(December 15, 2015 at 5:51 pm)Delicate Wrote:Oh goody!(December 12, 2015 at 1:37 pm)athrock Wrote: I have never seen this argument before, so I'm interested in some discussion of it. A philosopher by the name of Alvin Plantinga states it this way:
The Ontological Argument
- It is possible that a maximally great being exists.
- If it is possible that a maximally great being exists, then a maximally great being exists is some possible world.
- If a maximally great being exists in some possible world, then it exists in every possible world.
- If a maximally great being exists in every possible world, then it exists in the actual world.
- If a maximally great being exists in the actual world, then a maximally great being exists.
- Therefore, a maximally great being exists.
Thoughts?
That sounds like an older formulation. It's been formulated to be even stronger in a modal version called the modal ontological argument.
Seriously, if there is a better formulation, let see it. Please provide definitions for any words not used in a colloquial way.
If there is a god, I want to believe that there is a god. If there is not a god, I want to believe that there is no god.