ANSELM: Like Augustine, Anselm used both faith and reason in his investigation for truth. In his view, Faith comes first but reason should follow, giving reasons for what human beings believe. Anselm’s monks asked him to write a model reflection on God in which everything would be proved by reason and nothing on the authority of Scripture. He replied with his “Monologion”. It contains three proofs of the existence of God, all of which are based on Neoplatonic thought.…
It was Thomas Merton, a Catholic English writer who once said “To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that love is the reason for my existence, for God is love. Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name” (Merton).…
Descartes fifth Meditation presents the Ontological Argument for God’s Existence. Though many people find Descartes Ontological Argument for God’s Existence to be an unpersuasive and weak argument, I find it is a very strong argument that provides a strong foundation and argument for God’s existence. In this paper I plan to elaborate upon Descartes fifth meditation and slightly over the first and third. After this I will then explain its strong points and weaknesses. I believe Descartes Ontological Argument for God’s Existence in Meditation five to be a strong and persuasive argument.…
And finally, one of the most prominent sources throughout this chapter was the example of Christ. This entire chapter deals with Jesus’ death and its implications so Jesus is a constant and important example. It is also the basis of Mark Taylor’s argument in this chapter. One of the main theological interpretations of this argument is that Jesus’ death was not a redemptive death, but an act of adversarial politics (Taylor, 280-288). He spends eight pages explaining and defending his argument which is discussed in the first paragraph of this paper.…
One of the New York Times Bestseller, The Reason For God by Timothy Keller is known as answers for Christians to grow their faith in God. Keller uses his philology, and his knowledge to discuss the doubt and skeptical from not only atheists, but also Christians in religion. Furthermore, The Reason For God provides for the readers about God and the central of Christian belief. Thus, Keller creates a strong connection for Christians and God in this book.…
Anselm’s Ontological Argument v. Pascal’s Wager In this paper, I will be describing Anselm’s Ontological Argument and Pascal’s Wager and then contrast the differences between the two. These two arguments help to determine the existence of God. There are three norms of belief: ordinary belief, religious belief, and faith seeking understanding. The norms of ordinary belief are based on sufficient evidence to prove it is true.…
Anselm's Ontological Argument consist of nine reasons to believe that god exists so that even the non believer can grasp the concept of god. Reason one, god exist in the understanding. Reason two, god might exist in reality. Reason three, of something exist in the understanding but not in reality, it could have been greater than it is. Reason four, god exists only in the understanding.…
This is why he starts his argument with the view of the fool; which strengthens his argument. This works well, because we too may question if what we understand is true in reality as well. He takes the part of the fool only believing that God exists in conception, and uses it as the starting point of the proof of God. At first when I recognized the contradiction in Anselm’s writing, I was confused, but as I contemplated his words, his use of a reduction really works for me.…
Anselm’s Ontological Argument Anselm creates the Ontological argument with one primary goal. He claims to succeed in developing an argument of the existence of God without the requirement of actual proof. Anselm 's reasoning and argument only gives a mere opinion on the topic of the existence of God. He formulates a two part hypothesis consisting of: God exists and God has always existed. Anselm’s Ontological argument expresses accusations that are simply in his favor or his outlook on God.…
In St. Anselm’s Ontological Argument, he believe that God exist in real world. He points out that nothing can be thought greater than God, and if God dose not exist, something exist must be greater than him which prove the existent of God. However, his argument is not sound. Things exist in our mind may not exist in real world. People understanding a thing cannot proves that people believe that thing.…
In this paper I will dispute that Anselm’s ontological argument is dependent on Anselm’s personal faith in God. My argument lies within the premises that Anselm offers, it would not be rationally acceptable to create content of a maximally perfect being unless the person already accepted the Christian faith. The premises for Anselm’s argument can only be held if the only conception of non greater (relative to his attributes and worldly design) is God but if one does not follow such religious paths how can it be god. So in a sense god wouldn’t exists since you can’t have a mere conception of god without prior experience or impression of him. I will engage this scope of criticism by touching on Humean concepts and conveying how Anselm faith structured…
The Ontological argument, written by philosopher St. Anselm of Canterbury in his book the Proslogion in the eleventh century, is a metaphysical argument for the existence of God in reality. In this essay I will discuss the validity of this argument. In this text Anselm states that the concept of God has the necessary and sufficient condition of being maximally perfect- ‘that than which a greater cannot be thought’- and that, since existing in reality is greater than existing only conceptually, God must exist in reality as well. Thus, if you understand the concept of God, you must agree that he is the greatest and that he exists, since these are written into the framework of the concept.…
St. Anselm's proof of the existence of “God” works something like this: “God” is defined as a perfect being, greater than anything else which can be conceived. If God does not exist, then "God" refers to a nonexistent being. This premise makes the definition of "God" contradictory, for to be real, to be living, to have power is greater than to be unreal.…
What makes him so different from the rest of us? I agree with philosopher Kant, who exclaimed existence and explained existence cannot be proven. There is no way to be certain. So how do the followers of Anselm agree with his views? Is there really God?…
The existence of God is always important in the aspect of philosophy. St. Thomas Aquinas explains what he believes is the five reasons god exists. The five reasons he believes why God exist is the Argument from Motion, Efficient Causes, Possibility and Necessity, Gradation of Being, and Design. The definition of God means that which nothing greater can be meant. St. Aquinas is a known philosopher for his discussions of the relationship between faith and the reasons, including the five reasons and proof why God existence is true, while developing Aristotelian doctrines within the church (PBF 42).…