In the third Meditation, Descartes vainly tries to answer the following objection: "How can the idea that is in us of a supremely perfect being have so much objective reality that it can only come from a supremely perfect cause?" (27), Descartes illustrates an analogous comparison with the "mark of the craftsman impressed upon his work..." (41) Just as the craftsman leaves his mark on his work, the idea of God must have God himself as its cause. Descartes believes that this argument juxtaposed with the definition of God's essence is sufficient to quiet his critics.

Nor should I think that I do not perceive the infinite by means of a true idea, but only through a negation of the finite, just as I perceive rest and darkness means of a negation of motion and light. On the contrary, I clearly understand that there is more reality in an infinite substance than there is in a finite one. Thus the perception of the infinite is somehow prior in me to the perception of the finite, that is, my perception of God is prior to my perception of myself. For how would I understand that I doubt and that I desire, that is, that I lack something and that I am not wholly perfect, unless there were some idea in me of a more perfect being, by comparison with which I might recognize my defects? (38)

Descartes's claim that there's more reality in infinite substance than in finite rests on a medieval conception of degrees of reality. This principle also allows Descartes to rule out the suggestion that he might be the cause of his idea of God. His idea of God is an idea of an infinite and perfect being, but Descartes knows, at least from the cogito, that he is finite and imperfect. Hence, given the principle that there is more reality in infinite than in finite substance, and from the fact that he exists and has the idea of a perfect, infinite being, he concludes that he cannot be the cause of his idea of God; therefore, God exists. This is essentially the fundamental cosmologically explanation of God's existence.

The third argument of the existence of God is present in the fifth Meditation, where Descartes poses a different approach to the argument: an ontological argument. He begins the argument with a discussion of mathematics to describe the essence of God. He asserts that in "figures, numbers, or other things pertaining to arithmetic, geometry or, in general, to pure and abstract mathematics", he has clear and distinct ideas of all, which enables him to draw properties and conclusions even if they do not exist (45). He uses this idea to prove God's existence by concluding that the "existence of God ought to have...at least the same degree of certainty that truths of mathematics has..." (46).

Yet the argument from design proposed by Leibniz among others, and supported by me, is more plausible alternative to Descartes's "proofs" of God's existence. The argument from design is exactly what the name implies it is. A watch is designed. From the existence of watch, we can assume the existence of a watch maker (251). The human eye is designed. From the existence of a human eye, we can assume the existence of a human-eye maker. Watch is to watch maker as the human eye is to P, where P is God. This induction would have been more conventional way to convince the critics of the Discourse.

oncepts. So, even those inclined to concur with the conclusion of Descartes' proof are often skeptical and raise objections about the method which he employs to validate his argument for the existence of God.

When he comes to discuss the provenance of ideas, Descartes applies the principle that there must be as much reality in the cause as in the effect in two distinct ways: the principle now says that there must be as much reality in the cause of an idea as there is in the effect. This derivation needn't be immediate. The idea can be caused by another idea. However, ultimately there must be something in reality that is responsible for th

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