RELS 205 LECTURE 4.1
Voltaire [1694-1778]
David Hume 1711-1776
Cause and effect
To me, there appear to be only
three principles of connection
among ideas, namely
resemblance, contiguity in time
or place, and cause or effect....
Experience
What is foundation of all
our reasoning and
conclusions concerning that
relation? It may be replied
in one word, experience.
Problem
Where am I, or what? From what causes
do I derive my existence, and to what
condition shall I return? Whose favour
shall I court? … I am confounded with all
these questions, and begin to fancy myself
in the most deplorable condition
imaginable …
A Treatise of Human Nature (1739 )
Dialogues Concerning Natural
Religion (1779)
If we survey a ship, what an exalted
idea must we form of the ingenuity
of the carpenter, who framed so
complicated, useful and beautiful a
machine? And what surprise must
we entertain, when we find him a
stupid mechanic, …
World like a Ship
Sailing Ship
Shipbuilding
Shipbuilding
The Shipbuilder
Polytheism
A great number of men join in building
a house or ship, in rearing a city, in
framing a commonwealth: Why may
not several Deities combine in
contriving and framing a world?
Houses
Edinburgh
John Knox
(11513-1572)
House
A Veggie
If the universe bears a greater likeness
to animal bodies and to vegetables than
to the works of human art, it is more
probable that its cause resembles the
cause of the former than that of the
latter, and its origin ought rather to be
ascribed to generation or vegetation
than to reason or design...
The World as Organism
World like a cabbage
Miracles
Our evidence, then, for the truth of the
Christian religion is less than the evidence
for the truth of our senses; because, even
in the first authors of our religion, it was
no greater …
Belief?
Rule for belief
A wise man, therefore, proportions his
belief to the evidence. In such conclusions
as are founded on an infallible experience,
he expects the event with the last degree of
assurance, and regards his past
experience as a full proof of the future
existence of that event …
The Law of Nature
A miracle is a violation of the laws of
nature; and as a firm and unalterable
experience has established these laws, the
proof against a miracle, from the very
nature of the fact, is as entire as any
argument from experience can possibly be
imagined …
First Rule for testing miracles
Firstly … there is not to be
found, in all history, any miracle
attested by a sufficient number
of men, of such unquestioned
good-sense, education, and
learning, as to secure us against
all delusions in themselves …
Men of Good Sense
Second Rule
Secondly … The maxim, by which
we commonly conduct ourselves
in our reasoning, is , that the
objects, of which we have no
experience, resemble those, of
which we have not; that what we
have found to be most usual is
always most probable …
Sunrise
Third test
Thirdly. It forms a strong
presumption against all
supernatural and miraculous
relations, that they are observed
chiefly to abound among ignorant
and barbarous nations …
The Zulu
Alan Gardiner (1794-1851)
Zulu:
Highly intelligent
Sceptical
Test everything
E.E. Evans-Pritchard (1902-1973)
Before the Enlightenment
Ghanaian, Anton Wilhelm Amo,
gained a considerable reputation as a
rationalist philosopher and in 1737
was appointed lecturer (Privatdozent)
at the German University of Halle.
Africans in Europe
H.W. Debrimmer, The Presence and Prestige of
Africans in Europe, Basil, Basler Afrika
Bibliographien, 1979
Voltaire [1694-1778]
Voltaire on Africans
“The NEGRO race is a species of men as
different from ours as the breed of spaniels is
from that of greyhounds ... if their
understanding is not of a different nature from
ours, it is at least greatly inferior. They are not
capable of any great application or association
of ideas, and seem formed neither of the
advantages nor abuses or our philosophy.”
[Voltaire 1901: XXIX-240-242].
David Hume 1711-1776
David Hume 1711-1776
“I suspect that negroes ... be naturally
inferior to the whites. There never was a
civilized nation of any other complexion
than white ...”
[Hume 1906:152-152].
Rousseau [1712-1778]
Rousseau on Blacks
“they go naked, have no dwellings, and lack all
superfluities which we think so necessary ...
Their children are slowly and with difficulty
taught to walk ... Savage man … must
accordingly begin with purely animal functions
... being destitute of every species of intelligence
… his desires never go beyond his physical
wants … food, a female, and sleep …”
[Rousseau 1966:168 and 171]
Kant (1724-1804)
Kant on Race
“On the different Races of Mankind” (Von den
Verschiedenen Rassen der Menschen), he
appears to think that racial mixture is to be
discouraged and laid a highly theoretical basis
for segregation
[Kant 1922:445-460, first published 1775].
Hegel 1770-1831
Hegel on Africa
The Negro … exhibits the natural man in his
completely wild and untamed state. We must
lay aside all thought of reverence … moral
sentiments are quite weak, or more strictly
speaking, non-existent ... At this point we leave
Africa to mention it no more. For it is no
historical part of the World ...”
[Hegel 1944:93 & 99]
Apparitions of Mary
The New Cathedral Of The Virgin Mary At Zeitoun, Egypt
Facing The Apparition Church.
Began April 2nd 1968 and continue.
http://www.zeitun-eg.org/stmaridx.htm
Other apparitions
http://www.marypages.com
http://www.apparitions.org/
Healing miracles