God Exists
God Exists Rene Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy, written in the first person, challenges the Aristotelian’s view of mind, body, certainty, and method for experiment. An influential section in Meditations on First Philosophy is the Third Meditation, titled “Concerning God, That He Exists,” where Descartes proves with certainty the existence of God. By accepting only certainty as his basis for argument and by using a step-by-step, progressing approach, which includes the Causal Principle, hierarchy of formal and objective reality, and certainty that humans are only thinking things, Descartes proves that God exists. Descartes’ step-by-step style of writing makes the argument that God exists easy to understand and convincing. ... Many transition words, like “therefore,” “but,” “on the contrary,” and “finally” exist, making the argument almost mathematical as he creates a proof that God exists. ... After asking the rhetorical question of mankind’s source of existence, Descartes establishes a general definition of God and mankind. God is “perfect,” “infinite,” and “nothing more perfect than God can be thought or imagined” (39). Unlike God, humans are finite, ignorant, and doubtful, and their doubts and desires mean they must lack something. ... Descartes wonders if he can be his own God, “I myself would be God! ... However, it is already established that God is perfect, and humans are imperfect.