The Ontological Argument claims that the concept of God is a concept of a perfect being. And if a being is by definition perfect, then it must exist. After all, if it did not exist, then it would not be perfect. Does this line of reasoning prove that God exists, or is it just a philosopher’s trick?
2007-09-13 21:04:02 · 7 answers · asked by nathen t 1 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
Yes it does. Try reading Aquinas's 5 proofs of God's existence. Aquinas explains it better especially on the being part.
2007-09-13 21:09:20 · answer #1 · answered by sarah81783 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are maybe a dozen 'proofs' of the existence of God. They are all the same, they are that kind of proof that if you already believe something you find them convincing, but if you don't believe it already you'd find them strangely unsatisfying.
Remember this proof is almost 1000 years old! People in those days were about as smart as we are now, but they thought about a lot of things in very different ways than we do. Today we think of 'perfect' as an ideal, an abstraction.
The Ontological Proof of God came from a man named Anselm who was the Archbishop of Canterbury in the 11th century. He had other proofs too, cosmological and teleological. He was a great thinker of his day, but if you read stuff by him you can see that his thinking about most things was really very medieval. It's interesting for just that reason. But if he appeared on a modern talk show to explain his theories, people today would just laugh at him.
2007-09-14 04:18:50 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
The Achilles Heel of this argument is that it assumes perfection requires existence. It also assumes that Divinity is perfection--what about the idea that Divinity is just a more powerful being? I am not saying that God is not perfect, but I am saying there is the possibility that he/she/they are not. I hope this helps!!!
P.S. When I took philosophy, this was my least favorite argument, because it was the easiest for me to disprove.
"The mark of an enlightened mind is the ability to entertain a thought without accepting it." --Props to Aristotle
2007-09-14 06:13:18 · answer #3 · answered by greengirlmissy 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Philosopher's BS...
Try this. Imagine a rose. Now imagine a yellow rose. Now imagine a yellow rose with dew on it. And with thorns. Now imagine that it exists....
With all the attributes except the last one, you modified something about the rose (it became yellow with dew and thorns). If you imagine something exists, it doesn't add anything, it is still exactly the same. Basically, this little exercise shows that existence is not a predicate, meaning that it is not part nor essential to a definition.
2007-09-14 04:13:43 · answer #4 · answered by joanby 3 · 2⤊ 2⤋
God does not need man to prove His power!
2007-09-14 04:09:45 · answer #5 · answered by The Knowledge Server 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There is no way to prove God exists with human intellect.You either believe or you don't believe.There is no answer that will satisfy non believers.Those who believe,no explanation is necessary.Those who do not believe ,no explanation is possible.
2007-09-14 04:47:50 · answer #6 · answered by ROBERT P 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Just philosophical B.S.
Why would a perfect God create a universe at all? Answer that one. (A greater conundrum)
2007-09-14 04:07:58 · answer #7 · answered by Meng-Tzu 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