Conspiracy Theories, Skepticism, and Critical Thinking

Last week Robison discussed the dangerous idea of separating the state from religion while pointing out the exact reason that it needs to be done. He's done with that idea, and it seems to me that he needs a better editor. In the current book that I am writing, I have chapter breaks where I think they belong, but there are probably other places as well. Maybe for length, but then again, maybe just for the abrupt shift in the discussion. This chapter is supposed to be about schisms within Freemasonry and we've kind of get that, but it's mostly an old versus the young neophobic complaint. There hasn't been a schism. Now, Robison lays out his love for the German people and Germany itself...except Germany isn't unified at this point in history. There aren't "Germans" there are "Bavarians" and there are "Prussians" but there aren't Germans. As Machiavelli would argue; despite the political lines, there is a common language that unite...

We left off last week discussing Robison's complaints that irreligion has been infesting Masonry. According to him, this is the source of the rot within Europe as the Masons are extremely influential. They've been pushing liberal ideas concerning religion and new ideas that run in the face of orthodoxy. This is why it is with great confusion that I introduce this week's section.  Robison ended last week discussing the need for religious instruction as the only means to morality. Religious instruction he writes, " if the public instructors should add all the motives to virtuous moderation which are suggested by the considerations of genuine religion,  every advice would have a tenfold influence. " I've underlined the phrase "genuine religion" because Robison is going to, ironically, "no true Scotsman" all religion. I've seen this phrase before though, it appears in various writings from this period but it is only used as an insult to wha...

 One of the constant arguments against atheism/rationalism is to argue that religion serves some kind of need beyond the spiritual. If there is no religion: what then will restrain the masses? The first reply is the law, but that is not good enough for these people. They think that you need something else on top of it: fear of divine retribution. The underlying point is to put the non-religious, (in Robison's words) the free-thinkers on the defensive. You aren't good people because here are two examples of people that committed crimes once. Robison is going to apply this gambit in order to besmirch this new movement in the Masonry.  The first example he trots out is Voltaire. It begins with a sort of pretentious rhetoric that I'm way too used to hearing, " What man is there who seems better to know his Master's will? No man expresses more propriety, with more exactness, the feelings of a good mind. No man seems more sensible of the immutable obligations of justice ...

Robison has just let us know that it was not the Illuminati that got secret societies banned in Bavaria, but a specific Freemason lodge. He moved from that revelation to further expound on the infiltration of Masonry of various new ideas. Remember: his gripe seems to be that Masonry is no longer a men's social club but now something different. Also, let's remember that he was never really into all of the ceremonies and rituals in the first place.  His lament is now focused on a work titled "The Archives Mystico-Hermetiques." Add to this a separate book titled "Des Erreurs et de le Verites" and we have the problem with French masonry. These books add ideas that are a mixture of "mysticism, theosophy, Cabalistic whim, real Science, Fanaticism, and Freethinking, both in religion and politics." What we, in the present day, have to understand is that this is simple neophobia. In the 18th century, mysticism was a fad, like spiritualism was a fad in the 1...