You pretend that God is immutable! But what is it that occasions the
continual instability in this world, which you claim as His empire? Is
any state subject to more frequent and cruel revolutions than that of
this unknown monarch? How can we attribute to an immutable God, powerful
enough to give solidity to His works, the government of a world where
everything is in a continual vicissitude? If I think to see a God
unchanging in all the effects advantageous to my kind, what God can I
discover in the continual misfortunes by which my kind is oppressed? You
tell me that it is our sins that force Him to punish us. I will answer
that God, according to yourselves, is not immutable, because the sins of
men compel Him to change His conduct in regard to them. Can a being who
is sometimes irritated, and sometimes appeased, be constantly the same?
LVI.--EVIL AND GOOD ARE THE NECESSARY EFFECTS OF NATURAL CAUSES. WHAT IS
A GOD WHO CAN CHANGE NOTHING?
The universe is but what it can be; all sentient beings enjoy and suffer
here: that is to say, they are moved sometimes in an agreeable, and at
other times in a disagreeable way. These effects are necessary; they
result from causes that act according to their inherent tendencies.,
These effects necessarily please or displease me, according to my own
nature. This same nature compels me to avoid, to remove, and to combat
the one, and to seek, to desire, and to procure the other. In a world
where everything is from necessity, a God who remedies nothing, and
allows things to follow their own course, is He anything else but
destiny or necessity personified? It is a deaf God who can effect no
change on the general laws to which He is subjected Himself. What do I
care for the infinite power of a being who can do but a very few things
to please me? Where is the infinite kindness of a being who is
indifferent to my happiness? What good to me is the favor of a being
who, able to bestow upon me infinite good, does not even give me a
finite one?
LVII.--THE VANITY OF THEOLOGICAL CONSOLATIONS
IN THE TROUBLES OF THIS LIFE. THE HOPE OF A HEAVEN, OF A FUTURE LIFE,
IS BUT IMAGINARY.
When we ask why, under a good God, so many are wretched, we are reminded
that the present world is but a pass-way, designed to conduct man to a
happier sphere; we are assured that our sojourn on the earth, where we
live, is for trial; they silence us by saying that God would not impart
to His creatures either the indifference to the sufferings of others, or
the infinite happiness which He reserved for Himself alone. How can we
be satisfied with these answers?
1. The existence of another life has no other guaranty than the
imagination of men, who, in supposing it, have but manifested their
desire to live again, in order to enter upon a purer and more durable
state of happiness than that which they enjoy at present.
2. How can we conceive of a God who, knowing all things, must know to
their depths the nature of His creatures, and yet must have so many
proofs in order to assure Himself of their proclivities?
3. According to the calculations of our chronologists, the earth which
we inhabit has existed for six or seven thousand years; during this time
the nations have, under different forms, experienced many vicissitudes
and calamities; history shows us that the human race in all ages has
been tormented and devastated by tyrants, conquerors, heroes; by wars,
inundations, famines, epidemics, etc. Is this long catalogue of proofs
of such a nature as to inspire us with great confidence in the hidden
views of the Divinity? Do such constant evils give us an exalted idea of
the future fate which His kindness is preparing for us?
4. If God is as well-disposed as they assure us He is, could He not at
least, without bestowing an infinite happiness upon men, communicate to
them that degree of happiness of which finite beings are susceptible? In
order to be happy, do we need an Infinite or Divine happiness?
5. If God has not been able to render men happier than they are here
below, what will become of the hope of a Paradise, where it is pretended
that the elect or chosen few will rejoice forever in ineffable
happiness? If God could not or would not remove evil from the earth (the
only sojourning place we know of), what reason could we have to presume
that He can or will remove it from another world, of which we know
nothing? More than two thousand years ago, according to Lactance, the
wise epicure said: "Either God wants to prevent evil, and can not, or He
can and will not; or He neither can nor will, or He will and can. If He
wants to, without the power, He is impotent; if He can, and will not, He
is guilty of malice which we can not attribute to Him; if He neither can
nor will, He is both impotent and wicked, and consequently can not be
God; if He wishes to and can, whence then comes evil, or why does He not
prevent it?" For more than two thousand years honest minds have waited
for a rational solution of these difficulties; and our theologians teach
us that they will not be revealed to us until the future life.