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GOOD SENSE WITHOUT GOD:
OR
FREETHOUGHTS OPPOSED TO SUPERNATURAL IDEAS
By Baron D'holbach
"Freethinker's Library" Series
London: W. Stewart & Co.
A Translation Of Baron D'holbach's "Le Bon Sens"
Transcriber's note: this e-text is based on an undated English translation of "Le Bon Sens" published c. 1900. The name of the translator was not stated.
"Atheism leaves men to Sense, to Philosophy, to Laws, to Reputation, all which may be guides to moral Virtue, tho' Religion were not: but Superstition dismounts all these, and erects an absolute Monarchy in the Minds of Men. Therefore, Atheism did never perturb States; but Superstition hath been the confusion of many. The causes of Superstition are pleasing and sensual rights, and Ceremonies; Excess of Pharisaical and outside holiness, Reverence to Traditions and the stratagems of Prelates for their own Ambition and Lucre."—Lord Bacon.
CONTENTS
1. APOLOGUE
2. What is Theology?
3. What is Theology?
4. Man is not born with any ideas of Religion
5. It is not necessary to believe in a God
6. Religion is founded on credulity
7. All religion is an absurdity
8. The idea of God is impossible
9. On the Origin of Superstition
10. On the Origin of all Religion
11. Religious fears expose men to become a prey to imposters
12. Religion seduces ignorance by the aid of the marvellous
13. Religion seduces ignorance by the aid of the marvellous
14. No Religion, if not ages of Stupidity and Barbarism
15. All Religion was produced by the desire of domination
16. What serves as a basis to Religion is most uncertain
17. It is impossible to be convinced of the existence of a God
18. It is impossible to be convinced of the existence of a God
19. The existence of God is not proved
20. It explains nothing to say, that God is a spirit
21. Spirituality is an absurdity
22. Whatever exists is derived from Matter
23. What is the metaphysical God of modern Theology?
24. Less unreasonable to adore the Sun, than adore a spiritual Deity
25. A spiritual Deity is incapable of volition and action
26. What is God?
27. Some remarkable Contradictions in Theology
28. To adore God, is to adore a fiction
29. Atheism is authorised by the infinity of God
30. Believing not safer than not believing in God
31. Belief in God is a habit acquired in infancy
32. Belief in God is a prejudice ov successive generations
33. On the Origin of Prejudices
34. On the effects of Prejudices
35. Theology must be instilled before the age of reason
36. The wonders of nature do not prove the existence of God
37. Nature may be explained by natural causes
38. Nature may be explained by natural causes
39. The world has never been created: Matter moves of itself
40. The world has never been created: Matter moves of itself
41. Motion is essential to Matter: no Spiritual Mover
42. The existence of Man does not prove the existence of God
43. Neither Man nor the Universe are the effects of chance
44. Order of the Universe does not prove the existence of a God
45. Order of the Universe does not prove the existence of a God
46. Absurd to adore a divine intelligence
47. Qualities given God contrary to the Essence attributed to him
48. Qualities given God contrary to the Essence attributed to him
49. Absurd to say that the human race is the object of the Universe
50. God is not made for Man, nor Man for God
51. Untrue that the object of the Universe was to render Man happy
52. What is called Providence is a word without meaning
53. This pretended Providence is the enemy of Man
54. The world is not governed by an intelligent being
55. God cannot be considered immutable
56. Good and evil are the necessary effects of natural causes
57. The consolations of Theology and paradise are imaginary
58. Another romantic reverie
59. Vain that Theology attempts to clear its God from human defects
60. Impossible to believe God is of infinite goodness and power
61. Impossible to believe God is of infinite goodness and power
62. Theology's God a monster of absurdity and injustice
63. All Religion inspires contemptible fears
64. Religion, the same as the most somber and servile Superstition
65. The love of God is impossible
66. An eternally tormenting God is a most detestable being
67. Theology is a tissue of palpable contradictions
68. The pretended works of God do not prove Divine Perfections
69. The perfection of God and the pretended creation of angels
70. Theology preaches Omnipotence of its God, yet makes impotent
71. Per all religious systems, God is capricious and foolish
72. It is absurd to say that Evil does not proceed from God
73. The foreknowledge of God proves his cruelty
74. Absurdity of the stories concerning Original Sin, and Satan
75. The Devil, like Religion, was invented to enrich the priests
76. God has no right to punish man
77. It is absurd to say, that the conduct of God a mystery
78. Ought we look for consolation, from the author of our misery?
79. God who punishes the faults which he might have prevented
80. What is called Free Will is an absurdity
81. But we must not conclude that Society has no right to punish
82. Refutation of the arguments in favour of Free Will
83. Refutation of the arguments in favour of Free Will
84. God, if there were a God, would not be free
85. According to Theology, man is not free a single instant
86. There is no evil, and no sin, but must be attributed to God
87. The prayers prove dissatisfaction of the divine will
88. Absurd to imagine repair of misfortune in another world
89. Theology justifies the evil permitted by its God
90. Jehovah, exterminations prove an unjust and barbarous God
91. Is God a generous, equitable, and tender father?
92. Man's life, deposes against goodness of a pretended God
93. We owe no gratitude to what is called Providence
94. It is folly to suppose that Man is the favourite of God
95. A comparison between Man and brutes
96. There are no animals so detestable as Tyrants
97. A refutation of the excellence of Man
98. An oriental Tale
99. It is madness to see nothing but the goodness of God
100. What is the Soul?
101. The existence of a Soul is an absurd supposition
102. It is evident that Man dies in toto
103. Incontestible arguments against the Spirituality of the Soul
104. On the absurdity of the supernatural causes
105. It is false that Materialism degrades
106. It is false that Materialism degrades
107. Idea of future life only useful to priest's trade
108. It is false that the idea of a future life is consoling
109. All religious principles are derived from the imagination
110. Religion a system to reconciles contradictions by mysteries
111. Absurdity of all Mysteries, invented for the interests of Priests
112, Absurdity of all Mysteries, invented for the interests of Priests
113. Absurdity of all Mysteries, invented for the interests of Priests
114. An universal God ought to have revealed an universal Religion
115. Religion is unnecessary, as it is unintelligible
116. All Religions are rendered ridiculous by the multitude of creeds
117. Opinion of a famous Theologian
118. The God of the Deists is not less contradictory
119. Aged belief in a Deity does not prove the existence of God
120. All Gods are savage: all Religions are monuments of ignorance
121. All religious usages bear marks of stupidity and barbarism
122. The more a religion is ancient and general, the more suspect
123. Scepticism in religious matters from very superficial study
124. Revelations examined
125. Where is the proof that God ever shewed himself or spoke to Men
126. There is nothing that proves miracles to have been ever performed
127. Strange that God spoke differently to different sects
128. Obscurity and suspicious origin of oracles
129. Absurdity of all miracles
130. Refutation of the reasoning of Pascal on miracles
131. Every new revelation is necessarily false
132. Blood of martyrs testifies against the truth of miracles
133. Fanaticism of martyrs, and the interested zeal of missionaries
134. Theology makes its God an enemy to Reason and Common Sense
135. Faith irreconcilable with Reason; and Reason preferable to Faith
136. To what absurd and ridiculous sophisms the religious are reduced
137. Ought a man to believe, on the assurance of another man
138. Faith can take root only in feeble, ignorant, or slothful minds
139. That one Religion has greater pretensions to truth an absurdity
140. Religion is unnecessary to Morality
141. Religion the weakest barrier that can be opposed to the passions
142. Honour is a more salutary and powerful bond than Religion
143. Religion does not restrain the passions of kings
144. Origin of "the divine right of kings"
145. Religion is fatal to political ameliorations
146. Christianity preaching implicit obedience to despotism
147. One object of religious principles: eternize the tyranny of kings
148. Fatal it is to persuade kings they are responsible to God alone
149. A devout king is the scourge of his kingdom
150. Tyranny finds Religion a weak obstacle to the despair of the people
151. Religion favours the wickedness of princes
152. What is an enlightened Sovereign?
153. Of the prevailing passions and crimes of the priesthood
154. The quackery of priests
155. Religion has corrupted Morality, and produced innumerable evils
156. Every Religion is intolerant
157. The evils of a state Religion
158. Religion legitimates and authorizes crime
159. The argument, that evils attributed to Religion are faults of men
160. Religion is incompatible with Morality
161. The Morality of the Gospel is impracticable
162. A society of Saints would be impossible
163. Human nature is not depraved
164. Concerning the effects of Jesus Christ's mission
165. The remission of sins was invented for the interest of priests
166. Who fear God?
167. Hell is an absurd invention
168. The bad foundation of religious morals
169. Christian Charity, as preached and practised by Theologians!!!
170. Confession, priestcraft's gold mine
171. Supposition of the existence of a God unnecessary to Morality
172. Supernatural Morality are fatal to the public welfare
173. The union of Church and State is a calamity
174. National Religions are ruinous
