Monday, November 7, 2016
The Relevance of Evolution
One important scientific development unavailable to David Hume or any of his fictional interlocutors is the theory of evolution. For many people today, both theists and atheists, religious believers, scientists and intellectuals, the truth of evolution is bound up with the truth of theism. So what is the significance of evolution for the design argument? Does is it provide evidence for either side of the debate? Over a hundred and fifty years after the publication of Darwin's seminal Origin of Species, it is fitting to ask: where might a discussion of Darwin have fit into Hume's Dialogues?
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Evolution, though instrumental for what has become modern biology, seems to present a formidable challenge to the theories of Hume and similar authors of the past. Though discovered over 75 years after Hume’s death, it seems especially fitting to ask ourselves now: “how do Darwin’s discoveries and subsequent works built upon it interact with the philosophical arguments made by Hume in the 16th century”. The answer to which I’ll explore in this blog post. What seems to be evidence in Darwin’s evolutionary theory is that no species or animal is perfect. In fact, many would argue that all animals are far from perfect - requiring constant change and adaptation to simply stay alive in changing conditions. However, what this seems to provide evidence for is there refutation of Hume’s argument for the existence of God. Hume makes the argument that because the universe works so well, and is so expansive, it’s designer must be a perfect and infinite humanoid - what he believes to be God. The problem that this argument faces with the advent of evolution is a challenge to its perfection. What this imperfection might seem to imply is two things: either that the designer is imperfect (in which case it is not God) or that there is no designer. Either of these outcomes would be rather disastrous for Hume’s arguments for God’s existence and ultimately make the argument rather uninspiring. At the same time, however, a believer in Hume might also argue that his design argument simply posits that God would design each part to work perfectly with each other - not necessarily to be perfect in a vacuum. This interpretation, although avoiding the most obvious challenge posed by evolution - the change in species’ features - would still run into problems down the line with the death and extinction of entire species - which would also imply the imperfection of species in their interactions with the rest of the system(implying that the design of the machine is imperfect) and their imperfection of the animals in a vacuum. Ultimately, the advent of the modern evolutionary model for biology seems to provide a significant challenge to the arguments made by Hume and seem to make some significant rethinking or reinterpretation necessary if Hume’s arguments were to stay relevant.
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