Hobbes' Religious Views

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Reformed Fox

Puritan Board Freshman
Has anyone here done some significant reading on Thomas Hobbes. Scholarly opinion on his religious views is pretty contradictory, and unlike the scholars, I find that one's religious opinions actually matter (imagine that).

My impression is that he was deist, but it is immensely difficult to sort out his actual opinions from polemics directed at either defending himself of attacking others.

Any information?
 
Hobbes was a believer. He affirmed original sin, but took an agnostic stance on the existence of spiritual beings.

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"It is true that Hobbes speaks often of God, of revelation, of revealed religion, and of a future existence. But all this is either an inconsistency or a mere blind to shield himself from the inconveniences of an atheistic reputation" (Sensualistic Philosophy, p. 20).
 
My impression was something similar. Much of Hobbes' more generous writings on religion may have been used to deflect claims of "atheism" which had a slightly different meaning in the 1600s. Anyone else encounter Hobbes?
 
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