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The Imagination and Religion
Within Thomas Hobbes’ book, Leviathan, Hobbes discusses a multitude of topics to
demonstrate the natural condition of human beings and human interaction. One of the most
important subjects was the use of imagination, which he defines imagination and builds his
argument on how it affects human interaction in chapter two. Within the chapter on imagination,
Hobbes critiques ancient Greek classics for being preoccupied with the imaginary. He also
associates religion as being imaginary as well. The correlation between the imagination and
religion is seen within chapters two, three, six, eleven, and twelve. This ultimately raises the
question of why does Hobbes associate the imagination with religion? Hobbes associates the
imagination with religion to turn religion into a human affair instead of a divine affair.
In chapter two, Hobbes begins his argument by defining imagination. He states, “For after
the object is removed or the eye shut, we still retain an image of the thing seen, though more
obscure than when we see it. And this is it, the Latins call imagination, from the image made in
seeing, and apply the same, though improperly, to all the other senses” (Leviathan, 8). From here
on, Hobbes believes that man’s imagination creates superstitions of the unknown. He states,
“…whereas it is either their fancy only, or else knavery of such persons as make use of
superstitions fear to pass disguised in the night places they would not be known to haunt. From
this ignorance of how to distinguish dreams…arise the greatest part of the religion of gentiles”
(Leviathan, 10). As a result, this perpetuates religion because Hobbes believes that for make
believe characters such as witches, fairies and walking ghosts that are perceived to be real,
humanity creates a defense mechanism of holy water, crosses and exorcisms as a punishment out
of their own fears of the unknown. Ultimately, Hobbes does not deny the existence of God; he just
believes that man’s imagination takes over more than their reason. He states that it is an “incident

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to sense, but are absurd speeches taken upon credit (without signification at all) from deceived
philosophers, and deceived or deceiving schoolmen” (Leviathan, 15). The imagination turns
religion into an absurd interpretation of both the understanding of God and how people teach it.
The imagination is a reflection on human nature, and humanity’s role within religion, and Hobbes
believes that religion is a human affair and not divine.
Therefore, Hobbes seeks to make religion a human affair because of the limitations on the
human mind, how religion becomes a planted seed within the individual, and how religion is
received through the individual’s deliberation through the use of speech. In chapter three, titled
“Of the Consequences or Train of Imagination,” Hobbes criticizes religion towards the end of the
chapter. He examines this flaw through the human imagination and its finite quality on perceiving
things based on the senses. He concludes that anything that has been imagined with the senses sets
a magnitude for the imagination. He writes, “No man can therefore conceive anything, but he must
conceive it in some place, and endued with some determinate magnitude…” (Leviathan, 15). The
image or understanding of God, in religious terms, are based solely on what man already knows
from their senses. God is constructed in the image of what has already been revealed to them. This
reduces religion to a human affair because God is no longer a mystery since the human mind is
finite and has limitations based on the fact that in order to think of something, man has to have
been already exposed to it. Therefore, this construction of God through the limitation of the mind
becomes a planted seed within humanity.
With the construction of God through the imagination, religion becomes engrained within
the individual out of fear of the unknown. In chapter thirteen, title “Of Religion,” Hobbes begins
with man’s longing to find the causes of things. He believes that this is because of a quality of
anxiety within humanity because “it is impossible for a man who continually endeavoureth to

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secure himself against the evil he fears, and good he desireth, not to be in a perpetual solicitude of
the time to come, so that every man, especially those that are over-provident, are in an estate to
that of Prometheus” (Leviathan, 64). Hobbes is proposing that man braces himself for death and
other future catastrophes through the creation of an infinite, omnipotent God that is all knowing
and has control over every aspect of life, when in reality, man only believes that there is a God
because he really seeks secure himself from what he fears.
Also through imagination and fear from dreams, man comes up with an image of the soul
that is of the same substance as God. Hobbes expands on this idea giving an example of the spirit
and incorporeal bodies. He concludes that man “can never have the imagination of anything
answering to them; and therefore, men that by their own meditation arrive to the acknowledgement
of one infinite, omnipotent, and eternal God…” (Leviathan, 65). Through humanity’s suspicions
of the causes of things and the fear of losing what is good for them, this makes religion a human
affair because God is created as a character that does not answer any of the questions that man
postulates. Instead, Man strives to make the spirit and God one in the same to somewhat answer
their questions of causes. As a result, Hobbes writes “And in these four things, opinion of ghosts,
ignorance of second causes, devotion towards what men fear, and taking of things casual for
prognostics, consisteth the natural see of religion…” (Leviathan, 66-67). From these four
categories these are all components that revert back to the senses, which are a part of human
qualities. Fear of ghosts, human ignorance of causes, inevitable devotion to what men fear, and
the unavoidable characteristic of human prediction to evade bad events are all the reasons why
religion is only present within man and not animals. Thus, religion is made into a human affair
because it starts with the human imagination, which then explains the receptive understanding of
man and religion.

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Going back to chapter four, titled “Of Speech,” Hobbes talks about the origin of speech
and how it originates from the thoughts of the individual. He states “Whereby men register their
thoughts, recall them conversation” (Leviathan, 16). This can be correlated in regards to religion
as well. For example, Hobbes talks about how men understand speech, which is through reason.
On the subject of Belief and Faith, he writes “When a man’s discourse…beginneth either at some
other contemplation of his own…called opinion’ or it beginneth at some saying of another, whose
ability to know the truth and of whose honesty in not deceiving he doubteth not…the resolution is
called BELIEF and FAITH; faith, in the man; belief, both of the man and of the truth of what he
says” (Leviathan, 36). The belief and faith are not dependent on a divine power. The belief and
faith of others is dependent on how persuasive the speech of the man is, which is where, in man,
the faith resides rather than God. The belief also relies on the man and the truth behind what is
said. Therefore, the reason being used is man’s own ability to deliberate what he sees as truthful
and in accordance with his own opinions.
Hobbes takes this a step further by applying this to the scriptures and saying that those, as
well, are humanly engineered. He writes, “And consequently, when we believe that the scriptures
are words of God, having no immediate revelation from God himself , our beliefs, faith, and trust
is in the church, whose word we take, and acquiesce therein” (Leviathan, 37). Since these words
from the scripture are not God’s words, man’s reason is reliant on the Church’s understanding of
the text. This makes religion a human affair because human reason of the divine corresponds to
what other people have thought of the divine. It relies heavily on the validity of other men’s
deliberation and their expression through speech.
Overall in chapter two of Hobbes’ book, he seeks to reduce religion to a human affair
through the use of the imagination because the imagination is a human characteristic, which is part

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of the construct of Hobbes believing that the individual is a machine. Hobbes sees that man’s
absurd imagination is the beginning of religion being engrained in man. Therefore, religion is the
inevitable result of man’s fear of ghosts, human ignorance of causes, man’s devotion to what he
fears, and man’s prediction of bad events and trying to avoid them. Since religion is only seen
within man, his deliberation of God is affected by other men and their ability to use speech that
seems truthful and corresponds with his own opinions, which actually creates a relative trust with
other men instead of God. The only remaining questions that arise in Hobbes argument are: If
religion comes from the imagination, is Atheism a product of a malfunctioned imagination? Or do
Atheists, to a certain extent use their imagination differently?