Strengths and Weaknesses of St Anselms Ontological Argument - Essay Example

Strengths and weaknesess of ST. Anselm’s Ontological argument by The of the The of the School (University) The City and State where it is located The Date Strengths and weaknesses of ST. Anselm’s Ontological argument Introduction If one takes a close look, one will be able to see that there is a considerable number of aspects that differ a human being from the rest of the creatures on this planet. While some people might be willing to put emphasis of their analysis on some of the abilities which are considered to be characteristic to our kind, such as ability to generate verbal interact, other may suggest that economic activity or developed technology is what really defines human civilization. However, it is clear there is a particular aspect of our identity that may not be found anywhere outside the society that is formed by humans – the spiritual world. Indeed, one would make not mistake arguing that the concept of spirituality is something that is characteristic to people only. Speaking of spirituality, it would be advantageous to focus on the primary concept of it, namely God. There are lots of disciplines that are somehow related to it. This paper will focus on apologetics – the one that defends the existence of God with the help of different approaches which are based on evidence, logical conclusions or other ideas. In order to accomplish this, history of this discipline will be discussed as well as its place in the modern world; the meaning, types, nature and importance of apologetics will be explored; the strong and weak points of ontological argument which was articulated by St. Anselm will be examined in detail. History of apologetics To begin with, one should focus on the description of history of apologetics. It is clear that Christianity has been a target for public criticism from its dawn. It is true that even Paul the Apostle made some efforts to defend his faith and the early Church. The most notable authors that were active in the field of apologetics also include Patristic writers. Thus, it was the period of apologetics that laid the foundation of many approaches and will be revisited by the scholars for new inspiration (Follis 2006). The fruitful work of apologists may also be seen in the Medieval times. The two of the most prominent ones appears later in history, Anselm of Canterbury and Thomas Aquinas (Geisler 1988). Afterwards, “a concurrent recovery occurred among the Catholic apologists of the seventeenth century, but rather than returning to evidences from the Bible, they moved away from Thomistic rationalism and back towards Augistine’s intuitive orientation” (Broughton, 2009, p. 41). At the present moment the path of apologetics is not abandoned by the scholars. There are new names and ideas that appear to be quite popular such as Ravi Zacharias, Alister McGrath, Francis Collins and many others (McGrath 2002). This is particularly important since it shows that nowadays the Christian religion is still under pressure of certain concepts, but the true believers always find a way to protect their faith. Place of apologetics in a post modern The place of apologetics in the post modern world should be discussed taking the following points in regard. First of all, it is clear that the amount of information that has been accumulated as well as processed by science is rather big; so the opponents of Christianity might use a substantial evidence to support their claims. Apologetics in the previous centuries did not have to face so much factual data; that is why, now it has to change some of its approaches towards persuasion and defending its stance. Secondly, the development of information technology has contributed to evolution of communication which resulted in the fact that virtually every person is able to express one’s opinion on a difficult topic. This means that the discussion about the nature of God is no longer a prerogative of the scholars, but is open for ordinary people as well. In order to point the readers in the right direction, there are books which show the way for those who are uncertain about their faith and can find a legitimate answer to a controversial question (Zacharias & Geisler NL 2003). Finally, the modern world is characterized by a rather fast pace of daily routine as well as broad opportunities which lie before people, with faith accounting only for a part of their lives. So, under these circumstances, it is highly important to defend faith from unreasonable criticism and keep people engaged in active religious practice so that they would not stray away. Dimensions of apologetics The meaning of apologetics might be viewed in the following dimensions. As has been stated before, this is a discipline that strives to defend the position that is taken by the religious group. That is why apologetics may be viewed as a set of logical as well as valid ways to cope with issues that might undermine the faith and the spiritual life of a believer. However, it should not be regarded as a mechanic aggregation of facts, but rather guidelines that explain the fallacies in the arguments of opponents and show why the counter claims are invalid. Secondly, apologetics is also a valuable tool to reinforce the basic principles of faith. Indeed, when the scholars tackle the criticism, they use the Scripture