Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

                                

                           David Hume

                                

                              1779

                                

                                

                             * * * *

                                
Copyright 1997, James Fieser (jfieser@utm.edu). See end note for
details on copyright and editing conventions. This e-text is
based on the 1779 edition of Hume's Dialogues and was
electronically compared to a commercial e-text of the Dialogues.
Visual comparisons were also made to other recent printed
editions. Spelling has been modernized according to British
spelling conventions; punctuation has not been modernized. Small
capitalization has been consistently applied to proper names. See
end note for details on copyright.1

                             * * * *

                      EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

                                

                          James Fieser

                                

     Hume's Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion ranks among the
greatest writings in the history of Western philosophy. The work
addresses the sensitive issue of the knowledge we have of God
through reason alone, and, in the process, Hume presents
arguments which undermine the classic proofs for God's existence.
The arguments in the Dialogues assume an important 18th century
distinction between natural religion and revealed religion.
Natural religion involves knowledge of God drawn from nature,
solely by the use of reasoning. Often this involves drawing
conclusions about the natural design we see in the universe.
Revealed religion, on the other hand, involves religious
knowledge derived from revelation, specifically divinely inspired
texts such as the Bible. From his earliest writings, Hume
attacked both of these alleged avenues of religious truth. In the
Treatise of Human Nature (1739-40), published when he was 27,
Hume attacks natural religion arguing that our ideas reach no
farther than our experience; since we have no experience of
divine attributes and operations, then we can have no conception
of divine attributes. In his infamous essay on miracles from An
Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding (1748), Hume goes a step
further and attacks revealed religion. He argues that it is never
reasonable to believe in violations of natural laws, such as
reports of miracles and prophecies, which in turn are the
foundations of revealed religion. Given the rational bankruptcy
of both natural and revealed religion, what remains, for Hume, is
what he calls vulgar religion. Vulgar religion is the religious
belief of the masses, and we understand this by uncovering the
true psychological causes of these beliefs, such as emotions and
instincts. He examines vulgar religion in his Natural History of
Religion (1757), a work he composed simultaneously with the
Dialogues. The Dialogues, though, deals exclusively with the
subject of natural religion and in this work Hume offers his most
systematic critique of the subject.

     THE CHARACTERS OF THE DIALOGUES. Hume's decision to compose
this work in dialog form is significant. During the 18th century,
Great Britain was among the most free countries in Europe, and
political authorities allowed a great amount of unobstructed
expression. However, religious leaders believed that rational
proofs for God's existence were almost as integral to
Christianity as the Bible itself. Accordingly, officials viewed
direct attacks on natural theology as an abuse of free
expression. To avoid political confrontation, Hume adopted the
common literary technique of presenting controversial arguments
in dialog form. There are three principal characters in Hume's
Dialogues. On the conservative side of the issue, a character
named Cleanthes offers a posteriori arguments for God's
existence, particularly the design argument:

     (a) Machines are produced by intelligent design

     (b) Universe resembles a machine

     (c) Therefore, the universe was produced by intelligent

     design

The design argument rests on an analogy between the design we
recognize in human-created artifacts and similar design we
recognize in the universe. This similarity of design entitles us
to conclude that the universe was likewise created by intelligent
design. Most of the Dialogues focuses on aspects of the design
argument. Next, a character named Demea prefers a priori