The Natural History Of Religion
contributor: Eric Lease Morgan (Infomotions, Inc.)
creator: Hume, David
date: 0000-00-00
extent: 148057
format: text/plain
language: en
publisher: Unknown. (Ask Eric.)
rights: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/GPL/2.0/
source: nhr.txt
subject: religion
subject: nature
subject: deity
subject: draft
subject: original
subject: primitive
subject: humans
subject: hume
subject: david
subject: natural
subject: history
subject: western
subject: philosophy
type: text
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sort title: Natural History Of Religion, The
full text: THE NATURAL HISTORY OF RELIGION David Hume 1757 5/1/95 Copyright 1995, James Fieser (jfieser@utm.edu). See end note for details on copyright and editing conventions. This is a working draft; please report errors.[1] Editor's Note: Hume's <Natural History of Religion> first appeared in 1757 in a collection of essays titled <Four Dissertations>. The work may be topically divided into three parts. The first part (sections 1 and 4) argues that polytheism, and not monotheism, was the original religion of primitive humans. Monotheism was only a later development. The second part (sections 2-3, 5-8) establishes the psychological principles which give rise to religious belief. His thesis is that natural instincts such as fear are the true cause of popular religious belief, and not rational argument. The third part of this work (sections 9-15) compares various aspects of polytheism with monotheism showing that one is no more superior than the other. Both contain points of absurdity. From this he concludes that we should suspend belief on the entire subject. The <Natural History of Religion> was published seven additional times during Hume's life, each edition incorporating minor variations. The posthumous 1777 edition is followed here, which includes Hume's final alterations. Hume's bibliographical references to Greek and Latin classics have been expanded and clarified without brackets. Bibliographical references have not been expanded for those seventeenth and eighteenth-century works which have no modern editions. For more detailed introductory comments and annotations to this text, see <The Natural History of Religion>, (New York: MacMillan, 1992). * * * * THE NATURAL HISTORY OF RELIGION INTRODUCTION As every enquiry, which regards religion, is of the utmost importance, there are two questions in particular, which challenge our attention, to wit, that concerning its foundation in reason, and that concerning its origin in human nature. Happily, the first question, which is…