Religion-Sensitive Morality in the Philosophy of David Hume: An Attempt to Unmask the Relationship between Religion and Morality in the Philosophy of David Hume

In the ethical view of modern philosophy, there can be seen two aspects of morality; religion-free morality and religion-sensitive morality. Despite the disagreement between his naturalist ambitions and his extreme skeptical principles, Hume’s aspiration to stabilize moral science tends to show that morality is not only independent of religion, but also is destructed by it. The main objective of this paper is to unmask the relationship between religion and morality based on the works of Hume, his critics, and his supporters. The findings of this paper, based on Hume's moderate view of commonsense morality and his undercover belief in God, indicate that morality for Hume is not ultimately independent of religion and God. In other words, Hume reduces the whole religion to a combination of morality and philosophy, defends the morality and rational aspects of religion, and deems other aspects and dimensions as unnecessary. Finally, according to the evidences used in this article, it is better to put Hume in a specific rank of the religion-sensitive moral philosophers.