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Ontological Argument For The Existence Of Judeo-Christian God

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The ontological argument is one of the three main arguments for the existence of the Judeo-Christian God. This argument is designed to appeal to rational rather than non-rational reasons for the existence of God. Rational reasoning can be identified through the use of reason, logic, argumentation, and our shared observations of the world, whereas non-rational reasoning is characterized by subjective religious experience. However, the ontological argument does not appeal to the logic consisting of our shared observations of the world because it focuses on the reflection of our own idea of God, therefore validating the cosmological argument to be a priori since none of it’s premises require empirical support. St. Anselm of Canterbury provided a renowned version of the cosmological argument around 1080 AD that establishes the existence of God by reflecting on our idea of Him. …show more content…

Omniscience is the ability to be all-knowing, which entails that God knows everything that has, is, and will ever occur. Omnipotence is characterized by the ability to be all-powerful, which gives God the authority to change the world in any way He desires. Lastly, omnibenevolence is illustrated through moral perfection and requires that God has no moral flaws and every moral virtue. Additionally, Anselm also believes that if God were to exist, His perfection would entail three things about the nature of His existence: that it be unlimited, independent and eternal. In order to be unlimited, nothing could have prevented Him from existing. To be independent requires that His existence and continuation depend on nothing. Finally, eternality requires that there is no beginning or end to His

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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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Question No. 10 Answer: Anselm guaranteed his ontological argument as confirmation of the existence of God, whom he depicted as that being for which no more noteworthy can be imagined. A god that does not exist can 't be that than which no more noteworthy can be considered, as existence would make it more prominent. Hence, as per St. Anselm, the concept of God essentially entails His existence. He denies Gaunilo a Godless epistemology. Gaunilo scrutinized Anselm 's argument by utilizing the same reasoning, by means of reductio commercial absurdum, to demonstrate the existence of the mythical Lost Island, the best or absolute best island possible: if the island of which we are thinking does not exist, it can 't be the best possible island, for,

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The objection addressed the validity of the argument which had the premise 1, nothing is the efficient cause of itself except God and premise 2, a chain of causes cannot be infinite. The argument thus concludes there must be a first cause. This conclusion agrees with my thesis that Saint Thomas Aquinas’s argument formulated in the second way leads to a valid argument, which concludes that there must be a first cause and that God

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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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God is the Supreme Being. He is the Creator and the Sustainer of everything. He created everything out of nothing. He is the Necessary Being. Someone who has always existed, will always exist, and cannot not exist.

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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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In Christian tradition, the existence of God is central to the religion and the practices and beliefs associated with it. In this tradition, God can be conceived of as an all powerful, immortal and transcendent being who governs and creates the world as it is known. During the Medieval Era Christianity dominated Europe, leading to an extensive amount of philosophical and scholarly works related to God and how to properly conceive of him. As a result, many philosophical topics and theories were brought under examination in an attempt to combine them with Christian ideologies and conceptions of God and the world. One of the many topics brought under consideration was free will.

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The Judeo-Christian God is recognised as a transcendent entity and, amongst other things, described as omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent and omnibenevolent; interdependent traits which are intrinsic to his very nature and revealed to us through scripture and the active role he plays in the temporal realm. Omniscience conceptually suggests that God possesses ultimate knowledge; everything that has been, that is being and that is to be resides in his sphere of intelligence. This knowledge is not ‘acquired’ nor does it demand sensory stimulation, like that of our spacio-temporal viewpoint, and to assume such would anthropomorphize a transcendent being; to God intelligence is intrinsic and stems from his creationistic role in the universe. However,

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The ontological argument was devised by St Anselm Archbishop of Canterbury in 1078, and Descartes later revived it in his Meditations on First Philosophy. It is a priori argument, meaning it does not depend upon our senses, experiences, or anything else in the world in order to infer its premise and arrive at a conclusion. Unlike teleological and cosmological arguments, the argument is reliant upon logical stages that eventually attains a conclusion, which is logically necessary and self evident. Therefore, it can be said that it is deductive and analytic. It is said to be deductive as the premise of the argument holds the conclusion of the argument.

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St. Anselm’s Ontological Argument Anselm, the Archbishop of Canterbury, first proposed the ontological argument about the existence of God. The Archbishop relies on ontology to prove that God indeed does exist. In this way, the archbishop was able to show God’s existence using His definition. Although the ontology was used for such purposes before Anselm, it is thought that he put it in the most comprehensive manner. The basis of the argument is the use of logic, which means that to prove that God exists one needs not apply experience.

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St. Anselm and Descartes are known for presenting the first ontological arguments on the existence of God. The word ontological is a compound word derived from ‘ont’ which means exists or being and ‘–ology’ which means the study of. Even though Anselm and Descartes’ arguments differ slightly, they both stem from the same reasoning. Unlike the other two arguments on God’s existence (teleological and cosmological), the ontological argument does not seek to use any empirical evidence but rather concentrates on pure reason. The rationale behind this school of thought

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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.

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This means going through life when faced with decisions, He does interfere or enforce a predisposed plan upon an individual. Reasoning for this stems from personal everyday actions. Upon waking up, there are many decisions that can be made, all of which can slightly alter the future, yet its feels as though there is no divine power at work when making one of these decisions. Individuals go through mental monologues to come to a decision based on the facts and opportunities presented with them. Saint Augustine claims the very same thing in Book V of the text when he says, “that God knows all things before they happen; yet, we act by choice in all those things where we feel and know that we cannot act otherwise than willingly.”

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