The French Lieutenant’s Woman

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They’ll fire me for immorality. They’ll think I’m a whore. You are.

May I accompany you? Since we walk in the same direction. I prefer to walk alone.

– May I introduce myself?

– I know who you are.

– Ah. Then…

– Kindly allow me to go on my way alone.

– My dear Miss Woodruff…

– I am weak. How should I not know it?

I have sinned. You cannot imagine my suffering. My only happiness is when I sleep. When I wake, the nightmare begins. This is…

Why am I born what I am? I beg of you. You are my only hope.

When we know more of the living, it will be time to pursue the dead.

A German doctor called Hartmann has divided melancholia into various types. One he calls “natural”, by which he means that one is born with a… a sad temperament.

Another he calls “occasional”… By which he means springing from an occasion.

And the third class he calls “obscure melancholia”… By which he really means, poor man, he doesn’t know what the devil caused it.

– But she had an occasion, did she not?

– Oh, come now.

She belongs to the third class: Obscure melancholia.

She was working as a seamstress, living by herself… Well, hardly living. Weeping without reason, unable to sleep, unable to talk. Melancholia as plain as the pox.

I could see there was only one cure. To get her away from this place. But no, she wouldn’t have it. She goes to a house that she knows is a living misery… To a mistress that sees no difference between a servant and a slave.

– And she will not be moved.

– But it’s… incomprehensible.

Not at all. Hartmann has something very interesting to say… about one of his patients. “It was as if her torture had become her delight.”

And she has confided the true state of her mind to no one?

– She has not.

– But if she did?

I mean, if she could bring herself… to speak? She would be cured. But she does not want to be cured. But, after he had gone… My loneliness was so deep… I felt I would drown in it. I am not in full command of my emotions. What is worse, I have fallen in love with being a victim of fate. Now that I know there was truly a day upon which you loved me… I can bear anything. You have given me the strength to live.

You told me you loved me. You showed me your love.

Answer me!

There was madness in me… at that time. A bitterness, an envy. I forced myself on you, knowing that you had other obligations. It was unworthy!

I saw after you had gone that I had to destroy what had begun between us! Are you saying that you never loved me?

– I could not say that.

– But you <i>must</i> say that!

You must say “I am totally evil.”

“I used him as an instrument.”

“I do not care that in all this time, he hasn’t seen a woman to compare with me, that his life has been

a desert without me, that he sacrificed everything for me.”

You ruined my life and took pleasure in doing so!

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Diterbitkan oleh Skeptical Inquirer

• Central For Inquiry (CFI) • Skeptical Inquirer • Free Inquiry • Point of Inquiry ------------------------------------------------------------ 1. Yang nyata ialah manusia itu sendiri bukan tuhan, bukan manusia pikiran tuhan, tetapi tuhan adalah pikiran manusia, agama tidak merubah kenyataan dan mengukir sejarah, tetapi manusia itu sendiri yang merubah dan mengukirnya. Bukan tuhan yang menciptakan manusia tetapi tuhan adalah angan-angan manusia. Agama tidak merubah kenyataan tetapi menusia bisa merubah kenyataan. 2. Agama ialah proyeksi manusia : tuhan, neraka, surga, malaikat. Kenapa? Karena manusia butuh tempat untuk mencurahkan keluhan karena dunia tanpa hati, jadi penderitaan tempat lahirnya tuhan. Dengan demikian agama disebut keterasingan manusia dari kehidupan karena struktur masyarakat tidak mengizinkan secara penuh perealisasian diri sendiri, sehingga manusia membangun kerajaan angan-angan (agama). Dalam kenyataan manusia menderita lalu ia mengharapkan surga 3. kenapa agama khayalan, karena agama tidak inderawi, sedangkan manusia inderawi, manusia penuh dengan kepastian sedangkan agama berbau unsur spekulatif, unsur yang tidak bisa diterima secara ilmiah 4. Jadi agama dan tuhan ialah ciptaan manusia itu sendiri, tetapi manusia itu sendiri lupa dengan ciptaanya (seperti pada zaman jahiliyah dahulu sebelum nabi muhamad dating : orang-orang kafir zaman dahulu mengukir tuhan dari kayu dan batu, yang kemudian disembahnya, sama seperti kita kini yang memproyeksikan tuhan lalu menyembahnya). Agama penyembahan tuhan terhadap dirinya sendiri. Agama penyembahan manusia terhadap ciptaanya sendiri 5. Sehingga khayalan atau angan-angan itu mempunyai eksistensi realitas yang membuat manusia takut dan harus menyembahnya dan tuhan mempunyai hakikat lain yang manusia harus sembah. Sifat-sifat itu yang membuat manusia egois. 6. Penderitaan manusia ialah tempat lahirnya tuhan, penderitaan yang memaksa manusia mengasingkan diri ke dalam agama, itulah dasar yang menyebabkan manusia merasa butuh agama dan tuhan 7. Teologi harus diganti menjadi antropologi dan agama ialah candu rakyat. 8. Kritik agama hanya meruska bunga khayalan pada rantai, bukan bunganya yang harus dipatahkan tetapi rantai itu sendiri. Rantai (factor yang menyebabkan manusia mengasingkan diri ke dalam agama) 9. Kita seperti wayang dengan penuh kesadaran dan kemauan tetapi kita tidak bisa lepas dari tangan sang dalang. 10. Kalau semua ini benar, maka manusia bukan merealisasikan keinginanya tetapi mengharapkan berkah dariNYA (proyeksi manusia itu sendiri/perubahan pasif) 11. agama ialah keterbatasan: agama melarang kita bergaul dengan duniawi, sehingga kita hanya memikirkan surgawi Tanpa agama kita bisa hidup lebih baik, tanpa mengaharapkan hibah/welas asih dariNYA, hanya mengandalkan kenyataan dan diri sendiri. 12. Kepasrahan adalah kelemahan agama 13. Tuhan seperti halnya dengan setan, bila ia terus diyakini dengan adanya exsistensinya maka semakin berkuasalah ia, kita seperti member roh kepadanya dengan keyakinan kita. GROUP : https://www.facebook.com/groups/scientistsecularist