Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

A dialogue in twelve parts on whether reason can tell us anything about God, revised over some twenty-five years and published after Hume's death. Pamphilus reports a conversation between three characters: Cleanthes, who argues from the order of nature to a designing mind; Demea, who defends orthodox faith and an a priori proof; and Philo, a sceptic. Much of the book is Philo's attack on the design argument. He asks whether the likeness between the world and a machine is close enough to support any conclusion, whether the world might be more like an animal or a plant, and whether the evidence points to one perfect god rather than several, or a careless one. Demea's argument from a necessary being is dismissed in Part IX. Parts X and XI turn to suffering and argue that the mixed state of the world cannot support an inference to a good and powerful creator. In Part XII Philo appears to concede some ground, and readers still debate how much.

It is the classic critique of the argument from design and a sharp treatment of the problem of evil, and it still frames how philosophers argue about God and evidence.