Proving God--The Ontological Argument

 Continuing to try to prove God, we will look at the Ontological Proof of St. Anselm.  He was the Archbishop of Canterbury around 1,000 CE.  He knew that his proof would not convince someone who did not believe in God.  His goal was to give a logical reason to those who only had faith.

His argument is in four steps:

1.  God is the most perfect being the human mind can conceive of.

2.  To be perfect, God must have all the attributes of perfection.

3.  Existence is an attribute of perfetion.

4.  God exists.

To accept his proof, each step must be true.  Is God the most perfect being we can conceive of?  Yes.  Must God have all the attributes of perfection, generally considered the omni's--omnipotent, omniscient, omnibenevolent.  Yes.  Is existence an attribute of perfection?  This is where Immanuel Kant wrote that his proof falls apart.

To Kant, existence is not an attribute.  His proof--a triangle is a three-sided object whose internal angles = 180 degrees.  Does this prove the existence of triangles.  To Kant, no.  Only if they do exist, this is their definition.  For Kant, Anselm defined God, a definition we seem to accept.  And so, for me, Anselm has shown that in order for God to be God, God must be God.

There are those who use Anselm's arguments against him.  For example, evil disprove God based on Anslem's definition.  If God is omniscient, God knows that evil exists.  If God is omnipotent, God can destroy evil.  If God is omnibenevolent, God must destroy evil.  If evil exists, God is not perfect as Anselm claims, and therefore, is not God.

Another argument against Anselm is that God only exists in our minds, not in reality.  Anselm countered that by claiming that an imagined God is not as perfect as a real God, so for God to be perfect, God must be real.

I agree with Kant that Anselm defined, but did not prove God.  I disagree that evil disproves God.  Even though the prophet Isaiah claimed that God is the creator of both good and bad/evil, there is nothing in the nature of the universe that is evil.  Evil is a human action.  God apparently gave us the freedom of will to be good or evil.  Our actions, not God's can only be considered evil.  Is free will an act of omnibenevolence?  That is a topic for a future blog.

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