Friday, May 9, 2008

Ontological Revelation

This is a continuation of Theology Proper

The fifth argument for the existence of God in the area of general revelation is the ontological argument. The ontological argument is any argument that seeks to show the existence of God based on the concept of the greatest conceivable being. The oppositions of this argument is that first there is three ways that something can exist: 1) Only in the mind; 2) only in reality, or 3) both in the mind and in reality. The ontological argument seeks to show that it is greater to exist in reality then just in the mind. For example, if I mentioned to someone that I was going to give that person a million dollars. When I made that statement to that person, the million dollars only existed in his and my mine. Now if I only left it there in the realm of the mind, and never actually followed through with the actually giving of that million dollars, I think the person would be a little upset with me. But if I actually handed the million dollars to that person, then I would see a smile on his face. He realized that the million dollars is greater when it is not only in the mind but in reality as well. So with this in mind, the ontological argument for the existence of God states that “in order for God to be the greatest conceivable being, then he would have to exist not only in the realm of the mind, but also in the realm of reality. Otherwise there would be something else greater then him, namely that which exists both in the mind and in reality.