175. Religion paralyses Morality
176. Fatal consequences of Devotion
177. The idea of a future life is not consoling to man
178. An Atheist is fully as conscientious as a religious man
179. An Atheistical king far preferable to a religious king
180. Philosophy produces Morality
181. Religious opinions have little influence upon conduct
182. Reason leads man to Atheism
183. Fear alone makes Theists
184. Can we, and ought we, to love God?
185. God and Religion are proved to be absurdities
186. The existence of God, has not yet been demonstrated
187. Priests are more actuated by self-interest, than unbelievers
188. Presumption, and badness, more in priests, than in Atheists
189. Prejudices last but for a time
190. What if priests the apostles of reason
191. If Philosophy were substituted for Religion!
192. Recantation of an unbeliever at the point of death proves nothing
193. It is not true that Atheism breaks the bonds of society
194. Refutation of the opinion, that Religion necessary for the vulgar
195. Logical systems are not adapted to the capacity of the vulgar
196. On the futility and danger of Theology
197. On the evils produced by implicit faith
198. On the evils produced by implicit faith
199. All Religions were established by impostors, in days of ignorance
200. All Religions borrow from one another ridiculous ceremonies
201. Theology has always diverted philosophy from its right path
202. Theology explains nothing
203. Theology has always fettered Morality, and retarded progress
204. Theology has always fettered Morality, and retarded progress
205. Religion is an extravagance and a calamity
206. Religion prevents us from seeing the true causes of misfortunes
PUBLISHER'S NOTE
The chief design in reprinting this translation, is to preserve "the strongest atheistical work" for present and future generations of English Freethinkers.
The real author was, unquestionably, Paul Thyry; Baron D'Holbach, and not John Meslier, to whom this work has been wrongly attributed, under the title of "Le Bon Sens" (Common Sense).
In 1770, Baron D'Holbach published his masterpiece, "Systeme de la Nature," which for a long time passed as the posthumous work of M. de Mirabaud. That text-book of "Atheistical Philosophy" caused a great sensation, and two years later, 1772, the Baron published this excellent abridgment of it, freed from arbitrary ideas; and by its clearness of expression, facility, and precision of style, rendered it most suitable for the average student.
"Le Bon Sens" was privately printed in Amsterdam, and the author's name was kept a profound secret; hence, Baron D'Holbach escaped persecution.
THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE
When we examine the opinions of men, we find that nothing is more uncommon, than common sense; or, in other words, they lack judgment to discover plain truths, or to reject absurdities, and palpable contradictions. We have an example of this in Theology, a system revered in all countries by a great number of men; an object regarded by them as most important, and indispensable to happiness. An examination of the principles upon which this pretended system is founded, forces us to acknowledge, that these principles are only suppositions, imagined by ignorance, propagated by enthusiasm or knavery, adopted by timid credulity, preserved by custom which never reasons, and revered solely because not understood.
In a word, whoever uses common sense upon religious opinions, and will bestow on this inquiry the attention that is commonly given to most subjects, will easily perceive that Religion is a mere castle in the air. Theology is ignorance of natural causes; a tissue of fallacies and contradictions. In every country, it presents romances void of probability, the hero of which is composed of impossible qualities. His name, exciting fear in all minds, is only a vague word, to which, men affix ideas or qualities, which are either contradicted by facts, or inconsistent.
Notions of this being, or rather, the word by which he is designated, would be a matter of indifference, if it did not cause innumerable ravages in the world. But men, prepossessed with the opinion that this phantom is a reality of the greatest interest, instead of concluding wisely from its incomprehensibility, that they are not bound to regard it, infer on the contrary, that they must contemplate it, without ceasing, and never lose sight of it. Their invincible ignorance, upon this subject, irritates their curiosity; instead of putting them upon guard against their imagination, this ignorance renders them decisive, dogmatic, imperious, and even exasperates them against all, who oppose doubts to the reveries which they have begotten.
What perplexity arises, when it is required to solve an insolvable problem; unceasing meditation upon an object, impossible to understand, but in which however he thinks himself much concerned, cannot but excite man, and produce a fever in his brain. Let interest, vanity, and ambition, co-operate ever so little with this unfortunate turn of mind, and society must necessarily be disturbed. This is the reason that so many nations have often been the scene of extravagances of senseless visionaries, who, believing their empty speculations to be eternal truths, and publishing them as such, have kindled the zeal of princes and their subjects, and made them take up arms for opinions, represented to them as essential to the glory of the Deity. In all parts of our globe, fanatics have cut each other's throats, publicly burnt each other, committed without a scruple and even as a duty, the greatest crimes, and shed torrents of blood. For what? To strengthen, support, or propagate the impertinent conjectures of some enthusiasts, or to give validity to the cheats of impostors, in the name of a being, who exists only in their imagination, and who has made himself known only by the ravages, disputes, and follies, he has caused.
Savage and furious nations, perpetually at war, adore, under divers names, some God, conformable to their ideas, that is to say, cruel, carnivorous, selfish, blood-thirsty. We find, in all the religions, "a God of armies," a "jealous God," an "avenging God," a "destroying God," a "God," who is pleased with carnage, and whom his worshippers consider it a duty to serve. Lambs, bulls, children, men, and women, are sacrificed to him. Zealous servants of this barbarous God think themselves obliged even to offer up themselves as a sacrifice to him. Madmen may everywhere be seen, who, after meditating upon their terrible God, imagine that to please him they must inflict on themselves, the most exquisite torments. The gloomy ideas formed of the deity, far from consoling them, have every where disquieted their minds, and prejudiced follies destructive to happiness.
How could the human mind progress, while tormented with frightful phantoms, and guided by men, interested in perpetuating its ignorance and fears? Man has been forced to vegetate in his primitive stupidity: he has been taught stories about invisible powers upon whom his happiness was supposed to depend. Occupied solely by his fears, and by unintelligible reveries, he has always been at the mercy of priests, who have reserved to themselves the right of thinking for him, and of directing his actions.
Thus, man has remained a slave without courage, fearing to reason, and unable to extricate himself from the labyrinth, in which he has been wandering. He believes himself forced under the yoke of his gods, known to him only by the fabulous accounts given by his ministers, who, after binding each unhappy mortal in the chains of prejudice, remain his masters, or else abandon him defenceless to the absolute power of tyrants, no less terrible than the gods, of whom they are the representatives.
Oppressed by the double yoke of spiritual and temporal power, it has been impossible for the people to be happy. Religion became sacred, and men have had no other Morality, than what their legislators and priests brought from the unknown regions of heaven. The human mind, confused by theological opinions, ceased to know its own powers, mistrusted experience, feared truth and disdained reason, in order to follow authority. Man has been a mere machine in the hands of tyrants and priests. Always treated as a slave, man has contracted the vices of slavery.
Such are the true causes of the corruption of morals. Ignorance and servitude are calculated to make men wicked and unhappy. Knowledge, Reason, and Liberty, can alone reform and make men happier. But every thing conspires to blind them, and to confirm their errors. Priests cheat them, tyrants corrupt and enslave them. Tyranny ever was, and ever will be, the true cause of man's depravity, and also of his calamities. Almost always fascinated by religious fiction, poor mortals turn not their eyes to the natural and obvious causes of their misery; but attribute their vices to the imperfection of their natures, and their unhappiness to the anger of the gods. They offer to heaven vows, sacrifices, and presents, to obtain the end of sufferings, which in reality, are attributable only to the negligence, ignorance, and perversity of their guides, to the folly of their customs, and above all, to the general want of knowledge. Let men's minds be filled with true ideas; let their reason be cultivated; and there will be no need of opposing to the passions, such a feeble barrier, as the fear of gods. Men will be good, when they are well instructed; and when they are despised for evil, or justly rewarded for good, which they do to their fellow citizens.
In vain should we attempt to cure men of their vices, unless we begin by curing them of their prejudices. It is only by showing them the truth, that they will perceive their true interests, and the real motives that ought to incline them to do good. Instructors have long enough fixed men's eyes upon heaven; let them now turn them upon earth. An incomprehensible theology, ridiculous fables, impenetrable mysteries, puerile ceremonies, are to be no longer endured. Let the human mind apply itself to what is natural, to intelligible objects, truth, and useful knowledge.
