Hume and God

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,

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reason. Philo denies the validity of the more general analogy between the adaptation of means to ends by human contrivance (machines) and by the divinely created universe. "Surely you will not affirm, that the universe bears such a resemblance to a house, that we can with the same certainty infer a similar cause, or that the analogy is here entire and perfect. The dissimilitude is so striking, that the utmost you can here pretend to is a guess . . . concerning a similar cause" (Hume 55). In other words, Cleanthes's first premise does not rise to the level of the basis for a proof but is at most the basis for a guess, presumption, conjecture. If such an analogy is the best Cleanthes can do, then Philo remains unconvinced. Philo says that the orderliness of brass, stone, and so on, do not point to divine but rather human intervention in the universe. Further, the orderliness of complex systems, such as ships and other beautiful machines are the result of many different human intelligences on one hand and on the other the result of trial and error, "a slow, but continued improvement carried on during infinite ages in the art of world-making" (Hume 77). Meanwhile, whatever orderliness is in the universe is by no means perfectly under
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Approximate Word count = 2519
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)