Cleanthes (the philosophical one)

Hume’s own views are expressed through the character of Philo.

Humans do not have sufficient knowledge and experience of the creation of the world to conclude that there is only one designer

Humans only have experience of what we design and create ourselves

limited experience is not sufficient to come to similar conclusions about the creation and design of the world

Suppose the universe was designed then this would mean that the teleological argument proves a designer existed

does not prove that the designer is God

design could have been the work of any number of “lesser” or “limited” gods

could have been a 'first attempt' by a being and it moved on to more impressive things

world is not perfect - yet religious leaders claim God is in every way

cannot make links between the design and the designer

if perfect God designed the world then why is it not perfect

trying to explain/discuss the design of the universe in human terms is a bad analogy

using analogy is of a manufactured object suggests many God's rather than one supreme God

bad analogy to compare the world to a machine

world is natural - more like an animal or a vegetable than a machine

makes more sense to say world grew of its own accord to say it was constructed and manufactured

Aquinas, Paley, Tennant and Swinburne argue universe seems well designed

But an animal would not be able to live without it's organs working together as they do

if world did not seem well designed it would not be here for us to look at

Philo ridicules the conclusions of design argument and says that evidence suggests a human-like God or an ancient God that was ashamed

we can observe order or purpose in parts of the natural world but cant be applied to whole world (fallacy of composition)

Hume uses example of a set of balancing scales but one side is covered and we can only guess what is causing the weight

cannot assume that just because a human-made machine has a designer that the world needs a designer too (scales analogy)

designer argument assumes the designer is monotheistic God - could be several

assumes that there was intentionl design rather than the product of random chance

Paley argues that even though we don't see a watch get made we still assume it has a designer

Hume takes analogy too far - making fun of teleological arguments and many none religious believers agree that the world has a designer

Paley argues that you couldn't throw the parts of a clock into the air and expect it to all fall into place and work - so must have a designer

Paley argues that the whole world doesn't have a purpose but things within do