Preview

What Is Descartes Proof Of God's Existence

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1317 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
What Is Descartes Proof Of God's Existence
When considering God as "a substance is infinite, eternal, immutable, independent, extremely intelligent, extremely powerful, and has created both myself and everything else," yogi realize that the idea of God must have reality far more objective reality he had official: God is an infinite while he is only a finite substance. Since the idea of God cannot be sourced from within himself, he concludes that God is the cause of this idea and therefore necessarily exists.
The meditation counter argument that he can conceive of an infinite being through the negation, that is, through the conception of it as opposed to their limited human. Doubt and desire comes from an understanding that we are missing something, and we will not be aware of the lack thereof, unless we were aware of a more perfect existence that there are things that we lack.
While he may suspect the existence of other things, he cannot doubt the existence of God, because he has an awareness of the existence of God clear and distinct way. This idea has infinite objective reality, and thus are more likely to be correct than any other idea.
…show more content…
This evidence-based causal reasoning, suggesting that there must be a cause of the idea of God that is as good as God. Although my idea of God can come from my father, and my father's idea of God can come from a priest, the suggestion is at the end of the causal chain that has a cause First. There is God. The evidence of the first cause is often used in pointing out that there must be some source mover estate of all the changes in this universe. However, this evidence has since been discredited, because it is based on an erroneous understanding of cause and effect which assumes, among other things, that all causal chains must have a tenure

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    People use the Cosmological argument to claim that this uncaused cause has to be God and there is no other explanation that could change that the initial cause of the universe is God. According to William L. Rowe in “The Cosmological Argument”, the cosmological argument has several key elements that make the argument into one that is to be taken into…

    • 644 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    if they do not believe this statement, has it in their understanding that if their was a God, it…

    • 413 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The example of the apple that was discussed in class is a good example of this claim. A person can understand that an apple contains seeds which can grow into an apple tree. The tree can then produce apples, continuing the cycle of causes for the creation of the apple. The fact that this cycle can be thought to go on for a long time, but the cause of the first apple had to start at some point. By this observation, a person can determine on their own that whatever created the first apple or apple seed is greater than what created it, what caused it is what is considered God.…

    • 923 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the most fascinating arguments for the existence of an all-perfect God is the ontological argument. While there are several different versions of the argument, all purport to show that it is self-contradictory to deny that there exists a greatest possible being. Thus, on this general line of argument, it is a necessary truth that such a being exists; and this being is the God of traditional Western theism. This article explains and evaluates classic and contemporary versions of the ontological argument.…

    • 172 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the course of time, many philosophers, dogmatic religions and even individual human beings themselves have tried to prove the existence of God. The recurrent question that constantly arises is whether or not you can prove the existence of God solely by rational thinking alone. To that, the answer is no. It is not possible to prove the existence of God solely by rational thinking as you also need to incorporate aspects of faith, but rational thinking helps solidify your beliefs pertaining to God and leaves the answers we cannot conceive rationally up to faith. You cannot understand something outside of your existence rationally because you cannot experience it or see it; you can only theorize, believe and trust in it. You will never be able to reason what you have no knowledge of. In this essay, I will argue that in…

    • 1217 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Big Paper 1

    • 1625 Words
    • 4 Pages

    It is human nature to question our existence. Some believe it was God who created our existence, and others rely on science. This has been an ongoing debate since life on earth. This paper argues that it is not possible to prove either way whether if the traditional God exists or not. There are no credentials to prove God’s existence or lack of; it is merely a belief. Some may rely on the Bible as proof although there is no way to prove the stories within true.…

    • 1625 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    His existence should not be doubted, simply for the reason that God may be an event. All that should be taken from this is the existence of God based on the idea that whatever created the universe is God. However, God can also be proved to be a sentient being. The proof of God being a sentient creature is similar to Rene Descartes belief that the perfect being cannot be imagined within in our own minds, but can only exist if the perfect creature placed the idea within our mind. The problem with this argument is that the idea of perfect cannot be defined, who is to say what perfect is? The idea of perfection is infinite and cannot be truly analyzed, however we can know that the creation of the universe can be qualified as perfect due to our existence and the way nature interacts with itself. The perfect cannot coexist in the universe as we as a species is flawed and cannot attain perfection. The perfection of the universe must exist in one single being. The single embodiment can only be defined as a supreme being. The supreme being can be called anything, but as a society it has been widely accepted to refer to it as…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Having a belief that all questions have a scientific or mathematical answer; Rene Descartes in his search for solutions used principles that were already known and sets out to establish specific knowledge or truths. One of his most startling revelations is outlined in his writing “Discourse on the Method IV.…

