Descartes' 'proof of God'
The French philosopher claimed to have proved that God exists. The Vatican demurred. This is how Descartes arrived at his 'proof'.
The French philosopher René Descartes (1596–1650) was born into a devout Catholic family, received a formal Jesuit education and joined the Catholic side in the Thirty Years’ War. He matured to produce what many thought (and some still think) the most persuasive case for the existence of God. How, then, was it possible that the pope banned his books, and the Catholic Church considered him anathema?
One night, in 1619, Descartes experienced a dreamlike epiphany telling him to pursue his true calling: philosophy. He acted on this prophetic ‘vision’ and devoted himself to the pursuit of knowledge, abandoning academia to study the ‘book of life’.
Descartes never taught in a university. Privately wealthy, he was at leisure to study in his own peripatetic way. He wrote volumes of philosophy in polished French, co…