 Smith extends the discussion of merit and demerit into a naturalised account of the development of religious belief. In his Essays on Philosophical Subjects Smith provides an account of early religious belief as a precursor to science and philosophy. In the case of both, the desire to explain the world is driven by anxiety created through novel experience. Here the appeal to heaven is a psychological coping mechanism that we develop to address injustices that go unrecognised in this world. Smith then argues that our views on the rules of justice more generally come to be associated with religion and this lends a further social sanction to morality.