Seeing as it was mentioned in the comments of the Locke on Atheism post, I might as well prolong the recent prominent-philosopher-bashes-atheism theme a while longer by looking at Plato’s comments on the topic. At the beginning of Book 10 of the Laws, Plato turns his attention to the state-imperilling problem of atheism.
…we have already said in general terms what shall be the punishment of sacrilege, whether fraudulent or violent, and now we have to determine what is to be the punishment of those who speak or act insolently toward the Gods…
As anyone with anything more than a passing acquaintance with early modern philosophy knows, Descartes rather famously enlisted the help of God to guarantee the validity of his perceptions (for God would not be so cruel as to deceive us). But did you ever consider what the consequences of this solution would be for non-believers?
A curiosity in my webtraffic stats has brought something to my attention: a recent post on a racialist hate site has lifted the race-related comments of Hume, Hegel, Schopenhauer and Kant that I’ve collected here and posted them in a radically different context …