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In a time of upheaval, Rene Descartes (1596-1650) famously sought to ground all knowledge on a foundation he could not doubt: that he was a thinking being. The success of his approach depended crucially on God's benevolence: because we can be sure that the divine being would not mislead us, we can trust that our clear and distinct ideas are true. God's character thus forms the basis for our certainty that there is indeed a reality corresponding to our ideas. God's omnipotence entails the ability to do even what is logically impossible. Descartes also regarded God as not merely uncaused, but somehow the cause of himself.
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