In Answer to a Quasi-Ontological Argument: On Sheridan's "Toward an Eclectic Ontology of Presence" and Mantovani and Riva's "Building a Bridge between Different Scientific Communities"

Sheridan, in his “Toward an Eclectic Ontology of Presence” (Sheridan, 1999), approaches the semblance of an ontological argument with discussion of “divine presence” in relation to virtual reality communications media and the consequent effect of virtuality upon the mind/matter ensemble. Although he doesn’t offer proof for God, Sheridan (and subsequently Mantovani and Riva, who accept Sheridan’s initial ground of discussion) suggest a connection between the ontology of presence and the divine. This suggestion of a connection between the two frames of reference establishes a route that opens to argument fundamentally for existence of and proof of the existence of God. Indeed, Sheridan offers an “eclectic ontology” and states that his argument could provide “a framework for a rational discussion of God” (p. 558). In so doing, he reaches to say something very specific about the nature of being, making a claim that we can come to a rational understanding of divine presence. He describes coming to such an understanding as the “ultimate challenge of understanding perception of (estimation) of reality.” In defining the ultimate challenge in terms of an “estimation paradigm,” however, he seeks to answer this challenge through a rational formality. Granted, the reductionist, formalist tradition founded on the rational underlies formal logic, mathematics, and science. But pure rationality with regards to “divine presence” flies in the face of the work of some of the most renowned thinkers in the history of thought. One of these thinkers, whose Critique of Pure Reason sought to discover the very workings of rational thought, was Immanuel Kant. Another was one of the founding fathers of quantum theory, Wolfgang Pauli.