The Ontological Argument

The Ontological Argument was first put forth by St. Anselm in the 11th century. At first glance this argument may seem like it goes in a circle or is self-defining. But after thinking about it in depth, it becomes harder and harder to figure out what is actually wrong with it. The argument has been around for almost 1,000 years and has appeared in various forms. It is still discussed by many modern philosophers, and for some people it just makes sense. Because of this, I think it is worth noting. Sometimes I read it and something clicks and it makes perfect sense, other times I read it and I don’t really get it. Hopefully it will make sense for you.

There are various versions of the argument, but here is the way I best understand it:
Any thing that exists in reality is greater than things that exist only in the mind. For instance, we can imagine a unicorn. Unicorns are pretty cool, but they only exist in the mind or on paper. They do not exist in reality. But if they did, we would say that the real unicorn is a greater being than the unicorn in my coloring book.

We can apply similar logic to God’s existence. If God exists in our minds, he is pretty cool. He is powerful, created the world, and has lived forever. But, a God existing only in our minds is not nearly as great as a God that exists in reality. The following is where the major difference between the unicorn and God examples arises. God is said to be the greatest being we can conceive. He is a being “than which none greater can be conceived.” A unicorn is just a cool combination of animals, but nothing can be greater than God. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, and the list goes on.

Since God is a being whom we cannot conceive of anyone greater, we must say he exists. Why? Because if he only exists only in the mind, than he is not the greatest being we can conceive of. All we would have to do is conceive of a God that exists, and He would be greater than the God that exists only in the mind.

We cannot apply the same logic to the unicorn here, because we could easily conceive of something greater than a unicorn. But we cannot conceive of something greater than God, because He is the greatest of all things. Part of our conception of God is that He created the universe. Since He is above all things and the originator of all things, we can safely say that He is the greatest being we can conceive of. And since the greatest being we can conceive of must exist, then God (the greatest being we can conceive) must exist.