In the days before Darwin and naturalistic scientists like him, there were philosophers theorizing about God, the supernatural, and miracles. One such philosopher was David Hume, who lived during the eighteenth century. This Scottish thinker is best remembered for his influential system of thought that included empiricism, skepticism, and naturalism. Hume disregarded miracles and argued against religions founded on the miraculous. For example, he argued against the idea of cause and effect. He said that we often view a cause as creating an effect but this may not be the case. Instead, it may simply be a habit of association that we make. We see cause and effect because that’s how we’ve been conditioned. There is a popular theistic argument from causation that basically states—that the universe operates on cause and effect and therefore must have a First Cause, the Creator God. But if Hume was right, this argument is false. He was actually turning the Causality argument around and claiming the world doesn’t operate on cause and effect — therefore we don’t need to appeal to a Creator. He, like so many before and after him, fell into the trap of trying to explain life, religion, morality, and more without God. Sadly, his work was highly influential in shaping Western thought. One such person that he influenced was Charles Darwin. He regarded the works of Hume as influential in shaping his thoughts and opinions. And, of course, it was the acceptance of Darwinian ideas about the origin of the species that opened the floodgates for skeptical, atheistic, and naturalistic thinking to sweep through science and society. Hume’s thinking foolishly rests on human opinion instead of the Word of the infallible Creator. The Apostle Paul wrote in Corinthians that the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, because he knows the vain thoughts of people who try to deny Him. People just like David Hume. I’m David Rives. Truly, the heavens declare the glory of God.
