Father of Modern Atheism
Atheism is the belief that gods or deities are not real. During the 1700s in France, the church and the state were closely intertwined. As the Enlightenment movement continued to gain traction, the act of pushing ideas such as “skepticism of authority,” or rather questioning the existence of God, was seen as an attack on the state in addition to Christianity, and it was ultimately a threat to their power. Atheistic views were considered a crime back then and if caught, consequences from public shunning, imprisonment, to execution were available options to correct blasphemy and obscure the public from such information. Atheistic philosophers often published their works under pseudonyms to avoid encountering such consequences, including d’Holbach. Despite d’holbach doing so, his books such as “System of Nature” and “Common Sense” were publicly burned for denying the existence or need for a God and that religion holds humanity back from acting truly moral. He was incredibly passionate about remedying society, pushing for the abandonment of religion for the laws of nature to be realized and for society to work together as one without the imposition of imagined religious values.
System of Nature:
d’Holbach’s System of Nature is one of the first books during the early 1700s Enlightenment movement to utilize the surfacing ideas of physics at the time to deny the existence of God in such a bold way. By proving the world functions as we observe it to be proves that there is no need for people to imagine God creating or maintaining it. d’Holbach’s argument was so radical at the time that deists, such as Voltaire and Rousseau, sided with Christians in condemning his ideas. Despite receiving harsh criticism and suppression, the book still remained popular amongst scholars, women, and the uneducated. Typically credited as his greatest work, his comprehensive and frustratingly indisputable information on the natural world attacked all religions involving a god. Sowing such doubt in the minds of the populace about what they believe in would get d’Holbach one step closer to living in a society that isn’t blinded by religion. [1]
- Nonexistence of God + No free-will: “Thus every cause produces its effect; this effect in its turn becomes a cause, which in like manner produces an effect; this constitutes the eternal chain of things [materialism], which although perpetually changing in its detail, suffers no change in its whole. Theology, after all, has seldom done more than personify this eternal series of motion; the principle of mobility inherent to matter: it has clothed this principle with human qualities, by which it has rendered it unintelligible” (Vol 2)
- Religion makes people ignorant + susceptible to exploitation of the powerful: “Man, in short, whether from sloth or from terror, having abnegated the evidence of his senses, has been guided in all his actions, in all his enterprises, by imagination, by enthusiasm, by habit, by preconceived opinions, but above all, by the influence of authority, which knew well how to deceive him, to turn his ignorance to esteem, his sloth to advantage. Thus imaginary, unsubstantial systems, have supplied the place of experience—of mature reflection—of reason.” (Vol 1)
- Religion is fabricated control: “Error is always prejudicial to man: it is by deceiving himself, the human race is plunged into misery. He neglected Nature; he did not comprehend her laws; he formed gods of the most preposterous and ridiculous kinds: these became the sole objects of his hope, and the creatures of his fear: he was unhappy, he trembled under these visionary deities; under the supposed influence of visionary beings created by himself” (Vol 1)
A Critical Inquiry into the History of Jesus Christ of Nazareth:
Ecce Homo! is one of the first books to delve into Christianity specifically and to evaluate it from a critical/skeptical perspective using the bible to explain it rationally. Through the use of satire and demons, d’Holbach pokes holes in the platform that was given to Jesus. Originally written to be a blunt callout, in order for such a work to be published it was advertised as a joke. However, most readers ended up taking it seriously. Ecce Homo! emphasizes that Jesus was a regular man, his miracles were fake and he was a fraud, which expectedly sparked controversy in a dominantly Christian society. d’Holbach highlights the contradictions and fallible accounts of Jesus’s miracles within the bible, weakening the moral foundation of Chrisitanity. [2]
- Jesus was a regular human: “This first miracle of Jesus was performed in presence of a great number of persons, already half intoxicated; but the text does not inform us, whether they were equally astonished the day following, when the fumes of the wine were dissipated. Perhaps this miracle was witnessed by the steward only, with whom Jesus had secret intelligence. The incredulous, less easily persuaded than the poor inebriated villagers, do not observe in this transmutation of water into wine, a motive for being convinced of the divine power of Jesus” (Chapter IV)
- Jesus was a self-serving fraud: “Our hero knew the weakness of his fellow-citizens. They wanted prodigies, and he, in their eyes, performed them. A stupid people, totally strangers to the natural sciences, to medicine, or to the resources of artifice, easily mistook very simple operations for miracles, and attributed effects to the finger of God which might be owing to the knowledge Jesus had acquired during the long interval that preceded his mission.” (Chapter XVII)
Good/Common Sense:
This work is similar to and considered a simpler version of The System of Nature. Not only does d’Holbach deny God’s existence again but combines the effects of Ecce Homo! and the critique of organized religion on society. He argues that people don’t need religion or a God in order to be moral. In fact, subjecting onself to supernatural and restrictive beliefs conseals one’s ability to reason. This in turn makes it so man cannot achieve happiness by satisfying his desires, denying society a social contract or any sort of rational order.
- Religion takes root in those who are ignorant + prevents them from gaining knowledge: “How could the human mind progress, while tormented with frightful phantoms, and guided by men, interested in perpetuating its ignorance and fears? Man has been forced to vegetate in his primitive stupidity: he has been taught stories about invisible powers upon whom his happiness was supposed to depend. Occupied solely by his fears, and by unintelligible reveries, he has always been at the mercy of priests, who have reserved to themselves the right of thinking for him, and of directing his actions.” (Author’s Preface)
- Religion obscures man’s faculty for reason: “Divines act very wisely in teaching men their religious principles before they are capable of distinguishing truth from falsehood, or their left hand from their right.” (35)
- Religion and reason are incompatible: “According to the divines, faith is an assent without evidence. Whence it follows, that religion requires us firmly to believe inevident things, and propositions often improbable or contrary to reason. But when we reject reason as a judge of faith, do we not confess, that reason is incompatible with faith? As the ministers of religion have resolved to banish reason, they must have felt the impossibility of reconciling it with faith, which is visibly only a blind submission to priests, whose authority seems to many persons more weighty than evidence itself, and preferable to the testimony of the senses.” (136)
- Religion is not truly moral: “According to the so much boasted morality of the man-God of the Christians, a disciple of his in this world must be like Tantalus, tormented with a burning thirst, which he is not allowed to quench. Does not such morality give us a wonderful idea of the author of nature? If, as we are assured, he has created all things for his creatures, by what strange whim does he forbid them the use of the goods he has created for them?” (160)
Glossary
Abnegated: renounce or reject (something desired or valuable).
Sloth: a sin of spiritual apathy and lack of care which goes beyond simple physical laziness
Social contract: an implicit agreement among the members of a society to cooperate for social benefits, for example by sacrificing some individual freedom for state protection.
Supernatural: (of a manifestation or event) attributed to some force beyond scientific understanding or the laws of nature.
Incredulous: (of a person or their manner) unwilling or unable to believe something.
Enlightenment: reason, individualism, and skepticism are the best tools for understanding the world and improving society, challenging traditional authority, and promoting progress.
Citations
Books Ecce Homo!, System of Nature, and Common Sense are linked in the Bibliography
[1] https://www.ebsco.com/research-starters/history/publication-holbachs-system-nature