The First Way – An Unmoved Mover

St. Thomas observes that the world is in constant motion. His definition of motion is
broad and includes change in any object, inanimate or animate. So, people, plants, and
animals constantly grow and change, but so do other things. The tree becomes the
chair you’re sitting in and that chair becomes worn and tattered and then will eventually
break and perhaps become firewood, later turning to ash. A puddle can grow or shrink
depending on whether or not it continues to rain or the sun comes out. Whatever the
example, all of creation is in motion. However, nothing changes by itself without
something else causing the change. The flower grows because it receives proper
nourishment from somewhere else. The chair changes because you sit on it regularly.
As we attempt to go back and follow the chain reaction of motion and change, it cannot
reasonably go back infinitely. There has to be an unchangeable first mover to start the
whole thing in motion which St. Thomas calls God.

The Second Way – The First Cause

Everything in existence was caused by something else and did not just appear out of
thin air. This is the cause and effect way in which the universe operates. A seed
becomes a plant, but the seed was caused by a previous plant and so on and so forth.
The chair was caused by a carpenter making it. The same is true for people and for
animals. Nothing in existence comes about by its own doing. Again, we cannot follow
causation backwards infinitely. There has to be an uncaused cause after which
everything else comes, which St. Thomas calls God. 
 

The Third Way – Contingency or Necessary Being

It is not necessary for anything in the world to exist at all. Anything animate or inanimate
in the world can cease to exist at any time, whether by death or destruction. When
something stops existing, the rest of the world keeps going. It is also true that nothing
and no one exists forever. This would mean that in any point in time, it could be possible
that all unnecessary things could go out of existence, but that has not happened.
Therefore, there is a necessary being on which the existence of things is contingent, or
dependent. In other words, the reason the world hasn’t just vanished by now is because
God, the one necessary being, continues to hold it in existence.

The Fourth Way – Gradation

This is my personal favorite of St. Thomas’ proofs for the existence of God. Everywhere
around us we see gradation in the world, or a spectrum on which things exist. Things
can be more or less good, more or less true, or more or less beautiful. You may think
one painting is more beautiful than another. You may think one statement to be more or
less factual than another. Perhaps you are making a choice and think one choice is
better than another. Regardless of how each of us as individuals see that scale or
gradation, there is a scale of good, better, and best. Like some of the other proofs, this
scale cannot go on infinitely. Something has to be the standard by which we judge all
other things. So there must be something which is perfectly good, perfectly true, and
perfectly beautiful. That standard by which everything else is judged is God. 
 

The Fifth Way – Design

St. Thomas observed that there is an intelligent design to the way the world works,
particularly in the forces of nature and science. Gravity, magnetism, weather, wildlife,
etc. all have a very precise way of working and a specific function in the way the world
works. However, these things, in and of themselves, lack the intelligence to operate the
way they do. In other words, a magnet is drawn toward your refrigerator, but it lacks the
intelligence to know that it should be drawn. For all of this intelligent design to happen
completely at random was impossible for St. Thomas to accept. Just as an arrow needs
an archer to reach its target, the world needs an intelligent designer for everything to
work properly.

These are the five proofs of the existence of God according to St. Thomas Aquinas. Of
course, they have been argued against by anti-Christian philosophers and others for
centuries. This shouldn’t be worrisome though, since everyone is on a quest for the
truth because the desire is written on each person’s heart. While you may struggle with
one or more of the proofs, can you identify one or two that really resonate with your
sense of reason in accepting the truth of the existence of God? Perhaps you had a
merely childlike trust and faith in the existence of God in your heart, but now feel more
certain in your mind. Spend time in prayer and ask God to show you in concrete ways
that He, in fact, exists.
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If God exists, why is there so much evil in this world?

Preface

Hi! I’m Kezia Reji, a freshman at Liberty university majoring in Biomedical sciences. At
liberty, I have the privilege of learning more about the gospel from great men of God.
First off, I want to give credits to my professor, Dr. Werner, who was the first person to
discuss this topic with me. It’s my honor to include some of his answers in todays’ post
on why evil exists in our world.

Introduction

This is one of those questions that has passed our minds at least once and for sure
made us slightly doubt our faith. The first thing we must understand is that our God
does many things our human minds can’t understand, many of our doubts can only be
completely understood and answered once we join with Christ in heaven. Secondly, the
Christian faith is completely built on trust; it is not a religion, but in fact a relationship
with God. We don't follow Christ because of what He does, but because we trust Him
and believe He is the true God. Now, coming to our topic, there’s an emotional side to
the problem of evil and an intellectual side, it’s important not to mix the two when
explaining this to someone. I am going to be exploring the intellectual side.

What is Evil?

