Meditationes de prima philosophia

To the Reader

...can original: "habere possunt"; the text begins mid-sentence, continuing from the previous page's point that atheist arguments have no force have weight with those who understand my reasoning. Yet the judgments of many are so irrational and weak that they are more easily convinced by their first-held opinions—however false or contrary to reason they may be—than by a true and solid refutation of them heard later. I do not wish to respond to those arguments here, as I would first have to recount them.

I will only say in general that all the arguments commonly brandished by atheists original: "Atheis"; in the 17th century, this term was often used broadly for anyone challenging orthodox religious or philosophical proofs of God to attack the existence of God always depend on one of two errors: either they attribute human emotions to God, or they claim so much power and wisdom for our own minds that we try to determine and grasp exactly what God can and ought to do. Consequently, as long as we simply remember that our minds should be considered finite, while God is incomprehensible and infinite, these arguments will cause us no trouble.

Now that I have had some experience with how people judge, I am once again addressing these same questions about God and the human mind, while also dealing with the beginnings of all First Philosophy original: "primæ Philosophiæ"; this refers to metaphysics, the study of the fundamental nature of reality, existence, and knowledge. I will do so, however, in such a way that no common...