@misc{Lexicon of Arguments, title = {Quotation from: Lexicon of Arguments – Concepts - Ed. Martin Schulz, 28 Mar 2024}, author = {Hume,David}, subject = {God}, note = {I 89 God/Hume: you can think of God in a negative way: as a cause of the principles, insofar atheism is valid and the finality (goal, purpose in the world) returns. --- II 253 God/necessity/existence/Hume: for example, suppose the expression "necessary existence" would make sense: why could this necessarily not be the material universe instead of God? Matter could well possess a number of properties unknown to us,... II 254 ...which, if known, would cause us to consider the non-existence of matter unimaginable. Whoever does not want to acknowledge this, however, proves to be biased towards God's existence. Infinity/Demea: Demea has conceded that the chain of causes possibly goes back to infinity. But how can this have a cause? Vs: the concept of cause implies a temporal sequence and thus a beginning. In addition: what reasonable need is there at all for an explanation of the series of causes when the world is infinite and eternal? If I can give an explanation for each of twenty objects of a class, the further question about the cause of the whole class would seem unreasonable.},