Religion In David Hume's Dialogue Concerning Natural Religion

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In David Hume’s, “Dialogue Concerning Natural Religion”, Hume explores whether or not religious belief is indeed rational. Upon researching Hume I found that he is an empiricist, which is someone who thinks that all human knowledge comes from experience rather than learning. Being an empiricist sways Hume to believe that belief is on rational if it is properly supported by evidence. So the question posed is, “Is there enough evidence in the world to allow us to believe that there is an infinitely good, wise, powerful, perfect God?” The topic at hand is not whether we can rationally prove that God does exist, but rather if we are capable of concluding God’s nature. In this story I observed that Hume presents three characters, each …show more content…

This argument states that the complex order and beauty of the universe can only be explained by acknowledging the existence of an intelligent designer, notice the words “intelligent” and “designer” in Cleanthes argument. Cleanthes notion leads me to his argument of, “Arguments from Design”, which outline 3 premises by way of analogies. The arguments presented are supposed to work in favor of a “typical” analogy. They are as follows: the world resembles a finely tuned machine, all machines we know of are created by intelligence so therefore the world must also be caused by an intelligent being. Philo’s opinion on Cleanthes’ analogy is one of impossibility, weak in comparison, and he deems it absolutely absurd to give God human qualities based off of …show more content…

The universe was created, in my opinion, in the image of God, so how can a machine- long founded after the creation of the universe- act as the motor that keeps the universe going? Machines are of the universe, the universe sees no cohesiveness in the way a machine, built for durability and stability, does. This statement comes from evil existing in the universe. Secondly, if machines are made by an intelligent designer, then who creates the designer in his image and gives him/her to ability to create a finely tuned machine? Thirdly, the universe was indeed created by an intelligent designer- known as

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