Does God Exist? Faith and Philosophical Scrutiny

For our final class in this block of six, we turn to one of the most enduring and socially significant questions in philosophy: does God exist? We will examine classical arguments for the existence of God, including the cosmological arguments set out in the first three “Ways” of Thomas Aquinas, the teleological reasoning of the Fifth Way and its later development in William Paley’s design argument, and the ontological approach associated with thinkers such as Anselm of Canterbury. We then consider powerful objections, especially the problem of evil: how can a being who is all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-loving coexist with suffering and injustice? In response, we explore the free will defence and its critics, including Stephen Law’s “evil God challenge,” which presses the question of whether the same reasoning could equally defend a malevolent deity. Along the way we reflect on ideas such as moral responsibility, remorse, and what it would mean for goodness itself to be ultimate. No prior background in philosophy or theology is required.