How do we know if god exists
How do we know if god existsHow do we know that God exists?
Throughout history there have always been questions that we as humans are just unable to answer. The questions surrounding the topic of God seem to be ever elusive, just beyond our reach. The human race has made strides to answer these difficult questions. Unfortunately, as with all knowledge we find ourselves asking more difficult questions. The question of God's existence can be considered one of the most difficult questions ever ask by a human being. Attempts have been made on both sides of the argument, but holes in everyone analyzation of this question has left us at a stalemate of sorts. Therefore, we have reached the point of trying more to disprove an argument rather than finding new proof of our own. While disproving an argument is a good thing, it has gotten us nowhere and we have been left without a positive answer to the question. In a sense, all someone does about the existence of God is split hairs and cause more frustration in their thinking.
But what are the arguments that have been presented? For without these, we are unable to draw conclusions ourselves. Maybe these argument provide adequate proof for some people. As such, we will take a look at some of the more noteworthy argument, on both sides, and briefly analyze them.
First off is the ontological argument. An ontological argument for the existence of God attempts to include the definition of the concept of God the fact that he exists. An example of this would be Anselm's argument. Saint Anselm(1033-1109) was a Benedictine monk in Bec. At that time, Bec was one of the Great centers of learning in Europe. His book Proslogion contains his famous ontological argument. This argument was the first formal proof for the existence of God. His ideas state that God, by definition, is absolutely prefect. It is also more perfect to exist than to not exist. Therefore, to envision God is to envision God existing(this is because to conceive of God not existing is self-canceling). Thus, if one would say "God does not exist" one would be contradicting oneself. Because of this, Anselm believed, the Existence of God must be true. On the other side of this argument, it is widely believed that definitions do not necessarily mean that that something exists. For example, According to the Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia 1999 edition, the definition of a unicorn is "A fabled creature usually represented as a horse with a single spiraled horn on its forehead." Judging by the statement made by Anselm it could be inferred that unicorns also exist simply because they can be defined even though no positive evidence supports the existence of unicorns. Surely this can be true, can it? As a result God does not exist in the actual world.
Thomas Aquinas offers more proof for the existence of God. Aquinas is generally regarded as the greatest scholastic philosopher...
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