Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

Philo, in David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, argues not that we can know from the observed imperfections in the world that God has either limited power or limited goodness, but rather that we cannot use our observations of the world to show that God is infinitely powerful and infinitely good. We cannot conclude that God is all-powerful or all-good because the world is full of experiences in the animal and human realm which are clearly not good by our own definition of that word.

The primary assumption Philo makes is that all we have to go on in discussing the attributes of God is our experiences, or the information from the physical world which enters our minds through our senses. This information, based on causality, does not tell us enough about God as the first or primary cause to come to definitive conclusions one way or the other about the attributes of that cause. Causality involves the assumption that things and events have causes, that something causes them to be, and that there is a connection between the cause and the effect which we can determine and understand. One can learn something about the attributes of an entity by examining the nature of the things it has created, or which came out of it.

Accordingly, our experience does tell us much about the nature of the world in which we live and about the nature of our experience in that world, and from the internal reality and responses to that world:

Philo: Observe . . . the curious artifices

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argues, before Philo can, that if the argument is to be based on reasoned analysis of the evidence provided by experience in the real world as we know it, then such "arbitrary suppositions can never be admitted, contrary to matter of fact, visible and uncontroverted" (64). Philo goes on to argue that even if he grants to Demea the unbelievable claim that the goodness in this life outweighs the evil, or that happiness outweighs suffering, you have yet done nothing; for this is not, by any means, what we expect from infinite power, infinite wisdom, and infinite goodness. Why is there any misery at all in the world. . . . From some cause. Is it from the intention of the Deity? But he is perfectly benevolent. Is it contrary to his intention? But he is almighty (66). In other words, if one does accept the apparently reasonable premise that suffering fills this world, then one is in serious trouble in trying to come to the conclusion that an all-powerful and all-benevolent God created this world. At the same time, however, in several instances, Philo makes clear that he is not arguing that such suffering in the world negates the possibility that there is an all-powerful and all-good God who created such a world. However, there

Category: Philosophy - H