Does it not suffice to annihilate religious prejudice, to shew, that what is inconceivable to man, cannot be good for him? Does it require any thing, but plain common sense, to perceive, that a being, incompatible with the most evident notions—that a cause continually opposed to the effects which we attribute to it—that a being, of whom we can say nothing, without falling into contradiction—that a being, who, far from explaining the enigmas of the universe, only makes them more inexplicable—that a being, whom for so many ages men have vainly addressed to obtain their happiness, and the end of sufferings—does it require, I say, any thing but plain, common sense, to perceive—that the idea of such a being is an idea without model, and that he himself is merely a phantom of the imagination? Is any thing necessary but common sense to perceive, at least, that it is folly and madness for men to hate and damn one another about unintelligible opinions concerning a being of this kind? In short, does not every thing prove, that Morality and Virtue are totally incompatible with the notions of a God, whom his ministers and interpreters have described, in every country, as the most capricious, unjust, and cruel of tyrants, whose pretended will, however, must serve as law and rule the inhabitants of the earth?
To discover the true principles of Morality, men have no need of theology, of revelation, or of gods: They have need only of common sense. They have only to commune with themselves, to reflect upon their own nature, to consider the objects of society, and of the individuals, who compose it; and they will easily perceive, that virtue is advantageous, and vice disadvantageous to themselves. Let us persuade men to be just, beneficent, moderate, sociable; not because such conduct is demanded by the gods, but, because it is pleasant to men. Let us advise them to abstain from vice and crime; not because they will be punished in another world, but because they will suffer for it in this.—These are, says Montesquieu, means to prevent crimes—these are punishments; these reform manners—these are good examples.
The way of truth is straight; that of imposture is crooked and dark. Truth, ever necessary to man, must necessarily be felt by all upright minds; the lessons of reason are to be followed by all honest men. Men are unhappy, only because they are ignorant; they are ignorant, only because every thing conspires to prevent their being enlightened; they are wicked only because their reason is not sufficiently developed.
By what fatality then, have the first founders of all sects given to their gods ferocious characters, at which nature revolts? Can we imagine a conduct more abominable, than that which Moses tells us his God showed towards the Egyptians, where that assassin proceeds boldly to declare, in the name and by the order of his God, that Egypt shall be afflicted with the greatest calamities, that can happen to man? Of all the different ideas, which they give us of a supreme being, of a God, creator and preserver of mankind, there are none more horrible, than those of the impostors, who represented themselves as inspired by a divine spirit, and "Thus saith the Lord."
Why, O theologians! do you presume to inquire into the impenetrable mysteries of a being, whom you consider inconceivable to the human mind? You are the blasphemers, when you imagine that a being, perfect according to you, could be guilty of such cruelty towards creatures whom he has made out of nothing. Confess, your ignorance of a creating God; and cease meddling with mysteries, which are repugnant to Common Sense.
DETAILED TABLE OF CONTENTS GIVEN IN THE FRENCH EDITION
Section
1. APOLOGUE
2, 3. What is Theology?
4. Man is not born with any ideas of Religion
5. It is not necessary to believe in a God
6. Religion is founded on credulity
7. All religion is an absurdity
8. The idea of God is impossible
9. On the Origin of Superstition
10. On the Origin of all Religion
11. Religious fears expose men to become a prey to imposters
12, 13. Religion seduces ignorance by the aid of the marvellous
14. There would never have been any Religion, if there had not been ages of Stupidity and Barbarism
15. All Religion was produced by the desire of domination
16. What serves as a basis to Religion is most uncertain
17, 18. It is impossible to be convinced of the existence of a God
19. The existence of God is not proved
20. It explains nothing to say, that God is a spirit
21. Spirituality is an absurdity
22. Whatever exists is derived from Matter
23. What is the metaphysical God of modern Theology?
24. It would be less unreasonable to adore the Sun, than to adore a spiritual Deity
25. A spiritual Deity is incapable of volition and action
26. What is God?
27. Some remarkable Contradictions in Theology
28. To adore God, is to adore a fiction
29. Atheism is authorised by the infinity of God, and the impossibility of knowing the Divine essence
30. Believing in God is neither safer nor less criminal than not believing in him
31. Belief in God is a habit acquired in infancy
32. Belief in God is a prejudice established by successive generations
33. On the Origin of Prejudices
34. On the effects of Prejudices
35. The Religious principles of modern Theology could not be believed if they were not instilled into the mind before the age of reason
36. The wonders of nature do not prove the existence of God
37, 38. Nature may be explained by natural causes
39, 40. The world has never been created: Matter moves of itself
41. Additional proofs that motion is essential to Matter, and that consequently it is unnecessary to imagine a Spiritual Mover
42. The existence of Man does not prove the existence of God
43. Nevertheless, neither Man nor the Universe are the effects of chance
44, 45. The order of the Universe does not prove the existence of a God
46. A Spirit cannot be intelligent it is absurd to adore a divine intelligence
47, 48. All the qualities, which Theology gives to its God are contrary to the Essence which is attributed to him
49. It is absurd to say that the human race is the object and end of the formation of the Universe
50. God is not made for Man, nor Man for God
51. It is not true that the object of the formation of the Universe was to render Man happy
52. What is called Providence is a word without meaning
53. This pretended Providence is the enemy of Man
54. The world is not governed by an intelligent being
55. God cannot be considered immutable
56. Good and evil are the necessary effects of natural causes. What is a God that cannot change any thing?
57. The consolations of Theology and the hope of paradise and of a future life, are imaginary
58. Another romantic reverie
59. It is in vain that Theology attempts to clear its God from human defects: either this God is not free, or else he is more wicked than good
60, 61. It is impossible to believe that there exists a God of infinite goodness and power
62. Theology makes its God a monster of absurdity, injustice, malice, and atrocity
63. All Religion inspires contemptible fears
64. There is no difference between Religion, and the most somber and servile Superstition
65. To judge from the ideas which Theology gives of the Deity, the love of God is impossible
66. An eternally tormenting God is a most detestable being
67. Theology is a tissue of palpable contradictions
68. The pretended works of God do not prove Divine Perfections
69. The perfection of God is not rendered more evident by the pretended creation of angels
70. Theology preaches the Omnipotence of its God, yet constantly makes him appear impotent
71. According to all religious systems, God would be the most capricious and most foolish of beings
72. It is absurd to say that Evil does not proceed from God
73. The foreknowledge attributed to God would give men a right to complain of his cruelty
74. Absurdity of the theological stories concerning Original Sin, and concerning Satan
75. The Devil, like Religion, was invented to enrich the priests
76. If God has been unable to render human nature incapable of sin, he has no right to punish man
77. It is absurd to say, that the conduct of God ought to be a mystery for man
78. Ought the unfortunate look for consolation, to the sole author of their misery
79. A God, who punishes the faults which he might have prevented, is a mad tyrant, who joins injustice to folly
80. What is called Free Will is an absurdity
81. But we must not conclude that Society has no right to punish
82, 83. Refutation of the arguments in favour of Free Will
84. God himself, if there were a God, would not be free: hence the inutility of all Religion
85. According to the principles of Theology, man is not free a single instant
86. There is no evil, no disorder, and no sin, but must be attributed to God: consequently God has no right either to punish or recompence
87. The prayers offered to God sufficiently prove dissatisfaction of the divine will
88. It is the height of absurdity to imagine, that the injuries and misfortunes, endured in this world, will be repaired in another world
89. Theology justifies the evil and the wickedness, permitted by its God, only by attributing to him the principle, that "Might makes Right," which is the violation of all Right
90. The absurd doctrine of Redemption, and the frequent exterminations attributed to Jehovah, impress one with the idea of an unjust and barbarous God
91. Can a being, who has called us into existence merely to make us miserable, be a generous, equitable, and tender father?
92. Man's life, and all that occurs, deposes against the liberty of Man, and against the justice and goodness of a pretended God
93. It is not true, that we owe any gratitude to what is called Providence
94. It is folly to suppose that Man is the king of nature, the favourite of God, and unique object of his labours
95. A comparison between Man and brutes
96. There are no animals so detestable as Tyrants
97. A refutation of the excellence of Man
98. An oriental Tale
99. It is madness to see nothing but the goodness of God, or to think that this universe is only made for Man
100. What is the Soul?
101. The existence of a Soul is an absurd supposition; and the existence of an immortal Soul still more absurd
102. It is evident that Man dies in toto
103. Incontestible arguments against the Spirituality of the Soul
104. On the absurdity of the supernatural causes, to which Theologians are constantly having recourse
105, 106. It is false that Materialism degrades
107. The idea of a future life is only useful to those, who trade on public credulity
108. It is false that the idea of a future life is consoling
109. All religious principles are derived from the imagination. God is a chimera; and the qualities, attributed to him, reciprocally destroy one another
110. Religion is but a system imagined in order to reconcile contradictions by the aid of mysteries
111, 112, 113. Absurdity and inutility of all Mysteries, which were only invented for the interests of Priests
114. An universal God ought to have revealed an universal Religion
115. What proves, that Religion is unnecessary, is, that it is unintelligible
116. All Religions are rendered ridiculous by the multitude of creeds, all opposite to one another, and all equally foolish
117. Opinion of a famous Theologian
118. The God of the Deists is not less contradictory, nor less chimerical than the God of the Christians
119. It by no means proves the existence of God to say, that, in every age, all nations have acknowledged some Deity or other
120. All Gods are of a savage origin: all Religions are monuments of the ignorance, superstition, and ferocity of former times: modern Religions are but ancient follies, re-edited with additions and corrections
121. All religious usages bear marks of stupidity and barbarism
122. The more a religious opinion is ancient and general, the more it ought to be suspected
123. Mere scepticism in religious matters, can only be the effect of a very superficial examination
124. Revelations examined
125. Where is the proof that God ever shewed himself to Men, or ever spoke to them?
126. There is nothing that proves miracles to have been ever performed
127. If God has spoken, is it not strange that he should have spoken so differently to the different religious sects?
128. Obscurity and suspicious origin of oracles
129. Absurdity of all miracles
130. Refutation of the reasoning of Pascal concerning the manner in which we must judge of miracles
131. Every new revelation is necessarily false
132. The blood of martyrs testifies against the truth of miracles, and against the divine origin attributed to Christianity
133. The fanaticism of martyrs, and the interested zeal of missionaries, by no means prove the truth of Religion
134. Theology makes its God an enemy to Reason and Common Sense
135. Faith is irreconcilable with Reason; and Reason is preferable to Faith
136. To what absurd and ridiculous sophisms every one is reduced, who would substitute Faith for Reason!
137. Ought a man to believe, on the assurance of another man, what is of the greatest importance to himself
138. Faith can take root only in feeble, ignorant, or slothful minds
139. To teach, that any one Religion has greater pretensions to truth than another, is an absurdity, and cause of tumult
140. Religion is unnecessary to Morality
141. Religion is the weakest barrier that can be opposed to the passions
142. Honour is a more salutary and powerful bond than Religion
143. Religion does not restrain the passions of kings
144. Origin of "the divine right of kings," the most absurd, ridiculous, and odious, of usurpations
145. Religion is fatal to political ameliorations: it makes despots licentious and wicked, and their subjects abject and miserable
146. Christianity has propagated itself by preaching implicit obedience to despotism
147. One object of religious principles is to eternize the tyranny of kings
148. How fatal it is to persuade kings that they are responsible for their actions to God alone
149. A devout king is the scourge of his kingdom
150. Tyranny sometimes finds the aegis of Religion a weak obstacle to the despair of the people
151. Religion favours the wickedness of princes by delivering them from fear and remorse
152. What is an enlightened Sovereign?
153. Of the prevailing passions and crimes of the priesthood
154. The quackery of priests
155. Religion has corrupted Morality, and produced innumerable evils
156. Every Religion is intolerant
157. The evils of a state Religion
158. Religion legitimates and authorizes crime
159. Refutation of the argument, that the evils attributed to Religion are but the bad effects of human passions
160. Religion is incompatible with Morality
161. The Morality of the Gospel is impracticable
162. A society of Saints would be impossible
163. Human nature is not depraved
164. Concerning the effects of Jesus Christ's mission
165. The dogma of the remission of sins was invented for the interest of priests
166. Who fear God?
167. Hell is an absurd invention
168. The bad foundation of religious morals
169. Christian Charity, as preached and practised by Theologians!!!
170. Confession, priestcraft's gold mine, and the destruction of the true principles of Morality
171. The supposition of the existence of a God is by no means necessary to Morality
172. Religion and its supernatural Morality are fatal to the public welfare
173. The union of Church and State is a calamity
174. National Religions are ruinous
175. Religion paralyses Morality
176. Fatal consequences of Devotion
177. The idea of a future life is not consoling to man
178. An Atheist is fully as conscientious as a religious man, and has better motives for doing good
179. An Atheistical king would be far preferable to a religious king
180. Philosophy produces Morality
181. Religious opinions have little influence upon conduct
182. Reason leads man to Atheism
183. Fear alone makes Theists
184. Can we, and ought we, to love God?
185. God and Religion are proved to be absurdities by the different ideas formed of them
186. The existence of God, which is the basis of Religion, has not yet been demonstrated
187. Priests are more actuated by self-interest, than unbelievers
188. Pride, presumption, and badness, are more often found in priests, than in Atheists
189. Prejudices last but for a time: no power is durable which is not founded upon truth
190. What an honourable power ministers of the Gods would obtain, if they became the apostles of reason and the defenders of liberty!
191. What a glorious and happy revolution it would be for the world, if Philosophy were substituted for Religion!
192. The recantation of an unbeliever at the point of death proves nothing against the reasonableness of unbelief
193. It is not true that Atheism breaks the bonds of society
194. Refutation of the often repeated opinion, that Religion is necessary for the vulgar
195. Logical and argumentative systems are not adapted to the capacity of the vulgar
196. On the futility and danger of Theology
197, 198. On the evils produced by implicit faith
199. History teaches us, that all Religions were established by impostors, in days of ignorance
200. All Religions, ancient or modern, have borrowed from one another ridiculous ceremonies
201. Theology has always diverted philosophy from its right path
202. Theology explains nothing
203, 204. Theology has always fettered Morality, and retarded progress
205. It cannot be too often repeated and proved, that Religion is an extravagance and a calamity
206. Religion prevents us from seeing the true causes of misfortunes
GOOD SENSE WITHOUT GOD
APOLOGUE
1.
There is a vast empire, governed by a monarch, whose strange conduct is to confound the minds of his subjects. He wishes to be known, loved, respected, obeyed; but never shows himself to his subjects, and everything conspires to render uncertain the ideas formed of his character.
The people, subjected to his power, have, of the character and laws of their invisible sovereign, such ideas only, as his ministers give them. They, however, confess, that they have no idea of their master; that his ways are impenetrable; his views and nature totally incomprehensible. These ministers, likewise, disagree upon the commands which they pretend have been issued by the sovereign, whose servants they call themselves. They defame one another, and mutually treat each other as impostors and false teachers. The decrees and ordinances, they take upon themselves to promulgate, are obscure; they are enigmas, little calculated to be understood, or even divined, by the subjects, for whose instruction they were intended. The laws of the concealed monarch require interpreters; but the interpreters are always disputing upon the true manner of understanding them. Besides, they are not consistent with themselves; all they relate of their concealed prince is only a string of contradictions. They utter concerning him not a single word that does not immediately confute itself. They call him supremely good; yet many complain of his decrees. They suppose him infinitely wise; and under his administration everything appears to contradict reason. They extol his justice; and the best of his subjects are generally the least favoured. They assert, he sees everything; yet his presence avails nothing. He is, say they, the friend of order; yet throughout his dominions, all is in confusion and disorder. He makes all for himself; and the events seldom answer his designs. He foresees everything; but cannot prevent anything. He impatiently suffers offence, yet gives everyone the power of offending him. Men admire the wisdom and perfection of his works; yet his works, full of imperfection, are of short duration. He is continually doing and undoing; repairing what he has made; but is never pleased with his work. In all his undertakings, he proposes only his own glory; yet is never glorified. His only end is the happiness of his subjects; and his subjects, for the most part want necessaries. Those, whom he seems to favour are generally least satisfied with their fate; almost all appear in perpetual revolt against a master, whose greatness they never cease to admire, whose wisdom to extol, whose goodness to adore, whose justice to fear, and whose laws to reverence, though never obeyed!
This EMPIRE is the WORLD; this MONARCH GOD; his MINISTERS are the PRIESTS; his SUBJECTS MANKIND.
2.
There is a science that has for its object only things incomprehensible. Contrary to all other sciences, it treats only of what cannot fall under our senses. Hobbes calls it the kingdom of darkness. It is a country, where every thing is governed by laws, contrary to those which mankind are permitted to know in the world they inhabit. In this marvellous region, light is only darkness; evidence is doubtful or false; impossibilities are credible: reason is a deceitful guide; and good sense becomes madness. This science is called theology, and this theology is a continual insult to the reason of man.
3.
By the magical power of "ifs," "buts," "perhaps's," "what do we know," etc., heaped together, a shapeless and unconnected system is formed, perplexing mankind, by obliterating from their minds, the most clear ideas and rendering uncertain truths most evident. By reason of this systematic confusion, nature is an enigma; the visible world has disappeared, to give place to regions invisible; reason is compelled to yield to imagination, who leads to the country of her self-invented chimeras.
4.
The principles of every religion are founded upon the idea of a GOD. Now, it is impossible to have true ideas of a being, who acts upon none of our senses. All our ideas are representations of sensible objects. What then can represent to us the idea of God, which is evidently an idea without an object? Is not such an idea as impossible, as an effect without a cause? Can an idea without an archetype be anything, but a chimera? There are, however, divines, who assure us that the idea of God is innate; or that we have this idea in our mother's womb. Every principle is the result of reason; all reason is the effect of experience; experience is acquired only by the exercise of our senses: therefore, religious principles are not founded upon reason, and are not innate.
5.
Every system of religion can be founded only upon the nature of God and man; and upon the relations, which subsist between them. But to judge of the reality of those relations, we must have some idea of the divine nature. Now, the world exclaims, the divine nature is incomprehensible to man; yet ceases not to assign attributes to this incomprehensible God, and to assure us, that it is our indispensable duty to find out that God, whom it is impossible to comprehend.
The most important concern of man is what he can least comprehend. If God is incomprehensible to man, it would seem reasonable never to think of him; but religion maintains, man cannot with impunity cease a moment to think (or rather dream) of his God.
6.
We are told, that divine qualities are not of a nature to be comprehended by finite minds. The natural consequence must be, that divine qualities are not made to occupy finite minds. But religion tells us, that the poor finite mind of man ought never to lose sight of an inconceivable being, whose qualities he can never comprehend. Thus, we see, religion is the art of turning the attention of mankind upon subjects they can never comprehend.
7.
Religion unites man with God, or forms a communication between them; yet do they not say, God is infinite? If God be infinite, no finite being can have communication or relation with him. Where there is no relation, there can be no union, communication, or duties. If there be no duties between man and his God, there is no religion for man. Thus, in saying God is infinite, you annihilate religion for man, who is a finite being. The idea of infinity is to us an idea without model, without archetype, without object.
8.
If God be an infinite being, there cannot be, either in the present or future world, any relative proportion between man and his God. Thus, the idea of God can never enter the human mind. In supposition of a life, in which man would be much more enlightened, than in this, the idea of the infinity of God would ever remain the same distance from his finite mind. Thus the idea of God will be no more clear in the future, than in the present life. Thus, intelligences, superior to man, can have no more complete ideas of God, than man, who has not the least conception of him in his present life.
9.
How has it been possible to persuade reasonable beings, that the thing, most impossible to comprehend, was most essential to them? It is because they have been greatly terrified; because, when they fear, they cease to reason; because, they have been taught to mistrust their own understanding; because, when the brain is troubled, they believe every thing, and examine nothing.
10.
Ignorance and fear are the two hinges of all religion. The uncertainty in which man finds himself in relation to his God, is precisely the motive that attaches him to his religion. Man is fearful in the dark—in moral, as well as physical darkness. His fear becomes habitual, and habit makes it natural; he would think that he wanted something, if he had nothing to fear.
11.
He, who from infancy has habituated himself to tremble when he hears pronounced certain words, requires those words and needs to tremble. He is therefore more disposed to listen to one, who entertains him in his fears, than to one, who dissuades him from them. The superstitious man wishes to fear; his imagination demands it; one might say, that he fears nothing so much, as to have nothing to fear.
Men are imaginary invalids, whose weakness empirics are interested to encourage, in order to have sale for their drugs. They listen rather to the physician, who prescribes a variety of remedies, than to him, who recommends good regimen, and leaves nature to herself.
12.
If religion were more clear, it would have less charms for the ignorant, who are pleased only with obscurity, terrors, fables, prodigies, and things incredible. Romances, silly stories, and the tales of ghosts and wizards, are more pleasing to vulgar minds than true histories.
13.
In point of religion, men are only great children. The more a religion is absurd and filled with wonders, the greater ascendancy it acquires over them. The devout man thinks himself obliged to place no bounds to his credulity; the more things are inconceivable, they appear to him divine; the more they are incredible, the greater merit, he imagines, there is in believing them.
14.
The origin of religious opinions is generally dated from the time, when savage nations were yet in infancy. It was to gross, ignorant, and stupid people, that the founders of religion have in all ages addressed themselves, when they wished to give them their Gods, their mode of worship, their mythology, their marvellous and frightful fables. These chimeras, adopted without examination by parents, are transmitted, with more or less alteration, to their children, who seldom reason any more than their parents.
15.
The object of the first legislators was to govern the people; and the easiest method to effect it was to terrify their minds, and to prevent the exercise of reason. They led them through winding bye-paths, lest they might perceive the designs of their guides; they forced them to fix their eyes in the air, for fear they should look at their feet; they amused them on the way with idle stories; in a word, they treated them as nurses do children, who sing lullabies, to put them to sleep, and scold, to make them quiet.
16.
The existence of a God is the basis of all religion. Few appear to doubt his existence; yet this fundamental article utterly embarrasses every mind that reasons. The first question of every catechism has been, and ever will be, the most difficult to resolve. (In the year 1701, the holy fathers of the oratory of Vendome maintained in a thesis, this proposition—that, according to St. Thomas, the existence of God is not, and cannot be, a subject of faith.)
17.
Can we imagine ourselves sincerely convinced of the existence of a being, whose nature we know not; who is inaccessible to all our senses; whose attributes, we are assured, are incomprehensible to us? To persuade me that a being exists or can exist, I must be first told what that being is. To induce me to believe the existence or the possibility of such a being, it is necessary to tell me things concerning him that are not contradictory, and do not destroy one another. In short, to fully convince me of the existence of that being, it is necessary to tell me things that I can understand.
18.
A thing is impossible, when it includes two ideas that mutually destroy one another, and which can neither be conceived nor united in thought. Conviction can be founded only upon the constant testimony of our senses, which alone give birth to our ideas, and enable us to judge of their agreement or disagreement. That, which exists necessarily, is that, whose non-existence implies a contradiction. These principles, universally acknowledged, become erroneous, when applied to the existence of a God. Whatever has been hitherto said upon the subject, is either unintelligible, or perfect contradiction, and must therefore appear absurd to every rational man.
19.
All human knowledge is more or less clear. By what strange fatality have we never been able to elucidate the science of God? The most civilized nations, and among them the most profound thinkers, are in this respect no more enlightened than the most savage tribes and ignorant peasants; and, examining the subject closely, we shall find, that, by the speculations and subtle refinements of men, the divine science has been only more and more obscured. Every religion has hitherto been founded only upon what is called, in logic, begging the question; it takes things for granted, and then proves, by suppositions, instead of principles.
20.
Metaphysics teach us, that God is a pure spirit. But, is modern theology superior to that of the savages? The savages acknowledge a great spirit, for the master of the world. The savages, like all ignorant people, attribute to spirits all the effects, of which their experience cannot discover the true causes. Ask a savage, what works your watch? He will answer, it is a spirit. Ask the divines, what moves the universe? They answer, it is a spirit.
21.
The savage, when he speaks of a spirit, affixes, at least, some idea to the word; he means thereby an agent, like the air, the breeze, the breath, that invisibly produces discernible effects. By subtilizing every thing, the modern theologian becomes as unintelligible to himself as to others. Ask him, what he understands by a spirit? He will answer you, that it is an unknown substance, perfectly simple, that has no extension, that has nothing common with matter. Indeed, is there any one, who can form the least idea of such a substance? What then is a spirit, to speak in the language of modern theology, but the absence of an idea? The idea of spirituality is an idea without model.
22.
Is it not more natural and intelligible to draw universal existence from the matter, whose existence is demonstrated by all the senses, and whose effects we experience, which we see act, move, communicate motion, and incessantly generate, than to attribute the formation of things to an unknown power, to a spiritual being, who cannot derive from his nature what he has not himself, and who, by his spiritual essence, can create neither matter nor motion? Nothing is more evident, than that the idea they endeavour to give us, of the action of mind upon matter, represents no object. It is an idea without model.
23.
The material Jupiter of the ancients could move, compose, destroy, and create beings, similar to himself; but the God of modern theology is sterile. He can neither occupy any place in space, nor move matter, nor form a visible world, nor create men or gods. The metaphysical God is fit only to produce confusion, reveries, follies, and disputes.
24.
