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Hume and God

The purpose of this research is to examine David Hume's treatment of the design argument for the existence of God, contained in Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion. The plan of the research will be to set forth the essential steps of the argument made by Cleanthes, who in the Dialogues is advocating the design argument, and then to discuss various refutations of the argument made by Philo, with a view toward suggesting which line of argument seems stronger, whether within Hume's text or from the point of view of outside critique of that text.

The argument from design for the existence of God that Cleanthes makes derives from the rational human experience of the found universe. The steps of the argument may be summarized:

1. The created/found universe demonstrates order and an "curious adapting [elsewhere adjustment] of means to ends, throughout all nature, resembl[ing] exactly, though it much exceeds, the productions of human contrivance [i.e., machines, human constructions]" (Hume 53).

2. This well-adjusted universe is perforce the result of either randomness or design, i.e., "from some accidental whistling of the winds . . . [or] from any divine reason or intelligence" (Hume 64).

3. The universe functions either rationally (in an orderly manner) or irrationally (randomly): "Assert either that a rational volume is no proof is no proof of a rational cause, or admit of a similar cause to all the works of nature" (Hume 65).

4. The universe manifests orderly, not random, behavior, according to the reasoned arguments of what Cleanthes describes as "natural religion," which "nothing but the most perverse, obstinate metaphysics can reject them" (Hume 65). But there is also the evidence of rational observation. Using the example of the anatomy and function of the eye, Cleanthes infers the orderliness and dominance of reason of the universe. Therefore:

5. The order of the universe implies a rational intelligence, or "the id...

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Hume and God. (1969, December 31). In LotsofEssays.com. Retrieved 10:47, March 29, 2024, from https://www.lotsofessays.com/viewpaper/1706835.html