Just By Thinking About God We Can Know He Exists Analysis

“Just by Thinking about God We Can Know He Exists” Summary & Response

The article Just by Thinking about God We Can Know He Exists recounts the experience of Anselm, an 11th -century Italian philosopher who is now referred as St. Anselm. He sets up an imaginary argument, called the Ontological Argument, to prove God's existence. He believes that God is so superior that “nothing greater can be thought” (80, St. Anselm). The argument ultimately forces his imaginary adversary to accept God's existence. Even though many philosophers welcome this concept, detractors like Gaunilo of Marmoutiers challenged Anselm by publically showing the defect of his argument: it would still make perfect sense if the word “God” is replaced by anything else, such

To the people who might argue that the premise does not clearly state that God exists, or that implications do not make a strong argument, it is a solid fact that Anselm imagined this argument with the sole purpose of proving God's existence. Because of this goal, it was likely that Anselm was inclined to “argue” based on irrational principles, particularly considering that he was a strong believer in God and that there was no one to converse with him: the debate was merely in his imagination. Moreover, since Anselm's Ontological Argument could be used “to prove that there exists somewhere a marvellous island” or any other object one could think of, the argument can be used to prove the authenticity of atheism, which is the opposite of what Anselm attempted to prove in his argument (80, Buckingham, et. al). For these reasons, that Anselm was biased and assumed the conclusion right from the beginning premise, I do not agree with the ideology drawn from his Ontological