He was in the world, and the world was made by him,
and the world knew him not.
John 1:10
"Even Richard Dawkins was famously unsatisfied with Hume’s arguments against design:I feel more in common with the Reverend William Paley than I do with the distinguished modern philosopher, a well-known atheist, with whom I once discussed the matter at dinner. I said that I could not imagine being an atheist any time before 1859, whenDawkins, C.R., The Blind Watchmaker, pp. 5–6
Darwin’s Origin of Species was published. “What about Hume?”, replied the philosopher. “How did Hume explain the organized complexity of the living world?”, I asked. “He didn’t”, said the philosopher. “Why does it need any special explanation?”
Paley knew it needed a special explanation; Darwin knew it, and I suspect that in his heart of hearts my philosopher companion knew it too. … An atheist before Darwin could have said, following Hume, “I have no explanation for complex biological design. All I know is that God isn’t a good explanation, so we must wait and hope that somebody comes up with a better one.” I can’t help feeling that such a position, although logically sound, would have left one feeling pretty dissatisfied, and that although atheism might have been logically tenable before Darwin, Darwin made it possible to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist."
