Existence of God

Paper Summary:

The following paper argues that the "ontological" argument for the existence of God is one of the weakest proofs for the existence of God. This paper describes the argument in some detail, analyzes its pros and cons and arrives at a logical conclusion.

From the Paper:

"Immanuel Kant, the famous 18th century philosopher objected to the ontological argument for the existence of God by arguing, "being is not a real predicate." In simpler words Kant argued that "existence" is not an attribute of an object like temperature, shape, size etc.; hence existence cannot be associated with the definition of an object. He has objected to attributing existence to the definition of an object because by doing so, we could prove anything exists by this method. Therefore the existence or non-existence of God cannot have anything to do with the definition of God.While focusing on the weaknesses of the Anselm's ontological proof we must not totally disregard the counter-arguments of its supporters. It would, therefore, be appropriate to mention that other philosophers have argued that there are senses in which "existence" is a predicate and Kant's argument that "existence is not a predicate" cannot be taken for granted."

More papers on Existence of God:

• Argumentative Essay # 94046 : "The Existence of God"
• Argumentative Essay # 115161 : "The Existence of God"
• Essay # 137953 : "Good and Evil: The Existence of God"
• Case Study # 5045 : "Berkeley's Immaterialism and the Existence of God: A Case Study"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: