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Does Philo's Argument Follow From An Emricist Philosophy?

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4. Towards the end of Hume’s Dialogues, Philo argues that the theist and the atheist are merely quarreling over words and that there is no meaningful difference between their positions. Why does he say this? How does Philo’s argument follow from an empiricist philosophy? Is it possible to be an empiricist and yet maintain that theism and atheism are meaningful positions? Explain. Philo believes that because a complete suspension of judgement is impossible, it is presumed that the quarrel over the design argument between the theist and atheist is all verbal dispute. In the book, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion written by David Hume and edited by Richard H. Popkin, Philo argues that the theist and the atheist are merely quarreling over words and that there is no meaningful difference between their positions because there will never be any right argument simply because words are all defined differently, especially between two different belief systems of a theist and an atheist. For example, what is beauty in a humanistic sense that we can visibly see? What is beauty in …show more content…

This simply states that he will force the theist to mysticism because things in the mortal world can be comprehensible by experience, therefore the incomprehensible must believe in mysticism. In comparison, the atheist “magnifies the analogy among all the operations of nature, in every period, every situation, and every position” (81). This makes me believe that atheists observe and conclude by personal experience. With these two definitions of what a theist and an atheist believe, this makes me question whether there is a truthful difference between the two because in the beginning of the book, Cleanthes claimed that there was no difference between a mystic like Demea and an

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God can be best defined as, “the unique, independently existing, omnipotent, omniscient, morally perfect creator of the universe” (Cray 04/12/2017). The difference between theists and atheists is that theists believe in the existence of God, whereas atheists believe in the absence of God. Focusing on the arguments presented by philosophers Robin Collins and William Rowe, and their responses to the ideas of theism and atheism, we can further analyze the evidence to support or negate the existence of a higher power. Collins opens his argument observing that life would have been impossible if certain laws of nature and physical constants had been slightly altered. He then goes on to compare the universe to a biosphere that is made up of the

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Professor Radisson would seem to be an empiricist, because he believes that science should be able to identify everything that is in existence without the benefit from a Creator God. He also appears to believe that occurrences happen only by natural law with no set task to give them life. He gives the example of David Hume, (who was himself and empiricist), as one of the atheist scientist he respects. What is so strange is that David Hume’s empiricist thoughts according to our textbook would mean and end, not only to philosophy, but to all rational inquiry and all claims that we can know anything (even that the sun will rise tomorrow, or that there is a textbook now in front of you)

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Part XI begins with Philo’s breakdown of what are, in his perspective, the four causes of natural evil. These causes, in Philo’s opinion, disprove the existence of an omnipotent and infinitely good god, for if god was all-good and all-powerful, then these grounds would not exist in our universe. INSERT CITATION Once he gives his reasoning for how these causes disprove an omnipotent and infinitely good god, Philo then states what he believes these four causes to be.

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Secondly, that by assuming nature is imperfect, we can assume that there is an imperfect creative process. From this conclusion Philo says we can leave out the idea of a perfect creator. Lastly he criticizes Cleanthes for his analogical and anthropomorphic aspects in his arguments,

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Philo’s argument starts off with two premises: A “Deity” has unlimited power and knowledge, and anything that he wills, he will receive. Cleanthes and Demea both accept the premises to be true. Philo carries on by stating that since a “Deity” always receives what he wants, then he must not want neither man or animal to achieve happiness. Philo concludes his argument by stating that a “Deity” cannot be humane or compassionate because a man understands these phrases to show sympathy and concern for others. (p.63).

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Hume’s response to this is through is character Philo, Philo said that we should not judge the attributes of god on something like Paley proposes. Philo argues that we cannot judge the entirety of the universe on one single part of nature because nature has an infinite number of springs of principle. Also that we cannot base God on our

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Professor John Lennox clearly shows here that it is not possible for atheist to derive their ethics from anywhere else besides God, the absolute moral giver. The fact that we have a common set of morality across humankind is in itself evidence that we are moral beings made in the image of our

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