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Shiavault - a Vault of Shia Islamic Books Ultimate Questions in Philosophy of Religion Chapter 2: Living Awake Further into the Night [In order] to create Light! In the previous chapter, I shared with you examples of some thinkers who worked on issues of existence, but whose solutions to such thought produced unfavourable outcomes. In this chapter we will start waking up to ourselves in order to create light for us, and those around us, who may be in need of this light.

Firstly, let me share with you two positive examples of thinkers who also worked on issues of life, and in managing to find satisfactory answers to their questions, resulted in a more positive outlook on life. I think, therefore I am! René Descartes was a French philosopher and mathematician of the 17th century AD. He is sometimes called the father of modern philosophy.

Before his time, philosophy had been dominated by the method of Scholasticism, which was entirely based on comparing and contrasting the views of recognized authorities.

Rejecting this method, Descartes stated, "In our search for the direct road to truth, we should busy ourselves with no object about which we cannot attain a certitude equal to that of the demonstration of arithmetic and geometry." He therefore determined that one should hold nothing true until grounds had been established for believing it true. Descartes reviewed all his knowledge from sensible and perceptible as well as rational and traditional sciences.

He then invalidated all this knowledge, which resulted in all his knowing platforms from sensible to rational collapsing, leaving him swimming in the suspense of the ocean of doubt and uncertainty. As he was drowning in his whirlpool of doubt, he realized that whatever else he doubted, he could not doubt his doubt.

He said to himself: “God, I doubt myself, my senses, my mind and the world around me, but I cannot doubt that I doubt.” He immediately concluded that if one doubts, one is able to doubt. From this single fact which he expressed in the famous words, ‘ Cogito, ergo sum', “I think, therefore I am”, he began his investigations. Throughout his investigation and sincere search for truth, he studied different schools of thought, which were accessible to him.

He confirmed through the conclusions reached from this investigative work, his belief in the existence of God, and accepted Christianity as the best religious path available to knowledge, at that time.