Up@dawn 2.0

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Section 9 Group 3

Our topic last class was on Spinoza. Spinoza was born into Judaism and in 1656 he was excommunicated because he began making claims that the Torah was not literally the word of God, that Jews were not God's chosen people, and that there is no immortal human soul. His reply of being excommunicated became one of his greatest works known as, Tractatus Theological-Politicus. He believed the universe was a self-caused substance with infinite attributes; human beings are "nodes" of that substance; and he called that substance "God or Nature." This later became known as pantheism. This theory kinda reminds me of the Matrix and it probably is only because of the node idea about human beings, but for me personally I find it extremely hard to believe that the universe was a self-caused substance, especially after taking astronomy a few semesters ago. Not only because of the size of the universe but because of how much beauty is found not only on our Earth but in the entire universe, I can not understand how it all just so happened to come together that way without there being a higher power. Here is a video my astronomy professor showed the class and it blew my mind, if you have time you should definitely check it out.

SECTION 11: GROUP 1 (TEST QUESTIONS)

Elizabeth Barnard

1.      What was commonly used by the people to describe anyone who questioned the religious doctrine? “Lutheran”

2.      What was Descartes’s famous saying? “Dubito Ergo Sum”, “I think therefore I am”

3.      T or F? Did Zen masters use short poems to awake a person’s mind? “T”

4.      What book did Marmondies write to sum up Jewish law quickly? “The Guide for the Perplexed”

5.      T or F? Were the Falsafah rationalist and did they belong to a history of doubt? “T”


Section 8 Group 5 Exam Questions

1) English deism was much enlivened by who?
A: John Locke

2) What did Matteo Ricci define all Confucians as?
A: Atheists

3)What view did Copernicus pick up while in Italy?
A: Neoplatonism

4) What famous church in Paris was gutted so it could be used for a grand Festival of Reason?
A: Notre Dame

5) Matteo Ricci was founder of the Catholic missions of what?
A: China.

(11) Group 3--Exam 2 Questions

What does Al-Warraq quite extremely refer to God as? An idiot.
What was the name of Aristotle's book on how words work? Sophistic Refutations
Who, along with Spinoza, was a prominent 17th century atheist? Hobbes.
T/F: Spinoza was viewed as an atheist during his time and after. True
According to Hume, what can you get by doing good? Peace of mind and praise from others.

Friday, March 30, 2012

Taoist of Two exam questions (sec 8)

1. What did Voltaire believe the existence of the world proved?
A: That a creator exists, but nothing more.


2. Who wrote the "Philosophical Dictionary"?
A: Voltaire

3. What did Descartes believe about free will?
A: "No one, not human beings, not God, could have free will."

4. Which book did Bruno have to preface with instance that he was not joking?
A: On the Infinite Universe and Worlds

5. Who said, "If anyone begins to vomit forth syllogisms, I advise you to take flight." ?
A: Petrarch

6. Who is the first known woman to support herself by writing?
A: Christine de Pisan

7. What does the Zohar stress? 
A: the acts of repentance and savoring the bitterness of exile.

SECTION 11; GROUP 1 (THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION)
Elizabeth Barnard
This was an era when the church began to become more open to philosophers and their ideas on science. He be lived that sensory was not what it seemed. Descartes's  famous saying was "I think therefore I am". It was pronounced "Dubito Ergo Sum". He found a way to bring a way of thinking higher that what it had been before. Spinoza believed in a heliocentric world that coincided with science. Hobbs studied in political science. He felt very strongly about government. Philosophers were able to decipher validity from the old way of thinking when people were not open to new ideas. They able to show scientific proof as people  began to emerge into split cultures and discovery.

Fact: What was Descartes's famous saying? "Dubito Ergo Sum"- "I think therefore I am".

Discussion: Do you think that if some of the earlier philosophers were writing in this time period would they have been ecepted by the church?

Group 2, Sect. 9 - 2nd exam questons

1) In Paul's theology, what were all humans incapable of and for which they needed G-d's, namely Jesus', help?
-Humans were unable to eran their salvation, their passage into heaven, and therefore needed G-d's grace and mercy through the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross.

2) What is Boethius' most noteable work in modern terms?
-The Consulations of Philosophy

3) What was the name of al-Rawandi's most important book?
-Kitah al-Zummurrud or the Book of the Emerald

4) When was the Zohar written and by whom?
-In the 13th century by Moses de Leon

5) What was the 1st book to be printed from the 1st printing press in 1453?
-a Bible

6) In what year was Bruno burned at the stake?
-1600

7) What was Descartes' first literary work, although not his most important?
-the World

8) JMH quotes Voltaire as saying, "The question of ________ remains in remediless chaos for those who seek to fathom it in reality."
-"good and evil"

Thursday, March 29, 2012

Section 8, Group 4 Exam 2 Questions

1. Who wrote Leviathan? Thomas Hobbes

2. Who wrote Of Wisdom? Pierre Charron

3. What is the "School of Athens" and who created it? A Painting; Raphael

4. What four mistakes did Hobbes say religion derived from? Belief in ghosts, ignorance of second causes, devotion to what men fear, and taking of things casual for prognostics.

5. Who said that people's lives in the seventeenth century were "solitary, poor, brutish, nasty, short"? Thomas Hobbes

Section 11 group 1 (I forgot to put a heading on this last Thursday. It was deleted. Sorry)

The inquisition was a series of trials held in the 16th century questioning writers, philosophers, and peasants who spoke of god in a manner that was not Catholic. This was during the Renaissance period and it was a great time of reformation of religion. People began to live openly on their own independent religious or spiritual beliefs. I find it interesting how the book expresses at this early time period “anyone who questioned religious doctrine” was commonly called Lutheran. Lutheran is now a religion practiced by many people. Noel Journet questioned The Book of Moses in the Bible claiming he could not have written the Book of Deuteronomy because it talks about his death. He claimed it was a “fable”. The Inquisition burned him with his books.  Menocchio was a peasant. He became mayor of his village. He spoke of the air being God. He explained God was made up of different combinations of things and how people perceive them. He felt it was impossible for the Virgin Mary to give birth to baby Jesus. There were many secret Lutheran groups. Geneva was a town where people could openly express their religious beliefs. Menocchio was sentenced to solitary confinement for years. Bruno was a priest who spoke of the position of bodies being relative to one another. He was accused of having an outrageous scientific theory. He believed God was “the same thing as the universe, and the world as we know it”. He was thrown in a dungeon for six years. He then attacked the professors for mocking his ideas and he was burned at the stake. By the end of the 16th century the king had his Catholic noblemen kill about “100 reformed church friends and family members”. He feared what they might do. It started more killings by Catholics that grew to 3000 people.

Fact: What term was used commonly by people to describe anyone who questioned the religious doctrine? Lutheran

Discussion: The king having killed because people had reformed from the Catholic religion and were independent is a prime example of how someone can use religion to gain power over large masses of people. Do you think the trials would have ended in death if they were more evolved? Or do you think the idea of having power and control over people by killing the accused would have been more important? We must live under a system that operates for the better of society. I think exceeding the limitations of power by denying people of their rights and their freedom is reversing the idea of evolving into a better life for society.

The inquisition was a series of trials held in the 16th century questioning writers, philosophers, and peasants who spoke of god in a manner that was not Catholic. This was during the Renaissance period and it was a great time of reformation of religion. People began to live openly on their own independent religious or spiritual beliefs. I find it interesting how the book expresses at this early time period “anyone who questioned religious doctrine” was commonly called Lutheran. Lutheran is now a religion practiced by many people. Noel Journet questioned The Book of Moses in the Bible claiming he could not have written the Book of Deuteronomy because it talks about his death. He claimed it was a “fable”. The Inquisition burned him with his books.  Menocchio was a peasant. He became mayor of his village. He spoke of the air being God. He explained God was made up of different combinations of things and how people perceive them. He felt it was impossible for the Virgin Mary to give birth to baby Jesus. There were many secret Lutheran groups. Geneva was a town where people could openly express their religious beliefs. Menocchio was sentenced to solitary confinement for years. Bruno was a priest who spoke of the position of bodies being relative to one another. He was accused of having an outrageous scientific theory. He believed God was “the same thing as the universe, and the world as we know it”. He was thrown in a dungeon for six years. He then attacked the professors for mocking his ideas and he was burned at the stake. By the end of the 16th century the king had his Catholic noblemen kill about “100 reformed church friends and family members”. He feared what they might do. It started more killings by Catholics that grew to 3000 people.

Fact: What term was used commonly by people to describe anyone who questioned the religious doctrine? Lutheran

Discussion: The king having killed because people had reformed from the Catholic religion and were independent is a prime example of how someone can use religion to gain power over large masses of people. Do you think the trials would have ended in death if they were more evolved? Or do you think the idea of having power and control over people by killing the accused would have been more important? We must live under a system that operates for the better of society. I think exceeding the limitations of power by denying people of their rights and their freedom is reversing the idea of evolving into a better life for society.

    

Section 11 Group 2 Descartes

Rene Descartes
 Cogito Ergo Sum "I think, therefore I am."

Descartes was a French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist. He was trying to overcome doubt; trying to push it to it's breaking point. He stated, "to determine truth we must find out if there is one thing that we can know for certain, and build from there..." His foundation came to be that he knows for certain that at least he exists. "I think, therefore I am". He is a mindful being with thoughts and ideas, truths or not, so in turn, he must exist. With this starting point, he concludes that God is good and would not deceive him (even though he previously questioned if God was "actually playing with him"). Stoics, Jews, and Christians use the magnificence of the world to prove the existence of God but Descartes claims that it is actually the inner knowledge of God that could prove the worlds existence.

Dubito Ergo Sum "I doubt, therefore I am."


Factual question: What was Descartes most famous work that consisted of 6 parts? [ Meditations

Discussion: This quote came to mind when reading about Descartes. What do you think about this?

late post for group 2 section 11 ( sorry I have been sick for the past few days), the renaissance and reformation


The renaissance questioned church theologians and their devotion to logic. The reformation reformed the Catholic Church, poetry, literature, and art. The renaissance and the reformation changed people forever. Most people perceived humanism to be purely about putting science above faith.  Science was also used as an excuse to allow women to be educated.  The renaissance affected many religious people, such as the Christians, the Catholics, and the Muslim Turks. A lot of royal people such as king Alfonso of Naples became devoted to the theories of the philosophers they agreed with during that time (for the king it was Epicurus). This time was a time of chaos for any person wondering about the truth of God and the existence of the universe and our purpose in life. Many people were killed just for writing books to express what they believed.
Questions
1.       (factual) Luther said we were all too sinful to be saved by acts; only faith and God’s grace could save us. TRUE or Petrarch was cynical about the beliefs of the Aristotelians. TRUE
2.       Discussion: Valla thought the Stoics were too interested in controlling the passions, do you agree or disagree?

Group 2, Section 11

Hey Ya'll!

I know I have been absent a lot since spring break, I have been dealing with a lot and my best friend got into a motorcycle accident. I know our exam is Tuesday of next week. Just wanted to see who was going to post the questions or if ya'll wanted me to do it?! I  guess just comment and let me know! Enjoy the study day that Dr. Oliver gave us!!

Wednesday, March 28, 2012

11/4 The American Enlightenment

The American Enlightenment was definitely an enlightenment that defined our country.  Thomas Paine believed that every man has the right to believe what they want to believe and Thomas Jefferson believed that we should live like Epicureans.  These men had a huge impact on our first amendment's statement of freedom of religion.  

Ben Franklin left Boston when he was a teenager and he felt that people in Boston were horrified by the fact that he was an atheist.  

Thomas Paine believed that every religion is believes they are the one true way and everybody else if wrong.  But Paine boldly came out and basically said, "You're all wrong."  He also said that if someone hears the voice of God, then God's voice is only relevant to them and they have no evidence that they really heard God's voice and that the people that they tell are not obligated to believe it.  If someone were to come up to you and tell you that a fairy floated by, sprinkled fairy dust on him and now he can fly, you would not believe it because you are not obligated to believe him.  However if he really was flying and was able to produce evidence of the fairy itself, then you are obligated to believe him...that's really good evidence.

Thomas Jefferson mentioned that Plato's philosophy was the core for Christianity.  In Doubt is reads, "Jefferson here scolds Plato for inventing an unintelligible mystical idea that had since been made into a god by the so-called Christians, who found that their crazy made-up stuff was well supported by Plato's."  
Jefferson also believed in the pursuit of happiness, which in many instances is the same basis that the Epicureans live.  He was also such a doubter that he concluded belief was insane.  

John Adams was a Unitarian.  He believed there is a God, but there is no dogma.  He also signed the Treaty of Tripoli which states that the American government was not founded upon Christian religion and that America is not a Christian nation (If you believe in gay marriage like I do, keep this in mind for every close-minded, Santorum-loving asshole who says gays can't get married in this country...they obviously don't know their history.)  

Questions:  
When did Jefferson and Adams die?  Ironically, the same year on the Fourth of July.

Thomas Paine talks about how no religion has pin-pointed the one true way.  What's your take on that?  Is he right?




Section 9, Group 1 Exam Questinos


Fact: Bayle started what journal that allowed the Enlightenment to be a social act?
Answer: Republic of Letters.

Fact: How was Bruno sentenced to die?
Answer: Death by fire.

Fact: What was the inquisition also known as?
Answer: The "fight against heretics"

Fact: What religion teaches about Zen?
Answer: Buddhism

Fact: Who wrote "Against Scholastic Theology"?
Answer: Martin Luther

Fact: Maimonides was a scholar of what?
Answer: The Torah

Section 9, Group 4 Exam questions


What was La Mothe le Vayer called?

-The Christian Skeptic

Who wrote On the Life and Character of Epicurus?

-Pierre Gassendi

What was Ockham's famous question and the answer?

-"How much can reason know faith?"
Not at all.

What's another name for Ockhams Razor?
-Law of Economy of Law of Parsimony

Who painted the School of Athens?
-Raphael

What two books did Al-Ghazzali write?
-The Opinions of the Philosohpers and The Incoherence of the Philosophers

Section 8, Group 1 (3/28/12)

Last class we talked about how we all reach a certain age where we start trying to answer difficult life questions. We discussed the different ways we have approached these questions, but did not really mention any concrete answers. It seemed to me that we all agreed that continuing to ask ourselves these questions was the best thing for us, and that whatever answer we find isn't necessarily set it stone.

