i think it was mentioned earlier the conflicts descartes must have had given the era of thought he lived in. the church reigned supreme. and i may be wrong, but i've not heard of many philosophical mathematicians being okay with the concept of martyrdom. i agree that he seems to be cheating himself on this one by doing a good job stating why there's a god, but not really giving much reason for there not being one. perhaps he didn't believe in a god of any form, but knew he had to justify that there *could* be one for the sake of his own life.