Proof of God: The Ontological Argument

The Ontological Argument was first put forward by Saint Anselm of Canterbury (1033-1109) to prove the existence of God. He was also called Anselm of Aosta after his birthplace and Anselm of Bec after his monastery. He was an Italian Benedictine monk, abbot, philosopher and theologian of the Catholic Church, who held the office of Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1109.  I will now run you through this argument.

We are not proving the God in the Bible, but a higher, creative, infinite intelligence responsible for the universe we live in.  There is more than just this finite world we experience.

We all share a concept of God which is nothing greater can be thought of. If God exists there is nothing greater than God.

Look around the room you are in and pick out an object. It doesn’t matter what it is, as long as you are looking at it right now. I am currently looking at my cat.

Picture the object in your mind. I am picturing my cat in my mind.

So what is greater? The object you picture in your mind or the object in reality. The cat in reality, that I am petting right now, is greater than the cat in my mind.

If it is greater to exist in reality than in the mind, and God is the greatest thing we can think of, then God MUST exist in reality and not just in our mind.

Again, we are not proving the God in the Bible, but a higher, creative, infinite intelligence responsible for the universe we live in.  There is more than just this finite world we experience.

We are going to keep this lesson short so you can spend some time thinking about the argument. Does it sound reasonable to you? Can you think of any problems or faults with the argument? We will discuss some arguments for and against the ontological argument in the next lesson.