Hume Against Christian Natural Theology and Analogical Reasoning on God

This chapter reconstructes the main points of Hume’s criticism of the design argument and of Christian natural theology in a historical context, linked to an analysis of his concept of true and false philosophy. It outlines the historical context of his criticism: the scientific revolution, and its theological underpinnings, and the role of the design argument in early modern Christianity linked to Newtonian methodology. Hume’s argument should thus be seen as an internal critique of Newtonian natural theology: it shows that given Newtonian principles, only a very limited and religiously insignificant conclusion can be supported. Moreover, Hume criticizes philosophy when it mixes and incorporates itself with theology and religion to vindicate religious dogmas and religious authorities. Religion corrupts philosophy, and philosophy can also corrupt itself. False philosophy assumes either an incomprehensible mysticism or an implausible anthropomorphism, which is a false depiction of God that is linked to deleterious religious practices. Hume’s proposed alternative is mitigated scepticism, allied with either minimal theism or an indeterminate position on the nature of the first cause.