Descartes's Argument For The Existence Of God

An individual who exercises foundationalism is what he is. Descartes’s overall objective is to develop a new and improved foundation despite what’s been taught to him and what’s embedded in him. Descartes expresses the skepticism that’s inundating him in the First Meditation. He begins by asking how he can be certain of anything and then develops all sorts of outlandish reasons as to why he should mistrust his senses. He’s under the impression that he’s been deceived, which ignites his quest for certainty. Descartes questions everything and assumes that there’s an evil demon out to deceive him in every way possible. He then goes further and even presumes that God may be deceiving him as well and this, consequently, makes him question everything he knows or thinks he knows. By the end of the First Meditation, Descartes knows nothing at all. He even begins to doubt his own existence. Due to all this, he chooses to no longer rely on his senses. Descartes, by the Second Meditation, proofs his own existence to himself through clear and distinct perception.
The fact that Descartes is even considering the mere question of his own existence just proves that he indeed exists and that is certain. Further, he argues that we are essentially thinking things (res cogitans) that can know our minds clearly and distinctly. Descartes pitches a tent for himself firmly in the rationalist camp, as opposed to the empiricist camp. He constantly emphasizes that the clear and distinct perceptions of the intellect are the only sure means of securing knowledge, and ultimately concludes that the senses are not designed to give us knowledge at all, but are rather meant to help us move through the world in a very practical
way. Descartes tries to clarify precisely what is this “thing that thinks.” He concludes that he is not only something that thinks and understands but is also something that imagines and senses. After all, he may be dreaming or deceived by an evil demon, but he can still imagine things and he still seems to hear and see things. His sensory perceptions may not be reliable, but they are certainly a part of the same mind that thinks. The senses, according to Descartes, cannot be trusted. He concludes he cannot trust the imagination. In order to understand this complexity he considers how we come to know of a piece of wax just taken from a honeycomb. He first considers what he can know about the piece of wax by means of the senses; its taste, smell, color, shape, size, hardness, etc. But then, Descartes questions what happens when the piece of wax is placed near the fire and melts. All of these sensible qualities change, so that, for instance, it is now soft when before it was hard. Nonetheless, the same piece of wax still remains. The knowledge that the solid piece of wax and the melted piece of wax are the same cannot come through the senses since all of its sensible properties have changed. Descartes ponders what he can know about the piece of wax, and concludes that he can know only that it is extended, flexible, and changeable. He does not come to know this through the senses, and realizes that it is impossible that he comes to know the wax by means of the imagination since the wax can change into an infinite number of different shapes. With all this said, he concludes, he knows the wax by means of the intellect alone, by clear and distinct perception. Descartes then proves the existence of God with the reality principle to reach more foundational grounds.
According to this principle, the reality of the cause must be greater than or equal to the reality of the effect. The idea of God has infinite reality and, by theory, the only cause of this infinite idea can only be God. With all this said, the reality of God is the only plausible cause to the reality of the idea of God. Descartes gives another proof in Meditation Five where he has reasoned that a triangle must have all the properties he assigns to it, because the triangle exists as an idea in his mind and he clearly and distinctly perceives all these properties. He then reasons, by analogy, that God exists as an idea in his mind and he clearly and distinctly perceives all of his qualities. One of these qualities is existence, so it follows from his clear and distinct perception that God must exist. If existence is the essence of God, then God would not be God if he did not exist, just as a triangle would not be a triangle if it were not three-sided. At the very least, then, the existence of God must be as certain as the properties of mathematical and geometrical objects since he can prove them in the same way. Having concluded that God must necessarily exist, Descartes goes further and then asks how he received the idea of God. He could have not invented the idea. Therefore, the idea must be innate which, according to Descartes, means that God must have created him
with this idea already in him. He clearly and distinctly perceives that God is no deceiver, since all deception relies on some defect or other, and a perfect God who exists has no defects.