Does God Exist? A Critical overview on the Ontological Argument

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DOES GOD EXIST?

A CRITICAL OVERVIEW ON THE ONTOLOGICAL ARGUMENT

Before one can even begin to critique the ontological argument to God's existence, one must understand exactly what ontological is. Ontological is an area of philosophy that studies the nature of existence or being as such. The Ontological argument is based on the very being of god. Basically ontological arguments are arguments from nothing but analytic, a priori and necessary premises to the conclusion that God exists. The ontological argument is most commonly associated with St. Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury, AD 1093 to 1109.

Anselm argues that we can conceive God as "a being than which none grater can be conceived." Yet, if we conceive such a being as existing only in the understanding, a greater being could be conceived, namely, one that also exists in reality. Anselm's strategy, then is to move from the admission that we have a concept of "a being than which none greater can be conceived" to the conclusion that God cannot be conceived not to exist.

Below are Anselm's own words, quoted from Proslogion, chapter 2, 1078.

"we believe that God is a being than which none greater can be thought. Now even a fool knows that 'a being which none greater can be thought' exists at least in his mind. But clearly, 'that than which a greater cannot be thought' cannot exist in the mind alone. It could be thought of as existing in reality as well, and that would be greater. In which case, 'that than which a greater cannot be thought' would be that than which a greater can be though! Since this is impossible, there obviously exists, both in the mind and in reality, something than which a greater cannot be thought."
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The words of Anselm are rather complicated. But in short `God' refers to the perfect being. But if this did not exist, it would not be perfect. Therefore it must exist. Anselm also maintains that it is possible to argue the existence of god through the actual meaning of the word `god'. The aim of this essay is to write a critical overview of the ontological argument, now that one has overview the views of the ontological argument, it can be critiqued.

Philosophers have been critiquing this theory for a number of years. In Anselm's day, a ...

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