or the works of Saints as a source of inspiration which results in a more detailed analysis of them. In other words, when apologetics successfully counters the attacks of the opponents it contributes to the stability of the religion as a system. If one develops this idea, one will come to a conclusion that over the centuries the numerous criticisms which were expressed by the people towards Christianity did not damage, but rather improved it. Types of apologetics It may be rather advantageous to analyze some of the types of apologetics in order to outline the paths that the development of this discipline might follow. The first type may be called classical apologetics. It is the most basic kind of apologetics that focuses its efforts on two goals: proving the existence of God and, consequentially, the truth of Christianity. The second type might be referred to as evidentialist apologetics. As one may clearly understand from the very name, the people who belong to this type tend to put emphasis on the evidence rather than some logical transitions or complexes. For example, it is important for them to bring historic evidence of existence of certain figures which are mentioned in the Bible. The third type may be called presuppositionalist apologetics. This is a rather peculiar type since it argues that Christianity should be viewed as a complete worldview which makes sense and, therefore, the validity of it should not be doubted. Proponents of this approach suggest that the truth of Christianity is self evident and does not need to be proven. Finally, there is also reformed epistemology. This types somewhat similar to the previous one since it suggests that people are born with the innate knowledge which might be used to prove the validity of the Christian worldview. Nature of apologetics The question of nature of apologetics is something that should be analyzed in great detail as well. Thus, having examined this discipline, one might come to the following conclusions: there are two natures of apologetics, namely defensive as well as offensive one. Speaking of the former, one might point out the next fact: technological advancement, scientific discoveries, other religious groups as well as similar aspects have a negative influence on Christianity as a system. The above mentioned factors might undermine some of the basic principles which are essential for its stability. Being a self regulated system, Christianity created apologetics in order to ensure that its existence would be safe. However, there is also another nature of apologetics, namely the offensive one. As it is written in the Holy Bible, the Saviour said: “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me” (John 14:6). One of the most important points about this quote is that is claims Jesus to be the only valid path for the spiritual development of the people. To put it differently, other religious practices will not be able to have the same positive effect on human soul. So, apologetics is also dedicated to show people the right way by deconstructing the fallacious arguments that they might make while considering the truth of Christianity. Importance of apologetics Based on the evidence that was presented in the paragraphs above, it is understandable that apologetics is a rather important discipline. To put it simple, one should mention some of the following aspects when it comes to its significance. First of all, apologetics might be considered to be a filter that does not allow negative information to penetrate the religious practice. Its function is similar to immune system inside a person’s body. It is common sense that when the immune system is not powerful enough to protect the organism from the deceases that exist in the environment, the organism dies. That is why AIDS is considered to one of the worst health conditions. Another point which should be regarded while evaluating the importance of apologetics is the fact that it refines the Christian teaching. Indeed, after an apologist was able to sort out the controversial problem, it is advisable to introduce certain changes in the general practice that will make sure that similar problems will not be encountered by the future generations of believers. In other words, apologetics may function as a mirror which is able to reflect some of the points of the system that are unclear or that should be expressed in a more comprehensive way so that the people would not have any doubts about it. As a result, the teaching is refined and reinforced. Major issues of apologetics in the modern world As has been mentioned in the beginning of the paper, apologetics exists at the present day too; so, it may be suitable to name some of the major issues that are addressed by the current scholars. The first as well as one of the biggest issues is the conflict with the evolutional approach. Since there is no simple answer to how the Universe started, each theory should be treated with a certain amount of scepticism. However, there is general practice that creationism may be regarded as “too religious” and is criticized by the educational facilities. This, in turn, casts a shadow on Christianity, undermining its basis. Apologetics is trying to protect the place under the sun of its religion, so that none of the theories about the creation of Earth would dominate. What is more important is that at the