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Old 12-14-2005, 07:23 PM   #24
Alex
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You should track down and read The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosphers. It is an old book, essentially a transcription of a series of lectures given by Carl L. Becker at Yale Law School in 1932.

Becker was a philosopher/historian (and in the book he does a great job of illustrating where those disciplines separate). The first part is about how "reason" and "logic" as we know it today to undermine religion is essentially the same thing as used by Dante and Thomas Aquinas to support it.

Part II is about how the 18th century philosphers overthrew Aquinas's "Heavenly City" using logic, reason, and observation (the scientific method), and how they were appalled by where this lead them (a purely mechanical universe without purpose). They then recoiled instinctively and created a new Heavenly City out of "natural law" with posterity playing the role of Jesus.

The whole book is only about 160 pages and is so well written that I think you'd really enjoy it if you haven't already read it. Since it is based on lectures it reads out loud particularly well and whenever I reread it I mostly do so out loud so I can feel the flow and energy of it.

Essentially, it is seeking to dispel the notion that Hume, Diderot, Voltaire, etc. had an essentially modern mindset toward logic, rationality, and atheism.


scaeagles, I never termed my wiring as messed up. It is just the way it is. Just as I think your wiring makes you believe in a god that doesn't exist because evolutionary forces found an advantage in such belief. As we've solidified the post-evolutionary nature of man I think such tendency towards blind faith will slowly dilute and perhaps eventually disappear.

I imagine you would find this the most condescending view of your faith possible: essentially, that you can't help it. (Also, I don't really claim that god doesn't exist, just that until something even remotely suggests such an existence I see no reason to suppose it.)
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