John Locke Quotes
Those are not at all to be tolerated who deny the being of God. Promises, covenants, and oaths, which are the bonds of human society, can have no hold upon an atheist. The taking away of God, though but even in thought, dissolves all.
Locke, John. A Letter Concerning Toleration. Awnsham Churchill, 1689.
Locke is one of the few political writers who advocated intolerance of atheists, who actually tried to have a rational reason other to simply say that they are apostates and therefore unacceptable. His argument was that most of the legal system depends on witnesses and parties to contracts or loyalty who swear before God that they are telling the truth and will be bound by their own salvation to complying with their promises and commitments. The atheist, however, fears no retribution if he lies under oath and he does not worry about his salvation if he breaks his oath. The fallacy was that the system never really worked with the religious people. With all the promises, covenants and oaths broken and repudiated by religious, “God-fearing men”, the atheists could hardly have done worse.
John Locke FRS was an English philosopher and physician, widely regarded as one of the most influential of Enlightenment thinkers and commonly known as the "Father of Liberalism". Considered one of the first of the British empiricists, following the tradition of Sir Francis Bacon, Locke is equally important to social contract theory. His work greatly affected the development of epistemology and political philosophy. His writings influenced Voltaire and Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and many Scottish Enlightenment thinkers, as well as the American Revolutionaries. His contributions to classical republicanism and liberal theory are reflected in the United States Declaration of Independence.
