Espino, Christyl Angel L.

BSAT-3C Ontological Argument is an argument whose conclusion leads to the great-making attributes of God such as omnipotence, omniscience, omnibenevolence, and the like. This point of the argument is very important and crucial because, if the Ontological Argument proves to be valid, it is just not the mere existence of God is established, but more significantly also the traditional attributes that theists believe God to have. It is widely accepted that the first ontological argument was proposed by Anselm of Canterbury in 1078 in his Proslogion. Anselm defined God as "that than which nothing greater can be conceived", and then argued that this being could exist in the mind. He suggested that, if the greatest possible being exists in the mind, it must also exist in reality. If it only exists in the mind, a greater being is possibleone which exists in the mind and in reality. The cosmological argument is widely recognized as a classic major attempt to demonstrate and prove the existence of God by an appeal to human reason alone. Having its basis on the indisputable fact of our experience with the sensible world, it is known in the philosophical parlance as an example of a a posteriori proof or argument for god. The most famous version of cosmological argument is one that was formulated by St. Thomas of Aquinas in his classic opus the Summa Theologiae. A teleological or design argument is an a posteriori argument for the existence of God based on apparent design and purpose in the universe. The argument is based on an interpretation of teleology wherein purpose and design appear to exist in nature beyond the scope of any such human activities. The teleological argument suggests that, given this premise, the existence of a designer can be assumed, typically presented as God. The Teleological Argument is the second traditional a posteriori argument for the existence of God. Arguments such as this derive the existence of God from the premise that the world exhibits intelligent purpose or order and proceeds to the conclusion that there must be or probably is a divine intelligent being, which caused the purpose or order that manifests in nature. One of the most famous expositors of the teleological argument is the English clergyman William Paley. Paley popularized the argument from design with his concrete illustration of a human artifactthe watchthat he compares with the world. Understandably, the argument from design, one that is primarily based on analogy between the watch and the world comes to be particularly known as the Argument from Analogy. Here, Paley argued for the existence of God based on an analogy between the universe and a machine, particularly that of a watch. He claims that the universe seems to exhibit the same sort of purposeful arrangement of intricate and complex parts that the watch has. So just like the parts of the watch, the parts of the universe fits together to perform certain various specific functions and purposes. He then concludes that it too was designed by someone namely God. Newmans Argument from Conscience is a personal, intuitive, spontaneous, and emotional experience of God that is innate and open to all men and women. Newman was concerned primarily with the problem of personally arriving at the truth of religious faith, and his argument from conscience can be viewed as an earnest attempt to lead the people to the truth of God in terms of living, personal, and passionate way, rather than the way of formal and syllogistic reasoning. In his last major work--- An Essay in Aid of a Grammar of Assent (1870), the God that Newman tried to seek, understand, and encounter is the personal living God of the simple folk. It is the real God of experience, one that has not been corrupted by the sophistication of academic philosophy and theology. For Newman, faith in the existence of God should be grounded and expressed in the concrete, the living and in the particularity of the actual life of believer. Assent to the being God should be real and not just notional. The being of God should not just be understood and comprehend by the mind but more importantly, must be experienced concretely and personally--- as if I saw. The Pragmatic Argument for Gods existence is one argument that follows a different path in determining the validity and soundness of a religious claim regarding Gods existence. This argument is based on the practical consequences or benefits that one can get out of believing in God. Because there appears to be no valid and solid proof for God, both conceptual and empirical, the only option left is to justify religious belief on other grounds---on the ground of beneficiality and practicality. Thus, a belief is a pragmatically justified when there is sufficient reason for believing that having it will benefit you. The pragmatic argument for God appeals to common sense by letting us see the definite advantages or benefits that we can gain if we believe that there is God. There are essentially three things that have led philosophically inclined religious thinkers to give the pragmatic approach to God a serious thought. First, there is the common belief that reason is insufficient to provide rational grounds for belief in Gods existence. The theoretical, speculative, logical and rational arguments that have dominated philosophical thinking on religion for so long neither proved or disprove Gods existence. Secondly, there is a view that it is impossible to take a neutral stand with regard to the existence of God. Faith is an all or nothing thing. You either believe in God---or you dont. Lastly, since theoretical or speculative reason failed to guide us in taking a clear and definite stand on the God issue, it is legitimate to appeal to personal and subjective justification in making decision as what to believe. In John Smiths---The Holy and the Profane, he attempts to specifically explore the nature and ground of his particular kind of experience, and how it can possibly serve as the basis for a belief in God. Smiths particular approach here is phenomenological; that is, he treats experience as primary datum containing a kind of primary truth which can be arrived at through analysis. Phenomenology is a philosophy of experience. In here, the ultimate source of all meaning and value is the lived experience of human beings. All philosophical systems, scientific theories or aesthetic judgments have the status of abstractions from the ebb and flow of the lived world. The task of the philosopher, according to phenomenology, is to simply describe the structures of experience. Smith begins from the distinction between the Holy and the profane. He claims that there are persons, objects, events, and places that are said to be Holy and those that are called profane. What essentially makes the Holy distinct from the profane, according to Smith, is that the Holy is something different from the ordinary that we found in the human life. The Holy shows itself through its powerful, awe-inspiring and dangerous presence. It has an element of preciousness and importance that it can only be approached with outmost seriousness and gravity. In this sense, the Holy, Smith contends, stands over in contrast to the profane. While the holy evokes power, awe and reverence, the profane is open, manifest, obvious, ordinary and devoid of any mystery and depth within itself. While one has to have the proper and serious disposition to meet the Holy, the same thing cannot be said with regard with the profane. Since the profane is always there and thus readily available, its presence can be taken for granted. However, Smith reminds us that this contrast and distinction between the Holy and the profane does not entail their absolute separation or disconnection. Though the Holy is other than the profane, it is not wholly other.