Descartes Fear of Being a Heretic?
Essay by review • November 17, 2010 • Essay • 314 Words (2 Pages) • 1,262 Views
1. Does Descartes actually believe in God or is he forced to place the belief of God into his text due to fear of being accused a heretic.
I am skeptical as to whether Descartes' believes in God and in his own reasons for saying God exists. I have first taken into consideration the fact that during this time and place it was highly frowned upon to disagree with the church and one can be put to death for this. When reading Descartes biography it stated that he pulled his material off from publication when he received word of Galileo's trial in Rome. Having this information it seems to me that there must have been some information that Descartes feared he would be put to death for. I believe this information was his reasoning that a God does not exist, however he revised his works to include that God actually does exist and includes his reasoning for so. Descartes says to doubt everything, later he says to doubt everything that is not certain. This definably includes the belief of God for even today it is uncertain whether God. Descartes begins to say that since everything has to be connected back to something that has reality that there must be God; due to the fact that we even know the word God must mean he exists. However you have to take into account that there where prior beliefs of many Gods prior to the one God. How can he be sure this is the correct God? Descartes proof of God does not carry enough evidence with his statement. To say that God exists because we exist isn't very convincing, thus I believe that Descartes in actually did not believe in God but made a few points in trying to prove that he exists for the sake of his own life and being prosecuted as a heretic.
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