Existence of God

Running head: EXISTENCE OF GOD
EXISTENCE OF GOD
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Author Note

1EXISTENCE OF GOD
Introduction
Faith as a matter of fact is something which emerges from deep within the deeper
exigencies of human existence and cannot be challenged by means of using logic, reason and
science as it is above them. It is extremely difficult to convince an individual to be dissuaded
from his or her faith until and unless the individual himself or herself wants to be guided by the
logic of science and skepticism over faith something which is ascribed as a result of
socialization. Faith or belief in the existence of God is one such matter which has been dividing
the faithfuls and the skeptics as each of the parties are not favourably disposed towards the idea
espoused by each other. The thesis statement for this essay shall be focusing upon the question
whether the Traditional ontological argument for the existence of God is cogent or not, with
particular reference to the views espoused by the radical skeptics and the debate between the
epistemic pluralists and the epistemic monists (Carter & Pritchard, 2016).
In the following sections the discussion shall be devoted to a short discussion of the
traditional ontological argument about the existence of god. After that the discussion shall be
focusing upon critically analyzing the standpoint of the Traditional Ontological Argument
against the views provided by the radical skeptics and the epistemic pluralists and the epistemic
monists.
Traditional Ontological Argument
The traditional ontological argument was provided by St Anselm, who used to be the
Archbishop of Canterbury for the first time. He had provided his ideas in his scholarly work
which is called the Proslogium. He had provided his understanding which sought to provide a

2EXISTENCE OF GOD
very logical answer reinstating the fact that God exists. However, whether his existence can be
perceived in reality by the sense organs is something on which his stance is doubtful. He says
that God is an idea, a conceptual truth above whom nothing can be imagined and had mentioned
that God exists in the realm of mind. He tends to contradict the idea which he had provided,
saying that if God is the greatest thing which the human mind can imagine then it might be
possible to imagine something which is greater than God, which is nevertheless impossible.
Having said that he concluded by providing his standpoint that God exists (Rushby, 2018).
Things which should be striking in the ideas provided by Anselm is that he had tended to
contradict the ideas which he had provided, and also that he had not provided any concrete
evidence which proves that God exists. He had simply penned down his thought influenced by
his theological experience and had reached his conclusion, which makes it difficult to believe in
his ideas and drives one to conclude that his ideas, the traditional ontological argument is not
cogent (Logan, 2016).
Argument of the Radical Sceptics
The radical skeptics are the group of philosophers who tend to espouse the standpoint that
any form of belief cannot be considered as a source of knowledge. To the radical skeptics, who
are believers of strict logic and rationality tend to convey that any physical reality which is
beyond the realm of mind, vision and proveability cannot be considered to be real. About the
external world, in the Kantian view it has clearly been mentioned that the human knowledge
about this world is not complete and cannot be complete as the human senses tend to be
deceptive (Cumby, 2016).