22 thoughts on “men are wicked only because their reason is not sufficiently developed”

  1. jim- says:
    April 27, 2019 at 06:30

    I want to memorize this. I could listen to it again and again. I think u was him in a prior life.

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  2. jim- says:
    April 27, 2019 at 07:06

    What confirms even more that there is no ground for certainty concerning the authority that is claimed for these books, is that those who maintain their divinity are forced to confess that they would have no grounds for certitude if their faith didn’t assure them of this and didn’t oblige them to believe. Since faith is nothing but an erroneous principle and imposture, how can faith, i.e., blind belief, render those books that are themselves the basis for that blind belief certain? What a pity and what madness.—Jean Meslier

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  3. jim- says:
    April 27, 2019 at 07:27

    I’m on it. He sounds like all my attempts and failures to explain what I feel about faith and religion.

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  4. Mordanicus says:
    April 27, 2019 at 10:38

    And this why proper, secular education that teaches children how to evaluate, weigh and analyze information is essential for the survival of a free society.

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    • makagutu says:
      April 27, 2019 at 16:44

      You and I agree on why education is essential

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    • basenjibrian says:
      April 29, 2019 at 18:50

      Let’s be careful here, though. I am…skeptical…that education is the solution to all problems (I am exaggerating) First, not everyone is all that smart or logical. Second, there are, although we may deny it, fundamental issues that are not necessarily solvable by rationality and “science”. “Religion” is a society’s attempt to address such issues. A failed attempt, but we should not be blithe about the challenge. Finally, human beings are NOT consistently rational beings and never can be. Even if we are totally educated, rational scientific beings. Look at all the philosophers and scientists and intellectuals deeply trained in rational thought and how many of them fall for crazy passions of the heart…or political nonsense.

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      • makagutu says:
        April 29, 2019 at 18:55

        I think, we give ourselves much credit. Human beings are rarely rational, especially in large groups.

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      • Mordanicus says:
        April 29, 2019 at 19:05

        I don’t disagree with you and I would be the last person to claim that education is able to solve all social problems. Also I fully share your concern of inequality in regard of intelligence, which is an issue that should be addressed.

        Nevertheless, without proper education we’ll probably be off way worse. So I would still, despite its inherent limitations, argue in favor of teaching the young to think critically – even though some will prove to be totally immune for it.

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  5. judyt54 says:
    April 27, 2019 at 14:40

    Oh, this is perfect. A lot of this is what we’ve been saying and feeling all along, only more eloquently. Bravo.

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  6. renudepride says:
    April 27, 2019 at 17:24

    Mr. Jean Messlier was indeed a unique clergyman who wanted to make certain that all his parishioners were looked after and that the truth be shared with all. Great post, my Kenyan brother! Thank you very much for this enlightenment! 🙂 Naked hugs!

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  7. Robert A. Vella says:
    April 27, 2019 at 22:35

    Love this!

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  8. rautakyy says:
    April 29, 2019 at 15:53

    It is indeed surprizing, over and over again, how many people, who have obviously a limited ability (while not necessarily a limited capacity) to reason things like to appeal to reason, or more often common reason.

    For example people who hold so called “hard values” are often childishly selfish and demand that the world is a field of constant competition in wich they are entiteled to some priviledges they have not earned in any other way exept being born to a certain family (with money), a particular skin colour, in a certain country, culture or certain religious affiliation, that somehow magically holds the entire truth about the world and provides them some justification to such nonsensical excuses to abuse and exploit others and even an eternal life enjoying the cries of pain by those who were born to different religious affiliations. As if we were not all codependent on each other, like it is the case in the real world.

    Some animals are born ready (like the sharks) and some require help from their elders to grow into adulthood (like the wolf). Humans are among the latter group and even though a human individual may survive by the benefit of other adults in their society, it may be the case, that they do not grow up to be a constuctive member of their society, but rather a selfish idiot who always compete with everybody about everything, enjoys victories even when the other party did not engage in the childish competition, or when they won by braking the rules of some actual competition, and eventually perpetrates the culture of overt selfishness and thus hinders the healthy development of the entire society.

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  9. basenjibrian says:
    April 30, 2019 at 00:15

    Marcus, over at stdrr blog, used to post a “Monday Messier”. An amazing mind, especially given the God and Organized-Church-Militant-besotted era!

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  10. Eric Alagan says:
    May 11, 2019 at 05:30

    Good and evil are opposites on a spectrum, I reckon. And we all shift towards one end or the other. “Shift” – we never abut. Quite often most of us are a degree or two from the centre.

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