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The Pyrrhonian Doubts
The Pyrrhonian Doubts is a little-known, but compelling specimen of radical, skeptical thought from the early, underground Enlightenment, written sometime in the 1710s by an unknown author.
It presents eight "doubts" about the traditional Christian dogmas. The first seven question the received ideas about a personal God who rewards good and evil in an afterlife. For the author, God is an inconceivable eternal, “first being”, who created nature according to a necessary order, beyond good and evil: the universe is an uncaring place, where we must create our own livable and enjoyable order.
The eighth doubt offers an early example of comparative religion, in which Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the religions of Asia, are compared and shown to be the creations of rudimentary philosopher-kings. These ancient philosophical, rational religions were above the capacity of the common people, and which soon devolve into superstitious, priestly idolatry.
The possibility that any religion was ever of divine institution is thoroughly rejected, and the author suggests the replacement of religion with a personal reverence for the Supreme Being, the natural order, and simple virtue.
It presents eight "doubts" about the traditional Christian dogmas. The first seven question the received ideas about a personal God who rewards good and evil in an afterlife. For the author, God is an inconceivable eternal, “first being”, who created nature according to a necessary order, beyond good and evil: the universe is an uncaring place, where we must create our own livable and enjoyable order.
The eighth doubt offers an early example of comparative religion, in which Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the religions of Asia, are compared and shown to be the creations of rudimentary philosopher-kings. These ancient philosophical, rational religions were above the capacity of the common people, and which soon devolve into superstitious, priestly idolatry.
The possibility that any religion was ever of divine institution is thoroughly rejected, and the author suggests the replacement of religion with a personal reverence for the Supreme Being, the natural order, and simple virtue.
75 pages, Kindle Edition
Published October 31, 2018
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