Robinson Crusoe
...tholic and, it would seem, the Anglican churches when he says that the clergy form false and secret religions simply to maintain respect and devotion to the clergy: … By this I observ'd, that there is priestcraft, even amongst the most blinded ignorant pagans in the world; and the policy of making a secret religion, in order to preserve the veneration of the people to the clergy, is not only to be found in the Roman, but perhaps among all religions in the world, even among the most brutish and barbarous savages. (171) While the power-hungry priesthood is one of his major concerns, he believes that the entire church is corrupt. He feels that no man can convert and reveal God to another man. After his conversion on the island, in his eyes no man needs anything except himself, the Bible, and divine revelation to understand God’s truth. He realizes that every man needs religious individualism—the idea that every man should find his God independently of any other human or intermediary. On the other hand, religion in the public dominion can be seen when Crusoe attempts to force his newly found religion on Friday. In this area, Crusoe quickly becomes tolerant of Others’ differing beliefs after noticing Friday’s natural goodness. This causes Crusoe to doubt the idea that Christians are the only moral people. Even after Friday’s conversion to Christianity, Crusoe doubts his own God due to how naturally good Friday was beforehand. He asks several times how God could punish the savages for such things as cannibalism when they had no Bible and he had failed to show himself through divine intervention. He tells of how Friday and his people have had … bestow’d upon them the same powers, the same reason, the same affections, the same sentiments of kindness and obligation, the same passions and resentments of wrongs; the same sense of gratitude, sincerity, fidelity, and all the capacities of doing good, and receiving good, that he has given to us; and that when he pleases to offer to them occasions of exerting these, they are as ready, nay, more ready to apply them to the right uses for which they were bestow'd, than we are. (165) One example of Crusoe questioning God's choosing to not reveal himself to the savages is: …why it has pleas'd God to hide the like saving knowledge from so many millions of souls, who if I might judge by this poor savage, would make a much better use of it than we did. (165) Crusoe realizes that Friday, a savage and a cannibal, is naturally good with or without Christianity. This is what makes him believe that the savages would “make much better use of [the knowledge of God] than we did” (165). For this reason Crusoe goes on to be tolerant of the other’s religion. He seems to lay the blame for their wrong doing at God’s feet because he failed to show himself to them. While he does kill some of the cannibals, it does not seem to be due to religious narrow-mindedness but rather due to the fact he saw other Europeans being prepared to be eaten. Other than preventing cannibalism on his island, Crusoe never makes any religious demands on the other men even though he has full authority over them. Religious toleration was important in the public sector on “Crusoe’s” island. Although in the beginning Crusoe develops his religious background rather quickly, his own religious growth soon grows dormant. Crusoe seems to never truly meet the two major requirements he has for “good Christians”. He makes clear these two requirements many times: 1) to submit oneself completely to God and 2) to always be thankful to God. O...