Jean Meslier, Secret Atheist Priest
In a recent thread, Michael mentioned Jean Meslier. As Luke Mulheuser stated back in 2010, a year after the first English translation of the book was released:
Jean Meslier (1664-1729) served as a Catholic priest for 40 years, but after his death was discovered to have written the very first book-length philosophical essay promoting atheism.
Remarkable for its era, his 633-page Testament shows us that Jean Meslier “invented a radical atheism, proposed a hedonist ethic, formulated an immanent ontology, constructed his libertarian politics and gave them a communalist and internationalist concept, thought of a feminism of action, anticipated the battle against speciesism, erected modern materialism, unmasked the Cartesian deceit, sketched the revolutionary concept of 1789, [and] called for the necessity of intellectual critics.”1
Angry, precise, logical, and eminently quotable, the Testament of Jean Meslier is a revelation that came centuries before the world was ready for it. It is the ultimate New Atheist book of 1729.
Over to Meslier's words:
My dear friends, seeing that… the consequences would be too dangerous… for me to tell you openly during my lifetime what I think about the conduct of the government of men and about religions and morals, I have decided, at least, to tell you after my death.1
He then summarizes the thrust of his message:
The more I advanced in age and knowledge, the more I recognized the blindness and viciousness of men, the more I recognized the vanity of their superstitions and the injustice of their evil governments.
…Though astonished at seeing so many errors, abuses, superstitions, impostures, and tyrannies in power, what surprised me even more was that, although there were many people in the world who were considered very learned, wise, and pious, nevertheless there was no one who dared to speak openly against so many great and detestable disorders.2
…The source… of all evils that crush you… is nothing else but the detestable politics of men… [Not only] did they both cleverly use force and violence, but they also used all kinds of tricks and ploys to seduce the people in order to achieve their ends more easily. As a result, all these shrewd and crafty politicians, taking advantage of the weakness, credulity, and ignorance of the weakest and least educated, easily made the people believe what they wanted them to and then made them accept reverently and submissively, willingly or by force, all the laws that they wanted to give them. In this way, some made themselves honored, respected, and worshiped as divinities, or at least as people inspired and sent specially from the gods to reveal their will to men…
…There is the source and origin of all the errors, impostures, superstitions, false divinities, and idolatries that are miserably spread throughout the earth… There is the source and origin of all the so-called holy and divine laws they want to make you obey as if coming from God himself. There is the source and origin of all the splendorous but vain and ridiculous ceremonies your priests pretend to perform with pomp in the celebration of their false mysteries, false solemnities, and their false, divine cult. There is the origin and source of all the haughty titles and names of lord, prince, king, monarch, and potentate who… oppress you as tyrants…
There, likewise, is the source and origin of all the so-called holy and sacred authority of the spiritual and ecclesiastical order and power that you priests and bishops lay claim to, who… on the pretext of wanting to lead you to heaven and obtain eternal happiness for you, prevent you from peacefully enjoying any real good here upon the earth.3
...
I would always rather have openly shown the contempt I had [for politics and religion], if it had been permitted to me to speak according to my inclination and sentiments.
And so, although I was easily led in my youth to the ecclesiastical state to please my parents… nevertheless I can truthfully say that the… prospects of the fat payments of the ministry never brought me to love the duty of a profession so full of errors and impostures… I hated even more the mocking and clownish attitude of those other gentlemen who only think of having a good time with the large incomes of their good benefices and who among themselves cheerfully mock the mysteries, maxims, and the vain and deceitful ceremonies of their religion, and who even mock the simplicity of those who believe… Just look at the popes (Julius III, Leo X) who themselves mocked their dignity and the other (Boniface VIII) who said, joking with his friends, “Ah! How rich we are from this fable of Christ!”
…I do not believe, my dear friends, that I have ever given you reason to think that I shared these sentiments. On the contrary, you could have noticed several times that I was completely opposed to them and I was extremely sensitive to your pains. You could have noticed that I was not very attached to that pious lucre of the payments of the ministry, since I often neglected and abandoned it when I could have profited from it…
And with respect to the false and fabulous mysteries of your religion… you could have easily noticed that I hardly devoted myself to the bigotry and I hardly thought much about maintaining you in it or of advising you to practice it… I have had the displeasure of seeing myself in this annoying obligation of acting and speaking entirely against my own sentiments; I have ha the displeasure of keeping you in the stupid errors, the vain superstitions, and the idolatries that I hated, condemned, and detested to the core.
But I declare to you that I was never without pain and extreme loathing for what I was doing. That is also why I totally hated all the vain functions of my ministry, and particularly all the idolatrous and superstitious celebrations of masses, and the vain and ridiculous administrations of sacraments that I had to do for you. I cursed them thousands of times to the core when I had to do them, and particularly when I had to do them with a little more attention and solemnity than normal when I saw you come to your churches… to hear with a little more devotion what they make you believe to be the word of God…
But as [I must] keep silent at present, I will at least, in a way, speak to you after my death.4
Interesting stuff and hopefully something some of you were not aware of!
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