What are /philosophy/'s thoughts about Thomas Hobbes' views on god, or the role of religion in a state?
Having read through Leviathan, I personally have come to the conclusion that Hobbes generally saw (organized) religion as nothing but trouble because it questioned the absolute power of the sovereign.
Yet at the same time he also understood that people would inevitably end up forming organized religions, whether he liked it or not; so that making both head of the church and head of the state was the next-best option.
Still, there's his comments about Non-Christians rulers and how they inherently have less authority than Christian ones - was that just added so as to not piss of the contemporary clergy, or did Hobbes genuinely believe that only a Christian sovereign could be a good sovereign?