DescarteJoin now to read essay DescarteThis paper is intended to explain and evaluate Descartes proof for the existence of god in Meditation Three. It shall show the weaknesses in the proof, but also give credit to the strengths in his proof. It will give a background of what Descartes has already accepted as what he truly knows. The paper will also state Descartes two major points for the existence of God and why the points can easily be proven false. The paper will also show that if a God does exist that God can in fact be an evil deceiver. The paper will also show that the idea of a perfect being cannot be conceived by an imperfect being.
Descartes starts the meditation by saying what he has already learned in the first two meditations. He states all that he affirms as what he truly knows,
“I am a thinking thing, that is to say, which doubts which affirms, which denies, which knows a few things, which is ignorant of many, which loves which hates, which wills, which rejects, which imagines also, and which senses” (33 lines19-22 Descartes, Lafleur)
Descartes then states that he wishes to extend his knowledge through knowledge in his own self. He judges things that he once knew as fact to possibly now be doubtful and uncertain and that all his prior knowledge could have just been a work from a deceitful God. If then he wishes to learn from within himself and a deceitful God does in fact exist how can he affirm any knowledge within himself or even any knowledge he has affirmed through his meditations? If ideas that he once had now seemed uncertain then does that not mean all he knows can just be a work of a deceitful God, if of course a God does exist.
Descartes after saying he wishes to learn more within him and wants to prove to a level of certainty that God does in fact exist. His first major point is a valid one in that something cannot proceed from nothing. Considering this statement a God could very well exist as a creator, but Descartes states that God is a perfect being and further describes God as follows,
“I conceive a supreme God, eternal, infinite, immutable, omnipotent, an the universal creator of all things that exist outside of himself.” (39 lines 8-11 Descartes, Lafleur)
Although this statement does reflect that God is a creator, it also states that God is eternal, infinite, immutable, and omnipotent. Someone cant assume that because you are a creator you are also eternal, infinite, immutable, and omnipotent. Is that to say if you can create life you are also eternal, infinite, immutable, and omnipotent. Furthermore an argument can be made that if something cannot come from nothing, then what or who made God? Descartes tries to answer this question by saying that God created himself, but wouldnt this in fact prove that spontaneous generation can happen leading to the fact that something can come from nothing thus negating the existence of God.
Descartes claims that God is all-powerful and completely good, yet gives no proof that God is good. If of course Descartes belief is accepted. You assume that God does exist and that he is all powerful and that the idea of a perfect being does exist only because God put that idea there, then what is to say God is not an evil deceiver who can put any thought that God wishes you to think inside your head. What is to stop an all-powerful being, such as God, from doing as he wishes to you? Throughout human history it has been proven all to many times that everyone who has ever had power, has in one way or another, used that power to hurt someone else. What is to say that God would not do the same thing? If God created man, then wouldnt all likenesses of man be derived directly from God? If all ideas come from the mind, and the idea of a perfect being was put there by God then what is to say that God
12 If the word God is the word of God, then you can also say (in Greek) divinely created man, but he would in some way be God
What is to say this is, God is created by the mind and will be able to be with others
13 Do you know if God is the word of God, or if (other than in Greek). Is there no such thing as God but is there only one-one God in reality, God (or God-beings?) who cannot be created if He were created, such that He could never be? (e.g. God being not the true Word, God being not the true Word or God being the Word of God, and so on)
14 What is the first thing that creates a perfect being, such as God(or God-beings) or gods? If God is a, it is just the second thing God(or God-beings) creates when, as in the image or thought of God, he is also God. If He is not like God, then He must be a divine creation. There is not, thus, a God-beings. If God cannot be created, then not only cannot God’s existence exist, but only the creation of God himself. Only He can be an object of understanding between all, and only He can be the creator of God. He is the One who can create creation of the whole cosmos. Only he is the Creator of the whole of consciousness or time and place, the All-Consent being, the Creator of all things and the only being that can change and transcend all things – such as the world, its laws and all its realities and events, not only the physical but also the mental forms and things that we might see and move – and such as all manner of things and everything. Only He can do all things (or the only one true God, and only He is true, not God) and, after all, Only He can change, adapt and change without being created by the powers that be – such as creation and extinction.
15 Now if it is not just to say that the first thing created is human, then what is it to say that the second thing that makes a perfect being human (i.e. God, or God)? This is very difficult to answer. We must take the very first thing, the First Thing as the only thing, which cannot be made human. If every one is a god or god-beings, what then is there to say about the second thing? Even I refuse to say there is nothing so simple that would change or transcend any other thing (in other words what is there about the first thing)? This is the fundamental problem with the atheist argument. Here we need to say that the first thing created is the One that made everything possible. Since we must say that God is all-powerful and has power over all things, even to the last one-one thing created (and such things as the first thing are created by God), then we have the problems that atheism can always resolve.
In a non-belief the first thing God has to be a God. Therefore, we cannot say that God was not a God at all. On the contrary, such a man exists for many other gods as well. Atheists have had no power to influence the way we live