Does God exist Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Does God exist - Essay Example Fundamentally, Anselm seeks to provide a priori proof, which is to negate the view presented of the fool in the Bible who says there is no God in Psalm 14:1 (Princeton University para 2). Therefore, he works from the angle of trying to present the arguments and proofs that an ideal or wise person should have. This implies that in Anselms views, a wise and a good person will be one who can go into himself, evaluate things and see and accept that God exists and have a feeling of his attributes and features which are not so obvious or clear to the average mortal. In Anselms earlier work, Monologion, he states three arguments to prove the existence of God. He first thinks that there is something above all goodness and that is a superior good. He believes that things are good in different way and they all go through a supreme good thing. That thing is good in itself and is the source of the good things. Therefore, since other thing cannot be greater than the good thing through itself, that thing must be supremely good. Anselm therefore concludes that the supremely good thing is also supremely great. There is, therefore, one thing that is supremely good and supremely great. In other words, supreme among all existing things. The second argument states a similar idea that all existence must come from one ultimate cause. If there are several causes then they either must exist independently or support each other. However, if those causes exist by supporting each other mutually, they cannot exist by causing what they supported. Therefore, if they exist independently, it means that they share a common power and become an ultimate cause. Finally, Anselm argues that there must exist one thing that every existing things exists through. To explain this, he illustrates his idea as follows; things must exist through something. And something might be one or more than one. If there is more than one thing, either they