The Open Society and Its Enemies (Routledge Classics)

by Karl Popper

In fact, Plato’s attitude towards religion as revealed by his ‘inspired lie’ is practically identical with that of Critias, his beloved uncle, the brilliant leader of the Thirty Tyrants who established an inglorious blood-régime in Athens after the Peloponnesian war. Critias, a poet, was the first to glorify propaganda lies, whose invention he described in forceful verses eulogizing the wise and cunning man who fabricated religion, in order to ‘persuade’ the people, i.e. to threaten them into submission.17 ‘Then came, it seems, that wise and cunning man, The first inventor of the fear of gods … He framed a tale, a most alluring doctrine, Concealing truth by veils of lying lore. He told of the abode of awful gods, Up in revolving vaults, whence thunder roars And lightning’s fearful flashes blind the eye … He thus encircled men by bonds of fear; Surrounding them by gods in fair abodes, He charmed them by his spells, and daunted them— And lawlessness turned into law and order. In Critias’ view, religion is nothing but the lordly lie of a great and clever statesman.