The arguments trying to “prove” the existence of God are by far some of the most controversial philosophical arguments out there. When some of the people who created these philosophies it was illegal or even punishable by death to even question his existence, let alone try to come up with a logical explanation to “prove” he is real. The two main arguments used today are the ontological argument and the cosmological argument. Neither one of these arguments are correct nor incorrect; moreover, the argument of God is extremely controversial and will continue on long after our lifetimes. The ontological argument goes back to Plato and Neoplatonist 's but generally comes prevalent with philosopher and theologian St. Anselm. In one of his writings he proposed the argument in the second and bird chapters. Anselm was not directly trying to prove the existence of God, but how God became prevalent to himself through the art of mediation. He defined God as a "being than which no greater can be conceived” (Anselm, 54). He argued that even a fool could understand this concept and with that, he suggested that in understanding the concept in itself means that the thing must exist in the mind. The concept must exist either only in our mind, or in both our mind and in reality. If a concept only exists in the mind a greater being, one that is in the mind and in reality must exist. Therefore, if we cannot conceive a thought of a greater being, that being must exist in the mind and reality.
1. The Cosmological Argument for the existence of God is based on the principle of cause and effect. What this basically means is that the universe was the effect of a cause, which was God. One of the oldest and most well known advocates of the Cosmological Argument was Thomas Aquinas who outlines his argument for the existence of God in his article entitled The Five Ways. The first way in his argument is deals with motion. Aquinas says that in order for something to be in motion something had to move it because it is impossible for something to move without the presence of some sort of outside force upon it. Therefore the world around us, nature, and our very existence could not have been put into motion without the influence of the
Some of the three major arguments for the existence of God are cosmological, ontological, and teleological arguments. Cosmological argument is the reasoning that the being of the universe is powerful proof for the existence of a God who made it. There are two main forms of cosmological argument, the modal and temporal. Modal cosmological argument, also known as the argument from contingency, recommends that because the world may not have existed, we then need some clarification of why it does exist. When there is more than one likelihood, something has to decide which of the possibilities is understood clearly. Therefore the world is contingent, because there has to be a logical reason for its existence. This form of argument also claims that the only type of existence that doesn’t need any clarification is a being that does not failed to exist such as God. Temporal cosmological argument, also known as the Kalam argument, contends that all evidence are that there is a point in life at which the world began to exist, and that this starting must either have been caused or uncaused. The cosmological argument used by Aquinas declares that since nothing originates from nothing. Therefore the world must have been brought into reality by something outside it, which can be called "God".
Three Arguments for the Existence of God Many people debate about God’s existence. There are three arguments Christians use to prove God exists. These three arguments are the cause and effect, the design, and the moral arguments. Each argument shows a different piece of evidence for the existence of God. The Bible also gives evidence of God’s existence.
The famous William Paley has a different ontological argument within his text Natural Theology. The title of the reading gives insight to the theory, which focuses on something called natural design. The writing is based on an intricate and extensive analogy between the man made and the natural. For instance, Paley describes a man made watch in great detail. This intense detail sets the notion that each piece must have been put in place by someone, whom we can infer is a watchmaker. He then compares this to the intricacy of nature, which must have been made by a supreme diety. Such complexity could not have come about by chance. Only the most
The Ontological Argument for the Existence of God The ontological argument is an a priori argument. The arguments attempt to prove God's existence from the meaning of the word God. The ontological argument was introduced by Anselm of Canterbury in his book Proslogion. Anselm's classical argument was based on two principals and the two most involved in this is St Anselm of Canterbury as previously mentioned and Rene Descartes.
Truth, what is truth? This question itself has a thousand answers, no person can ever be sure of what truth is rather, truth can be justified, it can checked for reliability with strong evidences and logic. If the evidence proves to be accurate then it can be established that a certain answer is the truth. However, have we ever tried to think about what intrigues us to seek the truth? To think about a question and set foot firmly on the path of knowledge. Definitely it has! That was the very cause itself which is why this world has witnessed some of the greatest philosophers like Aristotle, Plato and Socrates etc. along with the school of thought. The ability to think and reason is one of the greatest ability humans have, it is what
The ontological argument can be stated in this way: “God is the greatest being imaginable. One of the aspects of perfection or greatness is existence. Thus, God exists.” Or put another way—“The fact that God can be conceived means that he must exist.”
The Cosmological Argument attempts to prove that God exists by showing that there cannot be an infinite number of regressions of causes to things that exist. It states that there must be a final uncaused-cause of all things. This uncaused-cause is asserted to be God. Arguments like this are thought up to recognize why we and the universe exist.
There are many proofs for the existence of God, but maybe none are as famous as St. Anselm's Ontological argument. The Ontological argument is addressing God, as a prayer. Anselm analyzes the very idea of God to prove that he exists. There are two versions of Anselm's Ontological argument, and both attempt to show that God must exist. Despite the many critics that Anselm faced including Guanilo, and St. Thomas Aquinas, the Ontological argument continues to be one of the most famous arguments for the existence of God that provides support for those who believe in God.
Arguments for God are quite extensive, having taken many different forms throughout history and Anselm’s Ontological argument stands as one of the most famous. Anselm’s argument begins with the concept of God and, by using only a priori principles, attempts to establish the existence of God. His specific Argument goes as follows: That than which nothing greater can be conceived (God) exists in understanding, things are greater in reality than in understanding, therefore that than which nothing greater can be conceived must exist in reality. Anselm’s argument fails in two ways Anselm falsely assumes that the God he proves, to exist, is supremely unique and the second assumption that existence is a quality that things can possess.
The debate of the existence of God had been active since before the first philosopher has pondered the question. Anselm’s Ontological Argument was introduced during the 11th century and had stood deductively valid until the 18th century. Then there are the arguments to aim disprove God, such as the Argument from Evil.
The moral argument, in various forms, argues for the existence of God and refers to the claim that God is needed to provide a foundation for the existence of objective moral values and duties. One form of this argument claims that morality is derived from a higher power, which can be referred to as God. It explains how man has a moral conscience, to whom they feel ashamed or frightened to disobey. Thus, this leads to the logical inference that if man feels guilty then there must be one to whom man feels responsible to. Cardinal Newman explains this argument well when stating how if these feelings of guilt and shame cannot be attributed to being within the realm of the visible world than there must be a supernatural or divine being to whom
The existence of God is something that most people take for granted. In your upbringing you are taught that God is the most supreme being, the creator of all, infinite and eternal. Taking into account the type of society in which we live in and the fact that it is usually our parents who teach us about God, most people do not even question his existence. Many philosophers who believe in God have tried to prove his existence using many different types of argument. One of these arguments is the ontological argument. It was made famous by the 11th century philosopher Anselm. The ontological argument has three properties: 1. It is an a priori argument. 2. It treats existence as a property. 3. It is
There is a lot of argument about does God exist or not exist. It was
Someone said that god is exist and asked what is the proof and scientific reason. That time i thought that is god is really exist or not and started thinking because my parents said that we have to believe in the god from that time i use to believe in god but i really don’t know god is really exists. After discussing in the class And we started discussion in the groups. It is actually a valid argument. After that we seems to this argument which is unsound. I had doubt about the ontological argument, whether one can conclude existence of the god with this argument. Some people doesn't believe in the god But i used to say that god is really existence. God is in every person to help to the people. Iam still confusing in existences of god