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Similarities Between Anselm Guanilo And Thomas Aquinas

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Philosophers such as Anselm, Guanilo, and Thomas Aquinas debate the existence of God. Anselm one of the philosophers gives an example of God's presence with a comparison of God's existence to the painter's idea of the painting because the concept of the painting has always existed. In disagreement, someone could not compare the existence of God to a painter's artwork because they are not the same. Thomas Aquinas the other philosopher would argue in another way that everything that has breath for this reason God does exist.
These three philosophers Anselm, Guanilo along with Thomas Aquinas present their arguments describing the existence of God, but not everyone would agree with their views. One philosopher Thomas Aquinas gives the better …show more content…

—God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived. —That which can be conceived not to exist is not God." One can see why God can be considered to seem inconceivable, but some may agree if one knows God that God is conceivable. In suggestion, Sin is one reason God sent Jesus to live on this earth, so we can see with our own eyes that there is a God, but at the same time, there will be those who still choose not to believe in God's existence. The weakness of Anselm argument is, he says he believes in God and seeks God at the same time Anselm thinks that it is hard to seek God when he cannot see God. He is trying to find God, but yet he does not fully understand why he should seek God. God has always been right there we just do not see him as a tangible object that we can touch. Anselm compares God's existence to a painting, but a painting could be considered a physical object that all of a sudden exists from an artist's imagination as in comparison to God's creation, not his existence. God has always been alive on this earth and in heaven, so how can God be compared to a painting that all of sudden …show more content…

We can stop to think about what we can physically do as humans and consider that God made us from dirt to believe there is a God. This idea in regards to the proof that there is a God who he created us. One could say it is our human nature to wrestle with the fact that God does not exist or not because it is who we are as humans to think that God does not exist. There are great philosophers such as Aristotle and Agustin who try their hardest to prove that God does not exist. Subsequently, on the Big Bang theory, some people who were genuinely disturbed, such as Einstein, who wrote privately, "This circumstance of an expanding universe irritates me…To admit such possibilities seems senseless." The big bang theory makes our existence as humans as if it were no big deal to have life running through our

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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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1377 Words | 6 Pages

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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The paradox of the stone heavily relies on Thomas Aquinas’s understanding of gods omnipotence. Aquinas proposes that Omnipotence is the power to do everything that is possible, not just to do anything. Aquinas breaks it down into two forms of possibilities; Relative possibility and Absolute possibility that will be discussed first in order to understand the paradox of the stone argument. Relative possibility is a power that lies within some beings, but not within others.

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871 Words | 4 Pages

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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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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487 Words | 2 Pages

The debate over the existence of God has been a focal point of society for thousands of years. There are two points of emphasis that Anselm believes prove the existence of God or “something-than-which-nothing-greater-can-be-thought.” Firstly, he believes that since one can understand the phrase “something-than-which-nothing-greater-can-be-thought,” it exists in the mind. He continues by asserting that it is greater to exist in both reality and the mind than it is to exist in the mind alone. He thus deduces that “something-than-which-nothing-greater-can-be-thought” must exist in both the mind and in reality.

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1797 Words | 8 Pages

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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205 Words | 1 Pages

Anselm defines God as, “a being than which nothing greater can be conceived”; a being that cannot be surpassed or improved in understanding and existence. He believes that everyone has their own vision of God. Every person performs what they believe to be his will through themselves in their own way. Anselm uses the definition to argue for the existence of God when refers to two different forms of understanding; comprehend an idea of an object and to perceive an object existence.

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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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1444 Words | 6 Pages

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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As time passes by Christianity appears and with this also a movement called "Scholastic", which aimed to reconcile faith and the reason, within this movement there are two great exponents, San Anselm and St. Thomas Aquinas, who sought in different ways to prove the existence of the Christian God. Both sides show weaknesses and errors in their arguments that allow us to realize that the reason-faith relationship in both ontological arguments is flawed, and from the analysis of these weaknesses it can be said that the demonstration of God through reason is not possible because its existence is beyond our reasoning. In St. Anselm’s "Proslogion" all his ontological argument starts from a faith assumption about the definition of "God", which he acquired from a personal reflection in which this is revealed through "seeds of faith" that God places on each of us, and according to this would be "something greater than which cannot think of anything", but the principle of any demonstration is that it must part from an absolute truth, and in the case of St. Anselm it does not begin with an absolute truth, because a course of faith cannot have a logical and consistent, making his definition of God relative, away from absolute

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638 Words | 3 Pages

Anselm’s Rejoinder. The island that Guanilo speaks of, or any other potential substitute for that manner, does not reflect necessary being and is contingent. Only God can be that which nothing greater can be conceived (447). Guanilo’s argument fails to disprove the credibility of the ontological argument because it attempts to replace the concept of God with something that belongs to an entirely distinct category. Anselm’s ontological argument is important because it leaves no gray area concerning spiritual faith.

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Thomas Aquinas is the second critique of Anselm’s position. Take note that Aquinas assumed that the existence of God is obvious. He supported cosmological argument to prove that God exists. The cosmological argument uses the physical things that exist in the universe to demonstrate God’s existence. In his criticism of Anselm’s argument, Aquinas disagrees with the use of the word “God” and argues only some who hear the word “God” understands what it means (Himma, 4).

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754 Words | 4 Pages

Teddy Boys (Teds) emanated in the early nineteen fifties in South London and were described as young thugs who were defined by their unconventional Edwardian style of clothes. Teds broke the mould with their interpretation of fashion that was entirely “working class in its origins”. Their style was self-created and adopted from the fashions of the Edwardians, a style Saville Row tailors had reinvented as the latest nineteen fifties fashion, an upper class reaction to the dark days of the War. Teds ‘flaunted their clothes and attitude like a badge’ with their draped jackets and drainpipe trousers; crepe soled shoes and heavily greased quiffed DA hairstyle, so named, as it was alleged to resemble a ducks arse.

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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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