Q: What did Voltaire believe the existence of the world was proof of?
A: A creator, but nothing more.


Do you agree with Voltaire's opinion that our existence is enough proof of some kind of creator?

Section 9 Group 5 English Deists

Last class period we talked about the many different English Deists. We first discussed Edward Herbert, who wrote The Truth. He presented the idea of Deism, and gave it its name. He also gave it the definition of being the belief that there is a God who should be worshiped that metes out all justice in this realm and the next, but he stated that everything else the church said was basically untrue and unimportant.
We also talked about John Locke, who among other things presented the idea of the tabula rasa. Basically he said that instead of being born with an innate sense of God and the universe, we are born as literal blank slates, and that all knowledge we gain is through sense and experience.
Then we moved on to Toland, who first used the term Pantheism, and gave it its definition: those who believe in no other eternal being but the universe. We also really liked Toland's recipe for subterfuge, the way that one would essentially worm their way into a topic that they were speaking "for," all the while making the counter argument for the topic stronger than the initial ideal that one is supposed to be speaking towards.
Lastly we discussed Aikenhead, a young aspiring scholar who was recorded to have been very open in a frank disbelief of Christianity. Among other things, he was recorded to have said that: the world's peoples are stupid for having believed Christianity for as long as it had; Jesus was nothing more than a manipulative person who learned "magic tricks" and got stupid people to believe him; and that Moses, if he did exist, was the better of the two peoples. Aikenhead was later executed for his heretic ways.

Fact Q1: How old was Aikenhead when he was executed?

Answer: 20

Thought Q2: Now knowing about Deism, how close is it to your own belief system? Will it make you reconsider your beliefs?

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Section 8, Group 4

Hobbes believed that life without government is anarchy. He was almost burned at the stake for having atheistic ideas but wasn't caught. He also believed that without government, humans would turn into mindless ruthless beings and that's why he wrote Leviathan.

FC: What was Hobbes famous published book? Leviathan
DC: What do you think if the world was still in a state of nature as Hobbes described? If we were living without government.

Section 9 Group 2: Descartes



Group Members
Jeremy Buma
Nader Issa
Ember Parr
Quint Qualls
Colin Szklarski


Well, there must be something in that spring air as it seems group 2 has taken some heavy casualties and for the second class in a row was unable to successfully meet and discuss our given topic. But here's a brief synopsis of what we should have covered, which was Descartes.First off, Descartes was not only a philosopher, but also and maybe more so, a mathematician and a scientist. But what really made him stick out among the others of his time is that he came to his believe in the existence of G-d through a new and altogether different method than anyone had thought of, either to prove or disprove Its existence. His reasoning was such: first of all, he could trust that he himself existed for as he said, Cogito Ergo Sum, or I think therefore I am. Through this he believes that he can recognize certainty elsewhere, namely in that his perception of G-d's existence must have been given to him by G-d Itself. Through this line of thinking, Descartes flips the reasoning that the existence of the world is proof that G-d exists to be that because G-d exists, then we can truly believe in our own existence along with that of the world around us. I'm not personally sure that this argument holds a whole lot of water, but it kind of makes a logical progression of reasoning at the same time. One thing though that I really didn't agree with though was when Hecht says, "Yet his work ended up forwarding the history of doubt in a big way. What he had done was to take G-d completely out of the world." I would disagree and say that the opposite is true and that doubt was increased now because G-d had a more fundamental role in our existence and we had a closer connection to It now. By flipping the view around to say that G-d was proof that WE EXIST seems to put It right in the middle of the world, not to take It out. But maybe that's just me, the ubertheist (yeah, I just coined that term.Think religious ubermench. Thanks Nietsche), finding G-d in everything and everywhere!

So, to play a little catch up since I didn't know what to post last time, here's the factual question I had for this section of the book:
Question -What was Descartes' first literary work even though it was not his most famous?
Answer - a scientific treatise called simply The World


And for next class, this is what I came up with looking at Voltaire:
Factual Question -JMH quotes Voltaire as saying, "The question of                  remains in remediless chaosfor those who seek to fathom it in reality."
Answer -"good and evil"
Discussion Question -Is there any chance that Voltaire could have been on to something when he said that, "The Socinians...dare to pretend, with the philosophers of antiquity, with the Jews, the Mahometans, and most other nations, that the idea of a god-man is monstrous"?

