If religion were true, its followers would not try to bludgeon their young into an artificial conformity; but would merely insist on their unbending quest for truth, irrespective of artificial backgrounds or practical consequences.

When dealing with such beings Lovecraft needed a way to provide exposition and build tension without bringing the story to a premature end. As such his stories express a profound indifference to human beliefs and affairs. His political views can be considered as "moderately socialist.

Lovecraft's guiding aesthetic and philosophical principle was what he termed "cosmicism" or "cosmic horror" the idea that life is incomprehensible to human minds and that the universe is fundamentally inimical to the interests of humankind. Lovecraft is the originator of the Cthulhu Mythos story cycle and the Necronomicon a fictional magical textbook of rites and forbidden lore. According to Joyce Carol Oates an award-winning author Lovecraft—as with Edgar Allan Poe in the 19th century—has exerted "an incalculable influence on succeeding generations of writers of horror fiction".