"David Hume - The Natural History of Religion" - читать интересную книгу автора (Hume David)

It appears to me, that, if we consider the improvement of human
society, from rude beginnings to a state of greater perfection,
polytheism or idolatry was, and necessarily must have been, the
first and most ancient religion of mankind. This opinion I shall
endeavour to confirm by the following arguments.

It is a matter of fact incontestable, that about 1700 years ago
all mankind were polytheists. The doubtful and sceptical principles
of a few philosophers, or the theism, and that too not entirely
pure, of one or two nations, form no objection worth regarding.
Behold then the clear testimony of history. The farther we mount up
into antiquity, the more do we find mankind plunged into polytheism.
No marks, no symptoms of any more perfect religion. The most ancient
records of human race still present us with that system as the
popular and established creed. The north, the south, the east, the
west, give their unanimous testimony to the same fact. What can be
opposed to so full an evidence?

As far as writing or history reaches, mankind, in ancient
times, appear universally to have been polytheists. Shall we assert,
that, in more ancient times, before the knowledge of letters, or the
discovery of any art or science, men entertained the principles of
pure theism? That is, while they were ignorant and barbarous, they
discovered truth: But fell into error, as soon as they acquired
learning and politeness.

But in this assertion you not only contradict all appearance of
probability, but also our present experience concerning the
principles and opinions of barbarous nations. The savage tribes of
A/MERICA\, A/FRICA\, and A/SIA\ are all idolaters. Not a single
exception to this rule. Insomuch, that, were a traveller to
transport himself into any unknown region; if he found inhabitants
cultivated with arts and science, though even upon that supposition
there are odds against their being theists, yet could he not safely,
till farther inquiry, pronounce any thing on that head: But if he
found them ignorant and barbarous, he might beforehand declare them
idolaters; and there scarcely is a possibility of his being
mistaken.

It seems certain, that, according to the natural progress of
human thought, the ignorant multitude must first entertain some
groveling and familiar notion of superior powers, before they
stretch their conception to that perfect Being, who bestowed order
on the whole frame of nature. We may as reasonably imagine, that men
inhabited palaces before huts and cottages, or studied geometry
before agriculture; as assert that the Deity appeared to them a pure
spirit, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent, before he was
apprehended to be a powerful, though limited being, with human
passions and appetites, limbs and organs. The mind rises gradually,