The Best...if at all Possible

                                                              The Best...if at all Possible

    In life, things happen; things go wrong. Sometimes when things go wrong, they turn out to be one of the best things that could have happened. However, sometimes everything that could go wrong does go wrong and does not work out for the better. In Voltaire’s Candide, everything that could go wrong in Candide’s life does go wrong. He ends up being robbed, beaten, enslaved and ultimately ends up being completely unhappy with Cunegonde, who he thought was the love of his life. Throughout all of his struggles, Candide holds on to a seemingly wonderful philosophy of everything is the best it can be and works out for the ultimate good. His mentor Pangloss coins this phony philosophy, and it ends up bringing complete unhappiness upon Candide.
    Pangloss’ philosophy sounds good upon first hearing it. He states “It is demonstrated… that things cannot be otherwise, for, everything being made for an end, everything is necessarily for the best end” (Voltaire 2); he believes that everything will not only work out in the end but for the best end. Everything will ultimately work out in the best way because it is the best way. Everything must work out because every created thing must fulfill its purpose. He goes on to use the example that legs were designed to wear breeches, and noses were made to wear spectacles, and because of this we have breeches and spectacles (Voltaire 2), but this example completely derails this philosophy. His reasoning is complete nonsense. Just because two things have something in common does not mean that they were made for each other. There would still be legs if breeches were never invented and noses would still exist even if spectacles were never invented. Two seemingly similar things do not always have to go together or compliment each other. Pangloss bases his philosophy on faulty and nonsensical logic.
    Even with his faulty reasoning, his philosophy still sounds good. Right? But what happens when things take a turn for the worse and do not yield a positive outcome? The basic plot of Candide is essentially everything bad happening and not working out for the best. Candide, Pangloss’ naive student, takes everything, especially his philosophy, seriously, and it does not always serve Candide well. One example is when Candide kills an old friend, Cunegonde’s brother. Candide kills his old friend because he refuses to allow Candide to marry Cunegonde, his sister. Enraged, Candide draws his sword and “thrust[s] it up to the hilt in the Jesuit Baron’s belly” (Voltaire 37), but as soon as he withdraws his sword from the Baron, he begins to weep. He exclaims, “I have killed my former master, my friend, my brother-in-law; I am the kindest man in the world, and here I am killing three men already, and two of the three are priests” (Voltaire 37), and he still believes himself to be a good person. Candide enters into an inner battle within himself. He has a hard time reconciling this murder with Pangloss' “everything works out for the best” philosophy.
    If, as Pangloss claims, everything happens for the best end, and Candide is in his best form, then his murderous actions are justified. He should experience no remorse or shame, but embrace the fact that the murder is the best end. But he does not believe it is the best end. Murder is never the best end because a person dies, and that is not the best outcome. He realizes that because murder is not the best possible outcome, he is therefore not his best possible self.
    Candide is robbed, beaten, and enslaved throughout Candide. What is the purpose of Candide’s suffering and misfortune? At the end of Candide, Pangloss tells Candide “All events are linked together in the best of all possible worlds...if you had not given the Baron a great blow with your sword...you would not be here eating candied citrons and pistachios” (Voltaire 96), and Pangloss is saying that everything bad had to happen in order for Candide to live the luxurious life he now lives. However, Candide does not live a happy life because he is miserable with Cunegonde, who is now his wife. He does not live his best possible outcome, which would be to live a happy and joyous life.
    Earlier, Pangloss states “for after all I am a philosopher, it is not fitting for me to recant…and besides, pre-established harmony is the finest thing in the world” (Voltaire 90), and Pangloss refuses to accept the foolishness of his philosophy. At the end of the story, Pangloss’s philosophy proves false because Candide is not living his best life or his best possible outcome. He again refuses to accept the fact that his philosophy does not support their current situation.
    The only way to truly live our best end is in Christ because He is the only way to true happiness. John 14:6 states “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” (ESV), and Pangloss’ teaching does not line up with the Bible. Just because bad things happen, and do not always produce the best outcome for one individual, does not mean it does not produce something good for someone else. Instead of assuming one’s actions have no consequences on oneself or others, we should live by the Word of God and not just live for oneself, but for the good and happiness of others.

