ABSTRACT
The beginning of a scientific approach to the study of religious phenomena originated a long time ago and developed at a rather slow pace. Baruch Spinoza's historical-critical method was directly linked to political questions designed to achieve a freer society, which would be open to new solutions, including a secular approach to religion. There are obviously other, more strictly philosophical implications in Spinoza's thought. The Scottish philosopher David Hume is the first author who should be considered for his essentially empirical approach to the analysis of religion. He spoke of a natural religion whose roots are found at the instinctual level, since human beings are instinctively motivated by three elements: happiness, poverty, and death. Ludwig Feuerbach's religious and human-centered projectionism leads to a human interpretation of the religious fact, to a materialistic anthropology, and to a rejection of all forms of myth. God then goes through a process of humanization.
