Rene Descartes: The Idea Of God

One plus one makes two. Two plus two makes four. Three plus three makes six. All basic arithmetic that is taught to preschoolers. Basic arithmetic that stays with one for the entirety of their life because they believe it to be true. Modern age philosopher Rene Descartes goes on to argue that concepts such as arithmetic are so clear and distinct that they must be true. Descartes then goes into detail to define what clear and distinct means in this context. Clear refers to simply having an idea present in one’s mind. While being distinct is defined as being able to be distinguished from all other sorts of ideas. Let’s take the example of despair. There is a clear idea of despair in one’s mind, however despair is not a distinct idea. There is

Deeper than that, how did any of us thinking substances come about this idea of God? Descartes argues that “this idea is innate in me, just as the idea of myself is innate in me.” In other words, the idea of God is one that was not drawn from the senses, meaning it cannot possibly be an adventitious idea. The idea of God also is one that Descartes, or any finite, thinking thing, could have come up with because. This is due to the fact that God is such an infallible, eternal being, there is no possible way that any of us imperfect substances could have made it up because that would mean that a cause can have an effect that is greater in objective reality. This all sums to the conclusion that God is neither a fabricated idea either. Therefore, as a result, God must be an innate idea. The idea of God is one idea, not a compilation of multiple, of a unity of omniscience, perfection, and infiniteness that is encompassed in one being. We are all born with the idea of a perfect, all-powerful God because God has placed it in our

His argument is one that requires multiple glances and a decomposition to its base components. It components being that we exist, we think clear and distinct thoughts that we affirm to be true even though other thoughts must be doubted, there must be a greater force that is responsible for these clear and distinct thoughts, and this greater force is an infinite, perfect, all-powerful God. While Descartes built a strong case about the existence of God, it is not completely perfect. There are still more questions that can be asked about his reasoning and certain holes in Descartes’ prior and succeeding meditations that raise the question of “How concrete and rigid is Descartes’ reasoning throughout his