NOM

I looked this person up yesterday during down-time. Casimir Liszinski was a seventeenth-century Polish nobleman who was executed in a horrid manner for atheism in 1689. He became an atheist after reading a book of arguments for the existence of God that was full of contradictions, mockingly writing "ergo non est Deus" in the margin. This is the account of the Catholic bishop who presided over his execution:

Bishop Załuski wrote: After recantation the culprit [Liszinski] was conducted to the scaffold, where the executioner tore with a burning iron the tongue and the mouth, with which he had been cruel against God; after which his hands, the instruments of the abominable production, were burnt at a slow fire, the sacrilegious paper [an essay Liszinski wrote entitled De non existentia Dei] was thrown into the flames; finally himself, that monster of his century, this deicide was thrown into the expiatory flames; expiatory if such a crime may be atoned for.

In fact, it was so cruel that even the Pope objected.

One must wonder: if God be omnipotent and so easily offended, why was he unable to strike Liszinski dead himself? It is also telling that the most unforgivable offence is denying his existence, despite the fact that he doesn't make himself evident.

One of the surviving fragments of De non existentia Dei says the following, which is particularly salient to the Mormon church:

[S]imple folk are cheated by the more cunning with the fabrication of God for their own oppression; whereas the same oppression is shielded by the folk in a way, that if the wise attempted to free them by the truth, they would be quelled by the very people.

TBMs willingly pay ten percent of their income off the top for their entire lives; give up two of their best years to become paying salesmen for the church; and they react in a very hostile manner if you attempt to tell them that this is horrible and controlling! Such is the nature of cults.

Bishop Załuski wrote: After recantation the culprit [Liszinski] was conducted to the scaffold, where the executioner tore with a burning iron the tongue and the mouth, with which he had been cruel against God; after which his hands, the instruments of the abominable production, were burnt at a slow fire...

I'd hate to think what they might have done if he hadn't recanted.

This was tough to read! I have great empathy and respect for those who are not afraid to stand for what they believe, i.e. Casimir Liszinski. I had not heard of him. Thank you for telling us his story.

As a TBM and then disaffected I still clung to the belief there was a God even though the concept never made sense. There were to many contradictory incidents that told me other wise. Then I read THE 7 LAWS OF MAGICAL THINKING by Matthew Hutson and my world was turned upside down, eyes were opened and that belief became a thing of the past. The irony in all this is that I grew up being taught atheists were of Satan and to be avoided. You can be a murderer or rapist but all will be OK if you believe in God. But no matter how honorable and accomplished you are if you don't believe in God you are going straight to hell. ... And look at all the horror that has been committed in the name of this loving God. We all have created a story about who we are and what we believe. When that story is threatened we gear up and defend it. We don't want our stories destroyed. Unfortunately, there are those throughout history and even today who see an atheist as a direct threat to their religious freedom, a threat to their own stories.... to be destroyed.

LSOF wrote:This is the account of the Catholic bishop who presided over his execution:

Bishop Załuski wrote: After recantation the culprit [Liszinski] was conducted to the scaffold, where the executioner tore with a burning iron the tongue and the mouth, with which he had been cruel against God; after which his hands, the instruments of the abominable production, were burnt at a slow fire, the sacrilegious paper [an essay Liszinski wrote entitled De non existentia Dei] was thrown into the flames; finally himself, that monster of his century, this deicide was thrown into the expiatory flames; expiatory if such a crime may be atoned for.

In fact, it was so cruel that even the Pope objected.

In all fairness to these Polish Priests, it was not until the Holy See investigated this matter in 1691 that it was discovered that these priests were laboring under the misapprehension in translation (the Polish language had many of its vowels plundered by French under Charlemagne) that it was God the MONSTER, rather than God the Father. This mistake was rectified in the papal pronunciation Prologia In Nominae Patre Poleski in 1694.

It's interesting that jealousy and greed led to Liszinski's trial and execution.

deacon blues wrote:It's interesting that jealousy and greed led to Liszinski's trial and execution.

Indeed, and the religious authorities were all too happy to indulge the same if they thought they could thereby inspire fear and respect.