Augustine is regarded by many as the most original of the patristic and medieval thinkers. He addressed a series of philosophical problems — such as the problem of evil, the problem of God's foreknowledge and human freedom, the freedom of the will, doubt and knowledge — and offered his own solutions to each. As such, he points the way to a problems-and-solutions approach to philosophy. In addition, he was an unrepentant Platonist. As Aquinas (some 800 years after Augustine) would meld his own Christian thinking with the naturalism of Aristotle, so Augustine had undertaken the same synthesis with Plato and Christianity. But any conflict that arose between the rationalism of Plato and the revealed theology of the Scriptures — as with the account of Creation — Augustine came down on the side of Scripture.