English Deists (11/5)

Katie, Robb, Dave, Shawn, Jamie





Deism, an unorthodox religious attitude that found expression among a group of English writers beginning with Edward Herbert (later 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury) in the first half of the 17th century and ending with Henry St. John, 1st Viscount Bolingbroke, in the middle of the 18th century. These writers subsequently inspired a similar religious attitude in Europe during the second half of the 18th century and in the colonial United States of America in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. In general, Deism refers to what can be called natural religion, the acceptance of a certain body ... (100 of 2851 words)








Well here we go again with More Damn English Philosophers (Sh*t)!!!

Todays blog is a bit heavy but I think I covered it all from every basis... 



The beginnings of English Deism appear in the seventeenth century...(Deism) advances a theory of knowledge based upon the recognition of innate universal characteristics...and rigidly opposed to knowledge supernatural in its origin and determinable in only by strife and conflict. The "Five Articles" of the English Deists constitute the nucleus of all religions and of Christianity in its primitive, uncorrupted form. The variations between positive religions are explained as due partly to the allegorization of nature, partly to self-deception, the workings of imagination, and priestly guile.

This is classical English Deism defined by Lord Herbert of Cherbury (d. 1648) in his book "De Veritate," (1624), he described the "Five Articles" of English Deists as;

1. belief in the existence of a single supreme God
2. humanity's duty to revere God
3. linkage of worship with practical morality
4. God will forgive us if we repent and abandon our sins
5. good works will be rewarded (and punishment for evil) both in life and after death.
It should be noted that the Age of Reason is separate from the later more radical and violent French Enlightenment and the bloody French Revolution. French Deism was anti-religious and shaded into atheism, pantheism, and skepticism and in reality was better called deistic Humanism.


Here is my creed. I believe in One God, the Creator of the Universe. That he governs it by his Providence. That he ought to be worshipped. That the most acceptable Service we can render Him is doing good to his other children. That the soul of man is immortal and will be treated with justice in another life respecting its conduct in this. These I take to be the fundamental principles of all sound religion.  
~Ben Franklin



Lord Herbert of Cherbury
The beginnings of English Deism appear in the seventeenth century. Its main principles are to be found in the writings of Lord Herbert of Cherbury (d. 1648), who devoted the latter part of a life spent in a military and diplomatic career to a search for a standard and a guide in the conflicts of creeds and systems. He was a friend of Grotius, Casaubon, and Gassendi, and during a long sojourn in France made himself acquainted with the thought of Montaigne, of Bodin, and especially of Charron. His works are: De Veritate (Paris, 1624); Cherbury. De religions Gentilium errorumque apud eos causes (London, 1645); and two minor treatises, De cause errorum and De religions laici. The first work advances a theory of knowledge based upon the recognition of innate universal characteristics on the object perceived, and rigidly opposed to knowledge supernatural in its origin and determinable in only by strife and conflict. The second work lays down the common marks by which religious truth is recognized. These are (1) a belief in the existence of the Deity, (2) the obligation to reverence such a power, (3) the identification of worship with practical morality, (4) the obligation to repent of sin and to abandon it, and, (5) divine recompense in this world and the next. These five essentials (the so-called “Five Articles” of the English Deists) constitute the nucleus of all religions and of Christianity in its primitive, uncorrupted form. The variations between positive religions are explained as due partly to the allegorization of nature, partly to self-deception, the workings of imagination, and priestly guile.




Hobbes
Rejection of theological supernaturalism stands out as the most conspicuous characteristic in Hobbes’s philosophical writings (d. 1679), which were inspired by the teachings of the new mathematical and natural sciences. The different religions are explained as the product of human fear interpreting natural phenomena in anthropomorphic form, or, in their higher aspects, as the outcome of reflection on causal relation in the universe. Miracles and revelations are in themselves improbable, and may be most easily explained as the imaginings of the ignorant. Positive religion is the creation of the State, and the sovereign justly possesses unconditional power to enforce its prescriptions, for only in this way can religious strife be avoided. Between religion thus naturally explained and a prophetic and Christian revelation Hobbes, nevertheless, attempted to mediate; he mentions as the means that might lead to such a reconciliation the rational interpretation of miracles, the differentiation between the inner moral sense of Scripture and mere figurative expression, and the historical criticisms of Biblical sources. The entire apparatus of Rationalism is here to be found, limited only in its application. Further, Spinoza’s Tractatus theologico-politicus (1670) and Bayle’s Dictionnaire (1695-97) were effective in shaping the character of Deism. Of no small importance, also, was the rise of a literature of comparative religion and the publication of ethnographical studies and works of travel. China, Arabia, Egypt, Persia, India, and primal regions, were brought within the horizon of religious investigation. Philosophy, beginning with Locke’s theory of knowledge, and natural science, with Newton’s theory of gravitation, contributed to the opposition with which theological dogma was confronted. Yet their attitude was not one of hostility to religions which they sought rather to utilize for the purpose of establishing the desired universal standard of truth. Newton and Boyle succeeded in reconciling the creed of the Church with their mechanical metaphysics; and this union remained characteristic of England, so that even men like Priestley and Hartley did not shrink from supporting their materialistic theories by theological arguments. We have here the blending of a sensualistic epistemology, a mechanical-teleological metaphysics, a historical criticism, and an a prioristicethics whose product in the shape of natural religion was destined first to undermine Christianity, then to compete with it, and finally to supplant it.

