DOMA and Religion

[Robert O'Brien]

 Andrew Koppelman offered:

> I didn't say there were no secular arguments.  I said there were no
> plausible secular arguments.  Rick, I've read your arguments.  I just
don't
> think they're plausible.  The latest one isn't even secular:
>
>
> >Indeed, the strongest arguments against same-sex marriage are secular
> >arguments (the Maker of the Universe designed the world in a rational
> >way--that design is perfectly understandable in secular terms).
> >
>
> This isn't just theology.  It's bad theology.  The fundamental difficulty
> with this way of reasoning is that urged by Hume, who argued that any
> attempt to infer the existence of God from natural phenomena "is useless;
> because our knowledge of this cause being derived entirely from the
course
> of nature, we can never, according to the rules of just reasoning, return
> back from the cause with any new inference, or making additions to the
> common and experienced course of nature, establish any new principles of
> conduct and behaviour."

It seems to me that what Duncan is offering is a form of occasionalism, a
philosophical position associated with Malbranch, a contemporary of
Descarte.  The problem with occasionalism, as I understand the matter, is
that it falls victim to Occam's razor.  However, perhaps Duncan is merely
using Paley's watch, but that was an object of  ridicule two centuries ago.


Robert O'Brien                        West Virginia Wesleyan College
obrien at .wvwc.edu