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Ideas for 'fragments/reports', 'Letters to Mersenne' and 'The Sentiment of Rationality'

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2 ideas

29. Religion / B. Monotheistic Religion / 4. Christianity / a. Christianity
Early Christianity says God recognises the neglected weak and tender impulses [James]
     Full Idea: In what did the emancipating message of primitive Christianity consist but in the announcement that God recognizes those weak and tender impulses which paganism had so rudely overlooked.
     From: William James (The Sentiment of Rationality [1882], p.36)
     A reaction: Nietzsche says these are the virtues of a good slave. Previous virtues were dominated by military needs, but the new virtues are those of large cities, where communal living with strangers is the challenge.
29. Religion / D. Religious Issues / 2. Immortality / b. Soul
I can't prove the soul is indestructible, only that it is separate from the mortal body [Descartes]
     Full Idea: I don't know how to demonstrate that God cannot annihilate the soul, but only that it is entirely distinct from the body, and consequently that it is not naturally subject to die with it, which is all that is required to establish religion.
     From: René Descartes (Letters to Mersenne [1640], 1640.02.24)