Charles Blount
These various tendencies could not show themselves fully under the ecclesiastical restraint of the Restoration, yet they appear clearly enough in the writings of Charles Blount (d. 1693), usually placed second to Herbert in the lists of Deists. Like his predecessor, Blount dwells on the conflict between rival religions, and finds a standard of adjustment in a fusion of Herbert’s theory of universal characteristics with Hobbes’s prescription by the State. Like Hobbes and Spinoza, he touches serious problems of Biblical criticism at this early date. Freedom from prejudice is his boast; he asserts the supernatural character of Christianity on the basis of its miracles, after he has already rendered them dubious by parallels with non-Christian miracles. His works were: Anima mundi (London, 1679), Great is Diana of the Ephesians (1680), and The Two First Books of Philostratus concerning the Life of Apollonius Tyaneus, published in English with notes (1680).


John Locke
The Revolution of 1688, the establishment of the freedom of the press in 1694, the political favor that was bestowed on the new tendencies in theology, in opposition to the stricter Anglicanism which was tainted with Stuart partizanship, were conditions favorable to the development of the seed that had already been planted. Parallel with the liberalization of orthodox dogma, there ran a more radical development with the attainment of a standard for the testing of the contents of revelation. Of surpassing importance in this direction was the influence and work of John Locke (d. 1704), who, in the field of theology, found his starting point, like most prominent thinkers of the age, in the conflict of systems, doctrines, and practices. Out of his reflections on the data of experience he developed a mechanical-teleological metaphysics and an empirical-utilitarian ethics, the latter agreeing, with the old idea of lex naturae in that ethical experience merely confirms the connection established by a teleological government of the universe between certain acts and their consequences. In spite of his supernaturalist tendencies, Locke nevertheless maintained, in his Letters on Toleration (1689-92), that only rational demonstration, and not compulsion or mere assertion, can establish the validity of revelation. In the Essay concerning Human Understanding (1690) he had investigated the conception of revelation from the epistemological standpoint, and laid down the criteria by which the true revelation is to be distinguished from other doctrines which claim such authority. Strict proof of the formal character of revelation must be adduced; the tradition which communicates it to us must be fully accredited by both external and internal evidence; and its content must be shown to correspond with rational metaphysics and ethics. Revelation is revelation; but, after it is once given, it may be shown a posteriori to be rational, i.e., capable of being deduced from the premises of our reason. Only where this is possible is there a presumption in favor of the purely mysterious parts of revelation. Where these criteria are disregarded the way is open to the excesses of sects and priesthoods by which religion, the differentia of reasoning man, has often made him appear less rational than the beasts. Locke advances therefore the remarkable conception of a revelation that reveals only the reasonable and the universally cognizable. The practical consequences of the thesis are deduced in his Reasonableness of Christianity as Delivered in the Scriptures(1695), which aims at the termination of religious strife through the recovery of the truths of primitive, rational Christianity. From the Gospels and the Acts, as distinguished from the Epistles, he elicits as the fundamental Christian truths the doctrine of the messiahship of Jesus and that of the kingdom of God. Inseparably connected with these are the recognition of Jesus as ruler of this kingdom, forgiveness of sins, and subjection to the moral law of the. kingdom. This law is identical with the ethical portion of the law of Moses, which in its turn corresponds to the lex naturae or rationis. The Gospel is but the divine summary and exposition of the law of nature, and it is the advantage of Christianity over pagan creeds and philosophies that it offers this law of nature intelligibly, with divine authority, and free from merely ceremonial sacerdotalism. To do this it requires the aid of a supernatural revelation, whose message is attainable through reason also, but only in an imperfect way.
Toland, Collins, and Others
Deducing the full consequences of Locke’s theory, John Toland (d. 1722), in his Christianity not Mysterious (1696), maintained that the content of revelation must neither contradict nor transcend the dictates of reason. Revelation is not the basis of truth, but only a ” means of information ” by which man may arrive at knowledge, the sanction for which must be found in reason. Primitive Christianity knew nothing of mystery, whose sources are Judaic and Greek, and the original Christian use of the word mysterium conveyed no idea of that which transcended reason. The basis is thus laid for the critical study of early Christianity. Further problems of Biblical criticism and the distinction between the diverse parties in primitive Christianity are advanced in Toland’s Amyntor (1699) and Nazarenus ; or Jewish, Gentile and illahometan Christianity (1718). In like manner, Anthony Collins (d. 1729), in his Discourse of Freethinking (1713), developed the consequences of Locke’s propositions. Revelation depends for its sanction upon its agreement with reason, and what is contrary to reason is not revelation. Practical morality is independent of dogma, which, on the contrary, has been the cause of much evil in the history of the world. Christ and the Apostles, the prototypes. of the freethinkers, never made use of supernatural authority, but confined themselves to simple, rational demonstration. Collins’s work elicited numerous replies; but none really made answer to his main thesis. After remaining silent for eleven years, Collins renewed the contest with a contribution on prophecy and miracles. Setting out from Locke’s proposition that revelation was truth sanctioned by reason, he found it a simple step to reject prophecy and miracles as non-essential characteristics of religion, amounting at most to mere didactic devices. The mathematician William Whiston (d. 1752) gave a new impulse to the controversy by the publication of The True Text(1722), in which the lack of real concordance between the New Testament interpretation of Old Testament prophecies is pointed out, and the prevailing allegorical method of reconciling such differences summarily rejected. The present form of the Old Testament is characterized as a forgery perpetrated by the Jews, and an attempt is made by Whiston to restore the original text. Collins, in his Discourse on the Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion (1724), agreed with Whiston as to the discrepancies between the two Testaments, but defended the allegorical method of interpretation. Thomas Woolston (d. 1733) came to the support of Collins in this controversy over the Biblical prophecies; and when his opponents shifted their appeal from the prophecies to the miraculous acts of Jesus he applied his destructive allegorical method to those also, in his Discourses on the Miracles of our Saviour (1727-30).