    • 309 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Descartes proves that God exists in his third meditation. He proves that God exists because he wants to be certain about things outside of himself. But, he cannot be certain of these things if he is ignorant about the existence of God. This is because if a supreme God exists, he could cause Descartes to be mistaken in the one avenue to certainty that he has. This avenue is known as clear and distinct perception, and, according to Descartes, it is what is necessary to be certain about a thing. However, a supreme God could easily be deceiving him even when he thinks he is correct as a result of this clear and distinct perception. This is known as the metaphysical doubt. Therefore, to remove this basis for doubt, it is important to Descartes to establish whether this supreme God is capable of deceiving him. But first, he must establish whether this God exists.…

    • 1245 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Clarke, D. M. (2006). Descartes : A Biography. Cambridge University Press. Retrieved from eBook Collection…

    • 281 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    This destabilizes the entire argument, and philosophers and scientists both agree that proving cause and effect would be difficult. However, if we were to discard the principle of cause and effect then we would also be destabilising the theory science itself, which is based on succession of events. Unlike the first two arguments, the Ontological argument is entirely a priori, meaning it is based off reason alone rather than containing at least elements of a posteriori (experience). The argument demands that God is perfect, that existence is a predicate of perfection (which is criticised by Russel, who suggests the word existence is used incorrectly in this instance, but otherwise supports the argument), and through this suggests that God must be real in both our minds and in reality to be the greatest conceivable…

    • 989 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    To understand Anselm's argument for God's existence, one must first understand the principles that forms the argument. The first principle is the claim that “nothing greater can be thought.” There is too types of existing, existing in understanding (existing0) and existing in reality (existing1). Then, we try to think of something is existing1. Anselm let “something” be “something than which nothing greater can be thought (NGT),” or in another word “a being than which nothing greater can be conceived” according to the Proslogion. The very first act of thinking that something is existing1 serves as the basis of it existing0. Because in the process of trying to think of something greater, we already establish its existence0. For example, there is a flower A, existing1. This flower A is the most beautiful flower, that this flower is a NGT. In order to prove this flower is NGT, one has to think of all the flower he has seen, flower B, C, or D. In the process of searching through one's mind trying to think of a flower that is more beautiful than flower A, flower A already exists in one's mind, which is existing0. To open his argument, Anselm then said an example of NGT is God.…

    • 1715 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    he tries to say that God's existence should be based on a priori of knowledge, because the existence of God itself can be defined by personal experience ( even though personal experience and experience cannot be tested). he gives example, when an individual sees God, he cannot explain that it is true to others, and there is no way to prove that he really sees God. However, the definition of God can be defined by a priori experience, which means in the human mind, people can think God is exist in their mind. Then he believes the concept of God is generally considered to be the most greatest. In meditation, imagine that something is greatest but does not exist, and another is greatest and exists. The something that exist is certainly more greatest than something is not exist. Therefore, the same greatest thing can not exist only in thought; if it exists only thought, it can be assumed that it is exist in reality, and that Its existence is even more greatest than it is not exist. It can also be assumed that It is both exist in reality and in thought, that will be more greatest. God is greatest, and this has to appear that the exist of…

    • 1287 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    From the beginning of the third meditation, Descartes seeks to establish the existence of God using his initial concept of self awareness. Descartes argued that because he thought, then he lived. Thinking ability at this time was linked to being alive and thought that there must be a god who puts the thoughts in his mind. In his quest for indubitable truth, Descartes came up with the theory of ideas, which classified those things that he considered distinct and clear to be true. Descartes argued that the idea of god should be coming from within him since he cannot experience god himself directly or find any perfection in himself.…

    • 1107 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Better Essays

    Cosmological Argument

    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages

    For instance, David Hume was an agnostic philosopher who approved the skeptical observation that we do not know enough to proclaim or reject the existence of God (as cited in Soccio, 2013, p. 296). Another theory, Thomas Aquinas is a philosopher that has a theory of five ways to demonstrate God’s existence for natural reasons; these are the argument from motion, the cosmological argument, argument from necessity, the argument from gradation, and the teleological argument (Soccio, 2013, p. 230). “The argument from motion explains that motion must be given to each object by some other object that is already moving. The cosmological argument clarifies that there is a cause for everything created in this world. The argument from necessity is based on the idea that nothing had ever occurred, nothing will continually occur, hence to some degree the existence of supernatural being is necessary. The argument from gradation creates the idea that the existence of god grows from having more being than a nonliving thing. Teleological argument believes that the universe displays order and resolution that can only be the outcome of a God” (as cited in Soccio, 2013, p. 232-236). Thomas Aquinas is an example to show that with his multiple ways of proving God existence can increase many people wanting answers. The way that no theories has completely demonstrated the presence of God indicates the proposal of this paper that people do not need evidence for the existence of…

    • 1060 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays