Outline the Ontological Argument for the existence of God.

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Ryan Lynch 12LCH Outline the Ontological Argument for the existence of God. The Ontological Argument, the Greek word ‘ontology’ relating to being, for the existence of God uses A Priori logic and reason, based on premises that are not drawn from or dependent upon experience, to state that God must exist because he is the greatest possible being we can conceive. The Ontological Argument is also deductive and analytic as the premises of a deductive argument contain the conclusion that it reaches and is structured so that its conclusion is the only possible one that could be deduced from its premises. As it is analytic it is true by definition alone and therefore this argument reaches conclusions about the existence of God based on the definitions of God used in its previous premises. The basis of the ontological argument was first proposed by Anselm and later interpreted by many other philosophers such as René Descartes and Norman Malcolm; however each argument only differed because each started with a different concept of God. The Ontological Argument has faced many critics that challenge the argument for not proving the existence of God and each critic highlights the flaws within this argument explaining that these flaws lead to impossible conclusions.         Anselm, an Archbishop, was the first to propose the Ontological argument which was included in the second and third chapters of his book ‘proslogion’, a book written as a prayer and/or meditation to reflect on the attributes of God and not originally to prove the existence of a God. Anselm has 2 main arguments, his first defining god as ‘that than which no greater can be conceive.  By this Anselm suggests that the greatest possible being must have an existence in reality as a being that exists in reality is greater than a being that exists in the mind, ‘’and surely that-than-which-no-greater-can-be-thought cannot exist in the mind alone. For if it exists solely in the mind, it can be thought to exist in reality also, which is greater’’. If a being only exists in our mind then a greater being that exists in both our mind and reality can be conceived, therefore the being that than which no greater can be conceived must exist and Anselm concludes
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that this being is God.         Anselm’s second argument claims that God is eternal, unlimited, by or in time and therefore has necessary existence and is a necessary being. Anselm argues that it is better to be a necessary being than a contingent being, a being that depends on other things for its existence i.e. having a cause/end because this would ultimately limit your power. He explains that God must be a necessary being because if God exists as a contingent being we could imagine greater, therefore God would not be that than which no greater can be conceived. A being ...

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