The Remarkable Implications of Descartes' famous phrase 'Cogito Ergo Sum'

There is no doubt that smart phones and social media have done alot of good in the world.  They have made the Internet more readily available to larger amounts of people which results in more opportunity for education and economic advancement.  While the bridges that divide the haves and have nots still remain to some degree they have been significantly reduced by the free availability to information that the Internet has brought.  Do you want to learn how to become a computer programmer or a mechanic?  Do you want to trade stocks and commodities in the market or learn to invest in real estate?  Well on the internet there is definitely a class for that and in many cases you can learn alot of what you want for free.

But while the positive aspects of the Internet should be celebrated we should also be aware of the adverse effects that it can have.  One such effect is that of confusion.  In today's world many of us find ourselves so inundated with conflicting ideas and perspectives that someone who seeks to understand it all may become so frustrated that he throws his hands up and just gives up all together.

We can become lost in the pure magnitude of it all like a sailor who has the ship that can take him anywhere but who lacks the compass to know where he is actually going.  And without this compass we can end up traveling in circles in the great expanse that is the proverbial ocean of human knowledge.

Descartes' Search for Footing

Rene Descartes was a Frenchman who lived in the first half of the 1600's with a similar dilemma.  He had sought education at the highest of institutions and even done well in his schooling but had come out of it with no sense of a foundation stone by which he could seek to understand reality.  He was convinced that "he had learned nothing but the depth of his ignorance"¹.  

He lived in a world that was steeped in a culture war between the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation with both sides vying for influence in the minds of Europeans.  He felt this tug-of-war for his mind and didn't know what to think or believe.  So with nothing that he could use for footing he decided to start from square one.  He formulated a mental exercise that temporarily discredited anything that he could perceive as being questionable and sought to find only that which he could not question.

And after he had completed the exercise he decided that he could believe that he existed.  He came up the the phrase Cogito Ergo Sum which in English means "I think therefore I am".

This formulation is in my estimation a solid one because the first statement "I think" is dependent on the second statement "I am" - which makes the "therefore" a legitimate one because he wouldn't be able to think if he didn't in fact exist.  As such the fact that he has consciousness is therefore proof that he exists.

From Existence to Eternity

Logic then allows us to take this a step further by saying that the fact that I exist then means that there must be such as thing as "Existence".  Which of course is to say that even if I don't at this point distinguish myself from the rest of "Existence" it still speaks to the reality of a thing called "Existence".

A further extension of this reality can be made for Eternity.  Which is to say that since there is a real thing called Existence then it could have not had a beginning.  Because if there ever truly was a time when nothing existed then nothing would ever have existed.

This is a fascinating exercise because it speaks to the Truth in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that God has "set eternity in the hearts of men".  And Eternity is a fascinating subject because it is ultimately something that we cannot relate to as finite creatures.  We are aware of our beginning and have seen many around us come to an end (at least in bodily terms).  Thus to attempt to fully comprehend the ramification of something or Someone existing for all Eternity is impossible.

Holy, Holy, Holy

Ultimately it leads us to understand something about ourselves.  That we are finite and incapable of entirely grasping what or Who that gave birth to our reality.  All of the laws of science and biology that can be produced and duplicated 100% of the time in controlled settings can be understood but what or Who that gave them birth cannot be fully scoped out.

This is where we get the true definition of the word "holy".  A word used to describe God that means "other than" or distinct from.  And within that one word is encapsulated the majesty and wonder that a worshipper sees of the Uncreated, Self-Existent, All-Powerful God.  The Four Living Creatures that worship around the Throne of God  in Revelation 4:8 say it day and night continuously because the more they see of this Being the more they see One who transcends and far surpasses anything that they can use as a frame of reference for comparison.

We can understand what He chooses to reveal of Himself but we cannot measure Him out to mark His end or observe Him to the point that we can predict His next move.  He is not like the weather that can be understood by discernable patterns or a flock of birds that can be mapped by prior migrations.  He is God and we are not.

And like the Four Living Creatures who gaze upon Him day and night all we can say as we reflect upon Him is "Holy, Holy, Holy.  Is the Lord God Almighty.  Who was and is and is to come."

Amen.

  

  

  

  

  

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¹Taken from Gordon Clark's Book "Thales to Dewey"