Does God Exist?

In the world of philosophy there are many unanswered questions. One such question is whether or not God exists. Philosopher Thomas Aquinas attempts at logically reasoning through this question. In doing so, he combats an objection to the existence of God, which is known as the problem of evil. The problem of evil states that no omni benevolent being would will that evil exists, and whatever an omniscient, omnipotent being wills must be accomplished. Evil exists so, according to the problem with evil, God can not exist. When analyzing whether or not the presence of evil in the world is compatible with the existence of an omniscient, omnipotent, omni benevolent God, I follow along with some of Aquinas's thoughts. Like Aquinas, I do not think the problem of evil is a sound argument for showing that God does not exist and I plan to show that it is possible for God and evil to coexist by providing strong objections to the problem of evil's premises.

First, it could be argued that premise two, whatever an omniscient, omnipotent being wills must be accomplished, is false. This premise assumes that all people believe that God is all powerful, all knowing, and perfectly good. If one denies that God is all powerful, then evil might exist due to God's inability to prevent it. The same can be said if one denies that God is perfectly good. If God is not perfectly good, evil might exist due to God's willingness to let it. Although this argument raises good reason to doubt premise two, it is unattractive to most theists who believe that God is indeed omniscient, omnipotent, and omni benevolent.

Secondly, and perhaps a more attractive argument against the problem with evil for most theists, is my objection to premise one. Premise one being that If God is omni benevolent or all good, He would not allow evil. I plan to provide strong argument that it is possible for God and evil to coexist. Let me being by saying, If God is all good and all powerful; one could argue that the world in which we live in presently is the best possible world because an all good, all powerful God would not create anything less than the best possible world. Secondly, the world as it is now contains evil. I believe there are two kinds of evil, one being natural evils (i.e. floods, tsunamis, and other natural disasters) and the second, I will call ethical evil or the evil in which people inflict upon each other (i.e. murder, rape, physical abuse). If the world we live in is the best possible world and it indeed contains natural evils, one could question how this can be so. How can God make a world that is the best possible world while still containing natural evil? To address this question, suppose that there is some greater good that comes from every instance of natural evil. For example, there are forest fires every year that wipe out entire areas of land. This land contains many plants and animals that when consumed by fire, die. Also, it can be supposed that the killing of these plants and animals removes a food source for many human beings who live near this area resulting in the starvation and death of many humans. I argue that this might be temporarily evil. I argue that after