Several medieval theologians spent considerable time creating refutations to certain objections to the existence of god. Why would they bother with this, given the near nonexistent state of atheism at this time?

by Libleftshapiro
Herissony_DSCH5

An_Oxygen_Consumer and I wrote about this, specifically regarding Aquinas, a few months ago; I think it may help answer some of the questions:

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/ibzsun/why_did_st_thomas_aquinas_in_summa_theologica/