Descartes and Rationalism

CR101 Radio - Podcast Network · Jun 6, 2026 · 8m

Modern rationalism begins with René Descartes, whose famous claim “I think, therefore I am” made human self-consciousness the starting point of reality. Instead of God creating and defining all things, man’s thinking became the judge of what is real. God was reduced to an object that must be validated by human reason, laying the groundwork for the modern idea that God can be “created” or dismissed by man.

This logic was developed further by Kant and Hegel, leading to the belief that the rational is the real. The result is a worldview in which man, not God, stands at the center, severed from…