WESTERN

Atheism in Dostoevsky's the Devils


or The possessed 1872
Feodor Mikhailovich Dostoevski (1821-1881)

To realize that there is no God and not to realize at the same instant that you have become God yourself--is an absurdity, for else you would certainly kill yourself. I cannot understand how an atheist could know that there is no God and not kill himself at once!

--cited in Vincent P. Miceli, The gods of atheism (Arlington: New Rochelle, NY 1971) xiv-xv


see also Ivan's unbelief in the chapter "the Grand Inquisitor"
in the Brothers Karamazov 1880


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created 1jun1996, revised 20mar98     |     comments on this site? tpkunesh@atheisms.info