Metaphysics vs Science: Proof vs Disproof

Recently, I’ve been wondering about the differences between science and metaphysics. They’re very similar in many ways. They both, ultimately, explore the nature of reality. They share many questions…

And yet they’re fundamentally different.

To Shred an Ontological Argument

Anselm’s Ontological Argument is summarized by Wikipedia as follows:

1. If I am thinking of the Greatest Being Thinkable, then I can think of no being greater

1a. If it is false that I can think of no being greater, it is false I am thinking of the Greatest Being Thinkable

2. Being is greater than not being

3. If the being I am thinking of does not exist, then it is false that I can think of no being greater.

4. If the being I am thinking of does not exist, then it is false that I am thinking of the Greatest Being Thinkable

Conclusion: If I am thinking of the Greatest Being Thinkable, then I am thinking of a being that exists

This argument has been around for a while and has been attacked many times… Yet its use still persists.

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