evil in the world it meant that God must not exist. The second argument against God’s existence involved the premise that all natural things came from the principal of nature, and all voluntary things came from human will or reason. ...
To understand Aquinas’ argument, we must concentrate on three of the five ways. ... The last of the ways that Aquinas proposed was that of design. ...
In rebuttal to the first objection, Aquinas replied that God possesses infinite goodness; therefore if evil exists in the world, God must have created it. ... In reply to the second objection, Aquinas explained that nature is under the direction of God. ...
The basic argument against Aquinas’ explanation came from Bertrand Russell, and consists of the problems involved with the first cause argument, and the design argument. ...
There are several arguments in favor of Aquinas’ five ways that can easily explain the problems brought forward by Russell. ... God is described as the first cause, after Aquinas argues the characteristics of normal causes. ... Aquinas spoke of subsequent causes needing something to have caused them, but the whole idea of the first cause is that something set in motion the creation of the Universe, and all aspects of it like nature and human will, can be traced back to that same thing, God.
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