Ontology, Epistemology, and the Existence of God: A Metaphysical Inquiry
Ontology and Epistemology
The first task of ontology: To clarify terms. Clarifying certain terms can serve as an introduction to ontology. Many of these concepts are so basic that they are difficult to define; what is described are examples. Describing the task of ontology is like a search for the real definitions of certain terms, based on the meaning ascribed to such terms in the language of which they are a part. The terms which ontology tries to give real definitions of are formed largely by the technical language in which investigations are conducted, partly philosophical and partly colloquial language.
The transition from ontology to epistemology: There are two fundamental concepts, two categories that ontology should clarify: real and unreal. They introduce us to the second part of metaphysics, epistemology, also called the theory of knowledge, which studies the relationship between the knower and the real known object. The real can impose constraints. Conscious phenomena are not real in the sense that my body is. They are only aware of while I’m still in them. The emergence of consciousness introduces a new way of reality. There seems to be an admittance of a mental reality: conscious phenomena. Therefore, there are physical realities and mental realities. For Descartes, the mental realities, the conscious ones, were the most clear and obvious. The principle of all knowledge was the expression “I think, therefore I am.” Our experiences always mentally contain an object. Consciousness is always “intentional”; it is in relation to something. To these, we call conscious contents: intentional, unreal, mental ideals. Hence, all I know is in my conscience intentionally unrealistic, even the real things. This is the great problem of knowledge: we know real things by unrealities. Some philosophers say that the study of human consciousness should be the starting point of philosophy because everything else exists within it. Speaking of things, we must distinguish between: real people, consciousness, and purposive beings that exist in the consciousness. Everything we have in our mind is unreal; it is intentional. But these representations sometimes refer to real things that exist independently of us, and other times to unrealistic things that only exist if we are thinking.
God as an Ontological Problem
The study of God: For many people, God is seen in their consciousness as an absolutely evident real being. The mystics of all religions say that they have direct experience of divinity. For religious people, the belief in God is the foundation of their personal world. God is supreme, the creator, the deeper reality behind the rest of realities. For Christianity, He is a personal being. For other religions, such as Hinduism or Buddhism, He is an impersonal being. (Theology – from the Greek *theos* (god) and *logos* (science) – is the science which deals with God). There is a “supernatural theology” that is based on experiences or revelations, and therefore is not philosophy, and supernatural theology based solely on reason, and that is a part of ontology. The goals of natural theology are:
- Whether God exists, i.e., if the evidence is so clear that for many people, it is part of their “autobiographical philosophy,” or whether it may be considered a universally verifiable truth.
- Examine what kind of being God is, in the event that their actual existence is proved.
The Problem of the Existence of God
Faced with the problem of the existence of God, one can take the following positions:
- Atheism: Denial of the existence of God.
- Theism: Affirmation of the existence of God.
- Pantheism: Identifying all of reality with God.
- Agnosticism: Inability to know anything certain about the existence or nonexistence of God.
The traditional proofs of the existence of God have been built on three foundations:
- The principle of causality: Underlying the five ways outlined by St. Thomas, everything that moves is moved by another; the “uncaused cause” is what arguments pose as God. These arguments use the principle of causality to establish the existence of an exception to the principle of causality.
- The idea of God: Underlying the arguments called “ontological.” According to them, if we think the concept of “God,” we are thinking about “that greater than which we cannot think of anything.” But this does not happen if we thought that He does not exist because we fall into a contradiction. We cannot think of something that is greater than what we can think. This argument, which has been influential, is not valid because it leaves the realm of thought. It tells us nothing about the real world.
- The existence of moral law: According to Kant, it allowed the affirmation of the existence of God as its guarantor, as the ultimate distributor of justice. This argument is not valid because it assumes the existence of the moral law as given by God, which assumes what it wanted to prove.