In This Reading We Encounter St

question 13

True/False

In this reading we encounter St. Anselm's ontological argument for the existence of God and Gaunilo's reply. The argument goes like this: God is by definition "a being than which nothing greater can be conceived." If God, the greatest being that can be conceived, exists only in our minds, then there must be a being greater than God-that is, a God that exists in reality (an existing being is greater than an imaginary one). But this leads to a contradiction: A being greater than God is impossible. Therefore, God must exist in reality (as well as in the mind). Gaunilo replies that if Anselm's reasoning were sound, we could prove something ridiculous-namely, that the greatest island possible exists in reality.
-According to Anselm, God cannot even be conceived not to exist.

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Definitions:

Continuous Random Variable

A variable whose value is not fixed and can assume an infinite number of values within a given range.

Normal Probability Distribution

A bell-shaped distribution that is symmetric about the mean, showing that data near the mean are more frequent in occurrence than data far from the mean.

Standard Deviation

A framework for measuring the extent of divergence or distribution in a collection of quantities.

Probability Density Function

A function that describes the likelihood of a continuous random variable to take on a particular value.