Re: Review of Dennett's BREAKING THE SPELL


TomS wrote:
"On Fri, 24 Feb 2006 16:11:29 -0800, in article
<earle.jones-AAAB01.16112924022006@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Earle Jones
stated..."

In article <1140498117.059827.221880@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Googler" <GOOGLE.4.godfatha@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

TomS wrote:
"On 20 Feb 2006 09:05:32 -0800, in article
<1140455132.209500.319940@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Googler stated..."
[...snip...]
"..there is a long, honorable, and thrilling tradition of atheistic
polemics, from Voltaire to Nietzsche and beyond. If anything, one
wishes Mr. Dennett were more familiar with this literature and had
learned its most important lessons. If he had, perhaps his own attacks
[...snip...]

Voltaire was not an atheist.

The general consensus is that Voltaire was probably a deist - if he
can be characterized at all. But a case has been made that his deism
was so 'thin' that it was essentially atheistic.

However, that is all just labelling - it is his attitude that is the
point here....

*
More about Voltaire's attitude:

"Superstition, born of paganism and adopted by Judaism, invested the
Christian Church from earliest times. All the fathers of the Church,
without exception, believed in the power of magic. The Church always
condemned magic, but she always believed in it: she did not
excommunicate sorcerers as madmen who were mistaken, but as men who were
really in communication with the devil."

--Voltaire [Philosophical Dictionary] 1764

"Most of the great men of this world live as if they were atheists.
Every man who has lived with his eyes open, knows that the knowledge of
a God, his presence, and his justice, has not the slightest influence
over the wars, the treaties, the objects of ambition, interest, or
pleasure, in the pursuit of which they are wholly occupied."

"Nothing can be more contrary to religion and the clergy
than reason and common sense."

"When he that speaks, and he to whom he speaks, neither of them
understand what is meant, that is metaphysics."

"Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd."

[Voltaire's desire:] "To strangle the last king
with the entrails of the last priest."

"If Christians want us to believe in a Redeemer,
let them act redeemed."

"The first divine was the first rogue who'd met the first fool."

"Every sensible man, every honorable man,
must hold the Christian sect in horror."

"Of all the sexual eccentricities,
chastity is the strangest."

"Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most
absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world."

"If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities."

"You can't argue a man out of a position that he hasn't
been argued into -- Any position that has been taken based on faith
(and not logical argument) is a position that is likely
to be held in spite of any forthcoming arguments. I believe
it is a waste of time to argue logic with fundamentalist
Christians, or any other religionists for that matter."

"Whenever an important event, a revolution, or a calamity
turns to the profit of the church, such is always
signalised as the Finger of God."

"The truths of religion are never so well understood
as by those who have lost the power of reasoning."

"A clergyman is one who feels himself called upon
to live without working at the expense of the rascals
who work to live."

--Francois Marie Arouet "Voltaire",
French author and playwright (1694-1778)


I have no doubt that Voltaire was not a believer in any
revealed religion. In other words, that he was a *deist*.

But none of these quotations establish that Voltaire was an
*atheist*.


He wasn't an 'atheist' for any number of reasons. Certainly a deist
however which denied the trinity of Christ and various other principle
foundations to orthodox Christian beliefs.

It's important to note as well that the term 'atheist' during the
enlightenment and earlier had different connotations than now. For
example it was used as a generic insult (like calling someone an idiot
for denying the obvious for example) and could be applied to those who
adopted polytheistic or pantheistic views for example rather than
simply being a-religious. The Romans did something similar when they
called Christians 'atheist' - because they denied the Roman pantheon.

Voltaire decries atheism within his philisophical dictionary and
actually amended the memoirs of Jean Meslier (one of the original,
genuine atheists as we would apply the term) to show him as a deist
rather than an atheist. He also objected to Diderot's work 'A letter
to the blind ...' which effectively stated that a belief in God was
neither useful or necessary (Diderot was imprisoned for claiming this
at the time).

Voltaire's argument, like many deists, was that it was the institution
of religion, of 'Christians', that opposed the encroaching rationalism
and denied a genuine understanding and personal relationship with God.
Mankind had to resolve his problems through reason, rather than
reliance on the churches influence and say-so.

I'd agree with Tom that the quotes given do not demonstrate that
Voltaire was an atheist. However if we're throwing quotes around
(which really don't do justice to such an incredible thinker and
supporter of human rights) then try this one:

"If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him." Epistle on
the "Three Imposters"




--
---Tom S. <http://talkreason.org/articles/chickegg.cfm>
"It is not too much to say that every indication of Design in the Kosmos is so
much evidence against the Omnipotence of the Designer. ... The evidences ... of
Natural Theology distinctly imply that the author of the Kosmos worked under
limitations..." John Stuart Mill, "Theism", Part II

.

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