Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion

Humankind has pondered many mysteries, but few more enticing than the existence of a divine creator who is said to have set the universe in motion.

Imitating the well-known style of Platonic dialogues, the relentless inquirer and empiricist David Hume assembles a group to discuss the existence of God, his divine nature, his attributes, and the point of his creation.

How do we come to have knowledge of God? Who has the burden of proof with respect to these matters of intense religious significance, and what sort of proof might gain universal assent?

Can one argue from the orderliness of the universe to the conclusion that it must have had a purposeful creator at its helm?

Hume has captured the nature of this intense debate in a classic work that has stood the test of time.