Evil is not a thing; it is instead the absence of a good thing. In other words, evil does not
have an ontological existence, it’s like a shadow (7). We as Christians have to admit
that God has good reasons for allowing evil in this world. 1st Samuel 15:23 explains
“For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and arrogance like the evil of idolatry. Because
you have rejected the word of the LORD, he has rejected you as king.” In the remainder
of this post, I will be taking you through nine key points referencing why God allows evil
and its impact on our lives.
I. God Training his Children

Some of what we call evil occurs so that God can train His children. In other words, God
allows some people to endure pain and suffering, so that they can help weaker or non-
Christians with similar difficulties.  If God has comforted you in your suffering, you
should look around to see who you can help through a similar situation. Similarly, if you
are experiencing suffering, then look for the help of those who have walked down a
similar path (13).

II. tEST OF fAITH

Evil might be allowed so that God can test our faith. 1 Peter 1:6-7 says, “You may have
had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. These have come so that your faith . . . may be
proved genuine.” This kind of persecution is so effective at purifying the church that the
Bible tells us that it is according to God’s will and that we should expect this kind of
suffering. The result of this may in fact be a more purified church and a more glorified
God (15).

iii. sUFFERING DRAWS US CLOSER TO GOD

Another reason for the existence of evil and suffering may be to bring us closer to God.
We can all admit that it is suffering or hardship at a point of our lives that drew us closer
to him. A part of what we call evil is God dispensing justice in a way that is not ill
intentioned. Instead, it is the deserved punishment of our rebellion—what the Bible calls
sin (18).

IV. God’s Favor

To add on, some of what we call evil happens to us because God favors us or is
confident of our faith in him. This is where Job comes in, everyone familiar with the book
of Job in the Bible can see how he  had to go through suffering just because God
favored Job and was confident in him. But ultimately, we can see that God rewarded
him on earth. 2 John 1:8 says, “Watch out that you do not lose what you have worked
for, but that you may be rewarded fully.”  The result of God’s favor can be shown
through rewards stored up in heaven and on earth for us. In this verse, we see how
falling into deception and evil deters us from those rewards. By not falling into the evil
traps of this world, God promises that we may be rewarded fully.

V. god’s mercy

Evil might be a result of God’s mercy. For example, if we were to assume that some of
the babies who died prematurely or at an early age would’ve rejected God or suffered
unnecessarily later on in their lives, we can see evidence of God’s mercy in taking them
away early and not subjecting them to pain. To say, this aspect of evil might be the
result of an all-loving, all-knowing God protecting his children from more severe evils
and suffering (14).

VI. Path to salvation

 Evil may also be part of God’s plan of salvation. God allows this kind of evil as the
means to “save” to the lost (28). I love the example Dr. Werner provided in his writing.
“Some evils, such as the death of a friend or loved one, often cause us to reevaluate
our lives. For instance, when men reach the midpoint of their life and some of their
friends begin to die, these middle-aged men start questioning their priorities. Some
commit the remainder of their lives to worldly pleasures. Others pursue heavenly goals.
Either way, the thought of death (and the reality of suffering) causes humans to
reevaluate their lives” (29). Very often, non-believers search for answers and are led to
Christ through it.

VII. God’s Glory

Likewise, a different view to this may be that a part of what we call evil occurs for God’s
glory, like the story of the blind man Jesus healed (John 9), Jesus said “this happened
so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.” Our testimonies are always used
to glorify God and very often encourage fellow Christians and may even lead others to
Christ.

VIII. Disciplinary action

Some of  evil is the result of God’s disciplinary activity. For instance, Exodus 32:35 says
“The Lord struck the people with a plague because of what they did with the calf Aaron
had made.” (26). Similarly, looking back at the old testament when God freed the
Israelites to the promised land- they suffered and travelled for 40 years when in reality
they would have reached the land in just 40 days! Why would God allow all that
suffering? The bible tells us one thing, it’s because they weren’t obedient.  Evil may
occur because of our disobedience and non-diligence to his commands. Coming back
to today’s world, God has given us a simple command to love one another as yourself,
let’s be real- how many of us actually do that?  Similarly, another greatest
commandment God  gave- love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and
strength (Luke 10:27). If we truly loved one another and God in the way He decrees, we
can live a life in harmony with others as it says in Romans 12:16. Much of the hatred
and violence we see in the world stems from a disobedience of this one crucial
commandment of God.

IX. Freewill

Another interesting point is- what if all this occurs because of God’s desire for voluntary
love? Evil or suffering may exist to give us a choice. Evil may be the result of human
free will. “God seems to allow things to occur that are against his will. But, why would a
loving God allow such evils? Perhaps he wants humans to be capable of acting freely—
not as mindless, pre-programmed robots. Although God would like to have a world free
of evil, He seems to value a world where humans can choose to do right or wrong” (35).
Conclusion

Evil cannot be understood from our limited perspective, perhaps, there may be one day
when we will eventually be able to see how such evil and suffering ultimately occurred
for our good. In conclusion, we as humans can only think of different reasons God may
allow evil and suffering, our human minds cannot comprehend his works and the true
reason. God has plans and none of us have the right to blame or question him, but we
must completely trust him and continue glorifying him whenever possible and believe in
him all our life. We do know that God did not create the world with evil in it. We humans
brought evil into the world (38).