Anslem's Ontological Argument

The first known or recognized form of the Ontological argument was structured by St. Anslem, he was a priest during the 11th century. The first form of the argument can be found in his work, The Proslogion. The Ontological argument is not an argument designed to convert the atheist, but to reassure those who have faith or some belief in God (Psalms 14:1, 53:1), it was meant for the believer seeking understanding, in other words some logic behind their belief. The word, ‘Ontological’ comes from the prefix ‘ontology’ meaning ‘metaphysical science or study of being’. The argument is not a posteori argument, thus not being based off experience or observations like The Teleological argument produced by Paley (The watchmaker analogy). Instead it

Using an analogy, he revealed a reduction ad absurdum (reducing to absurdity) argument. Where he claimed that the ontological argument could be used to prove the existence of anything. In his analogy, he used the concept “of the most excellent island” and he followed the same logic which is presented by Anslem and used in his Ontological Argument. It would only be logical to state that in order for our island to be truly perfect it must exist; for a non-existing perfect island, could not be “perfect” if it did not exist. His conclusion of his criticism, On Behalf of The Fool, is that you cannot bring anything into existence by defining it as a superlative and that if his argument is taken as being true then it can also be applied to anything else of the same form. Another Christian philosopher who rejected Anslem’s Ontological argument includes’ St. Thomas Aquinas. He claimed that as humans, it is ridiculous to assume the dispositions of God, since humans cannot comprehend the attributes of God nor the concept. Making Anslem’s argument “futile” since most people are not able to perceive God in the same way as Anslem. Only God could effectively use this argument to prove his existence. He also says God’s existence is not self-evident as Anslem takes it to be. Among the many that criticize and reject Anslem argument is David Hume. Hume logic was that nothing can be proven to exist using a priori argument; nothing is demonstrable; we cannot prove that something exists without experience. Later philosophers like Kant, Bretand Rusell and David Hume pointed out that Anslem should not and could not use existence as a predicate, characteristic, or attribute of something. It is illogical for Anslem to claim that the concept of God includes mandatory existence is what Hume