Megan Phelps-Roper on The ontological argument
Phelps-Roper has not engaged with the ontological argument, which had no role in the biblically literalist theology of Westboro.
The ontological argument played no role in Megan Phelps-Roper's religious formation at Westboro Baptist Church. Westboro's theology was built on Scripture, not philosophy — on the literal text of the Bible as interpreted by Fred Phelps, not on medieval proofs of God's existence. The idea that God's existence could be demonstrated through abstract conceptual reasoning would have been foreign to the church's culture, which treated the Bible as the sole authority on all matters.
Since leaving Westboro, Phelps-Roper has focused her intellectual energy on questions of epistemology, empathy, and the social dynamics of extremism rather than on formal philosophy of religion. She has not, to any significant extent, engaged with the ontological argument in her public writing or speaking.
Her story is nonetheless relevant to the ontological argument in an indirect way. Phelps-Roper's journey illustrates the enormous gap between the arguments philosophers discuss and the factors that actually drive religious belief and disbelief. Her faith was not built on arguments and was not destroyed by counterarguments — it was built on community, identity, and authority, and it was destroyed by empathy, doubt, and the courage to question.