Apologetics God's existence Philosophy

The Ontological Argument

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Prologue

There’s many version of the ontological argument, but here’s my own version.

  1. God is the greatest thing we can think of
  2. Things exist either in imagination, in reality or both
  3. If God is all powerful & limitless, it follows that He has the capacity to exist in any possible world (imagination or reality)
  4. If God can exist in any possible world, then He exists in the actual world
  5. If God exist in the actual world, then God exist

Alvin Plantinga

  1. God exists in the understanding but not in reality
  2. Existence in reality is greater than existence in the understanding alone (premise)
  3. God’s existence in reality is conceivable (premise)
  4. If God did exist in reality, then He would be greater than He is [from (1) and (2)]
  5. It is conceivable that there is a being greater than God is [(3) and (4)]
  6. It is conceivable that there be a being greater than the being than which nothing greater can be conceived [(5) by the definition of “God”]
  7. It is false that God exists in the understanding but not in reality
  8. It is possible that God exists

William Lane Craig

  1. It is possible that a maximally great being exists
  2. A maximally great being exists in some possible world
  3. If a maximally great being exists in every possible world, then it exists in every possible world
  4. If a maximally great being exists in every possible world, then he exists in the actual world
  5. A maximally great being exists in the actual world
  6. Therefore a maximally great being exists

God is the greatest thing we can think of

God is defined as the greatest maximally being that nothing can be compared with. If there’s anything greater than God, it would be God himself.

God is immune from change, because He is pure actuality or existence itself. The world change, it has potentiality, so it must came from a point of start where that ‘starter’ is immune itself from potentiality (change).

Things exists either in imagination, in reality or both

Unicorns & fairy tales can only possibly exists in our mind & imagination. It’s fairly possible for them to exist in an alternate reality. However, there are things that can never exists in any possible world because they are a contradiction by nature, such as a square circle or a married bachelor. It’s like the dilemma of “can God create a rock so heavy that He can’t lift it up?”. That kind of reasoning is flaw because it presume that anything would be greater than God himself, which can’t be the case because it would describe God as a limited being.

If God is all powerful, then He has the capacity to exists in any possible world (imagination or reality)

By possible world, a maximally great (necessary) being is unaffected by circumstances of the world that could be possible (dinosaur surviving, Nazi winning WW2, etc.).

If God would be a limited being, He wouldn’t be God. If God has all infinite power, then He can exists & transcend any kind of possible world (both imagination & the reality). If He can’t exist in all possible world, then He’s not the greatest maximally being.

A maximal pizza can’t be that case: how do we define what is maximally great? More pasta, more sauce, more cheese, etc.

If God can exists in any possible world, then He exists in the actual world (reality).

…

Therefore, God exists

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