In David Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Cleanthes' argument from
design is successful in supporting the idea that the universe has an ordered arrangement
and pattern. This argument is not sound in its ability to prove the existence of the Christian
God. However, Cleanthes does present a sound case for order in the universe, which can
be seen as an aspect of one's faith in a Supreme Creator. In the argument from design,
Cleanthes is attempting to discover and defend the basic foundations of religion by using
the same methods applied in scientific thought. Paramount in the process of scientific
thought is reliance on previous observation and experience of certain causes resulting in
specific effects. If a scientist experiences a million times that when chemical A is directly
exposed to fire, an enormous explosion takes place, it is logical that the scientist is wholly
expecting the same effect the next time the experiment is run. It appears through this line
of reasoning that the argument from design relies heavily on the relative probability of an
event occurring over a specified period of time. This idea corresponds to human
interpretation of the Universe in that perception without the aid of experience is not
sufficient in the realization process of a particular phenomenon. If a human were left only
to their own perceptions of the universe without prior experiences, they would be able to
make several value judgements, but without experience with these judgements it would be
impossible to determine which were genuine. (p.61, par.2) Even if one believes that truth
is relative, they must agree that there is an experience that has occurred in the past causing
this person to label a particular outcome as being true or false. If I have no prior
experience or knowledge of the qualities of a tree, I would be left to hypothesize on these
qualities only from what I could pe...