The Existence Of God

The Three Most Popular Arguments For The Existence Of God

The Ontological Argument

One of the most important attempts to demonstrate the existence of God is the ontological argument of Saint Anselm, an 11th-century theologian. Anselm’s argument maintains that God, defined as the greatest being that can be conceived, must exist, since a being that does not exist would by virtue of that fact lack an attribute that contributes to its greatness. Critics have questioned, however, whether existence actually contributes to a being’s greatness.

The Cosmological Argument

Another important attempt to provide a rational justification for the existence of God is the cosmological argument, also called the argument from first cause. Aquinas and 18th-century English philosopher Samuel Clarke, among others, developed this justification. One important version of this argument contends that to explain the existence of the contingent universe it is essential to propose a necessary being, a being whose existence is not contingent on anything else. This necessary being is God. Critics have argued that the existence of the universe might be a brute fact—a fact without any explanation. They assert that proving the existence of a necessary being is not the same as proving the existence of God. A necessary being might lack some of the properties considered essential to God, such as being all good. In a version of the cosmological argument found in contemporary scientific cosmology, God is postul...