Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• farideh lazemi ¹
• zolfagar hemmati argoun ²

¹ Postdoctoral Researcher of Philosophy at University of Tabriz

² Assistant Professor of Philosophy- University of Tabriz Tabriz

Abstract

In the second half of the eighteenth century, with the publication of non-religious philosophy, Hume claims that the existence of the Christian God is impossible, therefore his contemporaries viewed him as a downright atheist. Recently, and despite the interpretations of the last two centuries, Hume has not been introduced as an atheist, but as an agnostic, theist and deist. According to these three attitudes, perhaps Hume has either suspended the claims of thick theism and thin theism, or has explicitly endorsed the existence of God, or has defended from unknown commitment regarding the existence of wisdom that is the origin, creator, and ruler of this world.
This paper rejects mentioned four readings and shows that Hume is a weak and non-dogmatic atheist. Because, this philosopher, by demonstrating that the claims of thick theism are groundless, concludes that the existence of God, with a rich set of attributes, is impossible. However, Hume's attitude to thin theism is not so sharp. Thin theism is not wrong and incredible. According to him, thin theism is empty and useless, that it does not deserve to investigate by any skeptic. In fact, Hume neither denied, nor suspended, nor endorsed thin theism; If he would denied it, he would knowned as downright atheist, if he would suspended it, he would knowned as downright agnostic, and if he would endorsed it, he would knowned as genuine theist and attenuated deist.

Keywords

• Downright Atheist
• Weak or Non-Dogmatic Atheist
• Downright Agnostic
• Genuine Theist
• Attenuated Deist
• David Hume

Main Subjects

• Philosophy of Religion