Animals undoubtedly feel, think, love,
hate, will, and even reason, though in a more imperfect manner than
men: Are their souls also immaterial and immortal?"[41]
Hume next proceeds to consider the moral arguments, and chiefly
" ... those derived from the justice of God, which is supposed to
be further interested in the future punishment of the vicious and
reward of the virtuous."
But if by the justice of God we moan the same attribute which we call
justice in ourselves, then why should either reward or punishment be
extended beyond this life?[42] Our sole means of knowing anything is
the reasoning faculty which God has given us; and that reasoning
faculty not only denies us any conception of a future state, but fails
to furnish a single valid argument in favour of the belief that the mind
will endure after the dissolution of the body.
" ... If any purpose of nature be clear, we may affirm that the
whole scope and intention of man's creation, so far as we can judge
by natural reason, is limited to the present life."
To the argument that the powers of man are so much greater than the
needs of this life require, that they suggest a future scene in which
they can be employed, Hume replies:--
"If the reason of man gives him great superiority above other
animals, his necessities are proportionably multiplied upon him;
his whole time, his whole capacity, activity, courage, and passion,
find sufficient employment in fencing against the miseries of his
present condition; and frequently, nay, almost always, are too
slender for the business assigned them.
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