A Divine Disconnect?

Among the thinkers of the Early Modern world, there is a big divide between rationalists and empiricists. Rationalists like Rene Descartes believed that the ultimate source of knowledge is reason, while empiricists like John Locke believed that knowledge comes from experience. This divide in philosophies also correlates to a divide in religious views: in general, rationalists tended to see a world that was close to God, whereas empiricists saw humans as living in a more secular world and left to their own devices. The empiricist's optimistic view on the human capacity to gain knowledge and improve his lot can perhaps be used to explain his tendency to look to mankind rather than to God for answers, a trend that can be seen in the art and writing of the Enlightenment.

Voltaire's Candide reflects this view, albeit through the dark lens of satire. Candide's world is both cruel and random, lacking any indication of a benevolent God watching out for him. There is a clear disconnect with God, as the priests that Candide encounters are more often than not crooks - for instance, a "long-sleeved Franciscan" steals all of Cunegonde's money and jewels - and one of the few good Samaritans who help Candide is a man who has never been baptized. While Voltaire does not believe in blindly following the Church, he does believe in individuals using their own reason. It should be noted that Voltaire is an empiricist, not a rationalist, for Candide only gains a semblance of wisdom through his hard experiences, not through any abstract theorizations. Indeed, Pangloss's deterministic and idealistic outlook on life turns out to be poorly adapted for dealing with reality. His maxim is "All is for the best in the best of all possible worlds," but this theory holds no water in light of the horrors that Pangloss and Candide experience. In the world of Candide, experience is the only teacher. It teaches that God (should he exist) is not benevolent and watchful, and man must rely on his own wits to get along in an often chaotic world.

David Hume is another empiricist whose epistemological beliefs led him away from religion. Hume argued in "An Enquiry in Human Understanding" that reasonable people will reject miracles (an important part of most organized religions). Hume that since humans can only obtain knowledge through experiences, they should trust their own firsthand experiences more than second or third-hand reports of miraculous occurrences. Also, since most people have never witnessed miracles, these collective experiences should outweigh the claims of the few who do say they have witnessed a miracle, Hume says. "A miracle is a violation of the laws of nature; and as a firm and unalterable experience has established these laws, the proof against a miracle, from the very nature of the fact, is as entire as any argument from experience can possibly be imagined," he wrote, in a clear and blunt rejection of miracles.

Shifts in the art world also testify to the relationship between empiricism and a distancing from God. Starting with the Renaissance, when reasoning and science were held in high esteem, art shows an emphasis on humanity rather than divinity. Whereas art of the Middle Ages was mainly impersonal, stylized religious art, there is now a new interest in observing - and glorifying - normal people in all their idiosyncrasies. Paintings like Judith Leyster's "Self Portrait" show true enjoyment of life as well as an empiricist's observation for details like lace and velvet. At the same time, works like Francisco Goya's "The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters" warn of the dangers of citizens giving up their autonomous thought, a change from previous eras when artwork would more likely have warned of the dangers of giving up one's faith.

Rene Descartes' Meditations provides a look at the opposite, rationalist, perspective. Descartes believes that the only reliable type of ideas is innate ideas, which humans are born with. As our senses are imperfect, we cannot know anything based on experiences. According to Descartes, one of the few things we can know is the existence of God, which he attempts to prove through the use of innate ideas. "It is not in my power to conceive a God without existence, that is, a being supremely perfect, and yet devoid of an absolute perfection, as I am free to imagine a horse with or without wings," Descartes writes in Meditations. Other rationalists like Baruch Spinoza and Gottfried Leibniz also included the metaphysical as inherent parts of their philosophies.

In the Early Modern world, rationalists and empiricists seem to hold differing views on God, which stem from their differing beliefs on how humans gain knowledge.