I was reading a few websites and I've encountered various theists using the Ontological Argument as evidence of God. This argument was so absurd that I couldn't even comprehend how a sane person could even agree with it. Do any of you adhere to this?
Whether or not you believe in God is irrelevant. I just want to know if you think the argument is coherent...
For a brief overview of the Ontological Argument, here's a paragraph from a site which supports the existence of a God....
If something is perfect, then it couldn’t possibly be better than it is; there can’t be anything better than perfection. This means that if a thing is perfect then it is impossible to imagine it being better than it is; there is nothing better than it is to imagine.
If we think of God as being perfect—and perfection, remember, is part of the concept of God—then we must therefore think of God as a being that cannot be imagined to be better than he is. As St Anselm, the inventor of the ontological argument, put it, God is “that than which no greater can be conceived.”
It is therefore impossible to conceive either of there being anything greater than God or of it being possible to imagine God being better than he already is.
If we were to think of God as not existing, though, then we would be able to imagine him being better than he is; we would be able to imagine him existing, and a God that exists is clearly better than a God that doesn’t. To think of God as not existing, then, is to think of God as being imperfect, because a God that doesn’t exist could be better than he is.
The idea of an imperfect God, though, we have already said, is just as absurd as the idea of a four-sided triangle; “perfect” is part of what “God” means, just as “three-sided” is part of what “triangle” means. As the idea that God doesn’t exist implies his imperfection, therefore, the idea that God doesn’t exist is just as absurd, just as obviously false, as the idea that a four-sided triangle does. God’s non-existence is therefore impossible.
- Source
So, does anyone agree with this?