Are We Dreaming, Existing, or Both?

         Are We Dreaming, Existing, or Both?

    Dreams have been a topic of discussion for years. Numerous authors, poets, and psychologists have posed questions about dreaming and reality. The main questions seem to be: How do we distinguish between the two? How do we know we are not living in a dream world? In A Discourse on the Method, Renee Descartes attempts to answer these questions through The Dream Argument Section.
    Descartes’ most famous quote is “I am thinking, therefore I exist” (Descartes 28), but he also raises the question of whether we are can rely on the fact that we truly exist. We trust our senses because we rely on them for basically everything, but Descartes argues that the senses often mislead us. He says “neither our imagination nor our senses could ever confirm the existence of anything, if our intellect did not play its part” (Descartes 32), which compares the senses to our imagination. Imagination is not real; it creates scenarios for our enjoyment, but those scenarios are not rooted in reality, and he argues that the senses do the same.
    If we imagine we are in a burning building, our brain will join forces with our sense of smell to create the smell of smoke even though the building we are in is not burning, nor will it ever burn. The simple fact that a person can create such fallacies because of their faulty senses is astounding. Descartes states “they never raise their mind above the realm of sensory things and are so used not to think of anything except by imagining it” (Descartes 32), and unless we use reason to think through those situations, we can never know if we are truly awake or dreaming. We must question our senses in order to fully understand if we are perpetually dreaming or awake.
    Even though Descartes holds firmly to the belief that our senses mislead us and therefore we cannot trust them, he does believe in the God of the Bible and somewhat contradicts himself. He says “everything that is in us comes from Him” (Descartes 33), which contradicts what he said previously. If everything, including our “faulty” senses, comes from God, and God is perfect, then how can we reconcile the fact that we cannot trust something God created? God is the constant truth in our lives, and in Him, we base our sense of reality; basing our lives in the One who will never fail is the only way to ground ourselves. Descartes says that we must know without a doubt that “everything that is real and true in us comes from a perfect and infinite being” (Descartes 33), and the keyword here is “perfect”. Humans are not perfect, and we do have faults, but God is infinitely perfect, and we have to fully trust in His perfection. Descartes states “I decided to look for something more perfect than I was myself” (Descartes 29), and he knew that there had to be something outside of ourselves which is infinitely true and perfect. He found this infinite perfection in the God of the Bible.
    Once we have incontrovertible certainty and foundation in God, “it is a simple matter to determine that the things we imagine in dreams should in no way make us doubt the truth of the thoughts we have while awake” (Descartes 33), because the things in dreams can be true, just like in waking reality. Descartes uses the example of a geometer discovering some new proof. The geometer dreamed the proof when he was sleeping, and when he awoke, he proved it to be true. Just because he came up with the proof when he was unconscious does not make the proof any less real or true.
    Every thought we have must be rooted in the perfect truth of God since man cannot dream up anything God has not already created, and since God has already created everything, in reality, we can have full certainty in what we are thinking, feeling, or seeing. God would never intentionally trick us. John 8:32 says “And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” (ESV), and this is further proof that if we believe in God, we will never have to doubt whether we are awake or dreaming. If we know the truth, which is God, and we trust in the truth, then we will be free from the worries and questions we raise about reality. Descartes says “For after all, whether we are awake or asleep, we ought never to let ourselves be convinced except in the evidence of our reason” (Descartes 34), and the evidence of our reason is found in God. We can reason that because God is perfect, and we are made in his perfect image, we can trust our senses and differentiate between dreaming and reality.
    At the beginning of his argument against the senses, Descartes says that the senses mislead us because our imagination can join with our senses and make us perceive something that is not really there. However, Descartes goes on to argue his faith in God and how reason and the belief in a perfect being create an incontrovertible truth that nothing created by a perfect can be imperfect to the point of trickery. Therefore, because we were created by God, a perfect being, we must hold on to God’s constant presence and overwhelming truth to distinguish between dreaming and reality.