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June 21, 2002

Ontological proof for the existence of God

Credo ut intelligam (I believe so that I may understand) began St. Anselm's Proslogion. The basis for the ontological proof is that inorder to talk about God we must all (including atheists) have an understanding of what is referred to by the term God. He says lets conceive of the most omnipotent, omniscient, benevolent being. Then he says between two things, one that exists and one that doesnt, the one that exists is better. (For eg, whats better than the best ice cream flavor? one that actually exists). He then says since God is the greatest most positive thing (by definition) then the God that exists is better than the idea of the most positive thing.

An explanation of how this proof doesnt work is here. A suitable response might be credo quia absurdum est (I believe because its absurd)

Posted at June 21, 2002 11:08 PM



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