The question of the origin of the world and of human beings has been accompanied by a series of philosophical reasonings that have impacted an entire cultural organization. There have been many arguments that from the most classical traditions of philosophy try to prove the existence of a divine being. Among other things, these arguments have been established around the following question: how could the existence of a God be proved , if by definition, “God” creates himself?

This could only be answered through premises that try to prove themselves. That is, arguments that do not use other forms of justification beyond the central idea being defended.

This is what the term “ontological argument” refers to . We will now briefly review its definition and those arguments that have been used to justify the existence of a God in Western society and culture.

What is an ontological argument?

To begin with, it is necessary to clarify what we mean by an “ontological argument”. The word ontology means “the study of the entity”, which means that it is a philosophical practice that studies the ultimate substance: that which gives form to an entity, person, individual, matter, object, subject or being. Ontology asks itself what is it? the object it studies, and what makes it real? That is, asks about its ultimate cause and its most fundamental properties .

In this sense, an ontological argument is a reasoning used to prove or justify the essence of an entity. Although the latter could be applied to different entities, generally the term “ontological argument” refers directly to the reasoning that is used to prove the existence of God. This is because by its very definition, God should have created himself. His existence is supported by an ontological type of argument because the very idea of God refers to the greatest thing that human beings can conceive, and therefore, there is no other mode of existence or knowledge that precedes him .

In other words, its existence is based on a series of premises that try to explain “a priori” the existence of a divine being . “A priori” because it is a matter of arguing on the basis of the argument itself, the essence of that being, without the need to resort to previous arguments, that is, without any other argument being necessary to justify the central idea. And, above all, always appealing to reason (not to empirical or naturalistic evidence). Thus, this is an ontological argument because it is not based on the observation of the world, but on a rational and theoretical appeal on the study of the being.

Below we will see some of the arguments that have been used from the classical philosophy of Christianity to defend the existence of God.

From San Anselmo to Descartes

St. Anselm is the most recognized of the 11th century AD philosophers who rationally argued about the existence of God. Heir to the philosophical tradition of St. Augustine, Anselm explains that God is the greater being, that is, not something greater than can be conceived. The greatest thing we can imagine and intuit is precisely the idea of a God , and therefore, he exists. In other words, the existence of God proves itself by the very definition of God.

St. Anselm’s reasoning is part of a philosophical and religious tradition of the Middle Ages that seeks to argue for divine existence not only on the basis of Christian faith, but also on the basis of reason. The latter in an attempt to counteract the God-denial of agnosticism and scepticism. In this context, the demonstration and argumentation of God’s existence is seen as the transcendent cause that makes possible the bond of human beings with the world.

The rebirth and separation of faith and reason

During the period we know as the Renaissance, the theologian Duns Scotus is one of the most recognized in ontological argumentation. He explains that God, and his attributes, can be conceived through reason and not only through faith .

This lays the foundation for thinking that reason and faith are separate fields (contrary to what St. Anselm said); thus, the philosopher and the theologian (and later the scientist) and the tasks that each performs are also different.

Not only that, but reason is beginning to be understood as attainable through demonstration and experience, so that the existence of God is demonstrated by faith alone. And in this same sense, during the Renaissance a sceptical tradition of the religious and moral is founded.

Descartes’ ontological argument

Arriving at modernity and under the same Christian tradition, Descartes appears to try to recover the idea that the existence of God can be proved by reason. This and other philosophers remain sceptical about the terrain of experience as the starting point for building rational knowledge . From there, Descartes maintains that if there is something we cannot doubt, it is that we doubt and think, that is, that we have a rational substance that allows us to understand the material, and the world in general.

In other words, it reflects on the authority of reason, on the composition of thought and its extension, and how this resembles divine existence. For Descartes, reason (the mind) is the same as God , with which he reformulates the ontological argument of its existence while laying the foundations of the epistemological paradigms of modern science.

Bibliographic references:

  • González, V. (1950). The ontological argument in Descartes. Cuban Journal of Philosophy. 1(6): 42-45.
  • Isea, R. (2015). The ontological argument for the existence of God, Part I. Magazine on reason and Christian thought. Retrieved July 18, 2018. Available at http://www.revista-rypc.org/2015/03/el-argumento-ontologico-sobre-la.html.