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Examining the birth and development of early modern atheism from Spinoza's Tractatus theologico-politicus (1670) to d'Holbach's Système de la nature (1770), this study considers Spinoza, Hobbes, Cudworth, Bayle, Meslier, Boulainviller, Du Marsais, Fréret, Toland, Collins, Hume, Diderot, Voltaire, and d'Holbach and positions them in a general interpretive scheme, based on the idea that early modern atheism is itself an unwanted fruit of early modern metaphysics and theology.Breaking with a long-standing tradition, Descartes claimed that it was possible to have a "clear and distinct" idea of God, indeed that the idea of God was the "clearest and most distinct" of all ideas accessible to the human mind. Humans could thus obtain a scientific knowledge of God's nature and attributes. But as soon as God became an object of science, He also became the object of a thoroughgoing scientific analysis and criticism.The effortlessness with which early modern atheists managed to turn round their adversaries' arguments to their own favour is a sign that the new doctrines of God which emerged in the seventeenth-century, each based in its own way on principles and dogmas related to the new science of nature, were plunging headfirst towards the precipice under their own steam.

Atheism. --- Atheism --- Philosophy --- Agnosticism --- Free thought --- Irreligion --- Religion --- Secularism --- Theism --- History --- Spinoza, Benedictus de, --- Holbach, Paul Henri Thiry, --- Natural theology --- Système de la nature (Holbach, Paul Henri Thiry, baron d') --- Tractatus theologico-politicus (Spinoza, Benedictus de) --- 1600-1799 --- Philosophy and religion --- Enlightenment --- History. --- de Spinoza, Benedictus --- d'Holbach, Paul Henri Thiry --- von Holbach, Paul Heinrich Dietrich --- Holbach, Paul Henri Thiery, --- Holbach, Paul Heinrich Dietrich, --- Thiry, Paul Henri, --- Thiery, Paul Henri, --- Thierry, Paul Henri, --- Dietrich, Paul Henri, --- Thyry, Paul Henri, --- Holbach, Paul Thiry, --- Holbach, --- D'Holbach, --- M. D***, --- D***, --- Ancien magistrat, --- Bernier, --- Olbach, --- Orbach, --- Halbach, --- Holbah, Pol, --- Golʹbakh, Polʹ, --- Holbakh, Pol, --- Ispīnūzā, --- Spinoza, Baruch, --- Espinoza, Baruch d', --- Sbīnūzā, --- Espinosa, Baruch de, --- Shpinozah, --- Shpinozah, Barukh, --- Spinoza, Benedict de, --- Spinoza, Barukh, --- Spinoza, Baruch de, --- Spinoza, Benoît de, --- ספינאזא, ברוך דע --- ספינאזא, ברוך, --- שפימוזה, ברוך --- שפינאזא, בענעדיקט --- שפינאזא, ברוך --- שפינאזע, ברוך --- שפינוזא, בנדיקטוס --- שפינוזהת ברוך, --- שפינוזה, ברוך --- שפינוזה, ברוך די, --- שפינוזה, ברוך, --- שפינוזה, ב. --- سبينوزا، بندكتس --- Spinoza, Benedictus de --- Spinoza, Baruch --- Spinoza, Benedict de