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Tyra Stowe
Philosophy 111
Prof Wandmacher
3 December 2013
What Really Exists?
For many religions that believe in God, there are plenty of diverse beliefs on why God
created humans. Humans have free will and can decide and determine really anything they
desire about their life. Humans can create their own hopes, wishes, or desires without anyone
or thing influencing their decisions. George Berkeley says, “Nothing can give to another that
which it hath not itself.” Meaning, our existence, and God’s existence, are not meaningless.
Berkeley believes that God determines and decides our sensations, putting them into our
minds, and that humans are “telepathically linked to God,” therefore, we have no control over
what we do. Berkeley believes that our sense data is caused by God and not by material
objects. God is creating the nature of reality and He determines our sensations. Berkeley says
God is the reason for our existence and why we do what we do throughout our lives.
Primary and secondary qualities, according to Berkeley exist only in the mind. A primary
quality is something that a material object possesses. For example, the sun has the primary
qualities of allowing heat into the Earth, or the reason for evaporation. A secondary quality is
the ideas we have about objects that occur only in the mind, but are not present in material
objects. For example, someone from Florida and someone from Michigan decide to sun bathe,
it is 70 degrees out, and the person from Michigan believes it to be hot outside but the person
from Florida says it is somewhat cool out; both statements exist only in the mind and are not
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true to the temperature outside. The rejection Berkeley makes about there being a difference
between primary and secondary qualities rejects the idea of material objects existing. Berkeley
believes that no material objects exist, only ideas of them. So regardless of primary qualities
being real, with objects not being material, it does not matter where they exist. This leads to
Berkeley saying there is no difference between the two types of qualities.
Berkeley has a thought that things exist only as long as they are being thought about.
Objects stop existing when we stop thinking about them. Although, Berkeley makes a point that
it is impossible to think of something not existing because then you are thinking about it,
therefore allowing it to exist. Material objects are supposed to exist still, even when they are
not being thought about. However, Berkeley states, material objects exist nowhere but the
mind, and ideas are subsisting in the mind. This leads to phenomenalism, which reduces the
talk about material objects to make talk about mental states. Phenomenalism says that
sensations cannot exist without having a mind to allow them to occur. Berkeley believes that
objects are just patterns of sensations. When a material thing is not being thought about, it
does not exist, but because they must exist, even when they are not being thought about,
Berkeley’s explanation is God. In Berkeley’s argument, it is possible for God to think of every
materialistic object in the world because He is all knowing, He knows everything in the world,
therefore can be consistently thinking of everything possible in the world.
Berkeley believes that God perceives everything, all of the time. Therefore, every
material object constantly exists. God is also the provider for everything in our minds. For
example, when we are experiencing something with someone, or something someone has
experienced before, God is determining the way that we may react or how we think about it.
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Berkeley believes that God is the best explanation for our sense experience. He, God, decides
how we should experience something and what we should take out of it and that we actually
determine none of it, even though we have “free will.” Berkeley’s argument is that God, the allpowerful, all knowing, all mighty, is consistently thinking of all material objects, contributing in
them continuously existing. God is the reason all of the experiences we have and what comes
from them and our ideas of them.
Looking at Berkeley’s argument it is easy for one to agree with the simplicity that he has
created in just trusting that God is the cause to everything and that questioning his ideas
creates skepticism and alters some people’s religion. It is clever to take Berkeley’s argument,
apply it to anyone that believes in God, and tell them that if they do not believe then they are
going against their own religion and beliefs and being skeptical towards the idea of their own
God. Although Berkeley says that all objects are just ideas in our minds, and that the material
objects do not exist, he cannot explain where the idea of God began.
As previously stated, Berkeley’s argument states that anything that is not being thought
about by a human is being thought about by God, which allows it to continue existing, which
then explains that God created us and is always thinking about us so we continue to constantly
exist. However, if that is true, how was God created? God created us and constantly perceives
us, but who created God? Who perceived Him in the first place? The smell, taste, sound, etc., of
an object creates its sense data which leads to our experience with the object. However, there
is no record of anyone ever having sense data of God. Sure, some people think they hear God,
but he is not physically speaking to them. People cannot taste God, or smell God. A person
cannot stand in a room and know His physical, presence is there, so how can one go about
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arguing that He exists, let alone he constantly perceives every material object in the world and
is the reason to everything existing if there are no qualities of him in the first place?
If God is the best explanation for our sense experience, why do we not have any record
of sensations towards God? Assuming that God exists in order to have an argument that people
are afraid to argue against, is weak.
Berkeley, believing that God determines our ideas or our experiences in some ways does
not make sense. Like stated in the beginning, we are humans and we have free will. We can
determine our hopes, desires, etc. Berkeley argues that God determines all of that for us, but if
that is the case then why do some people have such negative experiences and some have
immensely positive ones. For example, someone that is so deserving of something really special
to happen in their life and then their house burning down, yet the guy who just committed a
dangerous crime towards others gets away with it then finds $100 on the ground. Why does
that happen? Why did God decide to make someone so appreciative and loving’s house burn
down, while someone that harms others have a day they don’t deserve, where positive things
are happening to them throughout their day?
The meaning for humans cannot be determined just from the existence of God.
However, if the meaning of God is unknown and he supposedly created us, and no one has ever
spoken with him or has any recollection of conversing with him, how can he be responsible for
our existence? God created us, for a reason we are unaware of, but we are curious to know
whom the creator of God was. For example, it is difficult to read a book and believe that the
words just combine themselves on their own and made out to be a Newberry Prize winner. It is
obvious the book has an author, but to who that may be, is unknown because there is no
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record of them. Think of God as the book. If there is no author, where in the world did the book
come from? There cannot just be any explanation to where those ideas came from and how
they make sense.
Moreover, let us say, that God really does exist; he creates all of our sensations, and is
the reason for all existence. What is the explanation of sensations for people who do not
believe in God? It does not make sense that God would turn people away from Himself. If He
gives all sensations and ideas to people, why would he give on the sensation to not believe in
his existence?
There are hundreds of religions throughout the world, when Berkeley talks about God
being the root of our existence, what God is he speaking about? Considering some religions
have more than one God, how does that work when Berkeley explaining that God creates our
sensations. If it were true that God created all human sensations and was the reason to
material objects existing, it would be more logically explainable that everyone fell under the
same religion.
After considering, everything stated it might be simpler to say that God exists without
questioning his existence and authority. However, assuming that God exists and is the reason
for all existence is farfetched, especially considering He has never been sensed and no one has
any record of knowing Him. The primary and secondary qualities of the world cannot explain
God’s existence because there is none. With all of these factors in mind, Berkeley is wrong to
say that God exists and constantly perceives everything in the world in order for them to exist
too.