Paragraph 3 -
Outline the criticisms -

Hume rejects the idea that anything can exist necessarily without empirical evidence.
C.D. Broad dismissed the coherence of a "maximally great being", and suggests that some aspects of greatness are incompatible with others.
Gasking asserted that the creation of the world is the most marvellous achievement imaginable. The merit of such an achievement is the product of its quality and the creator's disability: the greater the disability of the creator, the more impressive the achievement. Non-existence, Gasking asserts, would be the greatest handicap. Therefore, if the universe is the product of an existent creator, we could conceive of a greater being—one which does not exist. A non-existent creator is greater than one which exists, so God does not exist. Gasking's proposition that the greatest disability would be non-existence is a response to Anselm's assumption that existence is a predicate and perfection. Gasking uses this logic to assume that non-existence must be a disability.
Russell drew a distinction between existence and essence, arguing that the essence of a person can be described and their existence still remain in question.
Dawkins described the argument as "infantile" because of the leap of faith.

	Created by jessica.kenmore over 10 years ago

30 marks - Essay plan.

Explain the Ontological Argument as outlined by Anselm.