Originally posted on Reasonable Faith in response to a skeptic's question on the concept.

POST 4 I forget from which philosopher/theologian of old this comes but I think you're twisting his meaning somewhat. He meant that "God is that than which nothing greater can be conceived," NOT "the greatest being that can be conceived." [For Atheist Apologist readers: Someone else mentioned Anselm so I think it may have been him who said it.]

I understand that this is subjective, but that it is supposed to apply to all humans across the board. I would guess that the "what" of this "greater than which can be conceived" may be different for the sensitive mystic than for the menial labourer. However, for each of them, God would be that than which nothing greater can be conceived. In other words, they can conceive of nothing greater than that which they understand to be behind the glories of a sunset, or whatever it is that puts them in absolute awe.

Christians, before you rip this to pieces just for the sake of rejecting the words of an atheist, please provide the single correct description for the beauty of a rose. Or for love. You know full well that no two people experience these things in exactly the same way, and that neither do they experience "God" in exactly the same way.

QUESTION Post 5: What is the difference between "that being which nothing greater can be conceived" and "the greatest possible being that can ever be conceived?"

POST 8 My thinking is that as we mature we become capable of conceiving ever greater complexities and abstractions. Thus, when we allow God to be that than which nothing greater can be conceived, we allow God to be a dynamic being that grows with our personal understanding of life and the universe. Whereas, if we in our youth visualize God as the greatest being we can conceive early in life, I am thinking we come up with a sterile Being devoid of the dynamic growing conceptualization of the maturing adult.

This would lead to a situation where God no longer is that than which nothing greater can be conceived because the fifty- or sixty-year-old Christian can conceive of something far greater than the teenager had been capable of. This is simply the way life works; life experience does that to a person. That is how I think the two differ.