Mind: A Brief Introduction (John R. Searle) / quote 34 of 138
God is not a deceiver
assuming that God exists, he argues that God cannot be a deceiver. Because of God’s perfection, it would be inconsistent to suppose that he could be a deceiver, for deceit is an imperfection. But if God is not a deceiver, then there must exist an external world, and I must have some sort of correct knowledge when I make observations of the external world. Why? Because God gives me every reason to believe, for example, that there is a desk in front of me, and a chair on which I’m sitting, and no reason to suppose otherwise. Therefore, if I am mistaken, God would be deceiving me, and that is impossible. This then raises a problem for Descartes: How is error is possible? And his answer is that error is possible because my will exceeds my understanding. My will is potentially infinite; my understanding is finite. And I often will to believe things that I do not clearly and distinctly perceive to be true, and consequently, I can be mistaken. It is important to emphasize that Descartes did not think that our perceptions are in general accurate representations of the world. Objects do not really have colors, tastes, or smells, nor do they give off sounds, even though colors, tastes,…