We are constantly told, and a good many sensible persons come to believe
it, that religion is necessary to restrain men; that without it there
would be no check upon the people; that morality and virtue are
intimately connected with it: "The fear of the Lord is," we are told,
"the beginning of wisdom." The terrors of another life are salutary
terrors, and calculated to subdue men's passions. To disabuse us in
regard to the utility of religious notions, it is sufficient to open the
eyes and to consider what are the morals of the most religious people.
We see haughty tyrants, oppressive ministers, perfidious courtiers,
countless extortioners, unscrupulous magistrates, impostors, adulterers,
libertines, prostitutes, thieves, and rogues of all kinds, who have
never doubted the existence of a vindictive God, or the punishments of
hell, or the joys of Paradise.
Although very useless for the majority of men, the ministers of religion
have tried to make death appear terrible to the eyes of their votaries.
If the most devoted Christians could be consistent, they would pass
their whole lives in tears, and would finally die in the most terrible
alarms. What is more frightful than death to those unfortunate ones who
are constantly reminded that "it is a fearful thing to fall into the
hands of a living God;" that they should "seek salvation with fear and
trembling!" However, we are assured that the Christian's death has great
consolations, of which the unbeliever is deprived. The good Christian,
we are told, dies with the firm hope of enjoying eternal happiness,
which he has tried to deserve. But this firm assurance, is it not a
punishable presumption in the eyes of a severe God? The greatest saints,
are they not to be in doubt whether they are worthy of the love or of
the hatred of God Priests who console us with the hope of the joys of
Paradise, and close your eyes to the torments of hell, have you then had
the advantage of seeing your names and ours inscribed in the book of
life?
CXLI.--RELIGION IS THE WEAKEST RESTRAINT THAT CAN BE OPPOSED TO THE
PASSIONS.
To oppose to the passions and present interests of men the obscure
notions about a metaphysical God whom no one can conceive of; the
incredible punishments of another life; the pleasures of Heaven, of
which we can not form an idea, is it not combating realities with
chimeras? Men have always but confused ideas of their God; they see Him
only in the clouds; they never think of Him when they wish to do wrong.
Whenever ambition, fortune, or pleasure entices them or leads them away,
God, and His menaces, and His promises weigh nothing in the balance. The
things of this life have for men a degree of certainty, which the most
lively faith can never give to the objects of another life.
Every religion, in its origin, was a restraint invented by legislators
who wished to subjugate the minds of the common people. Like nurses who
frighten children in order to put them to sleep, ambitious men use the
name of the gods to inspire fear in savages; terror seems well suited to
compel them to submit quietly to the yoke which is to be imposed upon
them. Are the ghost stories of childhood fit for mature age? Man in his
maturity no longer believes in them, or if he does, he is troubled but
little by it, and he keeps on his road.