Without doubt the more to perplex matters, theologians have chosen to say nothing about what their God is; they tell us what He is not. By negations and abstractions they imagine themselves composing a real and perfect being, while there can result from it but a being of human reason. A spirit has no body; an infinite being is a being which is not finite; a perfect being is a being which is not imperfect. Can any one form any real notions of such a multitude of deficiencies or absence of ideas? That which excludes all idea, can it be anything but nothingness? To pretend that the divine attributes are beyond the understanding of the human mind is to render God unfit for men. If we are assured that God is infinite, we admit that there can be nothing in common between Him and His creatures. To say that God is infinite, is to destroy Him for men, or at least render Him useless to them.
God, we are told, created men intelligent, but He did not create them omniscient: that is to say, capable of knowing all things. We conclude that He was not able to endow him with intelligence sufficient to understand the divine essence. In this case it is demonstrated that God has neither the power nor the wish to be known by men. By what right could this God become angry with beings whose own essence makes it impossible to have any idea of the divine essence? God would evidently be the most unjust and the most unaccountable of tyrants if He should punish an atheist for not knowing that which his nature made it impossible for him to know.
J. Meslier
Very eloquent! Couldn’t have said better.
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The guy was very eloquent.
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Hark! Do I hear an apologist in the wings…
“Yes, but……”
“Oh, Its’ William Lane Craig. ‘eff off, please…”
They never get it , do they?
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I don’t think they do. They would have changed professions if they did.
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The apologist’s excuse? “But but God wants us to have free will!” Snicker.
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The apologist speaks faster than he thinks. Or else we’d be free of apologetics, it would just be priests swindling their followers of their hard earned cash
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Reblogged this on Club Schadenfreude and commented:
as always worthwhile quotes from J. Meslier posted here.
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How he managed to be a priest for 25 years with all this thoughts in his head defeats my little brain. Thank goodness for the internet, I found such a simply written book on common sense 😀
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What book is this from?
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Jean Meslier, Superstition in the Ages, a book he wrote as his last will and testament to his parishioners.
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Ah! I read that! I loved it. Can’t believe I didn’t recognize it 🙂
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