Anselm's Proslogium

In this discourse, Anselm looks to discover God, and discover what makes God real. Anselm has many conflicts at first with himself, wondering if there is one true single argument as to prove the existence of God. Anselm puts all his thoughts together from first to last, those which made him almost give up wondering, and those thoughts that made him fully understand. Anselm also tries to answer the many questions as to why human's sometimes doubt the existence of god, such as the fact God has left us, and since then man has digressed and lives in misery without God's existence. He enlightens us on the fact yes, many of us truly do seek God, but we are oftentimes clouded by our own thoughts and desires. As soon as man begins to look for the truth and look for the good in God's grace, we have ambitious intentions, such as to further our own wisdom. Is it truly an evil to further our own wisdom? This is one thing that comes to mind when dealing with this article for me. For every reason we seek god though, it in someway has a selfish reasoning behind it, even if not harmful intent. If one seeks God for calm and serenity, then he seeks to exclude himself from the rest of the world and not pay homage to God with his fellow friends. If one seeks God to further their own knowledge and become an expert, then he seeks God to become better then others in respect, and is thinking merely of himself. The main point being made here is God should just be felt, not understood. God created man in his own image so that man could understand and know that God has compassion and grace. It need not be felt or seen to be truly there, we should simply know and understand that God is there for us and helping us become better individuals.

I think the second point being made from this paper is that many individuals have a "lust" for God. They want to believe so they have something to believe in, and want the Lord to be real. Anselm repeatedly discusses his "hunger" he had for God, where he continuously sought to learn more and extend his faith. This lust for God he finally resolves is something we should not feel. One should simply love God without question, because if seeking God, selfish purposes often arise. He brings up the point of how he is not wanting to know more for a reason to believe and love God more, he simply loves God and believes in the image of God already and wants to know how and why his love is so