Anselm's ontological argument in Proslogion 2 has been discussed and criticized so much that it is hard for us today to see its basic structure. The philosophical consensus seems to be that the argument is hopeless: it either begs the question against the atheist or it is invalid. The case against it appears to be closed. 1 No doubt one reason many philosophers consider the ontological argument...

Previous research has indicated that the physical actions of prayer are especially salient for preschool-aged children, and children in this age range tend to associate prayer with communicating with God. As the context in which children learn about new concepts impacts on how children come to understand those concepts, and children are often introduced to the concept of God through prayer, the...

abstract: this study was carried out to examine the image of god among students at ferdowsi university. methods: a sample of 455 students (randomly selected), answered image of god (lawrence, 1997), self concept rogers (1951) and general self-efficacy (military and associates, 1996). data was analyzed using pearson, spearman and eta coefficient and chi-square test. results: psychometric propert...

This study tested the hypothesis that in the minds of adult religious adherents, acquired beliefs about the extraordinary characteristics of God coexist with, rather than replace, an initial representation of God formed by co-option of the evolved person concept. In three experiments, Christian religious adherents were asked to evaluate a series of statements for which core intuitions about per...

We investigate the problem of how nonnatural entities are represented by examining university students' concepts of God, both professed theological beliefs and concepts used in comprehension of narratives. In three story processing tasks, subjects often used an anthropomorphic God concept that is inconsistent with stated theological beliefs; and drastically distorted the narratives without any ...

Background and Objectives: Self-confidence, referring to relying on and exploiting individual abilities and talents for realizing spiritual and material prosperity, not only contradicts but is in agreement with and a prerequisite for faith in God. Practically, the greater faith in God one has, the more potent self-confidence he /she possess. Investigating the subject of self-confidence from the...

the fundamental belief in sikhism is that god exists not merely as an idea or concept, but as a real entity. god is indescribable, yet knowable and perceivable to anyone who is prepared to dedicate the time and energy to become perceptive to his persona. the gurus never spoke about proofs of the existence of god. for them, he is too real, and something obvious does not require any logical proof...