David Hume's Discourse Concerning Natural Religion Essay
Hume’s Discourse Concerning Natural Religion:
Argument by Design as Proof of God?
The enlightenment-age philosopher David Hume wrote Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, which investigates the natural religious arguments of reasoning and experience on God’s existence. One argument brought up by three of Hume’s characters, Demea, Cleanthes, and Philo; is over the validity of the argument from design. Arguably, Hume is closest in his philosophical beliefs to the character Philo, a religious sceptic and arguer against design. It is Philo who reveals the unmendable gaps in the design argument against its main supporter, Cleanthes. However, Philo does not disprove God’s existence in his efforts to criticise the design argument. This is evident because Philo himself states his belief. By revealing the falsity of proving God’s existence through the argument from design, the reader of can conclude that the questions of God’s existence cannot be answered through human experience and reasoning.
In Part II of Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, Hume introduces the idea of argument from design through Cleanthes, who states,
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