ARGUMENTS

FOR THE
EXISTENCE OF
GOD
 Jens Martensson
Summary of the
arguments
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 The Ontological
Argument
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Jens Martensson
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The Ontological
Argument

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Ontological & st.Anslem.
THE GREATEST POSSIBLE BEING (GPB) Anslem’s argument on the existence of God.

• 1. We can think of a Being greater than any

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other being.
• 2. We all know that existence in reality is
superior than existence in the mind alone.
• 3. If a being exists only in the mind, then
there is a greater being.
• 4. Therefore, the GPB must exist in reality,
not just in the mind.
• 5. The concept of God is the concept of
GPB.
• 6. Thus, God is the GPB and exists in reality. 6
Moral Argument
For the existence of God
1. It takes the existence of morality or
some features of morality to imply
the existence of God.

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2. It has at least 3 types;
1. Formal moral argument
2. Perfectionist moral argument
3. Kant’s moral argument.

3. The formal moral argument takes

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• MORALITY IS PRESCRIPTIVE, IT TELLS US • IT BEGINS BY SETTING UP A

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WHAT TO DO. PROBLEM.
• THE MORAL ARGUMENTS SUGGEST
THAT IT IS PRESCRIBED BY SOMEONE. • THERE ARE 3 APPARENT TRUTHS
• MORALITY IS ULTIMATELY ABOUT MORALITY (INCONSISTENT)
AUTHORITATIVE – IT IS HIGHER THAN
ANY HUMAN INSTITUTION. • 1. WE OUGHT TO BE PERFECT
• IT TELLS US THAT IT IS NOT PRESCRIBED • 2. OUGHT IMPLIES CAN
BY ANY HUMAN INSTITUTION, BUT
• 3. WE CANNOT BE PERFECT.
MUST RATHER HAVE A SUPERNATURAL
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SOURCE.
THE PERFECTIONIST MORAL
ARGUMENT
• the solution proposed by the
perfectionist moral argument.

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• The tension between the three
apparent truths can be resolved by
invoking God’s assistance and
maintaining that moral perfection can
be attained.
• We cannot achieve moral perfection
by our own strength, but we can do so It is, then, possible for us to fulfil our duty
with God’s help, which is available to to be perfect, but only if God exists. That
us. God can forgive us; God can take we have a duty to be perfect, which
the punishment for our sins; God can
restore us to righteousness. entails that it is possible for us to be
perfect, therefore entails that God exists 10
THE KANTIAN MORAL ARGUMENT

• Rather we can have knowledge of

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existence could be demonstrated we consider our senses of right
solely through a priori reasoning, and wrong, of duty and of what it
could not be based solely on means to be good.
logical analysis on the concept of
God “theoretical reasoning.” • The existence of God is not
something that we can know
through the power of reason.
Reason only works for the world of 11
sense experience, but God
existence is beyond the grasp of
 • If you ought to do something then
you have the reason to do it.” Moral
reason is always stronger than any
• Therefore, it is based on the other reason. We have good reason
premise that humanity ought to to be moral. Moral behavior is

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strive towards moral perfection. always rational.
• A good will or a person with right • Clearly justice is not administered in
moral intentions seeks to bring this life: some cheats prosper; some
about the Highest Good The crime pays; bad things happen to
Summum Bonum (the perfect good people. People do not always,
state of affairs). This is what we or even often, get what they
should aim to achive. deserve. Life isn‘t fair.
• Kant argues that ought implies can • If this life is all there is, then, justice 12
– because we know that we ought is not done, and so moral behaviour
to aim for the summum bonum, it is not rational; we have no reason to
•.
• The traditional Christian view of

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life after death has justice being
meted out to sinners, and the
righteous receiving the reward
that they deserve. The rationality
of morality therefore establishes
that something like the Christian
view of the afterlife is correct.
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Jens Martensson
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The Religious Arguments

• Is the argument from experiences

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• People experience God, therefore
there must be a God.
• Religious experience demonstrates
the existence of God.

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Are Religious Experiences Perceptual?

• Or is it involves imagination? • Or is it perception?

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that exists objectively in the world person having the experience
but rather something that exists perceives something through the
subjectively in the mind of the senses.
person having experience.
• This is supported with an appeal to
the possibility of fabricating
artificial experiences of God.
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Conflicting religious Experiences

• A further difficulty is the problem

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adherents of all religions claim to
have had experiences that validate
those religions.
• It can’t be however that all of
these appeals are valid, because
the various religions are mutually
inconsistent.
• Therefore, none of these appeals
to experience is valid. 17
Religious experiences must be
interpreted.
• As a defense against this, an • These preconceptions shape the
appeal may be made that way that religious experiences are

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interpretation plays in any religious interpreted.
experience.
• Two people may have the same
• Anyone who has religious
experience brings certain experience, and the first who has
preconceptions to it. One raised in Christian preconceptions, describe
a Christian environment will tend it as an experience of the triune
to have Christian preconceptions. God, and the Hindus describe it as
Similarly with other religions e.g. an experience of Vishnu.
the Hindus, the Buddhists etc. 18
Thank
You