hume
Hume "I was from the beginning scandalised, I must own, with this resemblance between the Deity and human creatures." --Philo David Hume wrote much about the subject of religion, much of it negative. In this paper we shall attempt to follow Hume's arguments against Deism as Someone knowable from the wake He allegedly makes as He passes. This kind of Deism he lays to rest. Then, digging deeper, we shall try our hand at a critique of his critique of religion, of resurrecting a natural belief in God. Finally, if there's anything Hume would like to say as a final rejoinder, we shall let him have his last word and call the matter closed. To allege the occurrence of order in creation, purpose in its constituent parts and in its constituted whole, regularity in the meter of its rhythm and syncopations, and mindful structure in the design and construction of Nature is by far the most widely used and generally accepted ground for launching from the world belief in an intelligent and om!nipotent designer god. One does not have to read for very long to find some modern intellectual involved in the analysis of some part of Nature come to the "Aha!" that there's a power at work imposing order, design, structure and purpose in creation. Mo
The purpose of my op!en mind regarding uncertainty is to close it on this one thing certain: That the Cause (or Causes) of order in the universe bear no remote resemblance or analogy to humans, animals, plants or nature. Philosophically, the argument is cast thus: is religion to be the extension of principles and ideas implicit in daily knowledge of the world? For Cleanthes early on, the purveyor of common sen!se, religious hypotheses, like scientific ones, are founded on the "simplest and most obvious arguments," and unless it meets with artificial obstacles, has "easy access and admission into the mind of man. This is speculation, and Hume allows it no authority. A second objection centers in the critique of constant conjunction. " Einstein writes that the scientist's "religious feeling takes the form of rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all the systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection. With humans one can infer from effect to cause and then infer anew concerning the effect because w!e have other corroborating experience about humans, from motives to operations. What Hume seeks to show is the failure of this argument to establish the type of deity! that belief in a particular providence or divine action must require one to assert. The one who is able to balance theory off theory, holding none of one's own, is the victor. It is an argument against any inductive proof for God's existence. If experience is our only and final interlocutor and arbiter, why can one not use one's experience and say that a half-finished building, surrounded by all the materials and tools necessary for its completion, will be one day complete? Or, cannot Robinson Crusoe, seeing one human footprint on the shore, conclude he is not alone? This objection he answers through his dialogue partner: There is an infinite difference between the human and the divine. How do these implicate his Argument from Design? Are our observations one-on-one with our experiences? Is the constant conjunction of events, which Hume says must be experienced as cause and effect, the only legitimate permission we possess for inferring either from the presence of the other? Why can we not infer from the simple and unparalleled fact of the universe an equally simple and unparalleled Deity as Cause? 3. The Dialogues, however, does not commit the error of tendering Philo's view as the correct one.
Common topics in this essay:
Argument Design,
Beach Deists,
Design Argument,
Robinson Crusoe,
XI Enquiry,
God Cleanthes,
Natural Laws,
Design Arguments,
III Cleanthes,
Deity Cause,
design argument,
argument design,
constant conjunction,
nature god,
natural theology,
natural laws,
course nature,
simple unparalleled,
effect cause,
benevolence mercy,
hume natural theology,
section xi enquiry,
balance theory theory,
cleanthes nature god,
constant conjunction events,
|
Acceptance Essays
