The God Concept

Topic Notes

Welcome!

The Ontological Argument for the existence of God

• God is by definition a Necessary Being
• It is logically necessary to affirm what is necessary to the concept of a necessary being
• Existence is logically necessary to the concept of a necessary being
• Therefore a necessary being (like God) necessarily exists

What does this mean?

Simply put the simple fact that we can conceive of the idea of a God (perfect and necessary) proves that God exists

The ‘water pipe’ analogy

• Water pipes by definition are pipes that carry water
• It is logically necessary to affirm what is necessary to the concept of carrying a water in a pipe
• Space for water to flow is logically necessary to the concept of carrying water in a pipe
• Therefore a water pipe necessarily has space for water to flow

The argument was developed by Anselm of Canterbury 1,000 years ago.

What does it mean to be necessary?

What does logically necessary mean?

If a being cannot NOT exist, then that being would have to have whatever is necessary to exist

God only needs existence to exist

God must exist, otherwise everything would cease to exist.

But what if God is not necessary for existence?

Bible Contradiction

Shall we drink alcohol or not?
Deuteronomy 14:26-27 vs Romans 14:21

Listener Question

Kindyl: I was told by my dad (who hates that I go to church, by the way) that Adam and Eve actually had 3 sons so it makes zero sense that we could be descendants of theirs.

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