The big idea: The cogito proves you're a thinking mind — but that's all. The world, your body, other people: all still doubted, because the evil demon might be faking them.
The way back: To get them back, Descartes needs to rule out the demon. And to do that, he tries to prove that a perfect, non-deceiving God exists.
The plan: if a perfect God exists, then a good God wouldn't let me be systematically deceived. So proving God is the key that unlocks the outside world.
Hold onto this: God does the heavy lifting in Descartes' rebuild: no God, no guarantee — and the demon-doubt would swallow everything except the cogito.
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Descartes' main proof works from an idea he finds inside his own mind.
Where did the idea of perfection come from?
The idea
I have an idea of a perfect being — infinite, all-knowing, all-good.
The puzzle
But I'm imperfect and finite: I doubt, I make mistakes. So where did such a big idea come from?
The causal rule
A cause must be at least as great as its effect, and an imperfect mind like mine couldn't manufacture the idea of perfection on its own.
Idea · Imperfect me · Perfect cause
The maker's mark: So the idea must have been placed in me by a perfect being who really exists — like a maker's trademark stamped on the work.
Checkpoint — the trademark argument: In one line: my idea of a perfect being is too great for imperfect me to have made, so a perfect being must have caused it. Hold that — next, God rescues the whole outside world.
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Once God is in place, Descartes uses one feature of God to reopen everything.
A perfect God would not deceive: A perfect being is all-good, and deceiving is a defect — so God is no deceiver. That does two jobs.
Two jobs
First
Whatever I perceive clearly and distinctly must be true, because a good God wouldn't build my mind to go wrong when I'm being that careful.
Second
I strongly, naturally believe an external world causes my sensations — and a non-deceiving God wouldn't give me that powerful belief if it were false. So the physical world is real after all.
Clear ideas · The world
Go further — higher-level insight: This is where the famous Cartesian circle looms: Descartes uses 'clear and distinct ideas are true' to prove God, then uses God to guarantee that 'clear and distinct ideas are true'. That apparent circularity is the biggest single objection to the whole system — the next micro takes it head on.