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Single Idea 6967

[filed under theme 28. God / B. Proving God / 3. Proofs of Evidence / c. Teleological Proof critique ]

Full Idea

Why an orderly system may not be spun from the belly as well as from the brain, it will be difficult … to give a satisfactory reason.

Clarification

He refers to spiders' webs

Gist of Idea

Order may come from an irrational source as well as a rational one

Source

David Hume (Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion [1751], Part 7)

Book Ref

Hume,David: 'Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion' [Penguin], p.91

The 25 ideas from 'Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion'

6957 The objects of theological reasoning are too big for our minds [Hume]
6960 Analogy suggests that God has a very great human mind [Hume]
6958 How can we pronounce on a whole after a brief look at a very small part? [Hume]
6961 An analogy begins to break down as soon as the two cases differ [Hume]
6959 We can't assume God's perfections are like our ideas or like human attributes [Hume]
6962 The thing which contains order must be God, so see God where you see order [Hume]
21279 If the divine cause is proportional to its effects, the effects are finite, so the Deity cannot be infinite [Hume]
21282 Design cannot prove a unified Deity. Many men make a city, so why not many gods for a world? [Hume]
21280 From a ship you would judge its creator a genius, not a mere humble workman [Hume]
6963 Why would we infer an infinite creator from a finite creation? [Hume]
6965 The universe may be the result of trial-and-error [Hume]
6964 From our limited view, we cannot tell if the universe is faulty [Hume]
21281 This excellent world may be the result of a huge sequence of trial-and-error [Hume]
21283 Humans renew their species sexually. If there are many gods, would they not do the same? [Hume]
21284 This Creator god might be an infant or incompetent or senile [Hume]
6967 Order may come from an irrational source as well as a rational one [Hume]
6966 Creation is more like vegetation than human art, so it won't come from reason [Hume]
21286 Motion often begins in matter, with no sign of a controlling agent [Hume]
21287 The universe could settle into superficial order, without a designer [Hume]
21288 Ideas arise from objects, not vice versa; ideas only influence matter if they are linked [Hume]
21285 Events are baffling before experience, and obvious after experience [Hume]
21254 A chain of events requires a cause for the whole as well as the parts, yet the chain is just a sum of parts [Hume]
1435 If something must be necessary so that something exists rather than nothing, why can't the universe be necessary? [Hume]
21256 A surprise feature of all products of 9 looks like design, but is actually a necessity [Hume]
21255 No being's non-existence can imply a contradiction, so its existence cannot be proved a priori [Hume]