Introduction:

Paul Heinrich Dietrich von Holbach (better known as "Baron d'Holbach"), was German by birth and education. He emigrated very early to Paris where he inherited his uncle's estate and title. He adhered to philosophical materialism: "The universe is a complex system of physical substances organized according to mechanistic laws of cause and effect". His most famous work is "Système de la Nature", (1770): "We are part of nature and our choices and desires are as much determined by laws of cause and effect as are the movements of the planets".

Our Siberian cat Churgym after reading of Holbach's "System", exhausted but satisfied!

A very important Manuscript by Holbach

We are very proud to present here a copy of an original manuscript by Holbach that has been lost for many years. The author of this homepage found it , by chance, at the Library of the University of Ghent (Belgium) where it was "hidden" in the Theological Departement (since the title of this manuscript is "Le Christianisme dévoilé"). That is most probably the reason why it remained so long undiscovered. We did the work of retyping it, and now we plan to translate it into English and Flemish. Therefore we would like to ask that the surfer should only read it and not use it for other purposes (of course he may copy it and distribute it among his friends, since it is really a very important document, and as many as possible should take interest in it

Thank you so much for your understanding.

Sincerely

Eric W. Elst

Head of the Departement "Celestial Mechanics" at the Royal Observatory at Uccle.

Le Christianisme dévoilé