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GOD, FREEDOM AND EVIL
Philosophy of religion has been a prominent field of study since ancient times. It deals
with several concepts and notions pertaining to religion such as the concept and existence of
God, religious beliefs, arguments, norms and adherences. (Hewitt, Ed. 2016)
The present essay deals with the arguments presented by Rebeca Goldstein in her novel
36 Arguments for the Existence of God: A Work of Fiction. In the present novel, Goldstein tries
to establish a cosmological argument structure to establish the existence of God. In this context,
Goldstein’s account can be compared with that of St. Thomas Aquinas, who is regarded as the
pioneer of the discourse of cosmological argument. Therefore, the aim of the essay is to identify
the similarities and dissimilarities between the accounts of Goldstein and Aquinas.
Cosmological argument can be defined as the philosophical standpoint that tries to
establish the existence of God as the primary cause of the universe. Philosophers like
Plato, Aristotle, Maimonides, Aquinas, Descartes and Leibnitz have contributed to the field,
where Thomistic argument of Aquinas, Leibnitz’s theory of sufficient reason and kalam
argument are the most popular versions of the argument (Copan & Craig, (Eds.) 2017).
In the Thomistic version of cosmological argument, named after the celebrated medieval
theologist Thomas Aquinas, it is argued that:
1. Everything that exists in the world are contingent in nature, i.e. they are created and will
cease to exist over time.
2. Nothing cannot be the cause of themselves.
3. Therefore, there must be a root cause for all things contingent
4. The root cause must be non-contingent or necessary being, or it will be subject to the
fallacy of regress.

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God, Freedom and Evil

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