The only reason why many believe it difficult to know the existence of God and the nature of the soul is that they never withdraw their minds from the senses and raise them above the bodily world.

Topics: Doubt & Hard Questions, Wisdom & Understanding

René Descartes

René Descartes (1596–1650) war ein französischer Philosoph, Mathematiker und Naturwissenschaftler, der wesentliche Teile seines Werks in den Niederlanden verfasste und als Begründer des neuzeitlichen Rationalismus gilt. Er steht für den methodischen Zweifel, die Erkenntnis „Ich denke, also bin ich“ sowie für den Versuch, die Existenz Gottes und die Unsterblichkeit der Seele mit den Mitteln der reinen Vernunft zu begründen. Für heutige Bibelleser verdeutlicht er das Spannungsverhältnis von Vernunft und Offenbarung, rief mit seinem Ansatz jedoch auch theologische Konflikte hervor, die 1663 zur Indizierung seiner Schriften durch die römisch-katholische Kirche führten.

All quotes by René Descartes (7)

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The strongest faith isn't a faith that never doubts. Rather, it's a faith that grows through doubts.
Craig Groeschel

I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it but because, by it, I see everything else.
C.S. Lewis

Do you see the moon standing there? It's only half visible, and yet it's round and lovely! So it is with many things that we lightly laugh about, because our eyes cannot see them.
Matthias Claudius

The grip of our faith by which we hold on to the Lord may loosen. But the One in whom we believe holds us with his grip.
Helmut Thielicke

A man can no more diminish God's glory by refusing to worship Him than a lunatic can put out the sun by scribbling the word 'darkness' on the walls of his cell.
C.S. Lewis

Now that I am a Christian I do not have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable: but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable.
C.S. Lewis

Faith comes and goes. It rises and falls like the tides of an invisible ocean. If it is presumptuous to think that faith will stay with you forever, it is just as presumptuous to think that unbelief will.
Flannery O'Connor

Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt.
William Shakespeare

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