ABSTRACT
God is by definition a perfect being and indeed if we may speak of degrees in perfection a supremely perfect being. But it is self-contradictory to regard a supremely perfect being as non-existent; for to lack existence must be an imperfection. Hence a perfect being must exist, and so God must exist. The crux of the argument is the contention that we are entitled, and indeed obliged, to pass from the thought or notion of God's perfection to knowledge of His existence to knowledge that He must necessarily exist. For Anselm the ontological argument had a background of Platonism imperfectly understood. We may be told that the ontological argument is a fallacious rationalization of an irrational process which is equally fallacious mere projection of our own desires, a kind of wishful thinking now made only too clear. The religious attitude is an attitude of worship, we may say that it presumes an object of worship which is and is perfect.
