>>10427953>>10427955cope harder
>>10427959I'll talk to you later.
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Section 3: The Ontological Argument:
From a rich tradition since St. Anselm over Rene Descartes towards Gödel, we have a simple argument from pure reason and logic towards the greatest conceivable/possible being, which is what we call "God".
Omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience and such are of course great qualities, which the greatest imaginable thing possesses.
If this greatest being didn't necessarily exist, it could be greater by necessarily existing. Since it is already the greatest thing, it must exist necessarily.
The greatest being can of course not be constrained or limited by anything, once again leading us to Divine Simplicity.
St. Anselm of Canterbury:
1. It is a conceptual truth (or, so to speak, true by definition) that God is a being than which none greater can be imagined (that is, the greatest possible being that 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, other things being equal, 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 (that is, a greatest possible being that does exist).
5. But we cannot imagine something that is greater than God (for it is a contradiction to suppose that we can imagine a being greater than the greatest possible being that can be imagined.)
6. Thus, God exists.