Since a God was indispensably requisite to men, why did they not worship the Sun, that visible God, adored by so many nations? What being had greater claim to the homage of men, than the day-star, who enlightens, warms, and vivifies all beings; whose presence enlivens and regenerates nature, whose absence seems to cast her into gloom and languor? If any being announced to mankind, power, activity, beneficence, and duration, it was certainly the Sun, whom they ought to have regarded as the parent of nature, as the divinity. At least, they could not, without folly, dispute his existence, or refuse to acknowledge his influence.
25.
The theologian exclaims to us, that God wants neither hands nor arms to act; that he acts by his will. But pray, who or what is that God, who has a will, and what can be the subject of his divine will?
Are the stories of witches, ghosts, wizards, hobgoblins, etc., more absurd and difficult to believe than the magical or impossible action of mind upon matter? When we admit such a God, fables and reveries may claim belief. Theologians treat men as children, whose simplicity makes them believe all the stories they hear.
26.
To shake the existence of God, we need only to ask a theologian to speak of him. As soon as he has said a word upon the subject, the least reflection will convince us, that his observations are totally incompatible with the essence he ascribes to his God. What then is God? It is an abstract word, denoting the hidden power of nature; or it is a mathematical point, that has neither length, breadth, nor thickness. David Hume, speaking of theologians, has ingeniously observed, that they have discovered the solution of the famous problem of Archimedes—a point in the heavens, whence they move the world.
27.
Religion prostrates men before a being, who, without extension, is infinite, and fills all with his immensity; a being, all-powerful, who never executes his will; a being, sovereignly good, who creates only disquietudes; a being, the friend of order, and in whose government all is in confusion and disorder. What then, can we imagine, can be the God of theology?
28.
To avoid all embarrassment, we are told, "that it is not necessary to know what God is; that we must adore him; that we are not permitted to extend our views to his attributes." But, before we know that we must adore a God, must we not know certainly, that he exists? But, how can we assure ourselves, that he exists, if we never examine whether the various qualities, attributed to him, do really exist and agree in him? Indeed, to adore God, is to adore only the fictions of one's own imagination, or rather, it is to adore nothing.
29.
In view of confounding things the more, theologians have not declared what their God is; they tell us only what he is not. By means of negations and abstractions, they think they have composed a real and perfect being. Mind is that, which is not body. An infinite being is a being, who is not finite. A perfect being is a being, who is not imperfect. Indeed, is there any one, who can form real ideas of such a mass of absence of ideas? That, which excludes all idea, can it be any thing but nothing?
To pretend, that the divine attributes are beyond the reach of human conception, is to grant, that God is not made for man. To assure us, that, in God, all is infinite, is to own that there can be nothing common to him and his creatures. If there be nothing common to God and his creatures, God is annihilated for man, or, at least, rendered useless to him. "God," they say, "has made man intelligent, but he has not made him omniscient;" hence it is inferred, that he has not been able to give him faculties sufficiently enlarged to know his divine essence. In this case, it is evident, that God has not been able nor willing to be known by his creatures. By what right then would God be angry with beings, who were naturally incapable of knowing the divine essence? God would be evidently the most unjust and capricious of tyrants, if he should punish an Atheist for not having known, what, by his nature, it was impossible he should know.
30.
To the generality of men, nothing renders an argument more convincing than fear. It is therefore, that theologians assure us, we must take the safest part; that nothing is so criminal as incredulity; that God will punish without pity every one who has the temerity to doubt his existence; that his severity is just, since madness or perversity only can make us deny the existence of an enraged monarch, who without mercy avenges himself on Atheists. If we coolly examine these threatenings, we shall find, they always suppose the thing in question. They must first prove the existence of a God, before they assure us, it is safest to believe, and horrible to doubt or deny his existence. They must then prove, that it is possible and consistent, that a just God cruelly punishes men for having been in a state of madness, that prevented their believing the existence of a being, whom their perverted reason could not conceive. In a word, they must prove, that an infinitely just God can infinitely punish the invincible and natural ignorance of man with respect to the divine nature. Do not theologians reason very strangely? They invent phantoms, they compose them of contradictions; they then assure us, it is safest not to doubt the existence of these phantoms they themselves have invented. According to this mode of reasoning, there is no absurdity, which it would not be more safe to believe, than not to believe.
All children are born Atheists; they have no idea of God. Are they then criminal on account of their ignorance? At what age must they begin to believe in God? It is, you say, at the age of reason. But at what time should this age commence? Besides, if the profoundest theologians lose themselves in the divine nature, which they do not presume to comprehend, what ideas must man have of him?
31.
Men believe in God only upon the word of those, who have no more idea of him than themselves. Our nurses are our first theologians. They talk to children of God as if he were a scarecrow; they teach them from the earliest age to join their hands mechanically. Have nurses then more true ideas of God than the children whom they teach to pray?
32.
Religion, like a family estate, passes, with its incumbrances, from parents to children. Few men in the world would have a God, had not pains been taken in infancy to give them one. Each would receive from his parents and teachers the God whom they received from theirs; but each, agreeably to his disposition, would arrange, modify, and paint him in his own manner.
33.
The brain of man, especially in infancy, is like soft wax, fit to receive every impression that is made upon it. Education furnishes him with almost all his ideas at a time, when he is incapable of judging for himself. We believe we have received from nature, or have brought with us at birth, the true or false ideas, which, in a tender age, had been instilled into our minds; and this persuasion is one of the greatest sources of errors.
34.
Prejudice contributes to cement in us the opinions of those who have been charged with our instruction. We believe them much more experienced than ourselves; we suppose they are fully convinced of the things which they teach us; we have the greatest confidence in them; by the care they have taken of us in infancy, we judge them incapable of wishing to deceive us. These are the motives that make us adopt a thousand errors, without other foundation than the hazardous authority of those by whom we have been brought up. The prohibition likewise of reasoning upon what they teach us, by no means lessens our confidence; but often contributes to increase our respect for their opinions.
35.
Divines act very wisely in teaching men their religious principles before they are capable of distinguishing truth from falsehood, or their left hand from their right. It would be as difficult to instill into the mind of a man, forty years old, the extravagant notions that are given us of the divinity, as to eradicate them from the mind of him who had imbibed them from infancy.
36.
It is observed, that the wonders of nature are sufficient to lead us to the existence of a God, and fully to convince us of this important truth. But how many are there in the world who have the time, capacity, or disposition, necessary to contemplate Nature and meditate her progress? Men, for the most part, pay no regard to it. The peasant is not struck with the beauty of the sun, which he sees every day. The sailor is not surprised at the regular motion of the ocean; he will never draw from it theological conclusions. The phenomena of nature prove the existence of a God only to some prejudiced men, who have been early taught to behold the finger of God in every thing whose mechanism could embarrass them. In the wonders of nature, the unprejudiced philosopher sees nothing but the power of nature, the permanent and various laws, the necessary effects of different combinations of matter infinitely diversified.
37.
Is there any thing more surprising than the logic of these divines, who, instead of confessing their ignorance of natural causes, seek beyond nature, in imaginary regions, a cause much more unknown than that nature, of which they can form at least some idea? To say, that God is the author of the phenomena of nature, is it not to attribute them to an occult cause? What is God? What is a spirit? They are causes of which we have no idea. O wise divines! Study nature and her laws; and since you can there discover the action of natural causes, go not to those that are supernatural, which, far from enlightening, will only darken your ideas, and make it utterly impossible that you should understand yourselves.
38.
Nature, you say, is totally inexplicable without a God. That is to say, to explain what you understand very little, you have need of a cause which you understand not at all. You think to elucidate what is obscure, by doubling the obscurity; to solve difficulties, by multiplying them. O enthusiastic philosophers! To prove the existence of a God, write complete treatises of botany; enter into a minute detail of the parts of the human body; launch forth into the sky, to contemplate the revolution of the stars; then return to the earth to admire the course of waters; behold with transport the butterflies, the insects, the polypi, and the organized atoms, in which you think you discern the greatness of your God. All these things will not prove the existence of God; they will prove only, that you have not just ideas of the immense variety of matter, and of the effects, producible by its infinitely diversified combinations, that constitute the universe. They will prove only your ignorance of nature; that you have no idea of her powers, when you judge her incapable of producing a multitude of forms and beings, of which your eyes, even with the assistance of microscopes, never discern but the smallest part. In a word, they will prove, that, for want of knowing sensible agents, or those possible to know, you find it shorter to have recourse to a word, expressing an inconceivable agent.
39.
