Theology and Religion- The Ontological Argument

One of the most notable and compelling arguments for God's existence is the ontological argument. In order to explain why God exists to a fool or a rational atheist, Anselm's argument rests on a few key premises (Rushby, 2013). By citing the two key characteristics of a fool who rejects the existence of God, Anselm makes a logical case for God's existence (Oppy, 2014). The fool Anselm refers to is aware of the reality of God's claim, but he or she chooses not to accept it. The most significant ramifications of this claim will be highlighted in this brief article. The first such valuable argument is the definition of God as a being that is flawless and it is unconceivable to improve upon such an unsurpassable being. While this is understood, Anselm seeks to refute the understanding of the fool by claiming that the fool does understand the definition of God (Oppy, 2014). Because we understand the meaning of the words that define God, it is conceivable that such a being does exist in reality (Dombrowski, 2006). In other words, Anselm’s argument proposes logically that if we have an understanding of the meaning of speaking of Y, then the Y does exist in this understanding. It, therefore, goes that God does exist in the understanding. Using the reducto absurdum Anselm’s argument infers that God exists in the understanding as well as in reality (Rushby, 2013). The idea presented is that if a thing exists in reality and another in the understanding, the one that exist in reality is evidently better, perfect and greater. It is then concluded that through inference that God does indeed exist in reality.







References

Dombrowski, D. A. (2006). Rethinking the ontological argument: A neoclassical theistic response. Cambridge University Press.

Oppy, G. (2014). Ontological arguments.

Rushby, J. (2013, July). The ontological argument in PVS. In Proc. of CAV Workshop “Fun With Formal Methods”, St. Petersburg, Russia.