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One of his reasons for believing in god is that he knows (or thinks) that God is perfect. Since perfection includes existence, he therefore assumes that God must exist.

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Descartes made a series of increasingly unsupportable suppositions to back up his beleief in God:

1. I exist (A supportable statement for an individual - Cogito ergo sum)

2. I have in my mind the notion of a perfect being (The idea that anyone can develop an idea of a perfect being is not provable. The Aztec may have thoght their bloodthirsty gods perfect as well)

3. An imperfect being, like myself, cannot think up the notion of a perfect being (There is no proof although it is believable that humans are not perfect and it is debatable if the idea he has of a perfect being is indeed perfect)

4. Therefore the notion of a perfect being must have originated from the perfect being himself (This is a flight of fancy)

5. A perfect being would not be perfect if it did not exist (Buddhists, for example see perfection in the loss of being)

6. Therefore a perfect being must exist (This does not follow from any of the above statements)

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Q: Why did René Descartes believe in god?
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