Matthew Tindal
Matthew Tindal (d. 1733), in his dialogue Christianity as Old as the Creation, or the Gospel a Republication of the Religion of Nature (1730), produced the standard text-book of Deism. Proceeding from Locke’s proposition of the identity of the truths of revelation with those of reason, he adduces a new array of arguments in support of that position. The goodness of God, the vast extent of the earth, the long duration of human life on earth render it improbable that only to Jews and Christians was vouchsafed the favor of perceiving truth. We now have brought in the classic example of the three hundred million Chinese who surely could not all be excluded from the truth, and Confucianism begins to be extolled against much that is repugnant and harsh in the Mosaic law. Christianity, to be the truth, must find the substance in all religions; it must be as old as creation. The doctrines of the fall and of original sin can not stand, since it is irrational to believe in the exclusion from the truth of the vast majority of humanity. Tindal’s position is orthodox to the extent that Judaism and Christianity are acknowledged as revelations, though revelations only of the lex naturae, which is identified with natural religion, the primitive, uncorrupted faith, consisting in “the practise of morality in obedience to the will of God.” An echo of the teachings of Tindal is found in Thomas Chubb (d. 1747), whoseTrue Gospel of Jesus Christ (1738) attempts to prove that what Jesus sought to teach his followers was but natural morality, or the law of nature.

