Two hundred and ninety-four years ago according to Margaret Jacob, the Treatise of the Three Impostors
“came out of the elite circles in the Dutch republic” (37), and was a
product of the “enlightened” thinking of the period. While the authors
who originally penned the Treatise remain anonymous, Jacob
claims that the mystery of their identities has almost certainly been
solved. But regardless of who they were, what is most important is that
their Treatise questions the validity of the three dominant
religions of their time, and the motives of their prophets, who have had
such a massive influence on mankind ever since.
While the authors of the Treatise
spend a great deal of time questioning the anthropomorphic character of
God as depicted in the religions in question, and exposing the
perpetrators of the myth of “His” existence, they also deliver an
indictment of the gullible masses and their susceptibility to the
far-fetched stories that comprise the very foundations of religion. From
the first paragraph, the authors characterize those who accept without
question religion’s dogma as being ignorant: “the world is filled with
vain & ridiculous opinions; nothing is better able to give them
currency than ignorance” (95). In fact, the word “ignorance” or
“ignorant” appears in the text at least 29 times.
The Treatise
portrays, as its title implies the three prophets of the dominant
religions— Judaism, Christianity and Islam— as charlatans, and presents
arguments to support the accusations. But even while the authors
describe what they see as cynical schemes used by the prophets as
instruments for acquiring power, they routinely return to point a finger
in disgust at the malleable masses who for many reasons are unable,
unwilling, or simply not interested enough to consider critically the
likelihood that there are no “divine miracles.” In fact the authors
characterize miracles as “the shipwreck of the ignorant & the refuge
of the adroitly ambitious” (107). While the authors have obvious issues
with the purveyors of these alleged mendacities, the recurring message
of the Treatise of the Three Imposters is that their disciples are culpable as well.
Today, one wonders whether we may be slipping back into a mindset reminiscent of the days of the Treatise… or perhaps we never really strayed from it.
What renders the evil
without remedy, is that after having established false ideas men have of
God, they omit nothing to engage the people to believe in them, without
permitting the people to examine them; on the contrary, they give
the people an aversion for Philosophers or the truly Learned, for fear
that the reason which they teach should make the people know the errors
in which it is sunk (95).
Of the two major political parties in the
US, one has made a concerted effort in recent years to “give the people
an aversion for Philosophers or the truly Learned.” One only need quote Republican congressman and member of the US House of Representatives science committee Paul Broun “who dismisses evolution, the big bang theory and embryology as 'lies straight from the pit of hell'” (The Guardian). The authors of the Treatise
suggest a conspiracy in which a group of cynical men create a false
scenario in order to gain and maintain power over the ignorant masses.
If one can draw a distinction between then and now, is that while the
authors of the Treatise are accusing the prophets, clergy and
others of manufacturing and perpetuating this divine hoax in order to
wield power over others, today those wielding the power seem to actually
believe the hoax— which means that the ignorant masses are no longer
blindly following the cynical power brokers as described in 1719. Today,
they’re actually in charge.
But the authors of the Treatise of the Three Impostors offer a small ray of hope:
The world has long
been infected with these absurd opinions but in times there have been
solid intellectuals & sincere men, who despite persecution have
decried the absurdities of their century as we have just done in this
little Treatise. Those who love the truth will find there, no doubt,
some consolation; it is they whom I wish to please without troubling
myself about the judgment of those whom prejudices take the place of an
infallible oracle (114).
That hope, according to the anonymous authors lies in
the potential of all men (and women) to learn to think critically and
thus, be able to partake in the wisdom of Enlightenment.
Works Cited
Jacob, Margaret, Ed. The Enlightenment: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2001. Print.
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