Three Question Answers

Three Question Answers

Abstract

Mankind in all ages has pondered over the issue of existence of God. There have been diverse views regarding the issue. The most popular and widely-accepted theory regarding God is that of monotheism, which states that only one God exists. In the study, we have analyzed various categories of arguments that attempts to justify the existence of God. The criticisms and short-comings to these arguments have also been assessed.

Question 1

Introduction

An ontological argument is one of the arguments employed in order to prove the existence of God in Christian theology. An ontological argument presents the concept of the organization of the universe on the basis of priori theory. Priori theory states that a particular knowledge or idea is independent of experience requirement. It means that a fact does not require to be proven as it is already one.

Ontological Argument

The priori theory is based upon the systematic perfection in the organization of the universe. On these grounds, it proves that the organization of the universe is true and therefore it proves that God exists since He created the universe (Fordham.edu, 2013). It is also generally believed that the Anslem of Canterbury is the pioneer of the ontological argument, which he presented in his work of Proslogion in 1078. In his work Anslem described that God as “that than nothing greater can be conceived” (Ajburger.homestead.com, 2013) and then advocated that this being can be conceived in the mind. According to him, if the most Supreme Being can be conceived in cognition it can most certainly exist in reality. Rene Descartes also presented a similar theory in the seventeenth century. Descartes published many versions of his argument, all of which were based on the concept that the existence of God can be extracted from a clear idea of an Absolute Perfect Being. Recent ontological argument came from Kurt Godel, who forwarded an official argument for the existence of God. The ontological argument was revived in 1960 by Norman Malcolm. He identified a more firm ontological argument in the work of Anslem. Alvin Platinga questioned this theory and proposed another argument on the basis of modal logic.

Thomas Aquinas presented a counter-argument to the argument of Anslem. He argued that people cannot comprehend the nature of God, so it would not be possible to conceive God in the manner which Anslem advocates. This argument of Thomas Aquinas is also present in the movie, Angels and Demons, in which the Camerlengo of the Roman Catholic Church asks Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) whether he believes in God. To which Robert Langdon replies that his mind tells him that he cannot understand God.

In the modern world, it has been established that the human brain is able to conceive vast amount of thoughts. The most logical criticism to the theory of Anslem is that it has been scientifically established that humans normally utilize only 5 percent of the brain. Therefore, the argument that God is the greatest being that can be conceived is confined to only “five ...