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A Priori Arguments for God's Existence

This document discusses several a priori arguments for the existence of God. It outlines classical theism which holds that God is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, eternal, transcendent, and compassionate. It also discusses dissident conceptions such as the via negativa, deism, pantheism, and panentheism. It then describes three arguments: the argument from thought which claims the concept of God must come from something perfect; Descartes' argument that the cause of our idea of God must have at least as much reality as God; and Anselm's ontological argument that it is a contradiction to conceive of a being greater than God that does not exist.

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Sr. Prof. Dr Lakshman Madurasinghe
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123 views13 pages

A Priori Arguments for God's Existence

This document discusses several a priori arguments for the existence of God. It outlines classical theism which holds that God is omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, eternal, transcendent, and compassionate. It also discusses dissident conceptions such as the via negativa, deism, pantheism, and panentheism. It then describes three arguments: the argument from thought which claims the concept of God must come from something perfect; Descartes' argument that the cause of our idea of God must have at least as much reality as God; and Anselm's ontological argument that it is a contradiction to conceive of a being greater than God that does not exist.

Uploaded by

Sr. Prof. Dr Lakshman Madurasinghe
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPT, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

God

A Priori Arguments
Classical Theism
 Classical conception of God: God is
 Omnipotent: all-powerful
 Omnipresent: everywhere
 Omniscient: all-knowing
 Eternal: everlasting
 Transcendent: beyond the world
 Compassionate: caring
Dissident conceptions
 Via negativa-- the “negative way”
 We can know only what God is not
 Deism
 God created the world, but has no further
interaction with it; no miracles
 Pantheism
 God is everything
 Panentheism
 God includes everything
Argument from Thought
 Where do we get our concept of God?
 It’s the concept of something perfect
 We never experience perfection
 So, the concept of God can’t come from
experience
 So, the concept of God is innate
 It must come from something perfect
 So, God must exist
Descartes’s Premise
 “Now it is manifest by the natural light that
there must at least be as much reality in
the efficient and total cause as in its effect.
For, pray, whence can the effect derive its
reality, if not from its cause? And in what
way can this cause communicate this
reality to it, unless it possessed it in itself?”
Descartes’s Premise
 “And from this it follows, not only that
something cannot proceed from nothing,
but likewise that what is more perfect --
that is to say, which has more reality within
itself -- cannot proceed from the less
perfect.”
Descartes’s Argument
 The cause of the idea of X must have at
least as much reality as X
 We get the idea of fire from fire
 We get the idea of red from red things

 The cause of our idea of God must have at


least as much reality as God
 Only God has as much reality as God
 So, our idea of God must come from God
The Ontological Argument
 Augustine: God is
“something than which
nothing more excellent or
sublime exists”
 Anselm (1033-1109):
God is “that the greater
than which cannot be
conceived”-- the greatest
conceivable being
Anselm’s Argument
 “Even the Fool ... is forced to agree that
something, the greater than which cannot be
thought, exists in the intellect, since he
understands this when he hears it, and
whatever is understood is in the intellect.”
Anselm’s Argument
 “And surely that, the greater than which cannot
be thought, cannot exist in the intellect alone.
For if it exists solely in the intellect, it can be
thought to exist in reality, which is greater. If,
then, that, the greater than which cannot be
thought, exists in the intellect alone, this same
being, than which a greater cannot be thought,
is that than which a greater can be thought. But
surely this is impossible.”
Anselm’s Argument
 “Therefore, there can be absolutely no doubt
that something, the greater than which cannot
be thought, exists both in the intellect and in
reality.”
Anselm in outline
 Suppose you could conceive
of God’s nonexistence
 Then you could think of
something greater than God--
something just like God, but
existing
 But nothing can be conceived
as greater than God
 So, God’s nonexistence is
inconceivable
Descartes’s Ontological Argument
 God has all
perfections
 Existence is a
perfection
 So, God has
existence

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