God, or rather the fiction of God, is thus the sanction and the intellectual and moral cause of all the slavery on earth, and the liberty of men will not be complete, unless it will have completely annihilated the inauspicious fiction of a heavenly master.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- The idea of God is seen as the root of slavery, and human liberty requires rejecting this concept.
- In plain terms
- Belief in God supports slavery, so true liberty needs to reject it.
- What can you take from it?
- Reject divine authority to achieve full liberty.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Is all religion inherently oppressive?
- Can liberty coexist with faith?
Another view
It dismisses the role of faith in supporting liberation movements.
More from Mikhail Bakunin
Freedom without Socialism is privilege and injustice and Socialism without freedom is slavery and brutality.
Permalink to quote #34 I am neither a scientist, nor a philosopher nor even a professional writer. I have written very little in my life time, and have only ever done so in self-defe…
Permalink to quote #36 From the naturalistic point of view, all men are equal. There are only two exceptions to this rule of naturalistic equality: geniuses and idiots.
Permalink to quote #33
Related quotes
We all agree that neither the Government nor political parties ought to interfere with religious sects. It is equally true that religious sects ought not to in…
Rutherford B. HayesRutherford B. Hayes quote #2 Organized religion is a sham and a crutch for weak-minded people who need strength in numbers. It tells people to go out and stick their noses in other people'…
Jesse VenturaJesse Ventura quote #3 Here am I who have written on all sorts of subjects calculated to excite hostility, moral, political, and religious, and yet I have no enemies - except, indeed…
David HumeDavid Hume quote #4