Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

Hume kept this book in a drawer for twenty-five years, revising it, and arranged for it to appear only once he was safely dead. The reason shows on every page. Three men argue in a garden: Cleanthes, who thinks the order of nature proves a designer much like ourselves; Demea, who is pious and wants no such proof; and Philo, the skeptic who takes the design argument apart with terrible patience. Does the universe resemble a watch or a vegetable? Why one architect rather than a committee of them? And what sort of craftsman builds a world with this much pain in it? Nothing is settled, which is precisely the point. Free PDF and EPUB editions are available for download.