Descartes Prove That God Exist

Philosophers have contemplated for thousands of years the purpose of reason and what it is good for. Three philosophers specifically have tried to prove that their theory is the best they are Descartes, Epictetus, and Leibniz. Descartes believes that reason is good for proving God exists and reason shows us we exist. Epictetus believes that reason is useful for proving what good actually is and that reason gives us freedom. Leibniz believes reason is good because it proves the existence of God and helps prove that our universe did not form by accident. Descartes believes that reason is good for proving that God exists. He starts proving this by saying that everyone has an idea of infinity. But he says that how do we have any idea of infinity
Descartes believes that without God we would not be able to come up with such an idea of infinity because it cannot exist because the only thing that is infinite is God. Descartes says specifically, “Indeed I have no choice but to conclude that the mere fact of my existing and of there being in me an idea of a most perfect being, that is, God, demonstrates most evidently that God too exists” (Descartes 1730). Now some skeptics may say that people have developed this idea on their own without the intervention of any God. But Descartes would still have something to say to that. Descartes would tell the skeptics that nothing in this world created by humans is perfect. There is always room for improvement and Descartes believes that we can think of things in our minds that are perfect like a heaven and even though we cannot grasp it or make it happen on Earth Descartes believes that God put this idea in our heads. Descartes says, “God, I say, that same being the idea of whom is in me: a being having all those perfections that I cannot comprehend, but can somehow touch with my thought, and a being subject to no defects whatever” (Descartes 1743). This argument would still be very prevalent
Leibniz starts by saying that everything that happens and everything that is has a reason. He believes this because we can look at anything and trace back exactly why something is the exact way that it is and Leibniz believes that the furthest we can trace everything back to is God. Leibniz says, “This real entity must be necessary, otherwise yet another cause must be sought outside it to explain why it exists rather than does not exist, which is contrary to the hypothesis. This entity is the ultimate reason for the existence of things, and is usually referred to by a single word, ‘God’” (Leibniz 2695). What he is trying to say here is when people try and figure out how things originated and how everything came to be we usually refer to God and he believes that we think God is the creator of everything. Now this is where some people will present the argument that they believe that the world was created by science or the “big bang theory” this is where Leibniz presents the second half of his argument where he says, “And it follows as a principle to which there can be no exceptions that the world is a cosmos, ornamented through and through; in other words, that it is constructed in such a way as to give the maximum satisfaction to an intelligent being” (Leibniz 2723). This is