CreateDebate


Debate Info

Debate Score:11
Arguments:13
Total Votes:11
More Stats

Argument Ratio

side graph
 
 How effective is the ontological argument? (11)

Debate Creator

NicolasCage(505) pic



How effective is the ontological argument?

Is the ontological argument for the existence of God an effective and useful method for proving the existence of God?

In case anyone's not aware of what the ontological argument is, I'll briefly sum it up:

St Anselm argued that God has a necessary existence, because he is the most powerful thing we can conceive of. God must be eternal and infinite, because if God were created by something else then God's existence would be contingent, not necessary, and the being which created him would be considered God.

Everyone in the world has a concept of a higher power/God, even the atheist, and everyone has the concept that God is omnipotent. Therefore, his existence is necessary, because an all powerful being would, quite simply, make itself exist.

If we can conceive of a being, which we cannot in turn imagine anything greater than it, then it must exist in reality.

I sound pretentious as fuck writing this, but I'd love to hear other's thoughts.
Add New Argument
1 point

This argument claims that just because we can conceive of a supremely perfect being such as a god means it must exist,

the argument fails because it contains the logical fallacy of Circular Reasoning because it simply assumes god exists from the premise. You could easily say there is nothing greater than a magical multicoloured unicorn but just because you can conceive the idea of such a creature does not mean it actually exists. Your mental faculties do not influence whether or not a being or a god exists.

I recently had a debate with Stain about this and he presented the usual variants on the argument as used by Lane Craig and others each one is just as bad as the others

Y'know, Stain reads a lot like Stalin. Especially considering that the way humans read words (at least in English and other languages with such alphabets), it's hard to differentiate.

You'd like my other debate,

http://www.createdebate.com/debate/show/ Which isthefunniestargumentforexistenceofa_God

Apparently, Anselm sounds like a funny guy. Some nuts seem to have taken it too seriously.

As to a perfect God, you might want to see Aristotle for what makes for one. It certainly isn't the christian deity - anything else can be given a thought than it.

Something more I didn't include there.

How is something that exists better than something that doesn't?

After all, atheists do acknowledge God to be perfectly omniabsent. No religious "monkey" has been able to explain how omnipresence is better.

That's a very good point. Theists work on the idea of something existing being better than something not existing. But why is this the case? Why does something need to exist to be perfect? We all have the image of our perfect woman or man, and sure, it'd be nice if he/she existed, but it doesn't make him/her any less perfect in our minds.

1 point

Im not going to read all of that

_

NicolasCage(505) Clarified
1 point

Why did you bother replying if you don't have the capacity to read a short summary?

Why did you make an account on a debating site if you don't have the capacity to read a few lines of information?

1 point

Sodomites love their sin more than live and they hate God. They would rather burn in Hell than turn against their sin like God is against their sin. It's easier to say "there is no God" than it is to be realistic about what a sinner deserves; so most sinners will remain unforgiven and end up in Hell.

LittleMisfit(1745) Clarified
1 point

You sure spend a lot of time thinking about sodomy. Methinks thou dost protest too much. You really need to stop fantasizing about sodomizing Jesus or you're going to end up in hell. I'll pray for you.

Dear God, please help NowASaint stop lusting after Jesus. His carnal desires have have gotten the best of him and he continually fantasizes about Jesus' muscular body dripping with sweat. Give him the strength to overcome his desire to sodomize Jesus so that he may be spared from the fiery pits of hell. In Jesus' name, amen.

You're welcome.

Apparently, his real name was Yeshua Christus of Nazareth.

NicolasCage(505) Disputed
1 point

This is a completely irrelevant response. Please attempt to answer the debate question in the future.

1 point

Not effective at all.

Subjective epistemology applied to ancient fiction of unknown origin declarative of an unprovable entity beyond the scope of human reasoning itself.

That's literally about as far from effective logic as you can get.

It fails on scores of accounts. It's based upon no testable theory, postulate, hypothesis or even concept. It uses circular reasoning. It presupposes that conceptualisation of something is proof of the thing's material existence, in which case the boogeyman and Santa Claus are entirely real, as is the tooth fairy. It's solipsism. It's casuistry. It's a form of existential fallacy.

Need I go on?