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Analysis Of Anselm's Argument

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When looking through the logic of philosophers from the medieval period of Philosophy and their unconvincing logic, we first look at Anselm. Anselm wanted to prove God existed, Anselm argues that you can prove the existence of God through metaphysic metaphysical analysis, for example: Think of the most perfect being possible. If you can picture the most perfect being in your mind, then it is possible that it exists only in your mind as an example of Plato’s Theory of Forms. Anselm’s argument fails because anything you can imagine can come popping out of your mind if you wished it to be so, If anyone were to sit down and imagine the perfect God or the perfect island, would that perfect God or island even exist outside of their mind, would that …show more content…

Then we look at the second argument of Aquinas, The Argument of Causation- everything that is caused has to be caused by something else, there cannot be an infinite number of causes, and same as argument number one that must mean there is a God since all effects have causes. The Argument from Contingency asks if everything already exists contingently has a reason to do so, does the universe exists for a reason and if the universe has a reason for its existence that that reason must be God. The Aquinas fourth argument the Argument from Degrees Aquinas says in order to compare two things in the terms of good or bad, we must have something to compare it to, this would have to be an absolutely perfect thing aka God. Aquinas’ fifth and final argument is The Teleological Argument- According to Aristotle, everything has a purpose or Telos. If everything in the natural world has purpose, there must be someone who created that purpose, …show more content…

With Aquinas argument for number one, The Argument of the Unmoved Mover brings up, then what created this (first) God. Then we have to ask are there different versions of this God? What God is he talking about, is it one God, a different religion’s version of Gods, are there six Gods, a committee of Gods? His arguments leave more things open for more questions. With this movement of God, we then have to think what first created God, how did he even get here? Then we have to ask how did the universe get here, what started this motion, could it be more than God, could it be things as the big bang, could it be the universe, space, the creation that moves us, was is this force or an energy that started motion in the first place? With argument number two The Argument of Causation we then must ask what are the cause and effects of things, is it something more, is it God or something else, again, what caused God to be here? Then we look at Aquinas The Argument from Contingency-If nothing comes from nothing, then how does it exist, then that would mean that God would not even exist. This also brings up the question that if everything exists is it possible in this way, then how does really

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Aquinas differs from Paley by arguing that nothing happens by chance and that all things have means and ends. He also believed in a master powerful creator (God) that directed things to their natural end. While, Paley’s arguments did not include the bible or religion. Although, since Aquinas believed that things that don’t have minds can accomplish goals but only if it is controlled with something that does have a mind with intelligence and knowledge.

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Anselm’s argument is based on this known definition of the concept of God alone. Descartes’ argument for the existence of God is based on his foundation of knowledge, logic. Humans have the idea in their minds of infinite perfection. Humans also have the idea of themselves as inferior to this idea as imperfect. For humans to have the idea of infinite perfection, there must be truth in the reason for them having this idea.

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Before restating the Anselm’s argument for the existence of God, it is important to understand who Anselm was and what might have compelled him to come up with the ontological argument for the existence of God. Anselm’s background information will be helpful in evaluating the validity and reliability of his arguments. Anselm was born in Italy in c. 1033. In 1063, he entered the famous monastery. In 1093, he moved to England, having been appointed Archbishop of Canterbury.

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The cosmological argument looks to the world to prove God’s existence rather than pure definitions. The proponent of the cosmological argument was St. Thomas Aquinas, a theologian in the eleventh century CE (Solomon). He proposed that everything that exists must have a cause, and that the cause was God (Aquinas). Aquinas’ first point was based off of motion, that nothing can be both the mover and moved. An item sitting in place has the potential to be moving, but cannot move unless something that is already moving imparts motion to it

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In Proslogium St. Anselm presents his argument for the existence of God, an argument that has thus far withstood the test of time and many criticisms, one of which I will discuss here. Anselm works his way from the “fool’s” assumption that God does not exist, or at least does not exist in reality, through his premises that existence is greater than understanding alone and that a being with God’s properties and existence can be conceived of, to the conclusion that because God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived and God can exist in understanding, God must exist in reality. Gaunilo, a fellow monk, gives his criticism of Anselm’s argument in the form of a reductio ad absurdum argument. Gaunilo attempts to show Anselm’s argument to be false by taking a parody of Anselm’s argument to an extreme and absurd conclusion, that being the existence of the Perfect Island from the same reasoning as the existence of God. I then present a reply that I believe to be in accordance with something Anselm might have responded to Gaunilo with.

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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

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Five Arguments for the existence of God: a. The argument of Motion- everything that moves is moved by another; therefore, there must be an unmoved mover. b. The argument from an Efficient Cause - succession of causes that make up the universe must have a first cause. c. The Argument to Necessary

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