EDUQAS Philosophy 1C

Challenges to inductive arguments: David Hume - empirical objections and critique of causes (cosmological). David Hume - problems with analogies; rejection of traditional theistic claims: designer not necessarily God of classical theism; apprentice god; plurality of gods; absent god (teleological). Alternative scientific explanations including Big Bang theory and Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection.

Empiricism

a theory that states that knowledge comes only or primarily from sensory experience.

Hume’s 5 challenges to the cosmological argument

empirical objection , fallacy of composition , contradictory , no proof the cause is God and infinite regress

What does Cleanthes say?

Every aspect of the natural world bears the marks of apparent design and fits together like a machine.

For example, the human eye is brilliantly suited to seeing and seem to have been thought up by a superior intelligence.

This designer must have had intelligence in proportion to the magnitude and grandeur of his work and so must have been the God of classical theism

Analogy to building a house – house appears well designed and has a builder, the universe appears well designed and so must have a builder – God.

What is Hume or Philo’s criticism of analogies

when we are comparing an entire universe to something like a house, and expecting to be able to draw the same conclusions, the analogy cannot be successful as there is no real point of comparison. We cannot compare our experience of a house with our experience of the universe, as we do not know enough about the universe to make judgments about it.

Philo’s alternative theories

Natural selection and the world being spun like a spider

apprentice god argument

This world might be the last of many failed experiments in ‘design’ by such an apprentice God.

Or a God could have made the universe and then abandoned it. We do not know that our universe is well designed as we have nothing to compare it to.

Epicurean Hypothesis

initially the universe was chaotic but the huge amount of time that the universe has existed has resulted in natural forces eventually calming down and ordering themselves into some kind of system

criticism of hume that the world is not faulty

one could say that the world in fact is not faulty. Using John Hick’s parable of the gardener we can see that people interpret evidence differently. Therefore, God could still be a good designer.

criticism that god transcends humans

one could say that we cannot compare our standards to God’s as he is something we do not understand. Indeed Paley talks about God in a transcendent manner, whereas Hume talks about Him in an anthropomorphic way, which many would say is incorrect.

Bishop Samuel Wilberforce

The principle of natural selection is absolutely incompatible with the word of God