Anselm

As a philosopher, Anselm is most often remembered for his attempts to prove the existence of God. Anselm presented the popular Ontological Argument. In this argument Anselm declares that God is that than which no greater can be thought. Anselm feels that that God exists as the source of all perfection. Anselm begins by stating that God is the greatest being we can possibly think of. When Anselm says this, it means that it is not possible to think of a being greater than God is. Anselm also says that if God is the greatest being he is referring to the fact that it would be impossible to imagine someone or something being greater than God is. Thus it would be impractical to say that God only exists in the mind because it is highly greater to exist in reality than it is to only exist in a persons mind. He believes that a perfect God must exist in reality. Otherwise God would not be completely perfect. Anselm feels that existence is perfect. He feels that part of Gods perfection is that he is one. Anselm also says that God has many characteristics that describe him. Among these being: self existing, divine, and eternal. This means that God depends on nothing else for his existence. Thus, his existence is forever. God can not stop existing. Anselm uses Gods definition to argue that God can not be thought not to exist. Not only is his existence a fact, but his non existence is impossible. The non-existence for all other being is possible, but when it comes to the non-existence of God, it is not possible. The argument for Gods existence is very much like the argument that it is impossible for one to believe that God does not exist. Anselms theory states that God is everything to everyone. I find this hard to believe because every individual has a different view of how he or she perceives God. Many different people have many different views o