Aquinas Fifth Way of proving the existence of God.

             Question: Briefly summarize Aquinas" Fifth Way of proving the existence of God. What counter-argument does Hume cite in answer to this argument from Design? What is John Hick"s answer to Hume"s argument from Evil? Is he right?.

             Thomas Aquinas theorized five different logical arguments to prove the existence of God utilizing scientific hypotheses and basic assumptions of nature. In the fifth of his famous "Five Ways", Aquinas sets forth the assumption that all natural bodies move toward an end. Since bodies are constantly moving in the best way possible to achieve that end, the path must be designed. God, of course, is the ultimate designer of the universe. The natural hypothesis that follows is that God created the universe, including the human race, for a purpose or to achieve an end, and thus the universe and all life moves toward that end constantly and in the best manner possible.

             Later philosophers who studied Aquinas" fifth way realized that this theorem is plagued with a problem, the problem of evil. In David Hume"s Design, through the art of conversation and Socratic debate, the two main characters in his essay set forth and decipher the problems of evil and how it may disprove Aquinas" fifth way among countless other theories of creation by a omnipotent, omniscient and benevolent God. Hume explains that if God created the universe to achieve an end, and if the path toward that end is the best manner to that end, then how does one explain the existence of evils in the universe such as natural disasters, pain, disappointment, anger, sickness and despair.

             Hume uses the two characters in his essay to display the human point of view regarding the problem of evil, so that he can theorize using actual human experience, feelings, and sensations rather than logical assumptions and scientific hypotheses regarding a universe outside and beyond our own human existence.