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CAN WE KNOW THAT GOD EXISTS SIMPLY BY THINKING ABOUT IT?

Adriana Sima

Abstract

The question of whether we can know that God exists simply by thinking about it has been explored by various philosophers throughout history. Let’s examine the ideas of Plato, Saint Augustine of Hippo, Saint Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, Rene Descartes, and Lucian Blaga on this topic. Plato’s philosophy centered around the idea of forms or ideal concepts. While he did not explicitly argue for the existence of a monotheistic God, he believed in a transcendent realm of perfect forms that served as the ultimate source of reality. According to Plato, through philosophical contemplation and reason, one could gain knowledge of these forms, including the form of the good, which could be equated with a divine or godlike entity. Saint Augustine of Hippo sought to reconcile faith and reason and believed that rational inquiry could lead to knowledge of God’s existence. He argued that God’s existence could be known through introspection and reflection on one’s own existence. Augustine believed that God’s existence is self-evident and that every thought we have depends on the existence of a supreme, unchanging and eternal being. Saint Anselm proposed the ontological argument for the existence of God. He argued that we can conceive of a being greater than which nothing can be conceived. According to Anselm, if such a being exists in the understanding alone, it could also exist in reality, which is even greater. Therefore, God must exist in reality. Anselm’s argument relies on the idea that the concept of God contains the concept of necessary existence. Thomas Aquinas developed the cosmological argument, which asserts that everything in the universe has a cause, and ultimately there must be an uncaused cause (God) that initiates the chain of causes. Aquinas believed that reason could lead us to knowledge of God’s existence through observation of the natural world and logical deduction. He believed that God’s existence is self-evident and can be understood through natural theology. Rene Descartes known for his phrase “I think, therefore I am,” sought to establish a foundation of knowledge through rational inquiry. While his philosophical project primarily focused on skepticism and the existence of the self, Descartes also argued for the existence of God. He posited that the idea of God, as a perfect and infinite being, could not have originated from himself, a finite and imperfect being. Therefore, he concluded that the idea of God must have been implanted by a higher power, namely God himself. Lucian Blaga, a Romanian philosopher, addressed the problem of God’s existence from a phenomenological perspective. He argued that God’s existence is not a factual truth that can be proven or disproven by rational thought alone. Instead, Blaga emphasized the importance of subjective experience and existential intuition in recognizing the presence of God. For Blaga, the experience of the sacred and the encounter with the numinous in human existence provides a profound sense of meaning and transcendence, which suggests the existence of God. In summary, the philosophers mentioned above offer different perspectives on whether we can know that God exists simply by thinking about it. While some argue for rational proofs like the ontological or cosmological arguments, others emphasize the importance of personal experience, intuition, introspection or the recognition of higher realities, but the question of God’s existence remains a deeply complex and multifaceted topic, with different philosophical approaches yielding different conclusions, a complex and deeply personal matter, with differing viewpoints among philosophers and individuals.

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DOI resolver: doi.org/10.35603/sws.iscah.2023/s03.01

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