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Philosopher David Hume's Criticism of the Design Argument
Does the universe operate like a clock or well-oiled machine, ordered and designed by an all-knowing creator? Philosopher David Hume's agnostic character Cleanthes in ‘Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion', proposes such an argument to prove the existence of God. Cleanthes explains the nature of God as that of an architect whose design of the universe performs in a mechanistic fashion. That there is order and an appearance of design in the universe, Cleanthes' analogy is to that of human invention. If intelligent humans create machines then the analogy holds that that which has design and order in the universe must also have an intelligent creator. The machine and the creator have a Cause and Effect relationship for Cleanthes. The human mind creates the design to build the machine as the Cause and the machine operates and functions as an Effect. In Cleanthes' analogy, God is the Cause of creation and the universe is the Effect that functions as a result. This may place God as only the cause of the universe and not existing within it, but just as a man may interact with his machine, so could God with the universe. Though Cleanthes' argument gives a dynamic analogy to prove the existence of God, Hume, the author, leaves much open to be contested. Playing the part of the skeptic for Hume is his character Philo who makes several criticisms of Cleanthes' design argument. Philo states not only that the analogy is weak, but also that flaws can be pointed out in the human concept of God. These flaws support Philo's atheistic stance, which does not necessarily disprove the existence of God, but challenges the arguments made for it. Read more of this essay on David Hume's "Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion," by Jason Cangialosi
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Contributor's Note
When the past meets future for Jason, the moment is fueled by a creative background in music, writing, film and philosophy providing a nexus of the complex world to come. He is currently a freelance writer and ghostwriter of books, articles and screenplays. http://r.yuwie.com/cangialosi/
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