In this paper, I will attack Descartes" contention that the idea of God cannot be invented. I will do this by stating counterexamples to Descartes" claims. Descartes" reasons that the idea of God cannot be invented are: the assertion that there are three and only three kinds of ideas, the causation principle, and the idea of a perfect God. These all tie in together; however, there are faults in Descartes" theory.
Descartes claims that there are three kinds of ideas: adventitious, invented, and innate. The existence of innate ideas is the bedrock of Descartes" system. Some innate ideas are the conclusion that you are a "thinker", as well as mathematics, but the most important is our idea of God. He simply states that because the idea of God is not an adventitious or invented idea, the idea of God must be innate. The problem is that Descartes gives no proof as to why this is true. Why can this idea not be adventitious or invented? Descartes" idea is that people could realize that God exists without ever being told, just from knowing that the world around him or herself is too awesome to be exclusive of a Creator.
Descartes" claims that the causation principle proves that the idea of God is not invented. The causation principle is that every cause must have at least as much perception and/or reality as its effect. Also, every cause must be greater than or equal to its effect. What Descartes means is that if the idea of God exists, God must exist, because God causes the idea of God. God must cause everything, therefore He exists. To attack this statement, one must ask "then how does God just exist?" If you believe in God, your answer is probably "you must have faith that it is true." However, if you think of something that created God, you must also think of its Creator, and so on and so forth. It is an infinite loop. The only argument against this is that there is no proof that God was/is the Great Causer of all things, and not something else.
