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The ontological argument for god's existence
Theories of God's existence
The ontological argument for god's existence
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Comparing Theories of God's Existence
Many different philosophers have their own theory on God's existence. They have their own thoughts of how they believe God is a cause. Such philosophers are Anslem, Spinoza, and Leibniz. .
Anslem is a philosopher who used the ontological way of thinking to explain God's existence. The ontological thought process shows the existence and being of a thing. Anselm's argument is that God is "this being that so truly exists that it cannot be even thought not to exist" (p. 860). The thoughts and ideas that are in your mind correspond to what exists. However, if you think about things that don't exist it is not as good. The things that exist are real and God's creation, and to understand this existance is even better. God is one who always exists and makes existence possible. In Anselm's argument he states God " of all things exist to the highest degree"(p. 860). He is saying God is the supreme being and is treated as a primary idea. In addition, Anslem describes God as " truthful, happy and whatever it is better to be than not to be-for it is better to be just rather than unjust, and happy rather that unhappy"(861). This means that God represents everything that is good and real. However, we cant subject God to our thinking because he is greater than our thinking and stands apart from it. Anselm's ontological argument is how he explains God as a necessary cause.
Spinoza is a modern thinker who explains God as a cause as well. Spinoza is a monist who believes everything is one. Therefore, he believes God is the only substance and existence there is. Spinoza states that "by God I understand a being absolutely infinite, that is, a substance consisting of an inf...
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...s and material. We have simple thoughts about composite things.
Leibniz believes we have sufficient reason to believe the source of everything is God. God's perfection can make all things possible. In addition, all things are a reflection of God and in this sense the Monad is a reflection of God's doing.
Anslem believes that God is the one that makes all things possible, just as Leibniz and Spinoza. Spinoza states God is an independent existence which is the cause of everything. All of the philosophers believe God makes all things possible. Leibniz compares to the other philosophers as well because he believes God is a perfect architect who created the world. Anslem, Spinoza and Leibniz are tied together in the simple sense that they acknowledge Gods perfect being. They believe he is a divine perfect essence who has made existence possible.
The Ontological Argument, which argues from a definition of God’s being to his existence, is the first type of argument we are going to examine. Since this argument was founded by Saint Anslem, we will be examining his writings. Saint Anslem starts by defining God as an all-perfect being, or rather as a being containing all conceivable perfections. Now if in addition of possessing all conceivable perfections t...
There are many theories to why a God might exist, but the Ontological argument tells us that a God is a necessary truth based on the self-contradictory or denying the existence of God. They use the proposition of the concept of God to argue the implied existence of God. This is to suppose that God is by definition the greatest thing imaginable and that to imagine something greater which can also exist is impossible. They use the general rule of positive and negative existential claims to try and prove the existence of God. they do this in a number of ways, with the classic version of the ontological argument being the most recognized, the reductio ad absurdum ("reduction of absurdity") of the ontological argument and the modal versions of the argument. It explains that nothing can exist in the imagination alone, it must also exist in reality to truly exist, and they have decided that there has to be such a being that exists in the imagination and in reality that noting greater can exist. I do not find this argument to be true in stating the fact that God must exist in reality, al...
There are often many mixed views when discussing God’s existence. In Anselm’s works “The Proslogion” and “Anselm’s Reply to Gaunilo” and Gaunilo’s work the “Reply on Behalf of the Fool”, both of their philosophies on the matter are imparted. Anselm’s logic regarding God is correct as he sustains his argument even when it confronted with criticisms and it is comprehensible.
In the "Proslogion," Anselm states that God is "something greater that which we can conceive of nothing." This very confusing statement, which is likely illogical in itself, is the center of Anselm's illogical argument, and something that I will try to explain. First, we must define "that which we can conceive of nothing." What can this possibly mean? It seems that this is the limit of what we can conceive. What this is, I cannot say because it is inconceivable. Anselm claims that what is beyond this is God. He is telling us that God is the highest possible being. This is the sum of his argument. What I want to know is how we can conceive the existence of something that is beyond all that is conceivable. While there are obvious problems with his logic, Anselm firmly believes that God is the greatest of all beings.
The 17th century philosopher Rene Descartes believed that God exists. His proof of an all perfect being’s existence was explained by having an idea of God that had to have been caused by God. But simply having an idea of God is not enough for there to necessarily exist such a being. This paper will critically examine Descartes’s causal argument though its premises and conclusion.
Everything happens because something along the way causes it to happen, in other words, there is a first cause. God exists because there must be something rather than nothing, therefore existence has a cause and God is the cause. Thomas Aquinas argued that everything needs a casual explanation for things that are caused.
