ipl-logo

Anselm's Argument For The Existence Of God

550 Words3 Pages

Anselm was a Greek philosopher who was born in 1033 in Aosta, Italy. He was a Benedictine abbot in France who went into self-imposed exile to protest King William II of England and he was also a disciple of Augustine and he promoted a lot of Augustine’s teachings and beliefs. Anselm held the office of archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109, because in 1109 Anselm died. After his death in 1109 he was canonized as a saint, and his feast day is on April 21. Anselm believed that it was not possible to think of absolutely nothing. He also believed that God is the greatest possible being, God exists in the understanding (mind), and that a being that exists in reality and understanding is greater than understanding by its self. Anselm also believed that God had a necessary existence instead of a contingent existence. I do not agree with Anselm when …show more content…

God’s existence is not dependent on anything else because God existed before anybody else did. Humans would not exist if God did not exist. I also agree that a being that exists in the understanding and in reality is greater than just existing in only the understanding or reality because if a being does not exist in both places then it does not seem real. For example, if we did not have the bible and churches it would be hard for a lot of people to believe that God is real because we would only know the stories that has been shared by others that over the years could get misconstrued so, his existence would only be in the understanding, and that is why a being who exists in reality and the understanding is greater. I agree with mostly all of Anselm beliefs except for his belief that you cannot think of “nothing” at any time because you are always thinking of something. But overall, I think that Anselm is a great

Show More
Related

Hambourger's Argument For The Existence Of God Essay

829 Words | 4 Pages

Hambourger’s argument from design argues for the existence of god based on the perceived evidence of deliberate design in the world/universe. To further elaborate on the concepts he uses, Hambourger uses three main concepts; determinism, chance, and mere hap. Hambourger’s argument from design claims that though many things occur by chance, there are some things which we cannot simply accept to have happened by chance, and must therefore have some common explanation in the causal chain of events connecting the two events. For instance the universe is created by many states of affairs coming together. If some slight changes had occurred, the end result could have been vastly different than it currently is.

Read More

What Phrase Does Anselm Use To Designate God

458 Words | 2 Pages

What phrase does Anselm use to designate God? Explain why he formulates his designation in this way. Do you think this is an appropriate way to speak of God? The Phrase he used was “God is that than which no greater can be conceived”. There are two reasons as to why Anselm words this the way he does, reason one is the idea that “ no greater can be conceived” he doesn’t want you to be able to think about something greater hence the idea that no greater can be thought of by a person.

Read More

The Hobbit Bilbo Hero Quotes

2007 Words | 9 Pages

A hero is a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. In Tolkien's novel, The Hobbit, the protagonist Bilbo Baggins shows us that people are not born heroes, but they are forged through hard work and bravery. This story brings us through the development of Bilbo not being a hero, to him becoming a hero, and finally him being a hero. Bilbo starts off the story with almost no qualities of a hero, which is mostly because he is a hobbit. Hobbits are quiet creatures, who offer keep to themselves.

Read More

Analysis Of Saint Anselm's Ontological Argument

513 Words | 3 Pages

In order for us to have understanding and think up our representation of the divine God there must be existence of him. How else would we be able to imagine a perfect holy being that is above all? If there is understanding of this being, the knowledge to imaging this being up had to come from somewhere, and this is how Saint Anselm tries to prove Gods existence.

Read More

Night By Elie Wiesel Analysis

1126 Words | 5 Pages

From this we can understand, his belief is omnipotent—God is unconditional—he cannot live without that

Read More

Plato's Views On The Allegory Of The Cave

1377 Words | 6 Pages

The definition of God is the greatest being. A thought of something that exists is greater than a thought of something that does not exist. That means if God is just a thought that does not exist, there must be a being greater than Him. This would contradict the definition of God. Therefore, God must exist so that the definition would be true.

Read More

How Does Descartes Argument That God Exist

127 Words | 1 Pages

Descartes gave a few arguments that God exists and is real. Desocrates believed our idea of God is that God is a perfect being, he believed he is more perfect to exist than not to exist. Desocrates also believed that God is a infinite being. Descartes idea would be that God gave us this idea to type this paragraph about him so he must be real. When he thinks negative of an idea or thought he wonders if an evil demon plotted those thoughts.

Read More

The Design Argument: Does God Exist

965 Words | 4 Pages

The Design Argument The question of whether God truly exists has been debated between believers and non-believers for centuries. Also known as the Teleological Argument, the Design Argument argued by William Paley states that there are so many intricate details and designs in our world that there must be a creator. In addition, it also argues that this world could not have been created by chance alone due to the characteristics that make it the perfect condition for human life to exist (Pecorino). In this essay, I will be giving a brief overview of what the Design Argument is, then providing evidence and reasoning in favor of the argument, then addressing the criticisms of the argument, then comparing both sides of the argument, then finally

Read More

JL Mackie's Argument For The Existence Of God?

295 Words | 2 Pages

Under these options, one is free to follow his/her passionate nature and believe whatever one would like to believe. Concerning the existence of God, James thinks that belief in God’s existence is a valuable sort of

Read More

Evaluate Anselm's Ontological Argument

539 Words | 3 Pages

2001 p. 180). To fully understand Anselm’s argument, a series of steps needs to be understood. The first step towards understanding Anselm’s argument is that one must first accept the fact that God is the greatest possible being. The second fact or point to note is that God exists in the human mind or understanding. The third point, step, or fact to accept is that if God exists only in the human mind, then God is not the greatest possible being (McGrath & OverDrive, Inc. 2001

Read More

Criticisms Of Anselm's Ontological Argument

1411 Words | 6 Pages

Secondly, the lack of complete understanding of a God that is greater than any other is the basis of Anselm’s argument. In other words, one needs not understand how it is that no other greater God exists, because it is not possible to do that. It is the concept of understanding that such a being exists that is important. As long as it is possible to have such a state, then the definition given by Anselm is

Read More

Anselm Vs Descartes Ontological Argument

945 Words | 4 Pages

In other words, Anselm stipulates that God must exist since we can’t think of something greater than God but Descartes says the main reason why God exists is because he is a perfect being. St. Anselm and Descartes arguments are without doubt the most important arguments to the existence of God. They formed the basis for further discussion both by those that agree to these schools of thought as well as those that saw the arguments as weak and decided to show why. Both philosophers agreed that the comprehension of the concept of God was sufficient for anyone to believe in the existence of God even though Anselm argument was skewed towards our inability to conceive a more powerful being while Descartes mainly concentrates on the perfect nature in

Read More

Thomas Aquinas Proof Of God Essay

1178 Words | 5 Pages

The claim of God being one means that God is independent of any other being. He lacks nothing and does not require anything else to help or to complete himself. The act of being One is a Claim to supremacy, as the only entity responsible for all other existence. In the sense that he is a simple composite of himself only and not made of anything more. He first must exist so His earlier argument for whether god has existence trumps the doubt of God’s existence.

Read More

Essay Ontological Argument For The Existence Of God

818 Words | 4 Pages

If we think god is perfect and superior than everything we know then anything greater than god can’t be imagined. If we think god as not

Read More

Existence Of God Analysis

1027 Words | 5 Pages

Anselm says that God is the being which nothing greater can be conceived. This is the base of the argument. He says let’s assume God exists as an idea in the mind, there is a possibility that God exists only in our understanding. On the other hand, one can imagine that God is exists in our understanding as well as in reality. St. Anselm’s theory also says that a being which has all the properties of God and exists also in reality then this would be greater than the being which exists only in our understanding.

Read More

More about Anselm's Argument For The Existence Of God

Related Topics

Open Document