Monday, March 07, 2005
The Ontological proof of God.
Really random thought. Not really spurred on by anything other than thinking back to a college philosophy class. To really understand the ontological proof of God as stated by Descartes and Anselm most notable, you should probably Google it.
The basic idea is this, written from Descartes' perspective:
I exist (cogito ergo sum). I can imagine a perfect being. Since I am an imperfect being, I could not have created these perfect thoughts. A higher power must have created these thoughts. Part of being a perfect being is to exist. Therefore, a higher, perfect being (God) must exist.
This has always bothered me because it seems so easy to refute. The idea behind the argument is a two sided coin. On one hand, if a being is perfect then it exists. Even given that weak logical argument, let's accect it as true. On the other hand, if a being is imperfect, then existence is not a necessary attribute. If God does not exist, then, perfection is not required.
The basic idea is this, written from Descartes' perspective:
I exist (cogito ergo sum). I can imagine a perfect being. Since I am an imperfect being, I could not have created these perfect thoughts. A higher power must have created these thoughts. Part of being a perfect being is to exist. Therefore, a higher, perfect being (God) must exist.
This has always bothered me because it seems so easy to refute. The idea behind the argument is a two sided coin. On one hand, if a being is perfect then it exists. Even given that weak logical argument, let's accect it as true. On the other hand, if a being is imperfect, then existence is not a necessary attribute. If God does not exist, then, perfection is not required.
# posted by ChuckJerry : 3/07/2005 07:56:00 PM
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I took a course "Intro to Philosophy" at Rutgers. The professor was a young British guy, and all the girls in class thought he was hot because of his accent. If he had a voice like Randy Quaid in National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, nobody would look at him twice.)
But anyway, we talked about several philosophical arguments for/against the existence of God, this being among them. All are silly. If you believe in God, then you accept that the nature of God is that you must believe in him/it strictly by faith. If there was any proof of God's existence, then faith in God wouldn't mean much since everybody would do it naturally... right?
The silliest one was the argument of why one should believe in God[paraphrasing - don't remember the philosopher] "I'm not sure if God exists or not, but if I choose to believe in God, and I'm correct, then it will pay off. If I choose to believe and I'm incorrect, it won't hurt me anyway. So therefore I choose to believe in God."
How ridiculous! How can one "choose to believe" in something? Isn't belief, almost by definition, not a choice?
But anyway, we talked about several philosophical arguments for/against the existence of God, this being among them. All are silly. If you believe in God, then you accept that the nature of God is that you must believe in him/it strictly by faith. If there was any proof of God's existence, then faith in God wouldn't mean much since everybody would do it naturally... right?
The silliest one was the argument of why one should believe in God[paraphrasing - don't remember the philosopher] "I'm not sure if God exists or not, but if I choose to believe in God, and I'm correct, then it will pay off. If I choose to believe and I'm incorrect, it won't hurt me anyway. So therefore I choose to believe in God."
How ridiculous! How can one "choose to believe" in something? Isn't belief, almost by definition, not a choice?
i've heard that logic too max and i think it was albert einstein.
i remember like 10 or 15 years ago i was watching 'doogie howser md' and in the episode, doogie had a dream or something where he had a discussion with einstein about God and he said that exact argument.
i remember thinking that was a kind of retarded argument at the time.
-lukie testa md
i remember like 10 or 15 years ago i was watching 'doogie howser md' and in the episode, doogie had a dream or something where he had a discussion with einstein about God and he said that exact argument.
i remember thinking that was a kind of retarded argument at the time.
-lukie testa md
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: Monday, March 21, 2005
: Monday, March 21, 2005
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