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Title: Deify Author: SĂ©bastien Faure Date: 1934 Language: en Topics: Anarchist Encyclopedia Source: Retrieved on November 15, 2011 from http://marxists.org/reference/archive/faure/1934/encyclopedia.htm
Deify: verb. Put at the rank of a god. Attribute to an animal or an
object a supernatural power. Deification is a sign of ignorance and it
is understandable only in the backward ages of humanity, when man had
not yet pierced the mysteries of nature and was inclined to deify that
which he didn’t understand. It is thus that through ignorance or terror
the first men adored the thunder and in order to demonstrate their joy
or their recognition they glorified the sun and the stars that brought
them light.
Afterwards, when humanity had left the darkness into which it had been
plunged and when man, through seeking, arrived at determining the causes
of certain phenomena, it elevated itself from the deification of
objects, of things to the deifications of his like. It considered as
gods the great men of his generation, the kings, the inventors and those
who singled themselves out by their discoveries. In a word man, during
these centuries, infallibly believed in the power of external forces and
made divine those it considered benefactors or capable of exercising a
favorable influence on the collective life of humanity.
Even though progress in science and philosophy have in a large measure
abolished the practices to which the populations of ancient societies
delivered themselves, deification still subsists and we frequently
witness the adoration of a noted personality of an era by a people. Just
as the ancients placed above all and adored after their deaths — and
sometimes when they were alive- certain of their great men, modern
populations exalt as gods beings whose value cannot be disdained, but
who were men, and only men. In France did we not make of Jaurès a
veritable god, and isn’t the same being done in Russia with Lenin? To be
sure, we are not so ridiculous as to address prayers to these deified
men, but nevertheless the belief of the people is such that during
periods of difficulty they imagine that only the presence of these
individuals is capable of resolving a material or moral crisis. Pious
pilgrimages are organized to the tombs of these new gods, and the cult
dedicated to them is such that no one is permitted to doubt their past,
present and future power.
Montaigne said: “Those things the least known are those most likely to
be deified,” and it is because humans have no confidence in their own
force that they always take refuge in some kind of belief or another and
they hope that others will do that which seems impossible to them. There
is no providence and nothing can be modified by supernatural means or
forces. We must have confidence only in ourselves. Unite our efforts:
nothing is superior to the living being! Suppress the gods, all the
gods. Preserve the memory of those men who, by their will, their
foresightedness, or their courage brought their tribute to humanity. But
we must not deify them unless we want to fall back into those errors
that were so harmful to the evolution of humanity.