We all know Rene Descartes famous saying "I think therefore I am" but there was alot more to it then that. Descartes had actually began by using his reason to find out if God existed. His is the father of what we know of as Rationalism. He wanted to find what he called an intellectual certainty, but all he could find was doubt. He doubted everything, but this doubt meant one thing that he must be thinking, hence "I think therefore I am". He took this further however and came to believe that anything that we could concieve was distinctly true. He took this rational argument to its natural conclusion when he discussed perfection. The idea of perfection is such a clear concept that it could not proceed from the human imperfect reason and therefore perfection existed. If perfection existed then logically God exists.
Sadly Descartes thinking has been used and misused over the centuries to justify every crackpot notion. With people believing that becasue they thought, they alone could decided what was right and wrong. This gave us the two great Evils of the last century, Nazism and Communism. Both however were a long way from Descartes orginal Philosphy and both were in turn defeated by the power of Good or God in the world
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