RE: Is Dialogues Part XII Hume's "death bed conversion moment" to theism?
June 24, 2014 at 2:21 pm
Hume was careful not to run afoul of the church while alive leaving his arguments such that the reader would have to draw the obvious conclusion.
Even the concession you mention is later qualified by Philo suggesting that the universe's designer had a very remote resemblance to human intelligence. I believe Hume tried to signify how remote by comparing the sun to a candle. There's certainly enough in Hume's work to state he was an atheist. At most one can argue he was a deist of the watchmaker variety, on minimal evidence. For our understanding today this is very fine cutting. He was most certainly considered atheist in his day.
Even the concession you mention is later qualified by Philo suggesting that the universe's designer had a very remote resemblance to human intelligence. I believe Hume tried to signify how remote by comparing the sun to a candle. There's certainly enough in Hume's work to state he was an atheist. At most one can argue he was a deist of the watchmaker variety, on minimal evidence. For our understanding today this is very fine cutting. He was most certainly considered atheist in his day.
