Chapter 6 An Anselmian Cosmological Proof of the Existence of God
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The standard interpretation of Anselm’s proof of the existence of God is both a travesty and invalid. It is not complete in Proslogion 2, nor is it a version of ‘the ontological argument’. His argument in Proslogion 2 is only the first stage of a three-stage argument. Its role is simply to establish that something-than-which-a-greater-cannot be-thought is in reality. But it will be shown that the conclusions of each of Anselm’s three stages will be proven from a factual premise confirmed by modern cosmology: ‘Every observable thing which exists in the universe at some time did not exist at some previous time’. Many critics object to the argument in Proslogion 2 that it is impossible to prove that anything exists from its being in the understanding. I shall present a reconstruction of his argument in Proslogion 2 so that readers can see that it is indeed valid, and can compare it with the cosmological alternative Stage One argument I shall then present. It will then be shown that the conclusion of this cosmological Stage One entails the premise of Stage Two, and is incorporated into its conclusion: that this same thing so truly exists that it could not be thought not to exist. That Stage Two conclusion implies the conclusions of Stage Three. In Stage Three Anselm deploys a premise entailed by the first clause of the Nicene Creed—‘Whatever is other than You can be thought not to exist’—to prove that God alone is something-than-which-a-greater-cannot be-thought, and therefore so truly exists that He could not be thought not to exist. This crucial premise will be justified on both theological and cosmological grounds.