From the notion of God, does it follow neccessarily that he must exist?

Question

this is the Ontological argument, from the Greek I think.

silly boys, girls.
Ontological, from the Greek, according to my pocket oxford.

Answer 1

The ontological argument is from Anselm of Canterbury, who lived in the tenth and eleventh century, I think. He was not Greek, but heavily influenced by Augustine of Hippo. He is the most outstanding Christian theologian of the early Middle Ages, being bookended by Augustine and Thomas Aquinas.

The argument is a logical one; God is than which nothing greater can be thought. The argument works only because we as humans are limited in our capacity to know. The argument does not work from God's perspective because anything greater than God can think would itself have to be God, which is an absurd ad infinitatum progression.

The difficulty with arguments for God's existence is that they are valid only insofar as they augment faith; no argument is meant to convince those who believe otherwise. If one denies anything beyond tangible reality, the argument is meaningsless because there is nothing greater than what we ourselves can produce. For other arguments for God's existence that are not ontological, find some summaries of Aquinas, Blaise Pascal, and Karl Rahner; they might be more persuasive logically.

Answer 2

I think the ontological arguments are more like...

the original argument was more like " God is by definition that which nothing greater can be conceived"

we have personality.. there must be a personal God which gave rise to it Fransis Shafer liked this one

we have being.. there must be an eternal being which gave rise to it

other arguments besides the ontological argument might include:

we see information in the world.. informaiton cannot arise from random processes there must be a source of information outside of the universe. This is a fairly new argument from Werner Gitt and other creationists and intelligent design people
Bertran Russel never heard this one but should have!!!

we are effects caused by a prior cause caused by a prior cause so ultimately there cannot be an infinite regression of causes there must be an uncaused cause NEWSFLASH!!! Bertand Russel believed in an infinite regression of causes... contrare to thermodynamics which would require a run down universe..

Answer 3

No. Something's definition does not hold ontological weight. You could easily boil this down to pure ontology, and ask "does 'being' exist". Although everything that exists has 'being', this does not mean that a distinct entity called 'being' exists. The notion of a Unicorn does not make it exist either, except as a notion.

Answer 4

Not from the Greek -- is was St Anselm.

About 100 years ago, Bertrand Russell went trough all of the extant arguments for the existence of God (including this one) and showed where the logical falacies were.

Answer 5

God is not greek..... He has already revealed himself a mulitude of times to people..... he is still real and can manifest his presence to anyone who seeks him...if you do not seek him with your heart, you will never have any kind of tangible evidence that he exists....if you do seek him with your heart, you will be glad you did...I am not talking about just a warm fuzzy feeling.....I am talking about something very tangible and spiritual, and you will know when it happens.

Answer 6

He (Jesus Christ) must exist or we are all in trouble ... remember that we are traveling through space at a rate of roughly 18.000 miles an hour :) Have a nice day Y'all !

Answer 7

Somewhere at sometime, I think yes. Or else He would not have been mentioned through the ages.

Answer 8

That is "He" with a capital letter on the front and yes of course.

Answer 9

Well... if we are in his Image, and we carry the knowledge of God, we go extinct, he goes bye-bye!

Answer 10

No--nor do you!

I have never seen you, nor touched you.



NOW I am sure you do not exist!