Descartes' Proofs of God's Existence
Descartes' idea of God is being covered in numerous articles and research papers. As the idea of an infinite being cannot be truly fathomed by a finite mind (his mind), he nevertheless doesn't seek to understand such because he accepts that he is a finite being. He asserts that the idea of God contains everything else that one grasps clearly and distinctly, everything real and true, everything with any perfection. God possessing all qualities perfectly includes existence. God has no potential because as an infinite being he is perfect, whole and complete. Nothing can be added to that perfection. Only man has potential. God gets His existence only from Himself and owes such to no other being because He is the original cause of all things, including Himself. Man is the very proof that God exists. Because man is imbued with a thinking mind that realizes that he gets all his powers, best of all his thinking mind, from his idea of God, then it is impossible for man not to realize that what he perceives of God clearly and distinctly in his mind is a reality, and that reality is the existence of God, a perfect being who can never deceive because by His perfect Being, God is free of defects. God, as a perfect being, is incapable of fraud and deception, two things that are caused by defects. God's existence is manifested in the way man is able to use his thinking powers to accept his limitations, and at the same time realize that someone greater than man has endowed man with the powers to think and discern clearly and distinctly the idea of a Supreme Being.
John Locke starts off his treatise with the thesis that ideas spring from two fountainheads- sensation and reflection. The former, man acquires from external sensible objects that affect man's five senses- those same senses endowed upon all men by the Creator. Material things outside man's being are the objects of sensation. Through experiencing sensation, man's thinking process gives rise to ideas thereby gaining for the thinking being a certain amount of knowledge. The other fountainhead is reflection. While sensation is caused from without, reflection emanates from within, from the deepest recesses of man's thinking being. A being's mental operations (the workings of a thinking mind) are the objects of reflection. Conclusion to draw in a custom essay is that having ideas and perception are the same. Thinking and understanding are one and the same. As the mind is furnished with more ideas, it awakens more and more; it thinks more and more.