These revision notes for the new OCR Religious Studies A level cover Arguments for God based on Reason. They cover St Anselm's Ontological argument, its development by Descartes and critics of the argument. They are detailed and are to an A* standard
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4: The Existence of God - Arguments Based on Reason
Ontology The study of being
Deductive An argument that reasons from known premises to an inevitable conclusion
reasoning
Analytic The truth or falsity of the statement is determined by the meanings of the words
Statement
Deductive The conclusion necessarily follows on from the premises
argument
St. Anselm's God is that which nothing greater can be conceived, and it's greater to exist in reality as
Ontological well as the mind than it is to exist in the mind only; therefore God exists in reality as well as
Argument in the mind
The 'God is that which nothing greater can be conceived'
argument – Even a fool (atheist) must have a concept of God in order to dismiss the concept and say
From that God does not exist
Prosologion 2 To deny God is inherently contradictory because the concept of God implies existence
(Prayer) because to be great you must exist
Objections to There is no one agreed definition of God, we cannot possibly know we have the
the definition right
Ontological Can anyone really define God at all? Isn't he beyond our understanding? Do we have
Argument sufficient language to describe God?
Existence is not a predicate - it adds nothing to our understanding of the thing (?)
Aquinas thought we could never understand the essence of God so any a priori
arguments could never prove his existence
The major problem is to consider whether it is possible to make a leap from the definition
of God to be the belief that there is a reality to match the definition
Russel Argues: men exist, Santa is a man, Santa exists to mock the theory. He believed it was
ridiculous.
Gaunilo He objected to Anselm's theory by using the example of an island. Just because you can
imagine the greatest island that does not mean that it exists in reality. He argued that
Anselm's argument was an exercise in wishful thinking and can allow anything to be
thought into existence. Gaunilo was a Benedictine monk but thought of the argument
from an atheists perspective
Anselm's He says that the perfect island is not the same order of things as God. Islands exist
response to contingently and God exists necessarily
Gaunilo
(Proslogian 3)
Hick He also argued that the idea of a perfect island does not make sense because it is
indefinable - if you added one grain of sand does it become imperfect?
Descartes' God is supremely perfect being - and has all perfections
development Existence is a perfection
of Anselm Therefore, God exists
He believed God without existence is like a triangle without 3 sides
Kant He criticises Descartes in The Critic of Pure Reason
Existence is not a predicated at all. Saying something existed doesn't add anything to our
understanding of the thing
If God existed then he would necessarily exist, but if you reject the whole idea of God as
a supremely perfect being, including his existence, then there is no contradiction
Boethius Possible to be
Categories of Possible not to be
Existence Not possible to be e.g. square circles
Not possible not to be - Anselm believed God alone was this
John Thinks that this argument is only enough to reassure those who already have faith in God
Cottingham
A Priori or A Some might say that a priori arguments are more convincing because they don't rely on
Posteriori? external factors and aren't open to interpretation.
Others believe that a posteriori arguments are more convincing because the starting
point is more secure - beginning with something known to us. However, both types of
argument have to leap at one point from the known to the unknown
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