The French philosophe, Denis Diderot (1713-1784), was a guiding intellect of The Enlightenment and a principal author of its central document, L'Encyclopédie, which set the tone for the modern view where religion is just another superstition.
Classic Diderot is always bracing. Here is some:
Wandering in a vast forest at night, I have only a faint light to guide me. A stranger appears and says to me: "My friend, you should blow out your candle in order to find your way more clearly." This stranger is a theologian.
Denis Diderot, Addition aux Pensees philosophiques, from John Daintith, et al, eds. The Macmillan Dictionary of Quotations (2000) p. 34
Mankind shall not be free until the last king is strangled in the entrails of the last priest.
Denis Diderot, Dithyrambe Sur La Fête Des Rois
It is raining bombs on the house of the Lord. I go in fear and trembling lest one of these terrible bombers gets into difficulties.
Denis Diderot (1768). Quoted from and citation quip by Jim Herrick, Against the Faith (1985), p. 85.
Source: Deni Diderot, Quotations
We're not up to Diderot's standard in the US. But we're getting there. We're just slow.
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Yikes. I sure hope Diderot had other, more thoughtful things to say about religion than is evinced in the second and third quotes, because cracking wise about the death and destruction of those who disagree with him certainly doesn't convince on either a rational or emotional level.
Coincidentally, the Toronto Globe and Mail is running a weekly series on the 50 greatest books. This week, it's Diderot's Encyclopedia.
Josh: These are epigrams. They represent values and intellectual orientation, not wisdom. They should also not be taken literally, as you obviously understand when you refer to them as wisecracks. Nor are they meant to convince. For that matter, my Sermonettes are not meant to convince, either. They are meant to be subversive of religion's privileged place in American society.
Purely practically speaking, wouldn't there be some sense in blowing out your candle if you were in a dark forest at night? It would allow your eyes to adjust to the lack of light and therefore see further.
Of course, that's assuming there's good light from the moon, as there has been the last couple days here.
Love these quotes, what a witty and erudite person!
The US isn't slow. It's wilfully retarded itself. If it wasn't for the constitution it would be even more of a christian version of Saudi Arabia than it already is.