The existence of God is quite controversial issue. God has different names in the world, and a lot of people, strongly believe in his existence. While, on the other hand, there are also people who don’t believe in his existence. In their discussion entitled “Does God Exist?” William Lane Craig, who is the supporter of the idea of existence of God, debates with Austin Dacey, who is an atheist, on the idea of existence of God. They provide the strong arguments and their debates are quite interesting, and innovative (not similar to those arguments, we usually read about in book). These are the fresh views on the question of existence and non-existence of God.
Aquinas’s argument believed that even if we were to assume that everybody shared identical concepts of God as a being than which none can be imagined. Aquinas argument also believes that there is no such way that any being can exist without no cause. God is the cause and man is the effect while Anselm’s argument mainly focuses on the mental aspect of the existence of God. Aquinas’s argument focuses on the actuality of God existence while Anselm’s argument focuses on the mentally of the existence of God. Anselm’s argument believes if you understand the existence of God then you basically believe in God. Aquinas rejects the Ontological Argument on the point that human cannot know the nature of God while Anselm’s argument stat
Sir Isaac Newton stated that "every action has a reaction." Therefore every reaction is formed from an action which€in and of itself is a reaction to a previous action. If this theory is followed far enough back, there must be an original action, something that starts all actions, and causes all reactions. Since nothing can cause its own action, because to do so would mean that "it would have to be prior to itself [in this chain of action equals reaction]"(Knowledge, pg133), there must be a starting point, an "initial reaction." This initial action, this uncaused cause, is the being known "god".
St. Anselm was a philosopher and theologian who attempts to prove the existence of God by logical deduction from the nature of being, and that is why this is known as ontological arguments. He argues that, if we can imagine two identical objects, one real and one not real, necessarily the real is going to be more perfect than the other, and therefore, God has to be real because he is perfect and there is not anything more perfect than him. This theory had many critics and opponents, and one of those who disagreed with was Gaulino, a French monk of the same era. He suggests that something real is not necessarily perfect. According to Gaulino, if an argument worked for a case, then it should work for all cases. Hence, he says that if we imagine
The ontological argument defines the existence of God through an a priori assumption about the omnipotence of God as a premise to causality. This view defines the role of God as a the Creator in the universe, which supports the contention that human beings exist because God has created them. In this belief system, Descartes, much like Spinoza and Leibniz, supports the contention that all forms of causality originate from God as an external influence on the human mind. Therefore, if human beings can think, then God must have allowed human beings to see reality and to exists. In a more effective argument, Saint Anselm adopted a method in which a priori assumptions on the existence of God in the universe in Chapter V of the Proslogium:
God can be defined as a being conceived as the perfect, omnipotent, omniscient originator and ruler of the universe, the principal object of faith and worship in monotheistic religions (1). There are many people that do not believe in any religion. People who do not believe in a religion have no reason for believing in a God. People who do not believe in a God and argue against the existence of God are proving something that is completely false. There is a God for numerous reasons.
But time and the advancement of modern science have called God and His very nature into question. The Perfect Being has become the source of much doubt and controversy. What was once certain and surely unquestionable has become the most questioned. The faithful, believing people have become unsure. Often called the father of modern philosophy - the father of modern thought, Rene Descartes chose to take up the proof of the existence of God in his Meditations on First Philosophy. Descartes proves the existence of God using an ontological argument, one aimed at understanding the existence, the essence, the being of God. Saint Anselm of Canterbury also makes the existence of God evident using the ontological proof. Following the natural flow of both arguments, Descartes' philosophical theory on the existence of God is clearly connected to and based upon Anselm's theory. At times, it is difficult to tell where one ends and the other begins. Descartes makes the same logical constructions, albeit in a different order, to arrive at Anselm's argument the God
Anselm’s argument for the existence of God is quite simple. He first proclaims that humans can grasp in their mind “something than which nothing greater can be thought” (Anselm 7). This “something” is an all-perfect God. Then, Anselm states that, if the all-perfect God existed only in thought, then something greater than the the all-perfect God can be conceived, namely, an all-perfect God that exists in reality. And
Rene Descartes, a 17th century French philosopher believed that the origin of knowledge comes from within the mind, a single indisputable fact to build on that can be gained through individual reflection. His Discourse on Method (1637) and Meditations (1641) contain his important philosophical theories. Intending to extend mathematical method to all areas of human knowledge, Descartes discarded the authoritarian systems of the scholastic philosophers and began with universal doubt. Only one thing cannot be doubted: doubt itself. Therefore, the doubter must exist. This is the kernel of his famous assertion Cogito, ergo sum (I am thinking, therefore I am existing). From this certainty Descartes expanded knowledge, step by step, to admit the existence of God (as the first cause) and the reality of the physical world, which he held to be mechanistic and entirely divorced from the mind; the only connection between the two is the intervention of God.