Last but not Least!

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"For His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen since the creation of the world, being understood through what He has made." 
-Romans 1:20


The last objection to the existence of God can be explained as such:if God doesn't exist, everything in the world can be accounted for with few principles. Since it's better to account for things with few principles than many, God doesn't exist. I struggled with the right words to effectively answer this question, so I asked my singles pastor for advice and his opinion on this argument. He stated, "There doesn't seem to be enough evidence about the few principles to make their claim. If they are going to put all their eggs in that basket it seems it would require an explanation of the few principles before...; you must know what you are refuting before you can do so. Their case is too vague." The children's pastor of my church agreed with this by saying that the argument doesn't exactly define the word "principles". I took the word to mean facts. If you look at the argument in this term, you can look at the Bible and history and see that everything mentioned in the Bible took place as it was recorded. One solitary book describes all facts.

Natural Selection

"So then it does not depend on human will or effort but on God who shows mercy."
-Romans 9:16

Another way Aquina's describes is the argument from harmony. He elaborates that things in the world that lack knowledge (natural things) work for an end. They don't reach their goal by chance but by purpose. They must be guided by something that has knowledge, and there's something with intelligence that guides all natural things to their goal. In other words: God! However, this brings up the disagreement about ongoing changes in the world. Looking back throughout time, we've been able to witness natural selection and evolution. God acts as a guide to steer people and things to their goal as He is so merciful, just, and understands that beings need assistance with life. Think back to Jesus being crucified. The last thing He cried out while He was nailed on the cross was "My God! My God! Why have You forsaken me?!" Hearing His son cry out in pain, God immediately burst His heart. God changes circumstances and events to benefit people and beings, and we are unaware or not given the knowledge of God's plan.

Argument from Causation

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"When you are arguing against Him you are arguing against the very power that makes you able to argue at all." 
-C.S. Lewis


Aquina's second way he describes is the argument from causation or more easily described as an account of the universe.

1)For everything (material) there's an efficient cause.
2)Nothing's an efficient cause of itself.
3)There must be a first cause, which is what some people call God.
4)It's not possible to have an infinite chain of causes.

However, people may question why must everything have a cause? Or what caused God to act? Let's look at the first question. According to Aristotle and his four causes: everything is made up of a material or substance: the first cause. We'll use a brick for this example. Then it has an efficient cause: a stonemason. Next, comes the final cause, what it's used for: dividing property. And finally every object has a formal cause or its full actuality: a "wallness". Every seemingly meaningless object has a desired purpose and a desired goal to reach its actuality. Without a cause or purpose, the object couldn't function and would cease to exist.
Also, as Aristotle described earlier, God is uncreated and independent of the world. He is defined as the Unmoved Mover and remains outside the realms of arguments and quantum physics.

Infinite Goodness ≠ Infinite Evil

"To properly understand the devastating effects of this event, we need to examine the nature of man before sin caused him to lose his security and significance. The first created man lived in unclouded, intimate fellowship with God. He was secure and free." 
-Robert McGee, "The Search for Significance"


Probably one of the most noted objections toward the existence of God is the presence of evil. "If one of two contraries is infinite, the other would be destroyed. God is infinite goodness, therefore evil cannot exist." Many people struggle to comprehend if God is so good, why is there evil in the world, or that if God was actually infinite goodness, evil wouldn't be allowed to happen. However, God gave man the power of free will when He created us. In his unconditional love for us, He saw that taking away our free will wouldn't make our love and admiration to Him real, it would be a lie. So to have real love and a real relationship with His creations, He gave Adam and Eve free reign over Eden with the exception of eating from the forbidden fruit. Satan used his trickery to manipulate Eve into eating the fruit who then convinced Adam to do the same. Using doubt to distrust God, Satan helped bring sin into the world and destroy the perfection we could have been living. Because of this first sin, we all make mistakes to this day. Evil happens because we are not perfect, and we don't have the once intimate relationship with God that Adam and Eve had before they committed sin. God has given us the tools to be good, and it's up to us with trust in Him that goodness can become evident. If you think it's quite impossible for anyone to remain faithful and trusting to God when so many corrupt events occur in our lives, just look at Job. Satan told God that no one would remain faithful to Him because they experience so much suffering. God let Satan test Job's integrity by taking all his possessions, his family, and gave him painful boils all over his body. Everything seemed to have been taken away from Job,  but even when everyone around him was trying to persuade Job to curse and deny God, he remained faithful. He praised Him, and God, proud of the faithfulness that Job had kept, rewarded him with better possessions and prosperity than Job had had before. God is infinite goodness, we must understand that we are not actuality. We are not perfect or complete and because of that, we commit sins and evil into this world.

Background

“To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary. To one without faith, no explanation is possible.”
-St. Thomas Aquinas 


St. Thomas Aquinas was a Catholic monk living from 1225 to 1274. Much of his work was heavily influenced by the philosopher Aristotle who created the concept of the Unmoved Mover. This describes the first cause that sets the universe into motion which people tend to associate with God. Relying on sense data, Aristotle described a conflict between potentiality versus actuality. The later, actuality, involves perfection, realization, determining, and a fullness of being. To sum it up, God is actuality. On the other hand, potentiality can be defined as the opposite: imperfection, incompleteness, perfectibility, and a determinable principle. All other beings are composed of actuality and potentiality. Aristotle proclaimed God as uncreated and independent of the world. He is perfect and does not suffer from the same principles and rules of physics and the world as other beings do. Because Aristotle relied on sense data, he employed inductive reasoning in his arguments toward the existence of God and saw a conclusion probable, but not necessary.