Morgan, Annet, and Middleton
Thomas Morgan (d. 1743) continued Tindal’s argument on its historical side in The Moral Philosopher(1737-40),displaying much originality in tracing the development of heathen religions, as well as of Judaism and Christianity. Abandoning the old method of deriving specific religions from priestly deception, he explains their rise through the gradual supplanting of the one God of the law of nature by a crowd of divinities connected with definite natural phenomena. The legislation of Moses, under Egyptian influences, imposed a rigid and nationally restricted form upon the lex naturae, and the Jewish ritual and ceremonial is in essence a purely political institution. Full revelation of the law of nature came with Christ, who gave to the world in concentrated form the truth that had already been revealed to Confucius, Zoroaster, Socrates, and Plato. The protagonist of this divinely revealed truth after Christ was Paul, who, in his form of expression, indeed, was compelled to make concessions to the influence of Judaism, and in whom, therefore, much is to be taken figuratively. Peter, on the other hand, and the author of the Apocalypse misunderstood the import of the revelation of Christ and corrupted it in the spirit of Messianic Judaism. Persecution forced the two tendencies into union in the Catholic Church, and the Reformation has only partially succeeded in separating them. Morgan’s argument results, therefore, in the rejection of the formerly assumed identity between the law of Moses and the lex naturm, and the restriction of the latter, in the fullness of revelation, to Christianity. His conclusions were denied by William Warburton in The Divine Legation of Moses (1738-41). When the Christian apologists substituted for the argument from miracles the argument from personal witness and the credibility of Biblical evidence, Peter Annet (d. 1769), in his Resurrection of Jesus (1744), assailed the validity of such evidence, and first advanced the hypothesis of the illusory. death of Jesus, suggesting also that possibly Paul should be regarded as the founder of a new religion. In Supernaturals Examined (1747) Annet roundly denies the possibility of miracles. Conyers Middleton (d. 1750) in his later writings sought to bridge over the gulf between sacred and profane history, and to test them equally by the same method. His Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers (1748) demonstrates that the belief in miracles is common to primitive Christianity and heathen creeds, and that it developed to great proportions in the later life of the Church,, so that one is then confronted with an endless succession of miracle to which belongs the same degree of credibility that the apologists attributed to the miracles of the Bible. Though special reference to the New Testament was omitted, Middleton propounded a question to answer which no serious attempt was mad when he asked why credence should be granted to one faith that is denied to another.
Shaftesbury, Mandeville, Dodwell, Bolingbroke
The Deistic controversy died out in England about the middle of the eighteenth century. The Deistic literature had exhausted its stock of materials, while its tenets had never obtained a strong hold on the people. The cold, inflexible, rational supernaturalism of Paley (d. 1805) was considered as the final settlement of these long conflicts. From the beginning, however, there had been a class of critics, representatives of the old Renaissance spirit, and inimical, therefore, to the Stoic and Christian ethics, who had only partially shared the views of the Deists, and in some ways had advanced to a position far beyond them. Shaftesbury (d. 1713), in opposition to the utilitarian and supernaturalist ethics of Locke and Clarke, developed the conception of a strictly autonomous moral code having its basis in a moral instinct in man whose end is to bring individual and society to harmonious self-perfection. Bernard Mandeville (1733) adopted the Epicureanism of Hobbes and Gassendi, studied moral problems in the skeptical spirit of Montaigne and La Rochefoucauld, gave the preference to Bayle over the Deists, and developed empiricism into a sort of Agnosticism. He criticized the prevailing morality as a more conventional lie. Christianity-which the Deists had wished, while reforming, to maintain-he declared impossible, not only as a religion, but as a system of morality. His Free Thought on Religion (1720) has caused him to be included in the ranks of the Deists; but his real position is brought out in the Fable of the Bees (1714). Henry Dodwell (d. 1711), in Christianity not Founded on Argument(1742), attempted to demonstrate the invalidity of the rationalistic basis for Christian truth constructed by the Deists, from the very nature of the religious impulse, which, being opposed to rational argumentation, calls for the support of tradition and mystery, and finds fascination in the attitude of credo quia absurdum. The only proof proceeds from a mystic inner enlightenment; logical demonstrations like those of Clarke or the Boyle lectures are only destructive of religion. Bolingbroke (d. 1751) voices the French influence in a capricious and dilettante manner. Despising all religions as the product of enthusiasm, fraud, and superstition, he nevertheless concedes to real Christianity the possession of moral and rational truth; an advocate of freedom of thought, he supports an established church in the interest of the State and of public morals (Letters on the Study and Use of History 1752; Essays, 1753).



Hume’s Influence
Far greater is the influence of David Hume (d. 1776), who summarized the Deistic criticism and raised it to the level of modern scientific method by emancipating it from the conception of a deity conceived through the reason and by abandoning its characteristic interpretation of history. He separates Locke’s theory of knowledge from its connection with a scheme of mechanical teleology and confines the human mind within the realm of sense perception. Beginning then with the crudest factors of experience and not with a religious and ethical norm, he traces the development of systems of religion, ethics, and philosophy in an ascending course through the ages. He thus overthrow the Deistic philosophy of religion while he developed their critical method to the extent of making it the starting-point for the English positivist philosophy of religion. Distinguishing between the metaphysical problem of the idea of God and the historical problem of the rise of religions, he denied the possibility of attaining a knowledge of deity through the reason, and explained religion as arising from the misconception or arbitrary misinterpretation of experience (Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion, written in 1751, but not published till 1779; Natural History of Religion, 1757). Against the justification of religion by other means than rational Hume directs his celebrated critique of miracles, in which to the possibility of miraculous occurrences he opposes the possibility of error on the part of the observer or historian. Human experience, affected by ignorance, fancy, and the imaginings of fear and hope, explains sufficiently the growth of religion. Hume’s contemporaries failed to recognize the portentous transformation which he had effected in the character of Deism. The Scottish “common-sense school ” saved for a time the old natural theology and the theological argument from miracles to revelation; but in reality Hume’s skeptical method, continued by Hamilton and united to French Positivism by Mill and Browne, became, in connection with modern ethnology and anthropology, the basis of a psychological philosophy of religion in which the data of outward experience are the main factors (Evolutionism, Positivism, Agnosticism, Tylor, Spencer, Lubbock, Andrew Lang). In so far as Hume’s influence prevailed among his contemporaries, it may be said to have amalgamated with that of Voltaire; the “infidels,” as they were now called, were Voltairians. Most prominent among them was Gibbon (d. 1794), whose Decline and Fall offers the first dignified pragmatic treatment of the rise of Christianity. The fundamental principles of Deism became tinged in the nineteenth century with skepticism, pessimism, or pantheism, but the conceptions of natural religion retained largely their old character.