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Thomas Aquinas Arguments On The Existence Of God

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In his writings, Thomas Aquinas’ formulates arguments and objections against certain topics. This paper will mainly target his beliefs and objections on God and philosophy. Elaborations will be made on his views on God’s existence and whether or not there can be an infinite regress. This will be covered as well as explaining what evil is and how God and evil are related.
Aquinas did believe in God’s existence. It was just that, as a philosopher, he felt that it was important to have evidence for his beliefs. He set out to construct arguments that proved God’s existence. Aquinas’ arguments, he believed, were necessary facts about the universe.
In Thomas Aquinas’ arguments, he begins with a process of inductionㅡ he looks at nature, he observes …show more content…

Evil is a hardship, meaning it is the lack of fullness in something that already has existence, and this we call God. Not a single thing is pure evil for an evil thing is starts as a first thing. This means that it has some existence, and some good, of which God is the cause. Since evil is the lack of existence, God is not the direct, i.e. per se, cause of it; He is the cause of evil only indirectly, i.e. per accidens, insofar as He causes things to exist in which there is found some evil. So, Aquinas believes that the existence of God can be proved from the fact that things exist and do not cause their own existence. This being so, i.e. that God exists, the existence of evil does not undercut the proof, since even the existence of evil presupposes the existence of things. Thus, the answer to the problem of evil is whether God, while not directly willing evil, can indirectly allow evil and still be all-good and all-powerful. His answer is that God is so powerful, that He allows evil in order to bring good from it. Ultimately, I think, Aquinas does not show HOW this is the case in every evil we experience. He believes, however, THAT it must be the case, since we already know that God exists and that He is all-powerful and

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Timothy M Renick, author of "Aquinas for Armchair Theologians", questions why if God created a world of boundless goodness then why Satan (evil) exist. He also mentions that "If God is truly all-powerful (or omnipotent), then surely God has the power to eliminate Satan if he so chooses" (pg. 32). Many of his questions reflected on cultural and religious related questions that he believed others wonder. Renick did note that Aquinas admits that God does not make evil and only makes good. However, if evil is not a substance or a thing and does not exist at all then what then is evil?

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