Divine Inexistence and the Ontological Argument

The ontological argument for the existence of god is generally conceived as a scholastic curiosity. in its original formulation in the proslogion by anselm of canterbury, it is an attempt to prove god’s existence through a thought experiment: if we attempt to think “something than which nothing greater can be thought”, this something – god – must go beyond thought and, therefore, necessarily exists; for if it existed only in our mind, it would not be the “greatest” thing that can be thought. in short: to be (conceptually) “the greatest” entails (ontologically) “to exist”.instead of excavating the inherent paradox of the ontological argument, my paper attempts to invert it to the degree as to provide an ontological argument for the inexistence of god. needless to say, this involves a re-interpretation of “greatness” and “existence”. inspired by the work of heidegger, nishida, and deleuze, i argue that “the greatest” – understood as ontologically primordial – must exactly not exist because its existence would delimit its divinity. to be precise, this argument involves that god is also not a non-existent entity but – to the contrary – transcends the whole realm of finite determination. put this way, the ontological argument is even able to resist the critique of kant who had argued against anselm’s minor conception of existence. rather than a mere experiment of thought that would proceed from concept to ontology, the ontological argument gives deep insights into the relation of our limited existence to the divine inexistence of god.to be precise, this argument involves that god is also not a non-existent entity but – to the contrary – transcends the whole realm of finite determination. put this way, the ontological argument is even able to resist the critique of kant who had argued against anselm’s minor conception of existence. rather than a mere experiment of thought that would proceed from concept to ontology, the ontological argument gives deep insights into the relation of our limited existence to the divine inexistence of god.