Comment

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on April 24, 2012 at 12:03am

Take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented. — Elie Wiesel

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on April 23, 2012 at 4:48pm

Davy, that is an interesting entry. I did not read it thoroughly, but I'll get back to it eventually. I do hate it though when people use words that are too abstract or indefinite. For example:

 

D'Holbach's objectives in challenging religion were primarily moral: He saw the institutions of Christianity as a major obstacle to the improvement of society. For him, the foundation of morality was to be sought not in Scripture but in happiness: "It would be useless and almost unjust to insist upon a man's being virtuous if he cannot be so without being unhappy. So long as vice renders him happy, he should love vice."

 

What here does he mean by vice? Smoking? Playing cards? Pedophelia? It seems incongruous for someone to promote ideas that improve society whie simultaneously promoting vice. Unless of course he means that vice, as perceived by the church, is not really vice at all. If so, then it makes it easier to know what vices he means. (I know this is just a wiki entry, so maybe he did in his writings. I'm just thinking out loud here.) But my point is that this is why I hate the use of words like virtue, vice, honorable, etc. Honorable for whom?

 

It's often said that no one can truly worship evil, because what is evil can only be that which is antithetical to human existence, such as sickness, death, destitution, murder, etc. Even modern-day Levayan Satanists will tell you that, to them, what they believe in is not evil, but rather good, regardless of how the puritans may perceive it. Sexual promiscuiity is good if practiced sensibly (via safe sex) and brings one happiness. It can't be evil, even if the church denounces it as such, for those reasons.

Anyway, perhaps one day I'll get around to reading some of his writings.  

Comment by Davy on April 23, 2012 at 1:32pm

Baron d'Holbach, you should read his entry in Wikipedia.

Here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_d%27Holbach

A very interesting read and I like his quote as well!

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on April 23, 2012 at 12:39pm

Faith is the consolation of the wretched and the terror of the happy.

-- Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues

Comment by Neal on April 23, 2012 at 4:25am

I agree, hadn't read this one before.

Comment by Marianne on April 22, 2012 at 9:12pm

Great one, Don (the Baron d'Holbach one)

Comment by Dallas the Phallus on April 22, 2012 at 9:00pm

Nice Don.

Comment by Don on April 22, 2012 at 7:40pm

"Religion has ever filled the mind of man with darkness, and kept him in ignorance of his real duties and true interest. It is only by dispelling the clouds and phantoms of Religion, that we shall discover Truth, Reason, and Morality. Religion diverts us from the causes of evils, and from the remedies which nature prescribes; far from curing, it only aggravates, multiplies, and perpetuates them. Let us observe with the celebrated Lord Bolingbroke, that 'theology is the box of Pandora; and if it is impossible to shut it, it is at least useful to inform men that this fatal box is open."

~Baron d'Holbach

Comment by Davy on April 22, 2012 at 3:25pm

Right on the button there Adriana.

Because a wise man continues learning because of that little nagging DOUBT!

Comment by Adriana on April 22, 2012 at 11:23am

Not only wisdom can tolerate doubt, wisdom MUST include an element of doubt, in my opinion.

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