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Why Believe St Anselm Analysis

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In “Why Believe” by Saint Anselm, there lies a compelling argument which utilizes a Reductio Ad Absurdum argument to prove his conclusion. Anselm begins his argument with four premises, then states his Reductio Ad Absurdum argument, and finally concludes his whole argument with “God exists.” The argument for the existence of God by Anselm begins with his definition of God which is “a being than which nothing greater can be conceived.” By this definition, Anselm essentially means God is a great entity which no one can imagine. The next premise states the Food understands what the words of the definition of God means. It is the same idea if a person explained the concept of oatmeal to another person, and the other person understood what the definition of oatmeal meant. The third premise states a person can imagine God, or “a being …show more content…

If someone does not understand the words, “a being than which no greater can be conceived,” than does it follow God does not exist for them? This seems to be a hole in the argument for the existence of God since there are plenty of examples of people not understanding. Babies will obviously not understand the meaning of “a being than which no greater can be conceived.” According to Anselm’s argument for the existence of God, this means God does not exist for babies. Another example is if this definition does not translate directly into a certain language such as German, then it follows that a German speaking person would not understand the definition, “a being which no greater can be conceived.” According to Anselm’s argument for the existence of God, this means God does not exist for German speaking people. An argument for the existence of God should prove that “a being than which no greater can be conceived” exists in the understanding and the reality for all beings, and not just a selected group of

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