A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge

Toward the end of the Treatise, Berkeley addresses how philosophy can and should lead us to an awareness and worship of God. Accordingly, religion is the focus in these final sections.

Berkeley argues that the principles he has outlined in the book act as a support for both philosophy and religion. By denying the existence of matter, and by identifying existence with perception, we solve many intellectual problems. By preserving the distinction between spirit and idea, we will not reject the existence of spirit and thus fall into materialism. The doctrine that spirit is a vital and active principle also leads us to embrace the doctrine that the soul is naturally immortal, since spirit by its nature cannot be affected by material decay. The consideration of spirits will also lead us gradually to the consideration of the supreme spirit, God.

The existence of God is, indeed, more obvious than most people realize. When we see the “works of nature” (97), we see things that are not caused by or dependent on human beings; thus, we infer that they have another cause; and this cause must be a spirit, since only spirit can be an active cause.