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Ontological Argument For God's Existence

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The question of god’s existence has been at the forefront of people’s minds for the majority of known history. The reasons this question arises varies from person to person, but holds in common the human craving for knowledge. Because of this there have been many proofs which set out to prove god’s existence of which the most accessible is the ontological argument for the existence of god. The aim is to envision a god which depends on nothing else but itself for existence. The ontological argument seeks to move from the definition of god to the actualization of god’s being. The ontological argument for the existence of god begins with a definition of terms. God, is that being that which no greater being can be thought. This means first that …show more content…

Existence in only the understanding is tainted with human inequality and does not even necessitate an accurate portrayal. Existence in reality would always be seen as greater than just the understanding because it has the ability to engage in the real world and affect cause and effect. If god is that being which no greater can be thought and existence in reality is greater than existence in the understanding, then god must exist in reality. While this argument is sound I do not believe that it is valid. It necessitates god’s existence through its very definition and this seems to be circular logic. If one would wish to make this argument, they would have to necessitate god’s existence from something other than its own …show more content…

If god is that being which no greater can be thought, then it must exist because existence in reality is greater than existence in the understanding. An objection to this that it is circular is overcome by the distinction of modes of being which finds that god is a necessary being as the unmoved mover. Any human objection stands insufficient, because human reason cannot even contemplate fully god’s essence. Because of this the stand point of atheism is one of ignorance where one does not fully grasp the concept of god laid before them. Lastly Guanilo’s critic falls short because his island moves closer and closer to divine until it becomes god; further proving god’s necessity. It seems at the least that this analysis proves the possibility of god and disproves the possibility of

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The ontological argument states that perfection is a part of the concept of God, and that perfection entails existence, and so the concept of God entails God’s existence. However, it can be argued that if God is an infinite goodness, then its contrary, evil, should not exist. Alas, there is evil in the world, and, therefore, God cannot exist. The ontological argument also seeks to demonstrate that God exists on the basis of concept alone. Pascal’s Wager attempts to justify the belief in God with an

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And since it is obvious there are clearly horrible things happening in the world, God does not exist. And the possibility that the evil occurs for a higher purpose of achieving a greater good is

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The question that is asked time and time again is whether or not god exists. It is evident that people hold different beliefs. It is evident that through some of the beliefs of J.L. Mackie that it could be argued that God does not actually exist. I find this argument to be more agreeable. In Mackie’s Evil and Omnipotence, he argues many points to support why it should be believed that god does not exist.

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(Anon., 2004) Anselm’s argument is a reductio argument, it seeks to demonstrate that a statement is true by showing that an absurd result would follow from its denial. I will be discussing three objections to Anselm’s argument which I will reply to, namely: “the perfect island” objection by Gaunilo; “existence is not a predicate” objection by Immanuel Kant and Aquinas objection “not everyone has the same concept of God”. I agree that that Anselm’s ontological argument does indeed show that God exists.

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The argument for God’s existence is that God is a perfect being, he is infinite, independent, supremely intelligent, and supremely powerful. Descartes goes on to talk about how God exists because he can conceive of him as better than himself (AD 40). God is perfect and perfect at everything, and was the first thing that sent everything into motion (AD 45). God is the ultimate cause.

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In this essay, I will set out to prove that Thomas Aquinas’ First Cause Argument does not show that God exists and the conclusion that God exists does not follow from the premises of the first cause argument. I do think that the conclusion is valid and could be sound/or has the potential to be, but the premises fail to provide the basis upon which to reach such a conclusion. Hence, I will be raising some objections to the premises and will try to disprove any counter-arguments that could be raised in its defense. This would be done by examining Aquinas’ First Cause Argument and trying to disprove it whilst countering arguments in its defense.

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The existence of God has been presented by a multitude of philosophers. However, this has led to profound criticism and arguments of God’s inexistence. The strongest argument in contradiction to God’s existence is the Problem of Evil, presented by J.L Mackie. In this paper, I aim to describe the problem of evil, analyse the objection of the Paradox of Omnipotence and provide rebuttals to this objection. Thus, highlighting my support for Mackie’s Problem of evil.

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Representing the conservative religious position, Demea argues that God’s existence can be proved through self-evident logic. However, these arguments cannot reveal anything about god’s nature to make any assertions about god beyond his existence he must accept a form of mysticism. Cleanthes rejects this apriori reasoning. He holds that god’s existence can be demonstrated from evidence we find in the world’s design. From these empirical arguments he believes he can draws a conclusion about the character of god.

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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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There have been an innumerable amount of arguments for the existence of God for hundreds of years. Some have become much more popular due to their merit, and their ability to stay relevant through changing times. Two arguments in particular that have been discussed for a very long time are the ontological and cosmological arguments. Each were proposed in the period of the high middle ages by members of the Roman Catholic Church. They each have been used extensively by many since their introduction.

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Ever since the ancient and medieval eras of philosophy there have been debates amongst philosophers and theologians concerning the existence of, and attributes that should be ascribed to, the existence of God. In majority of religions around the world, this knowledge of ‘God’ exists; a being perceived as the supreme one, the creator of all. Now the term ‘God’, does not refer to any particular religious’ deities but a term that can cover everything from a perfect omnipotent being to something that can be considered quite ordinary (Dvorsky, 2016). Of the numerous philosophical arguments that have formed, the most well-known range from Plato, Aristotle and Aquinas’s similar cosmological argument which claims that there must be a reason for this

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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

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945 Words | 4 Pages

The debate of the existence of God has always been a controversial topic and has been going on for centuries. Till this day it is still a debate. We have people who strongly believe in God and others who questions his existence. Those who have strong faith will try to convince everyone who does not believe in God that he exits. They will try to come up with arguments to show he is real and good.

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A lot of arguments have been known to prove or disprove the existence of God, and the Problem of Evil is one of them. The Problem of Evil argues that it is impossible to have God and evil existing in the same world. Due to ideal characteristics of God, evil should not have a chance to exist and make human suffer. In this essay, I will examine the argument for the Problem of Evil, a possible theodicy against the argument, and reply to the theodicy. First of all, to be clear, the Problem of Evil is an argument that shows that God cannot be either all- powerful, all-knowing, and/or all good.

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Argument for the existence of god is being proposed in several ways. Some based on science while some are about personal experience and some on philosophical arguments such as ontological arguments, first cause arguments, arguments based on deign, moral arguments. Each of these support conception. Ontological argument say that if you inculcate the idea of god , we can see him . There is a saying that “Nothing comes from Nothing but something comes from something”.

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