A discourse of the grounds and reasons of the Christian religion : 1724

by Anthony Collins

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284 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1724

About the author

Librarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.

Anthony Collins (21 June 1676 O.S. – 13 December 1729 O.S.), was an English philosopher.

In 1676, Anthony Collins, pronounced the "Goliath of freethinking" by Thomas Huxley, was born in Heston, England. Collins studied at Eton and King's College, Cambridge, and was a close friend of John Locke. He moved in a circle of leading freethinkers, including John Toland and Matthew Tindal. "An Essay Concerning the Use of Reason" was published (anonymously) in 1707, along with a letter addressing immateriality and the soul. A debate in 1708 with Samuel Clarke resulted in the publication of four pamphlets by each participant. In 1710, Collins wrote "Vindication of the Divine Attributes, in Some Remarks on Archbishop (King's) Sermon." The 1713 book, A Discourse of Freethinking, was Collins' most influential work, helping to popularize the term "freethought." Philosophical Inquiry Concerning Human Liberty, published in 1717, won the praise of Voltaire. The Grounds and Reasons of the Christian Religion (1724) rejected the claim that Jesus fulfilled Old Testament prophecies. Posthumously, two of his essays were published, including an article challenging religious authority. Although Collins left England for a time when debate heated up after the publication of A Discourse of Freethinking, the courteous scholar was debated and taken most seriously by leading religionists and Anglicans. Grounds, with its serious arguments against prophecy and its advancement of the scientific principle, provoked more than 30 books and essays by religionists trying to counter it. Collins, best described as a deist and materialist who opposed "priestcraft," at one time became county squire.

Joseph Smith in The Unreasonableness of Deism, or, the Certainty of a Divine Revelation (1720) called deists in general “the Wicked and Unhappy men we have to deal with.”

With respect to Collins’s controversy on “the soul,” T. H. Huxley said,

"I do not think anyone can read the letters which passed between Clarke and Collins without admitting that Collins, who writes with wonderful Power and closeness of reasoning, has by far the best of the argument, so far as the possible materiality of the soul goes; and that in this battle the Goliath of Freethinking overcame the champion of what was considered orthodoxy."

Berkeley, however, claimed that Collins had announced “that he was able to demonstrate the impossibility of God’s existence.”

Upon his death, the Earl of Egmont, John Percival, wrote: “Of Collins Esq. deceased December 1729 . . . [he] is a Speculative Atheist and has been for many years, as he owned to Archibald Hutchinson Esq. who told it to Dr. Dodd M.D. and to me.”

Reviews

[Joshua Pearsall · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book, was underwhelming. And much of the same skeptical thought and flaws in today are in here including the blindness to his own contradictions. "The Septuigant isn't reliable it twist Jewish Scriptures" while noting Jewish figures such as Aquilla who wrote a Greek translation "almost became a Christian" because the Messiah was foretold to suffer and resurrect from the Scriptures. That "the Talmud" is among the most ancient Jewish texts, yet he admits they changed their interpretations of Prophecy as "Christanity prevailed" (see pages 40 & 56: https://archive.org/details/discourse...). Not to mention the Talmud rejects traditions such as the Memra and Shekinah as different hypostasis in the Godhead, as he even notes the Pharisees rejected the allegorical approach to prophecy they once rejected and the Talmud follows in their tradition specifically. This is seen in places such as how the Massoretic texts approaches various Messianic texts and changes the meaning using the vowel pointers to reject Massoretic readings. See the Moody Handbook of Prophecy Chapter 3 pages 61-72 for plenty of examples of this. Saying we can't use allegorical interpretation because the Pagans did too, even though he noted the Pharisees were using allegorical methods such as Paul, and they were very clearly anti Paganism. The work is as unimpressive as the skeptical scholarship that has followed it blind to its errors, but to see the foundations many build on today this is a good place to start. Figures like Bart Erhman and Bauher in Natzi Germany have simply followed in the footsteps of this scholarship blind to the hole in front of them they dug.

[Samuel Bierig · Rating 1 out of 5]

So good at being so fundamentally wrong. Worth reading per understanding what was going on at the time.