To pretend that God can be offended with the actions of men, is to
annihilate all the ideas that are given to us of this being. To say that
man can disturb the order of the universe, that he can grasp the
lightning from God's hand, that he can upset His projects, is to claim
that man is stronger than his God, that he is the arbiter of His will,
that it depends on him to change His goodness into cruelty. Theology
does nothing but destroy with one hand that which it builds with the
other. If all religion is founded upon a God who becomes angry, and who
is appeased, all religion is founded upon a palpable contradiction.
All religions agree in exalting the wisdom and the infinite power of the
Divinity; but as soon as they expose His conduct, we discover but
imprudence, want of foresight, weakness, and folly. God, it is said,
created the world for Himself; and so far He has not succeeded in making
Himself properly respected! God has created men in order to have in His
dominion subjects who would render Him homage; and we continually see
men revolt against Him!
LXVIII.--THE PRETENDED WORKS OF GOD DO NOT PROVE AT ALL WHAT WE CALL
DIVINE PERFECTION.
We are continually told of the Divine perfections; and as soon as we ask
the proofs of them, we are shown the works in which we are assured that
these perfections are written in ineffaceable characters. All these
works, however, are imperfect and perishable; man, who is regarded as
the masterpiece, as the most marvelous work of Divinity, is full of
imperfections which render him disagreeable in the eyes of the Almighty
workman who has formed him; this surprising work becomes often so
revolting and so odious to its Author, that He feels Himself compelled
to cast him into the fire. But if the choicest work of Divinity is
imperfect, by what are we to judge of the Divine perfections? Can a work
with which the author himself is so little satisfied, cause us to admire
his skill? Physical man is subject to a thousand infirmities, to
countless evils, to death; the moral man is full of defects; and yet
they exhaust themselves by telling us that he is the most beautiful work
of the most perfect of beings.
LXIX.--THE PERFECTION OF GOD DOES NOT SHOW TO ANY MORE ADVANTAGE IN THE
PRETENDED CREATION OF ANGELS AND PURE SPIRITS.
It appears that God, in creating more perfect beings than men, did not
succeed any better, or give stronger proofs of His perfection. Do we not
see in many religions that angels and pure spirits revolted against
their Master, and even attempted to expel Him from His throne? God
intended the happiness of angels and of men, and He has never succeeded
in rendering happy either angels or men; pride, malice, sins, the
imperfections of His creatures, have always been opposed to the wishes
of the perfect Creator.
LXX.--THEOLOGY PREACHES THE OMNIPOTENCE OF ITS GOD, AND CONTINUALLY SHOWS
HIM IMPOTENT.
All religion is visibly founded upon the principle that "God proposes
and man disposes." All the theologies of the world show us an unequal
combat between Divinity on the one side, and His creatures on the other.
God never relies on His honor; in spite of His almighty power, He could
not succeed in making the works of His hands as He would like them to
be. To complete the absurdity, there is a religion which pretends that
God Himself died to redeem the human race; and, in spite of His death,
men are not in the least as this God would desire them to be!
LXXI.--ACCORDING TO ALL THE RELIGIOUS SYSTEMS OF THE EARTH, GOD WOULD BE
THE MOST CAPRICIOUS AND THE MOST INSENSATE OF BEINGS.
Nothing could be more extravagant than the role which in every country
theology makes Divinity play. If the thing was real, we would be obliged
to see in it the most capricious and the most insane of beings; one
would be obliged to believe that God made the world to be the theater of
dishonoring wars with His creatures; that He created angels, men,
demons, wicked spirits, but as adversaries, against whom He could
exercise His power. He gives them liberty to offend Him, makes them
wicked enough to upset His projects, obstinate enough to never give up:
all for the pleasure of getting angry, and being appeased, of
reconciling Himself, and of repairing the confusion they have made. Had
Divinity formed at once His creatures such as they ought to be in order
to please Him, what trouble He might have spared Himself! or, at least,
how much embarrassment He might have saved to His theologians! According
to all the religious systems of the earth, God seems to be occupied but
in doing Himself injury; He does it as those charlatans do who wound
themselves, in order to have occasion to show the public the value of
their ointments. We do not see, however, that so far Divinity has been
able to radically cure itself of the evil which is caused by men.