13 Years Ago Yesterday: An ontological argument for the non-existence of god

A mid-17th century
engraving of Anselmn

By Moristotle

[Originally published, without an image, on December 6, 2007. Dawkins’ reference to the “ironic ‘proof’ ” he announces understates the pleasure it afforded me when I read it again this year.]

In the year 1078, St. Anselm of Canterbury (England) proposed an “ontological argument” for the existence of God:

It is possible to conceive, Anselm said, of a being than which nothing greater can be conceived. Even an atheist can conceive of such a superlative being, though he would deny its existence in the real world. But, goes the argument, a being that doesn’t exist in the real world is, by that very fact, less than perfect. Therefore we have a contradiction and, hey presto, God exists!
  [courtesy Richard Dawkins, p. 80, The God Delusion]

    A contemporary of Anselm, one Gaunilo had, reports Dawkins, “suggested a similar reductio.” And a contemporary of Dawkins, “the [philosopher] Australian Douglas Gasking, made the point with his ironic ‘proof’ that God does not exist:

1. The creation of the world is the most marvelous achievement imaginable.
2. The merit of an achievement is the product of (a) its intrinsic quality, and (b) the ability of its creator.
3. The greater the disability (or handicap) of the creator, the more impressive the achievement.
4. The most formidable handicap for a creator would be non-existence.
5. Therefore if we suppose that the universe is the product of an existent creator we can conceive a greater being—namely, one who created everything while not existing.
6. An existing God therefore would not be a being greater than which a greater cannot be conceived because an even more formidable and incredible creator would be a God which did not exist.
   Ergo:
7. God does not exist.”

  [p. 83, The God Delusion]

Copyright © 2009, 2020 by Moristotle