Evidence of God Flashcards
What is Anselm’s definition of God?
“That than which nothing greater can be thought”
Why does Anselm reject empirical evidence?
Argues that empirical evidence cannot be used to question the ontological argument, because it is not based on logic
What did Descartes add to the ontological argument?
Claimed that existence is a predicate of God, as ‘having three sides’ is a predicate of a triangle - we cannot imagine a triangle w/o this, so it must be a CHARACTERISTIC BY DEFINITION of a triangle
Criticisms of Anselm
A PRIORI (if the first premise is incorrect, the whole argument collapses) - Anselm’s definition can simply be rejected
EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE -Anselm’s whole argument can be rejected for the illogical first premise, and therefore the presence of evil can be used against it
AQUINAS & PALEY - ‘fool’s errand’ to attempt to use human logic and reasoning because we cannot apply human logic to something beyond the universe
DESCARTES - existence isn’t a predicate because it doesn’t tell us anything about the thing in question - ‘Y exists’ doesn’t tell us anything about’ Y’
