David Hume 
Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion (Barnes & Noble Digital Library) 

This edition includes a modern introduction and a list of suggested further reading.


 


More than two hundred years after they were written, David Hume’s
Dialogues concerning Natural Religion are as fresh and relevant as ever. Hume’s characters present ingenious arguments and objections about the scientific evidence for the existence and nature of God, all the while remaining very respectful of religious belief. In the twenty-first century, versions of this same argument are hotly debated between proponents of ‘intelligent design’ and supporters of the writings of Darwin and Huxley.

 

 

About the author

David Hume was born on April 26, 1711, and grew up in Ninewells and Edinburgh, Scotland. His widowed mother educated her ‘uncommonly wake-minded’ son until he enrolled at age eleven at the University of Edinburgh, where he initially considered a career in law. At fifteen years old, he left the university to answer inner questions of theology and metaphysics. Among his friends were notables Jean Jacques Rousseau (1712-78), Adam Smith (1723-90), and James Boswell (1740-95). After his death, others including Auguste Comte (1798-1857), Charles Darwin (1809-82), and Thomas Henry Huxley (1825-95) admitted admiration for his writings.