supplemental material

I’ve also enclosed a document with some excerpts from Testament, as well as a link to his book.

reflection

I’m particularity taken by the life and work of Jean Meslier because of the way that he shows how the best atheistic critiques arise out of the very ground they reject. The greatest ‘enemies’ of the faith often know that life intimately, have dedicated their lives to it and have first hand knowledge of the inconsistencies, antagonisms, deadlocks and contradictions. For some philosophers, it is only the truly religious figure who can actually transcend religion. The reason for this lies in the idea that religious sentiment is almost impossible to get rid of - persisting in secular ways through the pursuit of wholeness in money, fame, fitness etc. Nietzsche once wrote that, ‘after the Buddha had died it is said that his showed remained on a cave wall for thousands of years,’ he then claimed that, ‘the shadow of God remains after the death of God, and must also be removed’. Here he was referring to the religious sentiment in secular life.

It is hard to find a better expression of this idea than in the work of Meslier, who lived a simple life devoid of any desire to find salvation in money, religion or reputation. He not only rejected the religious God, but seemed to live a life freed from the very shadow of that God.

His intimate knowledge of the religious life gives his critique a profound authority, and includes elements that act as a foreshadowing of what we will encounter in week four - where we shall encounter the materialist critiques of people like Feuerbach, Marx and Goldman.

But his savage critique also opens up the door to a profound understanding of faith that we will see being taken up in the fifth week. Indeed, at one point in his Testament, he even writes that, if people take his attack seriously; casting off the inequalities of religion and working towards a this-worldly kingdom of equality, then Christianity would finally become real. An interesting comment that foreshadows the work thinkers like Bonhoeffer, who saw the rejection of religion in favor of human justice to signal the next Reformation of religion.

I hope that this reflection provides a powerful example of how the most passionate critique of religion is intimately connected with what it rejects. Hinting at the type of dialectic relationship theism and atheism have.

Testament by Meslier

Jean Meslier (1664 – 1729), was a French Catholic priest who secretly penned the first systematic text wholly devoted to atheism. While his work is still largely unknown, he is increasingly seen as the father of modern atheism. This secret work of unwavering critique was only discovered after his death.

He was a quiet, hard working parish priest. He lived in complete simplicity and gave any money he made to the poor and oppressed. He also got into trouble when he preached a sermon that involved critiquing the noble man of the town - Antoine de Toull - and refusing him holy water. The noble man reported him to the Bishop and Meslier was disciplined. Yet the priest did not relent, inviting his congregation to pray for the noble man, that he might repent from mistreating the poor and robbing orphans.

While the style of his book is repetitive and often bombastic, Meslier also offers some careful philosophical objections against the existence of God, exegetical arguments against the reliability of the bible and moral arguments against the teachings of scripture. While he applauded how the early Christians shared their goods, he believed that Christianity quickly degenerated into a religion that encouraged submission to tyranny and acceptance of suffering.

The following is a reading from Volume 9 of The Story of Civilization by Will and Ariel Durant. This reading gives you a glimpse into his life and introduces his thinking through direct quotes.