Cosmological Essay 'Does God Exist?'

With regards to the cosmological argument I am of the belief that Article Three of Question Two entitled “Whether God exists?” best summaries Aquinas’ opinions. Aquinas first outlines two objections of those who argue that God does not exist may raise. The first objection outlines that if God is an “infinite goodness” then there would be no evil, however evil is present in the world so God does not exist. I agree that this is a fair criticism because God is hailed as omnipotent and omnipresent, yet evil often prevails in the world. Despite this I feel the fact that Aquinas acknowledges this objection strengthens his later argument when he outlines “The Five Ways.” The second objection outlines there is no need to believe in a God because “the world can be accounted for by

The Second Way is similar to the First as Aquinas constantly reiterates the importance of ‘a first cause’ therefore he ultimately dispels the idea of infinite regress. He speaks of ‘efficient cause’ and how every event or thing needs an efficient cause and nothing can efficiently cause itself. A critical view of this could be to ask if nothing can efficiently cause itself how is there a first mover and how is it caused? For Aquinas, however, it is necessary to have a first mover or else cause and effect cannot exist. Some of the greatest opponents to the cosmological argument include Hume, Kant and Russell. Hume questions the notion of causation within his philosophical work. In “Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion,” assumptions and speculations of how the world was founded are classified as not true empirical evidence. Hume believed that although everything in the universe had a cause we could not explain how the universe was caused. (Hume, 1779). Likewise Immanuel Kant opposed the cosmological theory, he also believed that there were limitations to how much we