Saturday, January 26, 2019

The greatest conceivable being

St. Anselm famously defined God as the greatest conceivable being. That's foundational to his ontological argument–whatever the merits of the argument.

That represents a drastic break with paganism. Zeus is assuredly not the greatest conceivable being. But it also stands in contrast to open theism. We can contemplate a God who knows the future. That's a greater conceivable being than a God who doesn't know the future. Ironically, the human mind is able to imagine a greater God than the God of open theism. So what does that tell you about open theism? Shouldn't God be even greater than we can imagine–greater by far–instead of less than we can imagine? 

1 comment:

  1. Plantinga was just recently discussing Anselm's argument here.

    ReplyDelete