Jean Meslier (1678-1733)
Posted: Sat Jul 30, 2011 11:25 am
Here is an interesting fellow. A French priest who humbly spent his life serving the Church and his parishioners, all the while secretly despising everything about Christianity and religion in general. It was only after his death that his real views became public in the form of manuscripts he wrote late in his life.
His preface to these manuscripts begins:
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His preface to these manuscripts begins:
- When we wish to examine in a cool, calm way the opinions of men, we are very much surprised to find that in those which we consider the most essential, nothing is more rare than to find them using common sense; that is to say, the portion of judgment sufficient to know the most simple truths, to reject the most striking absurdities, and to be shocked by palpable contradictions. We have an example of this in Theology, a science revered in all times, in all countries, by the greatest number of mortals; an object considered the most important, the most useful, and the most indispensable to the happiness of society. If they would but take the trouble to sound the principles upon which this pretended science rests itself, they would be compelled to admit that the principles which were considered incontestable, are but hazardous suppositions, conceived in ignorance, propagated by enthusiasm or bad intention, adopted by timid credulity, preserved by habit, which never reasons, and revered solely because it is not comprehended.
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