Batı dini eleştiriyor
1770'te Fransa'da yayımlanan Vie de Jesus adlı kitabın yazarı, İsa'nın "Beceriksiz bir düzenbaz ve insanların saffetinden yararlanıp mucizeler uyduran bir kimse olduğunu fakat bu aldatmaların ergeç son bulacağını ve insanlığın akıl egemenliğine kavuşmakla bu yalanlara son vereceğini" yazmıştır. Daha sonraki bir dönemde Max Weber, İngilizceye Ancient Judaism adıyla çevrilen kitabında, başta Davud olmak üzere diğer bazı peygamberlerin ahlak dışı yaşantılarını yermiştir. 20. yüzyılın en ünlü tarihçisi sayılan Herbert GeorgeWells, The Outline Of History adlı yapıtında bir yandan Davud Peygamber'in hiç de iftihar edilecek bir şahsiyet olmadığını belirtirken, diğer yandan da din kitaplarındaki ahlaka sığmaz şeylerieleştirmiştir. Çağımızın en büyük düşünürlerinden olan Bertrand Russell'ın Why I Am Not A Christian (Neden Hıristiyan Değilim) adlı kitabıyla yaptığı da aşağı yukarı aynıdır.' Biraz yukarıda dediğimiz gibi bu verdiğimiz örnekler Batı'nın iki yüzyıllık serbest düşünce savaşımının temsilcilerinden sadece bir kısmını kapsar.
The curriculum of the cathedral school was limited to grammar, rhetoric, logic, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy—the seven liberal arts, so called because in ancient Rome their study had been reserved for liberi , “freemen.”
“Kötü bir anıyı unutmanın en iyi yolu güzel bir tanesiyle değişmektir.”
Those bishops in the premier cities of the empire—Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, and Antioch—were considered highest of all and were called patriarchs. Generally speaking, Alexandria and Rome tended to support each other, and Antioch tended to align with Constantinople. On Alexandria’s part this reflected the jealousy that the proud and ancient city felt at the rise of Constantinople, the upstart capital in the East. Rome, too, while for the time content to extend its influence over the imperial dominions in the West, was not happy with the growing arrogance of the “New Rome” in the East. On the other hand, Antioch and Alexandria had long been rivals in the East.
Some of what I was feeling passed to Nosy, who dropped over onto his side and showed his belly in supplication while thumping his tail in that ancient canine signal that always means, ' I'm only a puppy. I cannot defend myself. Have mercy.'Had they been dogs they would have sniffed me over and then drawn back. But humans have no inbred courtesies.
The cause of our current social crises, he would have said, is a genetic defect within the nature of reason itself. And until this genetic defect is cleared, the crises will continue. Our current modes of rationality are not moving society forward into a better world. They are taking it further and further from that better world. Since the Renaissance these modes have worked. As long as the need for food, clothing and shelter is dominant they will continue to
work. But now that for huge masses of people these needs no longer overwhelm everything else, the whole structure of reason, handed down to us from ancient times, is no longer adequate. It begins to be seen for what it really is...emotionally hollow, esthetically meaningless and spiritually empty. That, today, is where it is at, and will continue to be at for a long time to come.
In his day Julian was finding it more difficult than he had expected to put new life into the traditional Roman religion. He wanted to set aside Christianity and bring back the ancient pagan faith, but he saw clearly the drawing power of Christian love in practice: “Atheism [i.e., Christian faith] has been specially advanced through the loving service rendered to strangers, and through their care for the burial of the dead. It is a scandal that there is not a single Jew who is a beggar, and that the godless Galileans care not only for their own poor but for ours as well; while those who belong to us look in vain for the help that we should render them.”