Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion
David Hume 1779
Three speakers debate what nature can tell us about God in a series of philosophical conversations. Cleanthes compares the world to a machine, while Philo questions whether that comparison proves a divine designer.
130 pages 2h 31m reading time
- One of the most important works ever written on whether reason and evidence can prove that God exists.
- Argues that the order we see in nature is too weak a clue to tell us much about its maker, who could just as well be flawed, careless, or one of many gods.
- Asks how a good and all-powerful God could allow so much pain and suffering, and suggests the world looks more like it was made by a force that does not care.
- Its attack on the "design argument" (the idea that a well-ordered world must have a wise designer) is still the starting point for nearly every serious debate on that question.
- Shaped later thinkers such as Immanuel Kant, who also concluded that reason alone cannot prove God, and it remains standard reading in philosophy of religion courses.
Published only after his death
Hume held the book back for over twenty years and arranged for it to appear after he died.
Friends urged him to hide it
Friends, including Adam Smith, warned that publishing it would cause a scandal and harm his name.
Revised on his deathbed
Hume was still making changes to the manuscript in 1776, during the final months of his life.
Printer's name left off
The first edition gave no publisher's name, likely to protect those involved from religious anger.