HKB
5 passages · search this phrase →
Often appears with: religious persecution and toleration · reason and the intellect · will, choice, and freedom · uncertainty of reason · the nature and attributes of God · religion and interpretation · pride, vanity, and humility · prayer and worship · philip beauchamp · origin of superstition as fear · old and new testament · mystery and reason
Usually: argument (5) · skepticism (4) · crisis of belief (2) · detachment (2) · exhortation (2) · injustice endured (1) · curiosity (1) · indignation (1)
“Happily, these circumstances are all to be found in the subject of NATURAL RELIGION.” David Hume, Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion · observation
Locke argues that interpretation of the Old and New Testament is fallible despite divine truth, and since language brings uncertainty, readers should rely more on clear natural religion than on forceful, imperious interpretations.
4. This occasioned by men learning Names before they have the Ideas the names belong to. Men having been accustomed from their cradles to learn words which are easily got and retained, before they knew or had framed the complex ideas to which they were annexed, or which were to be found in the things they were thought to stand for, they usually continue to do so all their lives; and without taking the pains necessar…
Mill discusses a utilitarian critique of natural religion’s usefulness (under the pseudonym Philip Beauchamp), then his own early essay writing attacking aristocratic prejudice, and his turn to composing Greek-style speeches.
Dugald Stewart and Brown on Cause and Effect. Brown's *Lectures* I did not read until two or three years later, nor at that time had my father himself read them. Among the works read in the course of this year, which contributed materially to my development, I owe it to mention a book (written on the foundation of some of Bentham's manuscripts and published under the pseudonyme of Philip Beauchamp) entitled _Analysi…
Hobbes explains natural religion as arising from curiosity and fear: seeking causes leads to belief in an eternal God, while anxiety breeds invisible powers and diverse gods shaped into laws and governance.
Naturall Religion, From The Same Curiosity, or love of the knowledge of causes, draws a man from consideration of the effect, to seek the cause; and again, the cause of that cause; till of necessity he must come to this thought at last, that there is some cause, whereof there is no former cause, but is eternall; which is it men call God. So that it is impossible to make any profound enquiry into naturall causes, wit…
Leibniz continues that Bayle’s critique misses the deeper issue, insisting that inward experience and reason both support freedom and that the “mystery” is actually a mistaken claim about natural religion.
far from finding the mystery incomprehensible, we should comprehend that it was false. It is true that here there is no question of a mystery, but only of natural religion. 295. This is how M. Bayle combats those inward experiences, whereon [306] the Cartesians make freedom rest: but he begins by reflexions with which I cannot agree. 'Those who do not make profound examination', he says (*Dictionary*, art. 'Helen.…
Pamphilus argues that dialogue suits natural religion because key premises are obvious yet details about God’s nature and attributes are obscure and yield uncertainty, contradiction, and engaging conversation.
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion by David Hume PAMPHILUS TO HERMIPPUS It has been remarked, my HERMIPPUS, that though the ancient philosophers conveyed most of their instruction in the form of dialogue, this method of composition has been little practised in later ages, and has seldom succeeded in the hands of those who have attempted it. Accurate and regular argument, indeed, such as is now expected of phil…