Descartes: A Biography

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 Descartes: A Biography

more than match the insults and charges that were so liberally scattered

throughoutThe Admirable Method;healso answered some of the genuine

criticisms it contained.

One of the most dangerous objections against Cartesian philosophy was

that it was conducive to atheism. Schoock had argued that Descartes was

a secret atheist who appeared to provide arguments for God’s existence

butwhose real intention, since the arguments offered were demonstrably

so poor, must have been to undermine belief in God and his Providence.

Descartes’ reply is both apposite and effective. He refers to theological

disputes published by Voetius in,onthe theme of atheism, and to

the efforts of many theologians to construct the best arguments possible

in support of God’s existence. The nub of his argument, then, is this. ‘If

someone tries to refute atheism and offers arguments that are inadequate

to the task, he should be accused of incompetence only, but not of atheism’

(viii-.). However, even this judgment is too harsh. As Voetius himself

had acknowledged in his discussions of atheism, the refutation of atheists

is extremely difficult, and therefore those who argue ineffectively against

atheism are not necessarily guilty even of incompetence (viii-.). In a

word,ifDescartes’ arguments in support of God’s existence fail, he is no

more unsuccessful than many famous theologians who preceded him, and

he should definitely not be accused of atheism.

Descartes’ letters during the controversy confirm that the most worry-

ing feature of Schoock’s long book was the suggestion that he was some

kind of cryptic atheist, and that he deserved the same fate as Vanini. This

had also been the initial response of Mersenne, when he read theAdmirable

Methodin May.Mersenne must have been particularly sensitive to

the implications of the comparison to Vanini, since he had dedicated so

mucheffort to refuting Vanini in is own books and was one of the main

sources of the rumours about his homosexuality.Forhis part, Descartes

wrote to the French ambassador in The Hague (January) and

mentioned twice the concern about atheism and Vanini. ‘Simply because

I demonstrated the existence of God [in theMeditations], he tried to con-

vince people that I secretly teach atheism, in the same style as Vanini

who was burned at Toulouse.’He wrote the following month to the

University of Groningen, where Schoock was a professor, complaining

about the same accusation. ‘There can truly be no greater crime than the

atheism of which he accuses me....He proves that I am an atheist by no