Descartes Discourse For The Existence Of God

Descartes’ Discourse on Method and Meditations Essay In Meditations on First Philosophy, Descartes discusses the existence of God. Descartes believes in God and provides two arguments that support his theory. His supporting evidence is that he possess a clear idea of God and second that any cause must be at least as great as it effect. Descartes convinces the reader hat he believes in God, but not that God exist. Descartes’ argument fails to be completely convincing because he assumes all people possess the same innate ideas about God and a cause isn't always as great as its effect. Following Meditation II Descartes has established that he is a thinking thing. However, he still possess doubt as to whether or not he is being deceived.
He argues that if his ideas “are considered only in themselves, and are not referred to any object beyond them, they cannot, properly speaking, be false.” Everything that Descartes perceives clearly and distinctly, he believes to be true because he is not referring his ideas to anything outside of his mind. Error only arises when “judging that the ideas which are in us are like or conformed to the things that are external to us.” Basically, Descartes believes mistakes happen when one attempts to compare and contrast the idea with external notions, such as already existing beliefs. This argument is flawed because though it proves that Descartes believes in God it does not confirm the existence of God. Descartes believes these ideas to be true solely because they are clear to him and posses infinite objective reality. In “Descartes on Gods Ability to Do the Logically Impossible," La Croix point outs that Descartes’ view of God is “complicated because his account of God’s omnipotence occurs exclusively in his treatment of the Cartesian doctrine that God created the eternal truths.” Descartes only proves that he possess the innate ideas of God. They do not serve a evidence to the existence of
Descarates states that he alone could not produce the idea of God because he is “a finite being.” This implies that one’s thoughts are relatively simple, and any complex thoughts must’ve been planted in the mind by a complex being. This leads to the cause and effect argument, according to Descartes, every cause is at least as great as its effect. This argument preposes that infinite ideas must be created by an infinite being. It would be impossible for him to conceive this idea by himself. The idea had to have been produced by an infinite mind. Since Descartes already believes God to be an infinite being, he concludes that in order for the idea of God to exist, God must actually exist. One’s perception of God is “a product of the cave into which one was born.” (Baird 233) Descartes’ two arguments establish that he believes in God. He provided theories and ideas that support his belief that God exist. However, ultimately Descartes’ ignores two critical flaws in his argument that prevent readers from being persuaded. Descartes’ assumes that everyone posses the same innate idea of God and that every initial cause is produced to a divine being. Considering the Descartes’ arguments, one can conclude that Descartes’ beliefs are more rooted in faith than logic. Moreover, faith and logic do not coincide with one another. Referencing the phrase, “leap of faith," the concept