Does God Exist
Does God Exist?
Ever since the existence of man kind, we have been questioning the existence of God. How can we know God exists if we can't see him? The existence of God provides a convenient answer to unexplained questions, while never providing answers to the questions about God himself. Descartes states in Meditations on First Philosophy that he is going to “inquire whether there is a God.” (Page 71) Despite his doubts of the existence of bodily things, he believed that the idea of God represents something so ideal that he could not have been the cause of this idea. Though there are some flaws in Descartes' idea, I believe that God does exist and agree with Descartes' arguments. Descartes has his own doubts about whether he actually exists that he must clarify early on in meditations. Descartes realizes that he must exist because he has these doubts. In other words, it would not be possible for a non-existing being to think. Descartes comes up with one of the most famous quotes in philosophy: I Think, Therefore I Am. Now this brings up the conclusion that ideas are mirror images of reality and if these mirror images are real then the cause of these ideas are also real For example, the idea of a monkey came from the result of an actual physically existing moneky and the existence of the idea of a monkey is just as real as the actual monkey. Descartes points out that there are three types of ideas; they can be innate, adventitious, caused by things outside of one’s self, and others that can be invented by us, such as ideas of mermaids or unicorns. The idea of God is an innate idea; it is not caused by something outside of one's self because it would have to be recognizable to our senses and neither is it created by us because we are finite and can not truly fathom the infinite. The cause of innate ideas is something real; The idea that God exists must come from the existance of a perfect being. Since no human being is perfect; this idea must be ordained
Ever since the existence of man kind, we have been questioning the existence of God. How can we know God exists if we can't see him? The existence of God provides a convenient answer to unexplained questions, while never providing answers to the questions about God himself. Descartes states in Meditations on First Philosophy that he is going to “inquire whether there is a God.” (Page 71) Despite his doubts of the existence of bodily things, he believed that the idea of God represents something so ideal that he could not have been the cause of this idea. Though there are some flaws in Descartes' idea, I believe that God does exist and agree with Descartes' arguments. Descartes has his own doubts about whether he actually exists that he must clarify early on in meditations. Descartes realizes that he must exist because he has these doubts. In other words, it would not be possible for a non-existing being to think. Descartes comes up with one of the most famous quotes in philosophy: I Think, Therefore I Am. Now this brings up the conclusion that ideas are mirror images of reality and if these mirror images are real then the cause of these ideas are also real For example, the idea of a monkey came from the result of an actual physically existing moneky and the existence of the idea of a monkey is just as real as the actual monkey. Descartes points out that there are three types of ideas; they can be innate, adventitious, caused by things outside of one’s self, and others that can be invented by us, such as ideas of mermaids or unicorns. The idea of God is an innate idea; it is not caused by something outside of one's self because it would have to be recognizable to our senses and neither is it created by us because we are finite and can not truly fathom the infinite. The cause of innate ideas is something real; The idea that God exists must come from the existance of a perfect being. Since no human being is perfect; this idea must be ordained