We are gravely and repeatedly told, that, there is no effect without a cause; that, the world did not make itself. But the universe is a cause, it is not an effect; it is not a work; it has not been made, because it is impossible that it should have been made. The world has always been; its existence is necessary; it is its own cause. Nature, whose essence is visibly to act and produce, requires not, to discharge her functions, an invisible mover, much more unknown than herself. Matter moves by its own energy, by a necessary consequence of its heterogeneity. The diversity of motion, or modes of mutual action, constitutes alone the diversity of matter. We distinguish beings from one another only by the different impressions or motions which they communicate to our organs.
40.
You see, that all is action in nature, and yet pretend that nature, by itself, is dead and without power. You imagine, that this all, essentially acting, needs a mover! What then is this mover? It is a spirit; a being absolutely incomprehensible and contradictory. Acknowledge then, that matter acts of itself, and cease to reason of your spiritual mover, who has nothing that is requisite to put it in action. Return from your useless excursions; enter again into a real world; keep to second causes, and leave to divines their first cause, of which nature has no need, to produce all the effects you observe in the world.
41.
It can be only by the diversity of impressions and effects, which bodies make upon us, that we feel them; that we have perceptions and ideas of them; that we distinguish one from another; that we assign them properties. Now, to see or feel an object, the object must act upon our organs; this object cannot act upon us, without exciting some motion in us; it cannot excite motion in us, if it be not in motion itself. At the instant I see an object, my eyes are struck by it; I can have no conception of light and vision, without motion, communicated to my eye, from the luminous, extended, coloured body. At the instant I smell something, my sense is irritated, or put in motion, by the parts that exhale from the odoriferous body. At the moment I hear a sound, the tympanum of my ear is struck by the air, put in motion by a sonorous body, which would not act if it were not in motion itself. Whence it evidently follows, that, without motion, I can neither feel, see, distinguish, compare, judge, nor occupy my thoughts upon any subject whatever.
We are taught, that the essence of a thing is that from which all its properties flow. Now, it is evident, that all the properties of bodies, of which we have ideas, are owing to motion, which alone informs us of their existence, and gives us the first conceptions of them. I cannot be informed of my own existence but by the motions I experience in myself. I am therefore forced to conclude, that motion is as essential to matter as extension, and that matter cannot be conceived without it.
Should any person deny, that motion is essential and necessary to matter; they cannot, at least, help acknowledging that bodies, which seem dead and inert, produce motion of themselves, when placed in a fit situation to act upon one another. For instance; phosphorus, when exposed to the air, immediately takes fire. Meal and water, when mixed, ferment. Thus dead matter begets motion of itself. Matter has then the power of self-motion; and nature, to act, has no need of a mover, whose pretended essence would hinder him from acting.
42.
Whence comes man? What is his origin? Did the first man spring, ready formed, from the dust of the earth? Man appears, like all other beings, a production of nature. Whence came the first stones, the first trees, the first lions, the first elephants, the first ants, the first acorns? We are incessantly told to acknowledge and revere the hand of God, of an infinitely wise, intelligent and powerful maker, in so wonderful a work as the human machine. I readily confess, that the human machine appears to me surprising. But as man exists in nature, I am not authorized to say that his formation, is above the power of nature. But I can much less conceive of this formation, when to explain it, I am told, that a pure spirit, who has neither eyes, feet, hands, head, lungs, mouth nor breath, made man by taking a little clay, and breathing upon it.
We laugh at the savage inhabitants of Paraguay, for calling themselves the descendants of the moon. The divines of Europe call themselves the descendants, or the creation, of a pure spirit. Is this pretension any more rational? Man is intelligent; thence it is inferred, that he can be the work only of an intelligent being, and not of a nature, which is void of intelligence. Although nothing is more rare, than to see man make use of this intelligence, of which he seems so proud, I will grant that he is intelligent, that his wants develop this faculty, that society especially contributes to cultivate it. But I see nothing in the human machine, and in the intelligence with which it is endued, that announces very precisely the infinite intelligence of the maker to whom it is ascribed. I see that this admirable machine is liable to be deranged; I see, that his wonderful intelligence is then disordered, and sometimes totally disappears; I infer, that human intelligence depends upon a certain disposition of the material organs of the body, and that we cannot infer the intelligence of God, any more from the intelligence of man, than from his materiality. All that we can infer from it, is, that God is material. The intelligence of man no more proves the intelligence of God, than the malice of man proves the malice of that God, who is the pretended maker of man. In spite of all the arguments of divines, God will always be a cause contradicted by its effects, or of which it is impossible to judge by its works. We shall always see evil, imperfection and folly result from such a cause, that is said to be full of goodness, perfection and wisdom.
43.
"What?" you will say, "is intelligent man, is the universe, and all it contains, the effect of chance?" No; I repeat it, the universe is not an effect; it is the cause of all effects; every being it contains is the necessary effect of this cause, which sometimes shews us its manner of acting, but generally conceals its operations. Men use the word chance to hide their ignorance of true causes, which, though not understood, act not less according to certain laws. There is no effect without a cause. Nature is a word, used to denote the immense assemblage of beings, various matter, infinite combinations, and diversified motions, that we behold. All bodies, organized or unorganized, are necessary effects of certain causes. Nothing in nature can happen by chance. Every thing is subject to fixed laws. These laws are only the necessary connection of certain effects with their causes. One atom of matter cannot meet another by chance; this meeting is the effect of permanent laws, which cause every being necessarily to act as it does, and hinder it from acting otherwise, in given circumstances. To talk of the fortuitous concourse of atoms, or to attribute some effects to chance, is merely saying that we are ignorant of the laws, by which bodies act, meet, combine, or separate.
Those, who are unacquainted with nature, the properties of beings, and the effects which must necessarily result from the concurrence of certain causes, think, that every thing takes place by chance. It is not chance, that has placed the sun in the centre of our planetary system; it is by its own essence, that the substance, of which it is composed, must occupy that place, and thence be diffused.
44.
The worshippers of a God find, in the order of the universe, an invincible proof of the existence of an intelligent and wise being, who governs it. But this order is nothing but a series of movements necessarily produced by causes or circumstances, which are sometimes favourable, and sometimes hurtful to us: we approve of some, and complain of others.
Nature uniformly follows the same round; that is, the same causes produce the same effects, as long as their action is not disturbed by other causes, which force them to produce different effects. When the operation of causes, whose effects we experience, is interrupted by causes, which, though unknown, are not the less natural and necessary, we are confounded; we cry out, a miracle! and attribute it to a cause much more unknown, than any of those acting before our eyes.
The universe is always in order. It cannot be in disorder. It is our machine, that suffers, when we complain of disorder. The bodies, causes, and beings, which this world contains, necessarily act in the manner in which we see them act, whether we approve or disapprove of their effects. Earthquakes, volcanoes, inundations, pestilences, and famines are effects as necessary, or as much in the order of nature, as the fall of heavy bodies, the courses of rivers, the periodical motions of the seas, the blowing of the winds, the fruitful rains, and the favourable effects, for which men praise God, and thank him for his goodness.
To be astonished that a certain order reigns in the world, is to be surprised that the same causes constantly produce the same effects. To be shocked at disorder, is to forget, that when things change, or are interrupted in their actions, the effects can no longer be the same. To wonder at the order of nature, is to wonder that any thing can exist; it is to be surprised at any one's own existence. What is order to one being, is disorder to another. All wicked beings find that every thing is in order, when they can with impunity put every thing in disorder. They find, on the contrary, that every thing is in disorder, when they are disturbed in the exercise of their wickedness.
45.
Upon supposition that God is the author and mover of nature, there could be no disorder with respect to him. Would not all the causes, that he should have made, necessarily act according to the properties, essences, and impulses given them? If God should change the ordinary course of nature, he would not be immutable. If the order of the universe, in which man thinks he sees the most convincing proof of the existence, intelligence, power and goodness of God, should happen to contradict itself, one might suspect his existence, or, at least, accuse him of inconstancy, impotence, want of foresight and wisdom in the arrangement of things; one would have a right to accuse him of an oversight in the choice of the agents and instruments, which he makes, prepares, and puts in action. In short, if the order of nature proves the power and intelligence of the Deity, disorder must prove his weakness, instability, and irrationality.
You say, that God is omnipresent, that he fills the universe with his immensity, that nothing is done without him, that matter could not act without his agency. But in this case, you admit, that your God is the author of disorder, that it is he who deranges nature, that he is the father of confusion, that he is in man, and moves him at the moment he sins. If God is every where, he is in me, he acts with me, he is deceived with me, he offends God with me, and combats with me the existence of God! O theologians! you never understand yourselves, when you speak of God.
46.
