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 the most important, admits of the most obvious,
at least, the clearest solution. The whole frame of nature bespeaks
an intelligent author; and no rational enquirer can, after serious
reflection, suspend his belief a moment with regard to the primary
principles of genuine Theism and Religion. But the other question,
concerning the origin of religion in human nature, is exposed to
some more difficulty. The belief of invisible, intelligent power has
been very generally diffused over the human race, in all places and
in all ages; but it has neither perhaps been so universal as to
admit of no exception, nor has it been, in any degree, uniform in
the ideas, which it has suggested. Some nations have been
discovered, who entertained no sentiments of Religion, if travellers
and historians may be credited; and no two nations, and scarce any
two men, have ever agreed precisely in the same sentiments. It would
appear, therefore, that this preconception springs not from an
original instinct or primary impression of nature, such as gives
rise to self-love, affection between the sexes, love of progeny,
gratitude, resentment; since every instinct of this kind has been
found absolutely universal in all nations and ages, and has always a
precise determinate object, which it inflexibly pursues. The first
religious principles must be secondary; such as may easily be
perverted by various accidents and causes, and whose operation too,
in some cases, may, by an extraordinary concurrence of
circumstances, be altogether prevented. What those principles are,
which give rise to the original belief, and what those accidents and
causes are, which direct its operation, is the subject of our
present enquiry.

   S/ECT\. I. <That Polytheism was the primary Religion of Men>.