Exposing the Weakness of Saint Anselm of Canterbury’s...

Exposing the Weakness of Saint Anselm of Canterbury’s Ontological Argument In a world of scientific inquiry, atheism, and the assassination of God, we are often neglectful of our Glorious God’s existence. With new theories of neuropsychology, quantum physics, gene therapy, evolution, and psychobiology, we are constantly forced to edge God out of our lives, to be replaced with cold, empty scientific thought. What, with meme theory, genetic predisposition, evolutionary spontaneous generation, dark matter, super string theory, multi-layered universes, and the neurological reasons behind consciousness, we are becoming more and more distant from the reality that is God. This is disappointing. This is painful. And thankfully, this†¦show more content†¦His major contribution to apologetics and theology is now called the Ontological Proof, which, essentially, is a set of logical steps which show that God must exist. One thousand years later, his proof is still a powerful argument against the plague of atheism. With it, we can turn the tables on physicists, biologists, chemists, and psychologists. We can fall asleep at night knowing in our soul that God does indeed exist. We can use the scientist’s weapons of logic and rhetoric to injure that scientist’s theories. But, the skeptic asks, how can we use a one thousand year old argument now, in the year 2000? Is it not out of date? Is it still applicable in a world of black holes, nuclear physics, Einstein-Rosen bridges, and self-replicating memes? I answer in the affirmative, and I will relate the Ontological Argument in a more contemporaneous way, with the hope that my more simplistic, understandable methods will prove effective. Anselm’s Ontological Argument: The essential points of Anselm’s arguments are these: God exists, for there is goodness in the world, and goodness can be good only through a supreme good that is good through itself, and only God is good through Himself. God exists, for since whatever exists does so only through something, there must be a supremely great being that exists through itself and through which all other things exist. God exists, for there are degrees of worth in