In order to have what we call intelligence, it is necessary to have ideas, thoughts, and wishes; to have ideas, thoughts, and wishes, it is necessary to have organs; to have organs, it is necessary to have a body; to act upon bodies, it is necessary to have a body; to experience disorder, it is necessary to be capable of suffering. Whence it evidently follows, that a pure spirit can neither be intelligent, nor affected by what passes in the universe.
Divine intelligence, ideas, and views, have, you say, nothing common with those of men. Very well. How then can men judge, right or wrong, of these views; reason upon these ideas; or admire this intelligence? This would be to judge, admire, and adore that, of which we can have no ideas. To adore the profound views of divine wisdom, is it not to adore that, of which we cannot possibly judge? To admire these views, is it not to admire without knowing why? Admiration is always the daughter of ignorance. Men admire and adore only what they do not comprehend.
47.
All those qualities, ascribed to God, are totally incompatible with a being, who, by his very essence, is void of all analogy with human beings. It is true, the divines imagine they extricate themselves from this difficulty, by exaggerating the human qualities, attributed to the Divinity; they enlarge them to infinity, where they cease to understand themselves. What results from this combination of man with God? A mere chimera, of which, if any thing be affirmed, the phantom, combined with so much pains, instantly vanishes.
Dante, in his poem upon Paradise, relates, that the Deity appeared to him under the figure of three circles, forming an iris, whose lively colours generated each other; but that, looking steadily upon the dazzling light, he saw only his own figure. While adoring God, it is himself, that man adores.
48.
Ought not the least reflection suffice to prove, that God can have none of the human qualities, all ties, virtues, or perfections? Our virtues and perfections are consequences of the modifications of our passions. But has God passions as we have? Again: our good qualities consist in our dispositions towards the beings with whom we live in society. God, according to you, is an insulated being. God has no equals—no fellow-beings. God does not live in society. He wants the assistance of no one. He enjoys an unchangeable felicity. Admit then, according to your own principles, that God cannot have what we call virtues, and that man cannot be virtuous with respect to him.
49.
Man, wrapped up in his own merit, imagines the human race to be the sole object of God in creating the universe. Upon what does he found this flattering opinion? We are told: that man is the only being endued with intelligence, which enables him to know the Deity, and to render him homage. We are assured, that God made the world only for his own glory, and that it was necessary that the human species should come into this plan, that there might be some one to admire his works, and glorify him for them. But, according to these suppositions, has not God evidently missed his object? 1st. Man, according to yourselves, will always labour under the completest impossibility of knowing his God, and the most invincible ignorance of his divine essence. 2ndly. A being, who has no equal, cannot be susceptible of glory; for glory can result only from the comparison of one's own excellence with that of others. 3rdly. If God be infinitely happy, if he be self-sufficient, what need has he of the homage of his feeble creatures? 4thly. God, notwithstanding all his endeavours, is not glorified; but, on the contrary, all the religions in the world represent him as perpetually offended; their sole object is to reconcile sinful, ungrateful, rebellious man with his angry God.
50.
If God be infinite, he has much less relation with man, than man with ants. Would the ants reason pertinently concerning the intentions, desires, and projects of the gardener? Could they justly imagine, that a park was planted for them alone, by an ostentatious monarch, and that the sole object of his goodness was to furnish them with a superb residence? But, according to theology, man is, with respect to God, far below what the vilest insect is to man. Thus, by theology itself, which is wholly devoted to the attributes and views of the Divinity, theology appears a complete folly.
51.
We are told, that, in the formation of the universe, God's only object was the happiness of man. But, in a world made purposely for him, and governed by an omnipotent God, is man in reality very happy? Are his enjoyments durable? Are not his pleasures mixed with pains? Are many persons satisfied with their fate? Is not man continually the victim of physical and moral evils? Is not the human machine, which is represented as a master-piece of the Creator's skill, liable to derangement in a thousand ways? Should we be surprised at the workmanship of a mechanic, who should shew us a complex machine, ready to stop every moment, and which, in a short time, would break in pieces of itself?
52.
The generous care, displayed by the Deity in providing for the wants, and watching over the happiness of his beloved creatures, is called Providence. But, when we open our eyes, we find that God provides nothing. Providence sleeps over the greater part of the inhabitants of this world. For a very small number of men who are supposed to be happy, what an immense multitude groan under oppression, and languish in misery! Are not nations forced to deprive themselves of bread, to administer to the extravagances of a few gloomy tyrants, who are no happier than their oppressed slaves?
At the same time that our divines emphatically expatiate upon the goodness of Providence, while they exhort us to repose our confidence in her, do we not hear them, at the sight of unforeseen catastrophes, exclaim, that Providence sports with the vain projects of man, that she frustrates their designs, that she laughs at their efforts, that profound wisdom delights to bewilder the minds of mortals? But, shall we put confidence in a malignant Providence, who laughs at, and sports with mankind? How will one admire the unknown ways of a hidden wisdom, whose manner of acting is inexplicable? Judge of it by effects, you will say. We do; and find, that these effects are sometimes useful, and sometimes hurtful.
Men think they justify Providence, by saying, that, in this world, there is much more good than evil to every individual of mankind. Supposing the good, we enjoy from Providence, is to the evil, as a hundred to ten; will it not still follow, that, for a hundred degrees of goodness, Providence possesses ten of malignity; which is incompatible with the supposed perfection of the divine nature.
Almost all books are filled with the most flattering praises of Providence, whose attentive care is highly extolled. It would seem as if man, to live happily here below, needed not his own exertions. Yet, without his own labour, man could subsist hardly a day. To live, he is obliged to sweat, toil, hunt, fish, and labour without intermission. Without these second causes, the first cause, at least in most countries, would provide for none of our wants. In all parts of the globe, we see savage and civilized man in a perpetual struggle with Providence. He is necessitated to ward off the strokes directed against him by Providence, in hurricanes, tempests, frosts, hail-storms, inundations, droughts, and the various accidents, which so often render useless all his labours. In a word, we see man continually occupied in guarding against the ill offices of that Providence, which is supposed to be attentive to his happiness.
A bigot admired divine Providence for wisely ordering rivers to pass through those places, where men have built large cities. Is not this man's reasoning as rational, as that of many learned men, who incessantly talk of final causes, or who pretend that they clearly perceive the beneficent views of God in the formation of all things?
53.
Do we see then, that Providence so very sensibly manifests herself in the preservation of those admirable works, which we attribute to her? If it is she, who governs the world, we find her as active in destroying, as in forming; in exterminating, as in producing. Does she not every moment destroy, by thousands, the very men, to whose preservation and welfare we suppose her continually attentive? Every moment she loses sight of her beloved creature. Sometimes she shakes his dwelling, sometimes she annihilates his harvests, sometimes she inundates his fields, sometimes she desolates them by a burning drought. She arms all nature against man. She arms man himself against his own species, and commonly terminates his existence in anguish. Is this then what is called preserving the universe?
If we could view, without prejudice, the equivocal conduct of Providence towards the human race and all sensible beings, we should find, that far from resembling a tender and careful mother, she resembles rather those unnatural mothers, who instantly forgetting the unfortunates of their licentious love, abandon their infants, as soon as they are born, and who, content with having borne them, expose them, helpless, to the caprice of fortune.
The Hottentots, in this respect are much wiser than other nations, who treat them as barbarians, and refuse to worship God; because, they say, if he often does good, he often does evil. Is not this manner of reasoning more just and conformable to experience, than that of many men, who are determined to see, in their God, nothing but goodness, wisdom, and foresight, and who refuse to see that the innumerable evils, of which this world is the theatre, must come from the same hand, which they kiss with delight?
54.
Common sense teaches, that we cannot, and ought not, to judge of a cause, but by its effects. A cause can be reputed constantly good, only when it constantly produces good. A cause, which produces both good and evil, is sometimes good, and sometimes evil. But the logic of theology destroys all this. According to that, the phenomena of nature, or the effects we behold in this world, prove to us the existence of a cause infinitely good; and this cause is God. Although this world is full of evils; although disorder often reigns in it; although men incessantly repine at their hard fate; we must be convinced, that these effects are owing to a beneficent and immutable cause; and many people believe it, or feign believe.
Every thing that passes in the world, proves to us, in the clearest manner, that it is not governed by an intelligent being. We can judge of the intelligence of a being only by the conformity of the means, which he employs to attain his proposed object. The object of God, is the happiness of a man. Yet, a like necessity governs the fate of all sensible beings, who are born only to suffer much, enjoy little, and die. The cup of man is filled with joy and bitterness; good is every where attended with evil; order gives place to disorder; generation is followed by destruction. If you say, that the designs of God are mysterious and that his ways are impenetrable; I answer, that, in this case, it is impossible to judge whether God be intelligent. |
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