Ontological Devil Arguments

In class today we looked at Anselm's first version of the ontological argument (from Proslogion 2). We then looked at Gaunilo's attempt at a "refutation by parody" and showed how Anselm could respond by saying that there can be no "greatest conceivable island" because the qualities that go into that do not have intrinsic maxima (if there's no upper limit, then there can't be a "greatest").

Here's another parody:

1. Let "Satan" (or, if you prefer, Zod) =_def. the worst conceivable being. (Premise)
2. Satan exists in the understanding but not in reality. (Assumption for reductio)
3. Satan’s existence in reality and in the understanding would be worse than his existence in the understanding alone. (Premise)
4. A being having all of Satan’s properties plus existence in reality can be conceived. (Premise)
5. A being worse than Satan can be conceived. (From 2, 3, and 4)
6. It is false that a being worse than Satan can be conceived. (From 1)
7. Hence, it is false that Satan exists in the understanding but not in reality. (From 2, 5, and 6)
8. Satan exists in the understanding. (Premise)
9. Hence, Satan exists in reality. (From 7 and 8)

Is this a successful parody of Anselm's argument? Does the notion of "worst conceivable being" have an intrinsic maximum (or is intrinsic "minimum" more appropriate here?) Is there any way in which Anselm can block this counterexample without undermining his own argument?

Models of God

Just a brief post to see if anyone had any questions about any of the non-monotheistic models of God that I touched on in the first class. Those alternative models were these:

• Polytheism: There are many finite gods who exist wholly within the Cosmos.
  
• Pantheism: Everything either is God, a part of God, or a mode or manifestation of God.
  
• Panentheism: All is in God. The world is God's body. God and the Cosmos eternally exist in a symbiotic relationship.
  
• Neo-Platonism: There is one eternal God from whom the Cosmos and all other realities necessarily emanate like light does from the Sun.

Here's another one that I didn't mention in class:

• Plato's 'Demiurge': The Demiurge does not create the world ex nihilo but rather fashions it out of pre-existing matter or stuff. The Demiurge, material stuff, and the Platonic Forms are three independently existing parts of reality.

Do any other models of God come to mind?

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