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EnglandReligious StudiesQuick questions
3.1 Philosophy of religion and ethics: Philosophy of religion
Quick questions on Arguments for the existence of God: ontological, cosmological and teleological - AQA A-Level Religious Studies
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What are criticisms?Show answer
Gaunilo's "perfect island" parody says that by Anselm's logic the most perfect conceivable island would have to exist, which is absurd, so you cannot define things into existence. Anselm replies that the argument works only for a being whose non-existence is impossible (a necessary being), not for contingent things like islands. Kant's more decisive objection is that existence is not a predicate: saying a thing exists adds nothing to the concept of the thing (a hundred real coins contain no more in their concept than a hundred imagined coins), so a "God who exists" is not a greater concept, merely a claim that the concept is instantiated.
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