How did Descartes prove the existence of God? Does it sound convincing? Why?

Answer 1

There's no evidence to prove OR disprove God.
However, you should live your life as if God does exist.

IF you are right, you win God's favour, a place in heaven etc.
IF you are wrong, well- it doesn't really matter, does it?

Was that Descartes, or Pascal ? Bloody French.

Answer 2

"cogito ergo sum" means I think so I am. Nothing to do with God.
"ex nihilo nihil fit" means that nothing was made out of empty space, so in the case of Descartes it says that there must be a creator, a force, a God, a Great Architect...
But Descartes is more known for his famous "bet" : if there is no God I loose whether I believe or not; if there is one and I don't believe then I also loose.
So I don't know if there is a God but I have to believe.

You see, it proves absolutely nothing I would rather call it a sophism than a bet.

Answer 3

Descartes brought up his controversial theories of God's existence first by using the method of doubt and analysis and systematically arranged all his beliefs setting aside those which he calls could fall into doubt until he reached one belief which he could not doubt. Next step was Descartes used to prove existence of god is by indentifying what is clear and distinct-criterion of certainty he claims that whatever he percieves to be clear and distinct is true. He argues that what he infact saw were the ideas of such things, and he assumed that there were things in the external world that caused such ideas. He then adds up to this argument that there are ideas which clearly and distinctly 'appear' before the mind.The only question is whether anything corresponds to them or causes them.
Next step he determines the falsity or truth in relation to the kinds of ideas- Which one is the bearer of truth and the bearer of falsehood. He then went further and determine the origin of the idea, some ideas appeared to him as innate,adventitious(that is caused by things outside of me), and still others have to be invented by him. He dismisses however the considerations as weak(impulses led him to believe about an idea- so it could be false idea)Considered merely as modes for thoughts, ideas dont differ from one another in regard to truth ideas which represent substances contain themselves more objective reality than the ideas which rep[resents modes or accidents. Formal reality is its own intrinsic reality- objective reality is a function of its representational content. Descartes reviews the idea that apart from the idea which gives a representation of himself, there are ideas which variously represent God, corporeal and inanimate objects, angels, animals, and man like him. He realizes that the idea of an angel could be put together as an idea of himself, of corporeal things and of God, even if there were no animals, angels,or other men like himself.In regards to his ideas of corporeal things, none of them is so great as to contain objective reality than Descartes would find himself. The idea would have or could have came from him. In his ideas on corporeal things, there are things he says are clear and distinct about them. The list include size, shape, length,depth-these are functions of the boundaries of the extension;position-relation of the possessing shape, and motion or change in position> But to these, he adds substance, duration and number. There other kind of ideas i.e ligth, color, sounds, smells,taste, heat , cold-these are called tactile qualities but Descartes argues he doesn't know whether they true or false as for the rest of ideas, all of which are all borrowed from him(Descartes) imminently and objectively. With all these methodology, he came up with finalization of his theory-of God to consider whether there is anything in the idea which could not have originated solely from him. Descartes affirms this " By God, I understand, a substance which is infinite, independent,supremely powerful,and which created by myself and everything else(if else there be) that exists. All these attributes are such that, the more carefully I concentrate on them, the less possible it seems that they could have originated from me alone. So, from what has been said, it must be concluded that God necessarily exists".

Answer 4

Cogito, ergo sum

Ex nihilo nihil fit

It does SOUND convincing, I must admit. But as a non-Latin speaker I don't know what it all means!

Answer 5

He didn't. He claimed to prove his own existence.