(^250) › STEP 5. Build Your Test-Taking Confidence
- Which of the following best characterizes
d’Holbach’s theological stance?
A. Atheist
B. Deist
C. Protestant
D. Catholic - d’Holbach was participating in which movement?
A. The later stages of the Protestant Reformation
.B The new political ideas of the early
Enlightenment
C. The phase of the Enlightenment that called
for “enlightened despotism”
D. The later, radical phase of the Enlightenment
19. Why can the passage be identified as part of the
eighteenth-century cultural movement known as
the Enlightenment?
A. It defends atheism.
B. It affirms the core Enlightenment ideals of
reason and freedom of thought.
C. It offers a rational proof of the existence of
God.
D. It uses satire to undermine orthodox ideas.
Questions 17–19 refer to the passage below.In a word, whoever will deign to consult common sense upon religious opinions, and will bestow on this inquiry
the attention that is commonly given to any objects we presume interesting, will easily perceive that those opinions
have no foundation; that Religion is a mere castle in the air....
Savage and furious nations, perpetually at war, adore, under diverse names, some God, conformable to their
ideas.... Madmen everywhere be seen who, after meditating upon their terrible God, imagine that to please him
they must do themselves all possible injury.... The gloomy ideas more usefully formed of the Deity, far from
consoling them under the evils of life, have everywhere disquieted their minds, and produced follies destructive to
their happiness.
How could the human mind make any considerable progress, while tormented with frightful phantoms, and
guided by men interested in perpetuating its ignorance and fears?... Occupied solely by his fears, and by unintel-
ligible reveries, he has always been at the mercy of his priests, who have reserved for themselves the right of thinking
for him and directing his actions....
Let men’s minds be filled with true ideas; let their reason be cultivated.... To discover the true principles of
morality, men have no need of theology, of revelation, or of gods.Baron Paul d’Holbach, Good Sense, 177226_Bartolini_QuesPrac2_243-268.indd 250 27/04/18 10:17 AM