Denis Diderot's Ideas Lie At the Base of Modern Western Civilization
Last Friday was the birthday of French philosopher Denis Diderot, who said, “Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.” Holy cow, that’s some powerful language. It appears to summarize the zeitgeist of Europe in the late Eighteenth Century, celebrating the Age of Reason and boldly announcing the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, and the U.S. Constitution with its separation of church and state.
I’m often reminded that there was no analogous event in the Muslim world, where theocracy has been the unchallenged social and political paradigm since Islam came into existence 1500 years ago. The world has so many problems, but to me, this seems to be at the core of a great number of them.
Comments?
“Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.”
What Dietdrot did not anticipate was the flexibility of religion. If religion had not changed and had retrained its influence on government, perhaps Dietdrot would have been correct. It has been said that power corrupts and that absolute power corrupts absolutely; that was the situation with religion when there was no separation of church and state. Religious leaders were often power seekers who, instead of emphasizing the Biblical imperative to love one’s neighbor as oneself, used inquisitions and torture to increase their power, which was completely contrary to the Will of God as promulgated by Jesus.
Regarding Islam, it is just as divided as Christianity is. The majority of Muslims are reasonable people who decry the atrocities of the fundamentalists. Unfortunately, many Muslims live in countries in which power seeking religious leaders have excessive influence on government. In earlier times, the same situation existed with Christianity, at which time even the majority of Christians did not understand the need to separate church and state. Thus, in parts of the world, Islam is a few centuries behind the times. If history repeats itself, that will change and radical Islam, as opposed to non-radical Islam, will cease to be a threat.
Craig, what happened? I used to get one of these “Tombs” every three or four days, now it’s four or five each day. Did you quit your old job? Girlfriend run away with your old friend? Decide to stop drinking so you have more sober hours? Something has changed your schedule…