“I am a sworn atheist and therefore from my point of view the Talmud or the Koran don't constitute works of political philosophy but rather writings that stand in utter contradiction to concepts like logic, freedom, feminism, secularism, brotherhood - which are my ideals.”

— Michel Onfray (c.2005) (Ѻ)

“Meslier’s war cry [Testament, 1729], never before heard in the history of western thought, offers one of the first true atheist moments, if not the first. Prior to him, they call the agnostic an atheist who, as Protagoras, concludes that when it comes to god one can conclude nothing; the pantheist who, such as Spinoza, affirms its existence consubstantial with nature; the polytheist, like Epicurus, who teaches its multiplicity; the deist, in the way of Voltaire, for whom god creates the world en bloc, but does not care about the details; or whoever’s idol does not correspond to the strict criteria established by the church. Now, the atheist clearly says that ‘god does not exist’. This is what Meslier clearly writes: ‘there is no god’ (chapters 59, 74, 93, 94)—that is clear and distinct, blunt, and straightforward.”

— Michel Onfray (2009), “The War Song of an Atheist Priest” (pg. 19) [2]

“What is Meslier’s philosophy? He invented modern materialism. Without friends, without sophisticated conversations, without libraries, salons, or correspondence with the intellectual bigwigs of his time, without spiritual emulation, but by nature, alone and solitary, cloistered deep in his country., Meslier formulates the French materialism that la Mettrie and Helvetius, d’Holbach and Diderot will pillage later. Meslier doesn’t enter on the details of materialistic physics. He doesn’t cite Epicurus. Lucretius isn’t in his library, Diogenes Laertius neither.”

— Michel Onfray (2009), “Preface: The War Song of an Atheist” (pg. 20)