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Jay Richards: A Look Back at Paley and Hume

Image: William Paley, by George Romney, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

On a classic ID the Future episode, Logan Gage interviews fellow philosopher Jay Richards about William Paley, David Hume, and contemporary arguments for intelligent design. Richards begins with a description of William Paley’s 1802 book Natural Theology, in which the author infers from the natural world that there must be some intelligent agent (God) responsible for its design. This includes Paley’s famous watch analogy, which Richards also summarizes. Richards then addresses David Hume’s critique of analogical arguments like those used by Paley. Richards closes by differentiating between analogical arguments and arguments for intelligent design. Download the podcast or listen to it here.