An Introduction to the Five Ways of St. Thomas Aquinas, Part 3

In the last article, I discussed St. Thomas Aquinas’ answers to objections to the claim that the existence of God can be demonstrated. Thomas shows that the existence of God can be demonstrated by observing the effects of God and moving back to the cause: God Himself.

Now that he’s shown that the existence of God can be demonstrated, Thomas begins his inquiry on whether or not God does, in fact, exist. Thomas lists two objections to the existence of God, the two classical objections of atheism to the existence of God:

1. There is evil in the world. But, if God is God, then God is infinitely good. It’s not possible that evil would exist in a world created by a God that is infinitely good. Therefore, God does not exist;

2. All that we see in the created order can be explained by natural causes or human causes. So, we don’t need to posit the existence of God in order to explain them. This is known as the principle of parsimony, which later became known as Ockham’s razor after William of Ockham, 1287–1347, an English Franciscan friar, philosopher and theologian. Basically, Ockham’s razor claims that if something can be explained using fewer, simpler explanations, there’s no reason to introduce many and more complex explanations. The fewer and simpler the better. If the creation of the universe can be explained by natural means, there’s no reason to conjure the existence of a Supreme Being responsible for it all. If the Ave Maria we heard in the park can be explained by a violinist playing for everyone’s enjoyment, there’s no reason to speculate that the ghost of Schubert paid us a visit for the purpose of performing his most famous composition. While Thomas addresses these objections in the Summa Theologica after presenting his Five Ways, for clarity I’ll present his replies to these objections here.

Reply to the First Objection:

Recall that the first objection is that God can’t exist because evil exists. If God existed, He would necessarily be good. But, if God is good, He wouldn’t allow for the existence of evil. Evil exists, therefore God doesn’t exist. Here, Thomas turns to St. Augustine of Hippo, the great Church patriarch of northern Africa. Augustine says that since God is the highest good, He wouldn’t allow evil to exist, whether brought about by human actions or natural evils such as illness and earthquakes, unless it was to bring about some good from the evil, even if we’re unaware of what that good could be because of our limited perspective. This is central to Christian theology, of course, for the greatest example of God bringing good out of evil is the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross, an evil act that won for us our salvation. Non-believers may not be so easily convinced. The atheist, however, must ask him or herself the question: Is it really impossible for evil to exist in a world created by a good God? Are the two truly mutually exclusive? Many may be confused or angry over the existence of evil in a world created by a good God, but it’s a difficult argument to make that the existence of the two in the same reality is impossible. I, for one, can think of a number of reasons a good God may tolerate the existence of evil: free will and the desire for a genuinely loving relationship with His people is the classic reason. Love not freely given isn’t love at all. Yet, love freely given necessarily means the possibility of love not given. The Scriptures assure us that, "All things work for good for those who love God, who are called according to his purpose" (Romans 8:28).

In the end, even the atheist must concede that concluding in favor of the non-existence of God contributes nothing toward the non-existence of evil. Evil is here to stay, sadly. Essentially, the only difference between the long, dark tunnel of worldly struggle and evil in which the atheist finds himself, and the long, dark tunnel in which the believer finds himself, is that there’s a light at the end of the believer’s tunnel called “hope.” While many atheists would see this as nothing more than a coping mechanism, believers find great solace in the promise that, if evil can’t be eliminated, it can be conquered and even redeemed. But, only if God exists, and only if He is good.

In the next article, I’ll present Thomas’ reply to the second objection.

Be Christ for all. Bring Christ to all. See Christ in all.