- Anselm(the statement refers to his philosophical tradition)
- An 11th-century monk and philosopher who created a famous argument trying to prove God exists just by thinking about what God must be like.
- Aquinas
- Thomas Aquinas was a medieval Italian priest and philosopher (1225-1274) who became one of the most influential thinkers in Western history. He attempted to show that Christian faith and human reason are compatible, arguing that we can use logic and observation to understand God and the natural world. His ideas deeply shaped Catholic theology and continue to influence how religious and secular institutions think about ethics, knowledge, and the relationship between science and belief.
- Cleanthes(as a historical philosopher referenced in debates about God's existence)
- An ancient Greek Stoic philosopher (3rd century BCE) who argued that the world shows signs of intelligent design, similar to how a complex machine must have been made by someone.
- Concession(as Cleanthes' implicit agreement about a problem)
- An acknowledgment that something is true, even if reluctantly or unintentionally—like admitting a point in an argument you were trying to win.
- Gratuitous evil(as a central problem in discussing whether God exists)
- Suffering or harm that serves no good purpose and could have been prevented—like a child getting cancer with no beneficial outcome.
- Logically incompatible(as used in logic)
- Two things that cannot both be true at the same time; if one is true, the other must be false.
- Perfect-being theology(as a theological framework)
- The religious belief that God is all-powerful, all-knowing, and completely good—possessing every positive quality without limitation.
- knowledge(Distinguished from mere true belief, which may be the product of indoctrination and need not exercise deliberative capacities.)
- Justified true belief — true belief that has been arrived at through the exercise of deliberative capacities, including comparison of and deliberation among alternatives.