Freethought and Freedom: Jean Meslier and Christian Ethics

This assessment runs contrary to the opinion of many early freethinkers, especially those English deists who expressed admiration for the moral teachings of Jesus and criticized later Christians for deviating from those teachings. But Meslier would have none of this, and his criticisms reflect a radical strain in French atheism that was largely (though not entirely) lacking in the English freethought tradition.

Meslier criticized the moral teachings of Christianity on three major points.

Meslier, who lived with the poor during his decades as a parish priest, saw nothing virtuous or admirable in poverty, especially when that poverty resulted from exploitation by the powerful. It is “clearly an error and madness to say that the greatest good and happiness of man consists in weeping and groaning, in being poor and unhappy, hungry and thirsty, etc.” Of course, Meslier understood that Christians did not preach poverty and suffering for their own sakes; rather, they claimed that the poor and suffering will be rewarded in an afterlife. But this teaching was “absolutely false,” according to Meslier. This life is all there is; the “so-​called kingdom of heaven, which our superstitious god-​cultists seem to make such a big deal about, is only an imaginary kingdom.” The desire for pleasure and a good life is part of human nature, so it is an abuse to teach the ignorant to “love and pursue real pain and suffering on the pretext of acquiring lovely rewards that are only imaginary.” The teachings that pain and suffering will be rewarded in an afterlife, and that we should renounce everything we possess, “is based only on the word of a miserable fanatic,” Jesus; and it is “an error and madness in men to want to follow or put any faith in such a maxim that is so contrary to the good of Nature and good judgment.”

Meslier’s comments on this matter were closely related to his belief that governments and churches teach the virtues of poverty and suffering as a means to keep the poor in their place, while expropriating from the poor the fruits of their labor. The doctrine of an afterlife served as an ideological smokescreen for political control and exploitation.

Meslier’s second criticism focused on what he viewed as the Christian bias against innocent sexuality, and especially the condemnation not only of overt deeds but of sexual thoughts and feelings as well, if those thoughts and feelings occur outside the context of marriage. Nothing is more natural to man than sexuality, and to condemn this natural impulse as sinful and worthy of hellfire is to condemn an essential aspect of human nature, one rooted in “the most intimate depths” of our being. Would an infinitely good God really want “to make young people burn eternally in the dreadful flames of hell only for having had a few moments of pleasure together?…Or even only for having consented and indulged in thoughts, desires, or carnal motions that God himself had formed and aroused in them?” To attribute such intentions to a perfect and infinitely good God is “entirely ridiculous and absurd and…disgraceful….The thought alone of such cruelty is monstrous.”

Before we accuse Meslier of favoring unbridled libertinism—an accusation commonly hurled against early atheists and other freethinkers—we need to keep in mind that he disapproved of “the debauchery of men or women who would indiscreetly or excessively abandon themselves to this animal inclination.” Meslier condemned “this excess and disorder as well as all other kinds of excess and disorder.” People should conform to the “laws, customs, and practices” of the countries in which they live. Meslier simply wished to protest the Christian doctrine that sexual “actions, desires, or thoughts and indulgences are crimes worthy of eternal punishments and torments.” Sexual excesses are ultimately slight and trivial human failings, and it is at once absurd and disgraceful to teach that a wise and benevolent deity would punish people severely for such actions.

Meslier’s third objection to Christian ethics (as taught by Jesus) is in some ways the most interesting of the lot.

These teachings, according to Meslier, are contrary to “natural right and reason.”

Here again Meslier criticized “maxims of the Christian religion” because they “clearly tend to favor the vicious and their oppression of the good and the weak.” The doctrine that we should love our enemies and not resist or seek revenge against those who harm us has benefited rulers who “boldly attack the good and do whatever they want without punishment and without fear.” Meslier repudiated the doctrine of passive obedience unequivocally. Throughout the Testament he endorsed violent resistance against tyrannical rulers and their unjust actions. Indeed, in Chapter 2 we find the first formulation of a saying that has commonly been attributed to the French atheist Denis Diderot (1713-1784): “Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.” This is not how Meslier worded the sentiment, nor did he take credit for the idea. Rather, Meslier attributed the sentiment to a common Frenchman “who had no culture or education.” This man, however, had the sound judgment to understand the evils inflicted upon him and other poor people by the French government and Gallican Church.

This expression, Meslier remarked, “may seem hard, rude, and shocking, but you must admit that it is candid and simple.” It also expresses, if crudely, what rulers deserve for their merciless exploitation of the ruled. If Meslier could have been granted a single wish, he would wish to have the strength, courage, and resolve of Hercules so that he could “have the pleasure of bludgeoning all the monster tyrants with their crowned heads and all the other monsters and ministers of errors and iniquity who make all the people of the earth groan so piteously.” Since Meslier did not believe in hell, he did not agree with those Christians who believed that tyrants will suffer eternal torment for their crimes, however comfortable their life on earth may be. He preferred to see rulers punished in this life at the hands of their victims. Meslier did not reserve justice and revenge for a god in whom he did not believe.