There is an interesting analysis of the Ontological arguments, including arguments against, at http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/ontolo...#ObjOntArg
The bit that makes me laugh is:
"In the seventeenth century, René Descartes defended a family of similar arguments. For instance, in the Fifth Meditation, Descartes claims to provide a proof demonstrating the existence of God from the idea of a supremely perfect being. Descartes argues that there is no less contradiction in conceiving a supremely perfect being who lacks existence than there is in conceiving a triangle whose interior angles do not sum to 180 degrees. Hence, he supposes, since we do conceive a supremely perfect being—we do have the idea of a supremely perfect being—we must conclude that a supremely perfect being exists."
The thing is - we can conceive of a triangle whose internal angles do not add up to 180 degrees. In fact, we can draw one on the surface of the earth:
Stand at the North pole - draw a line down to the equator. Now draw another line down to the equator at 90 degrees to the first from the same point. At the equator draw a line between the 2 lines from the pole. If the angle between the lines at the pole is 90 degrees and each hits the equator at 90 degrees then the internal angles of that triangle add up to 270 degrees.
The bit that makes me laugh is:
"In the seventeenth century, René Descartes defended a family of similar arguments. For instance, in the Fifth Meditation, Descartes claims to provide a proof demonstrating the existence of God from the idea of a supremely perfect being. Descartes argues that there is no less contradiction in conceiving a supremely perfect being who lacks existence than there is in conceiving a triangle whose interior angles do not sum to 180 degrees. Hence, he supposes, since we do conceive a supremely perfect being—we do have the idea of a supremely perfect being—we must conclude that a supremely perfect being exists."
The thing is - we can conceive of a triangle whose internal angles do not add up to 180 degrees. In fact, we can draw one on the surface of the earth:
Stand at the North pole - draw a line down to the equator. Now draw another line down to the equator at 90 degrees to the first from the same point. At the equator draw a line between the 2 lines from the pole. If the angle between the lines at the pole is 90 degrees and each hits the equator at 90 degrees then the internal angles of that triangle add up to 270 degrees.
