On Jul 7, 2013, at 10:29 PM, JOANNA A. wrote:
> Thanks for the context Shane. But I still think he had a point.
>
In the context of 1794 his point was a deliberately
counterrevolutionary one. The previous Pope would have endorsed it
fully (the present one, I think, would find it quite ungenteel in
regard to atheists).
> And I am, in general, irritated with atheists.
>
So am I.
> They don't seem to realize that a) you can't prove a negative...
That depends. It can, for instance, be proven that the Knight's Tour does not exist. Yet its existence seems far more plausible than the existence of a Supreme Being.
>
>
>> Love the Robespierre quote. Let me translate it for those who don't
>> speak French.
>>
>> Atheism is immoral and aristocratic: the idea of a supreme being and
>> of the immortality of the soul is a continual call for justice: it
>> is therefore "social and republican" (not sure how to translate
>> this, Michael?)
>
> It is important to note that this was the critical moment in
> Robespierre's counterrevolutionary turn against the
> "dechristianizers", the most advanced forces of the revolution. It was
> his preparation for the execution of both Hébèrt and Danton and their
> respective followers as well as such Enlightenment paragons as
> Lavoisier, Condorcet, and Olympe de Gouges (see Daniel Guérin,
> "Bourgeois et Bras Nus, La Lutte de Classes Sous la Première
> République).
>
>
> Shane Mage
> "Thunderbolt steers all things." Herakleitos of Ephesos, fr. 64