לפני 14 שנים. 19 בפברואר 2010 בשעה 22:22
Atheism – even in the Age of Reason, it was considered an unspeakable crime. So it’s no wonder that Marquis de Sade, already an inmate of Cell No.6, in Vincennes Prison, denied being the author of “Dialogue between a Priest and a Dying Man” (1782).
This controversial dialogue features a man of the cloth trying to coax an old libertine into repenting his ways. The priest quickly gets a deathbed confession, but not the one he expected: The dying man only regrets that he had not yielded more fully to his passions.
“Misled by your absurd doctrines …I only plucked an occasional flower when I might have gathered an ample harvest of fruit …,” the dying man says.
The priest recoils in horror at this blasphemy. Nevertheless, he allows himself to be drawn into a discussion of Reason, Nature, God and Religion.
The priest grants the old sinner that human passions are natural. However, he says that they should have been resisted since God deliberately corrupted Nature in order that humanity could freely choose the path of righteousness.
This argument fails to impress the dying man. What’s the point in having a world steeped in freely chosen sin, he asks. When the priest then retreats into the thick cloud of Divine Mystery, the dying man rebukes him for hiding from reasonable explanations of life.
“Perfect your physics and you will understand Nature better, refine your reason, banish your prejudices and you’ll have no further need of your god,” the dying man says.
The priest asks him if he believes in God, to which the man responds no. How could he? God is incomprehensible – as the priest himself admitted. Therefore, no reasonable argument can be made concerning the existence of something that defies explanation.
Sounding very much like evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, the dying man goes on to trash the belief that a superior intelligence is needed to create a complex world. Then, for added measure, he says Jesus deserved the cross for being a rabble-rouser.
In the end, the dying man’s atheistic arguments win over the priest, who now sees the errors of his ways, and the two enjoy an orgy with prostitutes.
Who said philosophical discussions had to be dull?