Natural History of Religion

This important essay is part of Hume's devastating criticism of religious belief. The other crucial components are the better known Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion and the On Miracles Section of the Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding. Ideally, it would be best to read all these together, a relatively easy task as the individual essays are relatively short and contain some of Hume's clearest and most entertaining writing. In Natural History, Hume examines the essentially irrational character of religious belief, with its foundation in human anxieties and the human tendency to personify human characteristics in the natural world. Hume goes on to describe the emergence of monotheism not as a rational process based on a philosophic appreciation of the necessity of accepting the existence of a Designer (an argument he will demolish in the Dialogues) but on the further extension of human irrationality. In a typically ironic approach, Hume then argues that polytheism is more likely to produce social benefits than monotheism and argues strongly against the idea that religion is actually useful for cultivating true morality. Among other things, Natural History exhibits Hume's remarkable command of classical literature and his incisive writing style.