Saturday, 10 April 2010

Anselm: The Existence of God

Anselm
In his book Cur Deus Homo? Anselm (1033–1109) explains the necessity of the incarnation. In his Monologium, he explains his understanding of knowledge. In the Proslogion, he develops his ontological argument for the existence of God.
Anselm explains that God is not just a simulation of the brain. The God he believes in (of the Bible) does not only exist as a being in the mind, but in reality as well. God is a being, and therefore must exist not only believed as being, but also in the mind as reality. He is not just a made-up God inside the mind, but is conceivable in reality. God existed before man could have an imagination. Just because we can conceive God in our mind does not mean that He then exists. It's because you can't think a being into existence without having a mental concept of being. God is logically a necessary being. God by definition is. God is the being beyond what we can conceive. You can't think of being as not being. R.C. Sproul said, "The impossibility of the contrary is the rule that says, something cannot be. It's opposite intellectually, logically, or rationally so that the being who is greater than which no other can be conceived cannot even be conceived of as not being."


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