Ontological

• The ontological argument is an a priori argument which means it is not based on experience but logic or pure reason.
• The ontological argument claims that if we simply try to understand what the concept of God means, we will see that it must exist.
• The ontological argument is a deductive argument which means that the truth of its premises logically entails the truth of its conclusion.
• If the premises of the ontological argument are true, the conclusion must be true.
• The design argument's basis in observation is a weakness.
• The strengths of the design argument outweigh its weaknesses.
• The design argument fails to prove God's existence.
• Hume's criticisms of the design argument cannot be defended against.
• Paley's design argument is unconvincing.
• The design argument has no serious weaknesses.
• The design argument proves that God exists.
• Deductive arguments show that if the premises are true then the conclusion must be true.
• Anselm’s ontological argument refers to Psalm 14:1 ‘the fool says in his heart, ‘there is no god’.” Since the fool can conceive of God as the greatest being, it would be contradictory to think God doesn’t exist since then God wouldn’t be the greatest being.
• Anselm argues that since God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived, it is incoherent to think that God exists in the mind alone because then we could conceive of something greater, i.e., that thing also existing in reality.
• A strength of the ontological argument is that it is based on a theologically and philosophically convincing definition of God.
• A weakness of the ontological argument is that Gaunilo raises an objection to P3; the premise that the greatest conceivable being exists in the mind/understanding, as an idea.
• Gaunilo draws on traditional Christian theology and claims God is beyond our understanding and therefore cannot be said to be ‘in’ the understanding.
• The concept 100 thalers is no different whether a mere concept in your mind or instantiated in reality.
• Anselm’s ontological argument assumes that existence is part of the definition of a concept.
• Necessary existence is a predicate of God, but contingent existence of things like cats and coins is not a predicate, since their reason for existence is something else.
• Existence is not part of the definition of a thing.
• The arguments for God created by Paley, Aquinas and Anselm are examples of natural theology.
• Necessary existence defines and describes a thing.
• Most theologians agree that faith should be the foundation of belief in God, a view called revealed theology.
• Knowledge of God can be gained from God’s revelation to us, for example in Jesus and the Bible, as per revealed theology.
• Theologians who reject natural theology and subscribe only to revealed theology are called Fideists.
• Kant’s illustration in the ontological argument was 100 thalers.
• Existence is not a predicate or property of the definition of a thing.
• Anselm claimed that his purpose in creating the ontological argument for God was “faith seeking understanding”.
• Kant’s first criticism of the ontological argument might still succeed: Even if necessary existence were a predicate of God, that only shows that if God exists, then God necessarily exists.
• Some theologians, typically Catholic, claim that reason is also a means of gaining knowledge about God, a view called natural theology.
• We simply have to either choose to have faith or not.
• Kierkegaard argued that it is circular to use reason to justify living by reason, but the same is true for using faith to justify living by faith.
• Belief in God, according to Price, cannot be reduced to the mere acceptance of an existential proposition.
• Kierkegaard's argument is successful because it explains the reason the debate about God has been so persistent, as it cannot actually be solved through reason.
• Sometimes belief-in reduces to belief-that, such as belief-in the loch ness monster, because that does not involve a personal relationship.
• Price's arguments actually support the project of natural theology.
• Religious belief involves a personal relationship with God such that faith in God is not only a matter of "belief-that" God exists, but also involves evaluative "belief-in".
• Philosophical argument can be relevant to an important part of Christian faith - the part dependent on belief-that God exists.
• Aquinas, Paley and Anselm only claim that their natural theology supports faith in God, but they each acknowledge that belief in God is ultimately founded on faith, not reason or philosophical argument.