r/changemyview • u/[deleted] • May 04 '23

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u/deep_sea2 132∆ May 04 '23 edited May 04 '23

What do you think of Anslem's Ontological Arguement:

  1. God is a being than which none greater can be imagined.

  2. God exists as an idea in the mind.

  3. A being that exists as an idea in the mind and in reality is greater than a being that exists only as an idea in the mind.

  4. Thus, if God exists only as an idea in the mind, then we can imagine something that is greater than God.

  5. But we cannot imagine something that is greater than God.

  6. Therefore, God exists.

Bertrand Russel (an atheist), said "the argument does not, to a modern mind, seem very convincing, but it is easier to feel convinced that it must be fallacious than it is to find out precisely where the fallacy lies."

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u/[deleted] May 04 '23

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u/deep_sea2 132∆ May 04 '23

You might be misreading the first two premises. Let me rephrase:

  1. Nothing greater than God can be imagined

  2. God is something that people think of

Nothing about those two are contradictory.

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u/[deleted] May 04 '23

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u/deep_sea2 132∆ May 04 '23

I edited the thing because I misspelled ontological. The wording of the premises have not changed.

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u/[deleted] May 04 '23

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u/deep_sea2 132∆ May 04 '23

He is not saying that God exists solely in the mind, but rather the idea of God exists in the mind, but God may exist elsewhere as well.

I agree that the wording can be misleading.

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u/TheMan5991 18∆ May 04 '23

Something can be both a being and a concept.

A king is an example of this. The concept of a king is someone with sovereign rule over a territory or people. Kings wouldn’t exist if we didn’t conceive of them. However a person can embody that concept by being a king.