In all times the ferocity, the stupidity, the folly of savage men were
shown in religious customs which were often cruel and extravagant. A
spirit of barbarity has come down to our days; it intrudes itself into
the religions which are followed by the most civilized nations. Do we
not still see human victims offered to Divinity? In order to appease the
wrath of a God whom we suppose as ferocious, as jealous, as vindictive,
as a savage, do not sanguinary laws cause the destruction of those who
are believed to have displeased Him by their way of thinking?
Modern nations, at the instigation of their priests, have even excelled
the atrocious folly of the most barbarous nations; at least do we not
find that it never entered into a savage's mind to torment for the sake
of opinions, to meddle in thought, to trouble men for the invisible
actions of their brains? When we see polished and wise nations, such as
the English, French, German, etc., notwithstanding all their
enlightenment, continue to kneel before the barbarous God of the Jews,
that is to say, of the most stupid, the most credulous, the most savage,
the most unsocial nation which ever was on the earth; when we see these
enlightened nations divide themselves into sects, tear one another, hate
and despise each other for opinions, equally ridiculous, upon the
conduct and the intentions of this irrational God; when we see
intelligent persons occupy themselves foolishly in meditating on the
wishes of this capricious and foolish God; we are tempted to exclaim,
"Oh, men! you are still savages! Oh, men! you are but children in the
matter of religion!"
CXXII.--THE MORE ANCIENT AND GENERAL A RELIGIOUS OPINION IS, THE GREATER
THE REASON FOR SUSPECTING IT.
Whoever has formed true ideas of the ignorance, credulity, negligence,
and sottishness of common people, will always regard their religious
opinions with the greater suspicion for their being generally
established. The majority of men examine nothing; they allow themselves
to be blindly led by custom and authority; their religious opinions are
specially those which they have the least courage and capacity to
examine; as they do not understand anything about them, they are
compelled to be silent or put an end to their reasoning. Ask the common
man if he believes in God. He will be surprised that you could doubt it.
Then ask him what he understands by the word God. You will confuse him;
you will perceive at once that he is incapable of forming any real idea
of this word which he so often repeats; he will tell you that God is
God, and you will find that he knows neither what he thinks of Him, nor
the motives which he has for believing in Him.
All nations speak of a God; but do they agree upon this God? No! Well,
difference of opinion does not serve as evidence, but is a sign of
uncertainty and obscurity. Does the same man always agree with himself
in his ideas of God? No! This idea varies with the vicissitudes of his
life. This is another sign of uncertainty. Men always agree with other
men and with themselves upon demonstrated truths, regardless of the
position in which they find themselves; except the insane, all agree
that two and two make four, that the sun shines, that the whole is
greater than any one of its parts, that Justice is a benefaction, that
we must be benevolent to deserve the love of men, that injustice and
cruelty are incompatible with goodness. Do they agree in the same way if
they speak of God? All that they think or say of Him is immediately
contradicted by the effects which they wish to attribute to Him. Tell
several artists to paint a chimera, each of them will form different
ideas of it, and will paint it differently; you will find no resemblance
in the features each of them will have given to a portrait whose model
exists nowhere. In painting God, do any of the theologians of the world
represent Him otherwise than as a great chimera, upon whose features
they never agree, each one arranging it according to his style, which
has its origin but in his own brain? There are no two individuals in the
world who have or can have the same ideas of their God.
CXXIII.--SKEPTICISM IN THE MATTER OF RELIGION, CAN BE THE EFFECT OF BUT A
SUPERFICIAL EXAMINATION OF THEOLOGICAL PRINCIPLES.
Perhaps it would be more truthful to say, that all men are either
skeptics or atheists, than to pretend that they are firmly convinced of
the existence of a God. How can we be assured of the existence of a
being whom we never have been able to examine, of whom it is impossible
to form any permanent idea, whose different effects upon ourselves
prevent us from forming an invariable judgment, of whom no idea can be
uniform in two different brains? How can we claim to be completely
persuaded of the existence of a being to whom we are constantly obliged
to attribute a conduct opposed co the ideas which we had tried to form
of it? Is it possible firmly to believe what we can not conceive? In
believing thus, are we not adhering to the opinions of others without
having one of our own? The priests regulate the belief of the vulgar;
but do not these priests themselves acknowledge that God is
incomprehensible to them? Let us conclude, then, that the conviction of
the existence of a God is not as general as it is affirmed to be.
To be a skeptic, is to lack the motives necessary to establish a
judgment. In view of the proofs which seem to establish, and of the
arguments which combat the existence of a God, some persons prefer to
doubt and to suspend their judgment; but at the bottom, this uncertainty
is the result of an insufficient examination. Is it, then, possible to
doubt evidence? Sensible people deride, and with reason, an absolute
pyrrhonism, and even consider it impossible. A man who could doubt his
own existence, or that of the sun, would appear very ridiculous, or
would be suspected of reasoning in bad faith. Is it less extravagant to
have uncertainties about the non-existence of an evidently impossible
being? Is it more absurd to doubt of one's own existence, than to
hesitate upon the impossibility of a being whose qualities destroy each
other? Do we find more probabilities for believing in a spiritual being
than for believing in the existence of a stick without two ends? Is the
notion of an infinitely good and powerful being who permits an infinity
of evils, less absurd or less impossible than that of a square triangle?
Let us conclude, then, that religious skepticism can be but the effect
of a superficial examination of theological principles, which are in a
perpetual contradiction of the clearest and best demonstrated
principles! To doubt is to deliberate upon the judgment which we should
pass. Skepticism is but a state of indecision which results from a
superficial examination of subjects. Is it possible to be skeptical in
the matter of religion when we design to return to its principles, and
look closely into the idea of the God who serves as its foundation?
Doubt arises ordinarily from laziness, weakness, indifference, or
incapacity. To doubt, for many people, is to dread the trouble of
examining things to which one attaches but little interest. Although
religion is presented to men as the most important thing for them in
this world as well as in the other, skepticism and doubt on this subject
can be for the mind but a disagreeable state, and offers but a
comfortable cushion. No man who has not the courage to contemplate
without prejudice the God upon whom every religion is founded, can know
what religion to accept; he does not know what to believe and what not
to believe, to accept or to reject, what to hope or fear; finally, he is
incompetent to judge for himself.
Indifference upon religion can not be confounded with skepticism; this
indifference itself is founded upon the assurance or upon the
probability which we find in believing that religion is not made to
interest us. The persuasion which we have that a thing which is
presented to us as very important, is not so, or is but indifferent,
supposes a sufficient examination of the thing, without which it would
be impossible to have this persuasion. Those who call themselves
skeptics in regard to the fundamental points of religion, are generally
but idle and lazy men, who are incapable of examining them.