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Re:Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems (2015) by MichaelOtte on Tuesday April 04, 2017 @11:38AM (#14033811)
Though not a proof of the existence of God as worked on by Godel, but Al Platinga is known for his work for the logical discussion of the rationality or religious belief Somewhat related excerpt: https://www.princeton.edu/~hhalvors/restricted/plantinga-Rea...
Re:Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems (2015) by cousin_it on Tuesday April 04, 2017 @02:26PM (#14035787)
Plantinga is known for his proof of God's existence, and in fact a proof of any sentence you like, using the modal logic operators of possibility and necessity: "possibly necessarily pigs fly, therefore pigs fly". (Where "possibly" is shorthand for "in some possible world", and "necessarily" is shorthand for "in all possible worlds".) It's a valid proof if you buy the assumption, but the assumption is dubious at best.
Re:Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems (2015) by dvt on Tuesday April 04, 2017 @02:45PM (#14035963)
Of course it's valid! A world-renowned philosopher like Plantinga wouldn't publish a proof that's not valid. That's like saying Dijkstra's code compiles :)

The main problem with ontological arguments (and why, even as a Christian, I don't like them) is because they seem to embed the conclusion in their first premise. E.g.: the possibility of a maximally great being seems to definitionally imply its necessity. Why? Because such a being B must have some properties P = { ? ? ? ... }. We may not be sure what's inside P, but we know, with absolute certainty, that existence is in there.

Kant would disagree. He thinks that existence is not a property. This is a rare case when I think he's right.

Re:Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems (2015) by naasking on Wednesday April 05, 2017 @08:14AM (#14041479)
> E.g.: the possibility of a maximally great being seems to definitionally imply its necessity.

One of my favourite tongue-in-cheeek replies I read to these ontological arguments: Ah, but surely there is no greater being than one who could create the universe despite not existing!

Re:Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems (2015) by throwaway729 on Tuesday April 04, 2017 @08:56PM (#14038750)
> The main problem with ontological arguments (and why, even as a Christian, I don't like them) is because they seem to embed the conclusion in their first premise

But that is also true of the informal rhetorical arguments that are more common in (christian) apologetics.

The gift of formal proofs is that they make explicit and unavoidable this embedding of conclusion in premise, which is fundamental to all (epistemologically rational) apologetics

Re:Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems (2015) by dvt on Tuesday April 04, 2017 @10:53PM (#14039284)
> this embedding of conclusion in premise [...] is fundamental to all (epistemologically rational) apologetics

It might be true of all ontological arguments, but certainly not all apologetic arguments.

Re:Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems (2015) by nthcolumn on Tuesday April 04, 2017 @04:24PM (#14036831)
What is it he has proven the existence of? Can he describe it? Can anyone... please?
Re:Gödel's Incompleteness Theorems (2015) by akud on Tuesday April 04, 2017 @05:58PM (#14037624)
A maximally great being. As a sibling comment noted, the problem with this argument is that it presupposes the conclusion.