Quiz: God and the State

10 questions drawn at random. Score 80% for a silver medal.

1. 1. What does Bakunin say he preaches?

   The revolt of life against the government of science A return to religious faith against science The destruction of science as a tool of the rich The rule of scientists over the ignorant
2. 2. To what does Bakunin compare a society governed by a scientific academy whose laws it does not understand?

   A Prussian army barracks The Paraguay missions The Roman Empire under the Caesars The court of Napoleon III
3. 3. How did Bakunin answer those who criticised his unfinished writings, according to the editors?

   “The passion for destruction is a creative passion” “My life itself is a fragment” “Action is worth more than a library” “Finished books are for academicians”
4. 4. Until the masses are educated, should they be governed by scientific men?

   Only in economic matters, where science is surest Yes, provided the savants are freely elected by the people Yes, but only for a short transitional period of tutelage No: better to do without science
5. 5. Why, in the editors’ view, can government by savants not be trusted?

   Savants would refuse to take office at all Savants are too few and too divided to staff a government Science is unfinished; power corrupts Science has proved that all men are equal in talent and capacity for rule
6. 6. What does Bakunin call religion?

   A noble error of the poor A collective insanity A necessary moral education The first science
7. 7. Under the Restoration, who was the poet of the French bourgeoisie, according to Bakunin?

   Chateaubriand Lamartine Béranger Victor Hugo
8. 8. Whom does Bakunin include among the “popes and priests” the people no longer want?

   The bourgeois students who join the people Those who call themselves Social Democrats Only the Catholic clergy The Protestant reformers
9. 9. Which two men does Bakunin blame for reviving the divine falsehood as “lay priests” in the eighteenth century?

   Voltaire and Denis Diderot Rousseau and Robespierre Danton and Hébert Chateaubriand and Lamartine
10. 10. What is the conclusion of Bakunin’s short syllogism about God and freedom?

    Freedom is impossible God exists only as an idea Man must accept his slavery God does not exist