David Hume is arguably the greatest English philosopher. He was widely regarded in his time as an "infidel," a term which covered a wide variety of challenges to the dominant Christian religion (Anglican in England, Presbyterian in Scotland). Hume was an inveterate enemy to the ecclesiastical structure and its imposition of dogma on its adherents. In his era, the intellectual support for religion had shifted from arguments from Scripture and rational theology (of which Aquinas is the great exemplar) and come to rest instead on "the argument from design." This argument takes note of the complex organization found in nature and, in the case of organic nature, the fitting of parts together to make specific functions possible. Thus, the hand is composed of parts organized in a way that make it perfect for grasping. Nature is thus asserted to be organized so as to achieve specific ends, which are the "final causes" for the organization. When human beings observe nature, the order they see inevitably leads them to think of an "intelligent designer" who arranged everything deliberately in accordance with purposes or final causes. The example that became standard, presented by a later writer, William Paley, was a watch. If you found a watch somewhere, you would not suppose it came together by chance but rather by an intelligent designer, who put it together so that it could tell time. This example is repeated even today. This argument is at the heart of the "Dialogues concerning Natural Religion." One of the speakers in the dialogue, Cleanthes, asserts the argument from design; his friendly opponent Philo, a skeptic, produces numerous arguments to undermine this argument. The third participant, Demea, an orthodox old-fashioned Christian, does not like the argument either, but chiefly because he cannot accept any analogy between the mind of a human designer and the mind of God. Philo's arguments dominate until they consider the question of evil. Philo has no trouble arguing that the world is full of misery and suffering. If God created it, He cannot be benevolent. Demea is so offended he departs. Philo then admits to Cleanthes that he himself accepts the argument from design, but only in a very attenuated form: "the cause or causes of order in the universe probably bear some remote analogy to human intelligence." But he says it is impossible to say anything further about this cause (or causes--the plural is quite unsettling). And nothing for human life follows from conceding this point. It does not legitimate any moral principle nor does it offer any support for believing in an afterlife. For anyone attracted to the argument for design (and part of Philo's point is that if we didn't believe in a supposition like this, we couldn't make sense of our world, so in fact everybody believes it more or less), intellectual honesty requires coming to terms with Philo and his destructive arguments. But I don't expect current proponents of "intelligent design" will exhibit this kind of intellectual honesty. "The Natural History of Religion" pursues a different line. Granting that thought people (call them "philosophers") will accept this attenuated idea of design, what is the origin and effect of religion among ordinary people who are not so thoughtful? Hume's argument is that even before civilization, humans found their lives subject to many vicissitudes they did not understand and could not control. By a completely natural psychological process, they presumed some being behind life's mysterious processes who helped or hurt them. They invented rituals to appease or gain the favor of this mysterious being to allay their fears and flatter their hopes. The resulting polytheistic system is universal among humankind. But there is also a tendency to promote one of these mysterious beings to a supreme position, creating a monotheism that seems to resemble the philosopher's belief in a single designing intelligence but is in fact something completely different--and pernicious. Hume's real point is to argue that an unreasonable polytheism that flatters human feelings is relatively harmless, though indefensible; But the false monotheism turns itself into a dogmatic system that corrupts human being's critical reason and leads to false claims that believing it is essential to morality and to social order. On the contrary, he thinks, it undermines both. One can certainly see how he got attacked as an "infidel." If the "Dialgoues" establishes a very attenuated and limited theism (and then seems to hint that a wise philosopher will then just go along with the everyday religion he finds among his fellows; religion apparently becomes a social custom much like observing etiquette or wearing ordinary clothes or the like which is would be merely rude or eccentric to ignore or reject), the "Natural History" demolishes the respect for established religions and churches that visibly do great harm in society. Hume thus seems to be articulating that has become the modern compromise with religion, making it mainly a harmless part of social life except for pockets of dogmatists who attempt to control the mind of their adherents and impose their views on society.
This is a good edition of these two important works, edited by J. C. A. Gaskin, perhaps the leading scholar on Hume's ideas about religion. It includes Hume's brief account of his own life and provides a helpful introduction and explanatory notes. Anthony Flew's edition, titled "Writings on Religion,"provides a more comprehensive selection (including Hume's separate writings against the idea of immortality and the belief in miracles), but this nicely produced, well edited, and modestly priced edition will be a good choice for most readers.
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Richard J. Newton
Hume's classic review of religious belief
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 28, 2019