[Essay] Descartes' Proof for God

[Kilroy_x]

God is pretty much the equivalent of the ether; an excessively complicated, unnecessary mechanic invented out of ignorance. Funny how Descartes liked both concepts. One of the common problems among smart people is they're too good at coming up with explanations and too eager to do so.

According to his own logic, in order for the idea of something, for example, omnipotence, to occur from within himself, he must himself be in possession of omnipotence.

What? Apparently this argument was made before the invention of quotation marks?

His example here is that a rock cannot be created by anything that does not contain within it all of the characteristics of a rock, or come from a higher level of reality as one. Likewise, heat cannot be created by something that was not itself hot, or possessed of a comparable level of reality.

What? Rock-ness can generate heat-ness in a sense, and vice versa. Certain types of rocks come into existence only under extreme heat. Also, if enough physical material gathered in one place it could overcome the force of repulsion and generate rather tremendous amounts of heat. Metaphysically, everything seems to possess "the same level of reality". Any sense to be found in this area of Descartes thinking could only be incidental.

You already covered both of these, to an extent. What I'm really confused about is how your conclusion follows from the rest of the paper. It doesn't seem to do so at all.