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Tallis in Wonderland

Revisiting the Ontological Argument

Raymond Tallis contends that a definition of God cannot necessitate God’s existence.

Regular readers of this column will know that Tallis is a secular humanist, and that his Wonderland is a godless place. He explained why he was an atheist nearly a hundred wanders-in-Wonderland ago (‘Why I am an Atheist’, Issue 73), at a comparatively happy time (2009 CE) when few of us had heard of Donald Trump or Covid. So why is God popping up yet again, only a short while after he discussed the ‘God of Limited Power’ (‘Excusing God’, Issue 168)? Has he had a revelation, or encountered an argument that has changed his mind on this the most important of issues?

There has been no such event. Instead, I stumbled upon a characteristically brilliant episode of BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time, wonderfully facilitated by Melvyn Bragg. Originally broadcast over a decade ago, it was devoted to the Ontological Argument for the existence of God.

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