Ontological And Teleological Arguments

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The Ontological Argument

St. Anselm felt God exists so truly that we can’t even deceive that he doesn’t exist. He does not begin about the facts of the world but goes straight to the conclusion of his being. His reason is what we mean by God is that nothing greater can be conceived. Even the fool who says there is no God has an existence as an object of thought. But Anselm believed to exist as well in the mind is the greater then just being thought of, therefore, God must exist. It’s better to exist truly than just to be an idea in the mind, a concept, thought in someone’s mind. If the fool wants to say that God exists only in the figment of the mind he’s making God a being that can be greater than just thought. If nothing greater can be thought he must exist in reality as well as in the mind. God then really exists and the fool in denying this is guilty of failing to understand what he is talking about. This applies to the most excellent of all being and only to that. We have the working notion that the being that nothing greater can be thought. If we were to say that God is a being that nothing greater can be thought but he doesn’t exist that would be a contradiction. What this amounts to is that infinite being alone necessarily exists. It’s not enough to think of infinite being to see its necessary existence. The notion of God is sufficient to understand his existence.
Descartes begins with the most perfect being. Descartes thought metaphysical perfection was the full actualization of a possible being rather than moral perfection. St Augustine said faith seeking understanding seizes the idea of God as a necessary deduction from the date of purées. Descartes moves by means of clear and distinct idea from the indubitable reality of his own mind of the reflection of the fact that he doubts. He believed to doubt is to think, if there’s thinking going on then I am. I am therefore God is. God is therefore the world is....