Why Is Descartes Innate Idea Of God

The philosopher René Descartes expresses his belief that he has proven the existence of God beginning in Meditation III. By this time in his meditations, Descartes has concluded that the only thing he can be sure of is that he exists and is a thinking thing. Through this thinking, he concludes that he knows nothing for certain. Descartes begins considering the existence of God by examining the contents of his mind. It is through his innate idea of God that Descartes concludes that God exists, and through God’s existence his understanding of the material world as a whole is concluded. Descartes begins pondering the existence of God by reflecting on his idea of God. Because he has decided not to believe in anything without sufficient reason, he analyzes the contents of his own mind, the different types of ideas he has and whether they hold any truth or not. He establishes that he as three different types of …show more content…
He establishes that he is included in the category of finite beings. Because of the relationship he established between formal reality and objective reality, he concludes that he and can conceive of other ideas outside of himself because they are finite as well. With this same reasoning, he should not be able to conceive of something infinite—such as God--because he is finite. This leads him to believe that the idea of God is an innate idea—an idea we have by nature. Once Descartes establishes his innate understanding of God, he searches for the possible cause of his idea. It is obvious to him the idea of God could not have come from himself because God is perfect, and infinite, which Descartes is not nor has he ever experienced. Therefore; God is the ultimate cause of our idea of God, because Descartes could not have been the cause of the idea because he is not infinite and the idea of something can only come from something that truly is. Thus, God exists and is the cause of our idea of