Deductive Argument

• All arguments for the existence of God claim to be logical attempts to accept the existence of God.
• The ontological argument claims that once we understand the idea of God, we should see that God must exist in reality.
• The ontological argument is a deductive argument.
• A deductive argument is an argument that if we accept that premises are true, we must accept the conclusion.
• The Ontological argument is a priori
• A priori means that its truth can be assessed prior to the experience.
• The ontological argument claims that the statement ‘God exists‘ is an analytic statement‘
• An analytic statement is one where the predicate is already included in the definition of the subject.
• Analytic statements can be verified without the need for external evidence.
• The ontological argument claims that once we understand what we mean by the idea of God we can be certain that God actually exists.
• Characteristics of the Ontological Argument

  1. Deductive
  2. Analytical statement
  3. A priori