The Ontological Argument For God's Existence

Blog Posts From Cerebral Faith

By: Evan Minton

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

The Ontological Argument is an argument for the existence of God that has had a long history. Initially, it was formulated by St. Anselm of Canterbury in the 1000s and has undergone development until reaching its most robust form in Alvin Plantinga's work. Platinga's version is called The Modal Ontological Argument as it heavily relies on modal logic. The argument is sound; it has true premises, and the conclusion follows from the premises by the law of logic known as dysjunctive syllogism. Unfortunately, the argument strikes newcomers as so bizarre that many don't even bother studying it. It's a shame as out of all Natural Theology Arguments for the existence of God, this one may be one of the most valuable, as it establishes more than some of God's attributes, but establishes all of them; omnipotence, omniscience, omnipresence, moral perfection, and necessary existence. Moreover, some people sell themselves short and think they're not smart enough to master an argument like this and use it in their own apologetic case. In this book, Mr. Minton hopes to not only defend Plantinga's Ontological Argument, but show the reader that it isn't as complicated as some people make it out to be. God is a Maximally Great Being, and we can know that from reason as well as scripture.

This is Book 6 in the Cerebral Faith Blog Book Series.