Posted: March 18th, 2022

Descartes Belief in God

Write a 2-4 page essay (in Word or Rich Text Format, double spaced, size 12 font) on one of the following topics. (Cite all sources you use to avoid plagiarism).

1) Write my Essay Online Writing Service with Professional Essay Writers – Explain Descartes’ Method of doubt; what does he hope to accomplish from this method; is Descartes a skeptic?

2)What is the significance of Descartes’ Cogito argument. How does it relate to the “evil demon” and dreaming doubt arguments?

3.) Does Descartes believe in God? If so discuss his argument(s) for the existence of God. Are they convincing? Why or why not? If you don’t think that Descartes actually believes in God defend your position.

4) Homework help – Discuss the so called “Cartesian Circle”; (a good source for this discussion are the articles on Descartes at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy; is Descartes guilty of begging the question or arguing in a circle in his discussion of God as the guarantor of clear and distinct ideas and his clear and distinct idea of God?

Cite all sources with quotation marks for direct quotes and parenthetical references. Don’t place urls in the body of your paper; cite online sources by authors name or article title. Place urls at the end of the paper in the work cited page. Every student is encouraged to submit drafts of papers to Smart thinking for proof reading

Sample Essay
Descartes Belief in God
Introduction
Rene Descartes desire to establish a concreted foundation about science and nature led to the argument on whether God exist. However, the proof on whether God exist created a lot of interest and criticism from religion advocates who seem to think that he has run out of mind and therefore should be avoided. In order to accomplish his desire for the pursuit of knowledge and unshakable natural points such as God’s existence, he introduced certain meditations strengthened by inevitable doubt. First he admits that there are certain things outside the mathematical and theoretical basis hence one’s logic will only lead to certainty. Some of these things include God’s presence (Descartes, 2004). Before proving the existence of God through meditation philosophies, Rene Descartes remind the lay readers that they must approach his argument with an open mind and therefore, he should not be seen to attack only the conclusions.
To begin with, Rene Descartes reveals that he will be seen a madman if he will doubt that he has a body. Secondly, he admits that he has feet, eyes, bodies and hand that exist and therefore must have been created by supernatural powers. Therefore there is some truth that God exists. He reveals that he trusts his perception of self-evidence from the simple based shapes and also numbers that all powerful being has manifested himself through creation of our bodies, the earth and other material things. However, Rene Descartes admits that he cannot be sure of whether the super natural being is God and if he might be playing some tricks on him. However, because the supernatural being is good just like God, then the forces cannot deceive him. To prove God’s existence, Rene Descartes assumes that a malignant Demon is bent on tricking him through the physical world (Descartes, 2004). Therefore, he doubts everything that comes across him and in the process, he decides to prove that God is the supernatural force that created the physical world. However, the proof must be accompanied by grounded reasons showing that God really exist.
The existence of God was proved through the meditation III which argues that perceptions and imaginations exist within our minds. Therefore the human being’s mind is full of perceptions and thoughts; for instance the thought about God’s existence. In the process he expands his argument for the existence of God from the discourse. He therefore examines his mind to see whether it can reveal anything on God’s presence. He reveals that the supernatural forces behind the creation must be infinite, perfect and highly powerful because in most cases, no finite being can think like an infinite being. Therefore in most cases, the idea of infinite must come before the finite. This means that human beings came after the supernatural being that inevitably created our bodies and the physical world (Descartes, 2004).
Meditation IV was entirely dedicated on nature and origin of trust and errors. He reveals that the knowledge of God existence drives us to knowledge of other things such as our bodies, hands, eyes and other things. Given that God is perfect, it is highly impossible for God to deceive Rene Descartes because deceiving is a sign of imperfection which God doesn’t possess. He admits that he is capable of making errors and therefore it is essential to examine his actions and prove beyond doubt that no mistakes are made. He eventually concludes that God must have created him and therefore he must have been wrong when he was criticizing him. He admits that God know his imperfection and therefore thanks him for everything that has happened throughout his life. Moreover, he reveals that his propensity to commit errors and ignorance to God knowledge makes him and other human beings fail in daily life.
Therefore after doubting his own existence and that of the external senses, René Descartes comes into a conclusion that God Exists. He reveals that there are things outside the logic and mathematical equations that all of us know with a hundred percent certainty and also there are things which can be inferred under high level of certitudes. This answer was one of the new based versions that form part of the ontological arguments that really God exists. He reveals that from the doubt, human beings are perishable, imperfect and finite, immortal and has a mind for reasoning. For that reason, there must be an in finite, immortal and perfect unknown being that created the imperfect one out of own resources and implanted them in the world. This perfect, immortal and supernatural being must be God hence an admission for God’s existence (Descartes, 2003).
The argument is one of the highly convincing matters because he first doubted his own existence before realizing that indeed there exists a supernatural, perfect and immortal being. He eventually trusts his own perception that God really exists because the imperfect mortal being must have been created and placed on earth. Given that all human beings are equal and cannot create from the scratch but through procreation, then there exist an immortal being that is God.
The meditation V and VI reveals that Descartes believes that God exist and that he has given him the capacity to learn about the truth corporeal things and other intellectual based activities. He admits that his failure to agree what the nature offered him can be attributed to the fact that he failed to agree that God provides the senses and therefore they help us as human beings to acquire knowledge (Descartes, 2003). He admits that God cannot allow evil demons to have him get deceived. This argument came after he found out that God existed and created human beings. Rene Descartes reveals that the proof of God’s existence cannot be down played where individuals have clear and distinct based perceptions. Moreover, he eventually comes with an idea that God cannot cheat us on material things given that he is always trustworthy and good.
After the conclusion, most of the spiritual sources and especially the conservative Catholics created a negative attitude on all mediations. He had to restructure them and especially the third meditation dealing with God existence.
Conclusion
We observe that Rene Descartes had to rely on the method of doubt to begin the proof somewhere. He had to remain skeptical so that he can adequately doubt some of the truths such as whether God existed and that Rene Descartes started by doubting the presence of knowledge which he though came from the modern sciences. Later he doubted the information derived through senses before questioning his own existence. Later he decided to prove whether God exist. The eventual answer reveals that God exist and therefore he himself is a human being. The clear and distinct based perception reveals that God exist and therefore no mistake was made to conclude that.

Works Cited
Descartes, René, John Cottingham, Robert Stoothoff, and Dugald Murdoch.The Philosophical
Writings of Descartes. Cambridge [Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 2003. Print.
Descartes, René, David E. Smith, and Marcia L. Latham.The Geometry of René Descartes: with
a Facsimile of the First Edition. New York: Dover Publications, 2004. Print.

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