According to David Hume, polytheism results from natural events that are so full of variety, that we could not imagine them immediately ordered by one single, intelligent being.

Question

BlackTom AI · Accepted Answer

Opening considerations: when evaluating a statement about Hume’s view on polytheism, it helps to recall his general method for explaining religious belief as arising from empirical observations and human cognitive tendencies.
Option 1: True. The claim posits that polytheism emerges from encountering natural events whose variety makes it difficult to imagine them as orchestrated by a single intelligent being. In Hume’s thought, especially in his discussions of natural religion and the origins of religion, such diversity can lead humans to conceptualize multiple deities or a team of powerful beings rather than a single designer. This aligns with his broader suspicion that our understanding of causation and agency in the natural world can be projected into the divine realm in various ways when confronted with complex, multifaceted phenomena.
Option 2: False. If one argued this were false, one would need to insist that there is no cognitive route by which people could infer multiple divine agents from diverse natural events, or that human minds always compress complexity into a single intelligent cause. However, Hume emphasizes how human imagination tends to diversify explanations for complex experiences, potentially yielding polytheistic interpretations. Therefore, labeling the claim as false would run against his observations about how people form explanations of natural phenomena and divine agents from variety and complexity.
Additional nuance: beyond whether natural variety yields polytheism, Hume also critiques teleological arguments that seek a single designer, suggesting that even our inference to a single intelligent being is not guaranteed and can be influenced by limited or biased observations. This context supports the idea that polytheistic interpretations can arise as a natural consequence of encountering a broad spectrum of natural events, reinforcing why the statement is considered true in many analyses of Humean thought.
In summary, the reasoning behind the claim hinges on the cognitive and evidential pathways by which humans move from empirical variety to theological plurality, which is consistent with Hume's explorations of the origins of belief in multiple deities.

According to David Hume, polytheism results from natural events that are so full of variety, that we could not imagine them immediately ordered by one single, intelligent being.

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