Summary Of Hume's Dialogues On Natural Religion

In the Dialogues on Natural Religion, Hume’s investigates if having a religion or belief in something can be considered rational. Hume believes that religion can be rational only if there is virtuous subsidiary evidence. So the main question Hume’s has is if there is a sufficient amount of supportive evidence in the world for religion to be considered rational. Humes does ask us if we can come to almost perfect conclusion about God’s nature. Humes asserts that Cleanthes wins the day by being able to provide a forthright response. Throughout the Dialogues on Natural Religion, three philosophers named Demea, Philo, and Cleanthes debate the nature of God's existence. While all three agree that a God does exist, they have differing opinions on God's nature and how humankind can come to knowledge of an all-powerful deity.
Such topics debated include the argument from design—for which Hume uses a house—and whether there is more suffering or good in the world .
At the end of the Dialogues he believes that Cleanthes offered the strongest arguments. However, this could be out of loyalty to his teacher, as this does not seem to reflect Hume's own views on the topic. When other pieces on religion by Hume are taken into consideration, it may be noted that they all end with ironic statements reaffirming the truth of Christian religious views. While the irony may be less readily evident in the Dialogues, this would suggest a similar reading of this work's ending.
Cleanthes is an "experimental theist" and an exponent of orthodox empiricism who bases his beliefs about God's existence and nature upon a version of the teleological argument, which uses evidence of design in the universe to argue for God's existence and resemblance to the human