Is there a God?

Essay by Anonymous UserUniversity, Bachelor's December 1996

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The Existence of God

The existence of a God has for generations been the topic of fierce debate. This most usually occurring between members of the religious society and, everybody else. As a matter of fact the religious world itself has not always been able to agree on God. This has resulted in many a holy man to take up the fight for his deity through the realm of words. Many theories have been proposed, and all think that theirs proves beyond a doubt on whether or not God exists. To write this paper I read four of those theories by assorted men of the cloth, who all attempt to make the argument for a God in the Christian sense.

The first of the theories I looked at was that of St. Anslem of Canterbury. He supplies the ontological argument for the existence of God. The ontological argument states that by understanding the nature of God himself, we come to realize he exists.

He explains this argument by first defining what God is. Anslem says that God is a being than which nothing greater can be conceived to exist, that it can not even be considered not to exist. In short, the fact that said being can not be considered not to exist, would thereby make it greater than any that could be considered not to exist. This would in all reality be the secret to God's omnipotence in Anlsem's eyes. Another point that he stresses is that just be understanding the concept of what a God is, you are proving his existence. This is because if you understand who God is, you can also accept his existence, and therefore cannot conceive that he does not exist. Therefore making him that which nothing greater

can be conceived of, and which...