present moment apologetics is under heavy negative influence of technological development. The world was entered in the digital era: several decades ago social networks and wearable devices were considered to be science fiction, but now it is the reality. It is clear that under such conditions people might be willing to re-evaluate some of the traditional values that defined their lives. As a result there is a risk that people might be misguided by certain information and abandon Christianity. In order not to make this happen, apologetics focuses on the ways to tackle these claims. Strengths of St. Anselm’s ontological argument Now, it would be advantageous to take a particular apologist and analyze the results of his work. For the purposes of this paper the ontological argument of St. Anselm was chosen. First of all, the advantages of the argument should be explored. To begin with, one might suggest that it features a very fine logic and structure: it is long enough to reflect all the peculiarities and make this argument unique, but it is short enough for the people to read and not lose interest to it. The claims which are made by the apologist are simple as easily understandable. They are not grounded on some logical manipulations and utilize a self evident logic. Even the person who does not have academic or theological background will be able to perceive it in all its correctness. What is more important is that the argument operates with rather broad terms and is dedicated to prove the existence of God, not a particular aspect of it. This is what makes the argument universal and, therefore, quite useful for the future scholars. That is probably the reason why it is highly praised and was used by the generations of future apologists. So, these are the reasons why the ontological argument which was originally created by St. Anselm is regarded as one of the most fundamental ones in Christian apologetics. Weaknesses of St. Anselm’s ontological argument However, it is clear there are also points which might be criticized when it comes to the evaluation of the above mentioned argument. One of the stages of explanation that might be considered to be weak is the following one: the greatness of God is supported by the idea that greatness might be measured with the help of some abstract units. However, it is clear that it is rather hard to suggest that a being which exists in mind and in reality is greater than the one that exists only in mind. While this might be self evident to a certain extent, there is not enough logical proof to that. As a result, if one dismisses the validity of this claim, one will have to reject the validity of the entire argument. It is obvious that it is relatively difficult to anticipate what the opponents of Christianity will utilize in their discussion, but the ontological argument might seem as a one of the most vulnerable targets. Indeed, one might point out the fact that this particular fallacy may not be visible to some Christian scholars since they are accustomed to viewing the ontological argument by St. Anselm is extremely logical. It does not mean that their ability to think critically has decreased, but it may be quite difficult for the people to accept some aspects that do not comply with their traditional point of view. Conclusion Having presented all the evidence, it would be important to summarize it. Thus, apologetics is a discipline the major goal of which is to use the available data as well as logic in order to support a particular point of view that a religious group adheres to. The history of the Christian apologetics goes back to the very creation of this religion. So, even people who knew Christ Himself were engaged in apologetic activities. Later in history, this discipline evolved and produced a number of arguments that laid the foundation of it. What is even more important is that at the present moment, this area of activity is developed by the contemporary scholars who add their new ideas. There are many different types of apologetics, each of which places emphasis on different aspects: the factual evidence, logic, innate knowledge etc. The nature of apologetics is a dual one: on the one hand, it is a defensive discipline which tries to reinforce the positions of Christianity; but on the other hand, it is assumes that Jesus is the path that all people who would like to save their souls should follow which also makes it offensive one. The ontological argument which was originally expressed by St. Anselm proves the existence of God with the help of simple logic and statements which are self evident for a person with as well as with out any academic or religious knowledge. References Broughton, WP 2009, The historical development of legal apologetics: with an emphasis on the resurrection. Xulon Press, Longwood, FL Follis, BA 2006, Truth with love: the apologetics of Francis Schaeffer. Crossway Books, Wheaton, IL. Geisler, NL 1988, Christian Apologetics. Baker Academic, Grand Rapids, MI. McGrath, AE 2002, Bridge-building: effective Christian apologetics 3rd ed. Inter-Varsity Press, Leicester. The Holy Bible: English Standard Version containing the Old and New Testaments. 2002. Crossway Bibles, Wheaton, IL. Zacharias, RK & Geisler, NL 2003, Who made God? and answers to over 100 other tough questions of faith. Zondervan, Grand Rapids, MI. Word count: 2517 Read More