are in religion. In theological quarrels, the populace, like ferocious
beasts, fall upon all those, against whom their priest is desirous of
exciting them. A profound ignorance, boundless credulity, weak intellect,
and warm imagination, are the materials, of which are made bigots,
zealots, fanatics, and saints. How can the voice of reason be heard by
them who make it a principle never to examine for themselves, but to
submit blindly to the guidance of others? The saints and the populace are,
in the hands of their directors, automatons, moved at pleasure.
139.
Religion is an affair of custom and fashion. _We must do as others do._
But, among the numerous religions in the world, which should men choose?
This inquiry would be too painful and long. They must therefore adhere
to the religion of their fathers, to that of their country, which, having
force on its side, must be the best.
If we judge of the intentions of Providence by the events and revolutions
of this world, we are compelled to believe, that He is very indifferent
about the various religions upon earth. For thousands of years, paganism,
polytheism, idolatry, were the prevailing religions. We are now assured,
that the most flourishing nations had not the least idea of God; an idea,
regarded as so essential to the happiness of man. Christians say, all
mankind lived in the grossest ignorance of their duties towards God, and
had no notions of him, but what were insulting to his Divine Majesty.
Christianity, growing out of Judaism, very humble in its obscure origin,
became powerful and cruel under the Christian emperors, who, prompted by
holy zeal, rapidly spread it in their empire by means of fire and sword,
and established it upon the ruins of paganism. Mahomet and his successors,
seconded by Providence or their victorious arms, in a short time banished
the Christian religion from a part of Asia, Africa, and even Europe; and
the _gospel_ was then forced to yield to the _Koran_.
In all the factions or sects, which, for many ages have distracted
Christianity, _the best argument has been always that of the strongest
party_; arms have decided which doctrine is most conducive to the
happiness of nations. May we not hence infer, either that the Deity feels
little interested in the religion of men, or that he always declares in
favour of the opinions, which best suit the interest of earthly powers; in
fine, that he changes his plan to accommodate their fancy?
Rulers infallibly decide the religion of the people. The true religion
is always the religion of the prince; the true God is the God, whom the
prince desires his people to adore; the will of the priests, who govern
the prince, always becomes the will of God. A wit justly observed, that
_the true religion is always that, on whose side are the prince and the
hangman._ Emperors and hangmen long supported the gods of Rome against the
God of Christians; the latter, having gained to his interest the emperors,
their soldiers, and their hangmen, succeeded in destroying the worship of
the Roman gods. The God of Mahomet has dispossessed the God of Christians
of a great part of the dominions, which he formerly occupied.
In the eastern part of Asia, is a vast, flourishing, fertile, populous
country, governed by such wise laws, that the fiercest conquerors have
adopted them with respect. I mean China. Excepting Christianity, which was
banished as dangerous, the people there follow such superstitions as
they please, while the _mandarins_, or magistrates, having long known the
errors of the popular religion, are vigilant to prevent the _bonzes_ or
priests from using it as an instrument of discord. Yet we see not,
that Providence refuses his blessing to a nation, whose chiefs are so
indifferent about the worship that is rendered to him. On the contrary,
the Chinese enjoy a happiness and repose worthy to be envied, by the many
nations whom religion divides, and often devastates.
We cannot reasonably propose to divest the people of their follies; but we
may perhaps cure the follies of those who govern the people, and who
will then prevent the follies of the people from becoming dangerous.
Superstition is to be feared only when princes and soldiers rally round
her standard; then she becomes cruel and sanguinary. Every sovereign, who
is the protector of one sect or religious faction, is commonly the tyrant
of others, and becomes himself the most cruel disturber of the peace of
his dominions.
140.
It is incessantly repeated, and many sensible persons are induced to
believe, that religion is a restraint necessary to men; that without
it, there would no longer exist the least check for the vulgar; and that
morality and religion are intimately connected with it. "The fear of
the Lord," cries the priest, "is the beginning of wisdom. The terrors of
another life are _salutary_, and are proper to curb the passions of men."
To perceive the inutility of religious notions, we have only to open our
eyes and contemplate the morals of those nations, who are the most
under the dominion of religion. We there find proud tyrants, oppressive
ministers, perfidious courtiers, shameless extortioners, corrupt
magistrates, knaves, adulterers, debauchees, prostitutes, thieves, and
rogues of every kind, who have never doubted either the existence of an
avenging and rewarding God, the torments of hell, or the joys of paradise.
Without the least utility to the greater part of mankind, the ministers
of religion have studied to render death terrible to the eyes of their
followers. If devout Christians could but be consistent, they would pass
their whole life in tears, and die under the most dreadful apprehensions.
What can be more terrible than death, to the unfortunate who are told,
_that it is horrible to fall into the hands of the living God; that we
must work out our salvation with fear and trembling!_ Yet we are assured,
that the death of the Christian is attended with infinite consolations, of
which the unbeliever is deprived. The good Christian, it is said, dies in
the firm hope of an eternal happiness which he has strived to merit. But
is not this firm assurance itself a presumption punishable in the eyes of
a severe God? Ought not the greatest saints to be ignorant whether they
are _worthy of love or hatred?_ Ye Priests! while consoling us with the
hope of the joys of paradise; have you then had the advantage to see your
names and ours inscribed _in the book of life?_
141.
To oppose the passions and present interests of men the obscure notions of
a metaphysical, inconceivable God,--the incredible punishments of another
life,--or the pleasures of the heaven, of which nobody has the least
idea,--is not this combating realities with fictions? Men have never any
but confused ideas of their God: they see him only in clouds. They
never think of him when they are desirous to do evil: whenever ambition,
fortune, or pleasure allures them, God's threatenings and promises are
forgotten. In the things of this life, there is a degree of certainty,
which the most lively faith cannot give to the things of another life.
Every religion was originally a curb invented by legislators, who wished
to establish their authority over the minds of rude nations. Like nurses
who frighten children to oblige them to be quiet, the ambitious used the
name of the gods to frighten savages; and had recourse to terror in order
to make them support quietly the yoke they wished to impose. Are then the
bugbears of infancy made for riper age? At the age of maturity, no man
longer believes them, or if he does, they excite little emotion in him,
and never alter his conduct.
142.
Almost every man fears what he sees much more than what he does not see;
he fears the judgments of men of which he feels the effects, more than
the judgments of God of whom he has only fluctuating ideas. The desire
of pleasing the world, the force of custom, the fear of ridicule, and
of censure, have more force than all religious opinions. Does not the
soldier, through fear of disgrace, daily expose his life in battle, even
at the risk of incurring eternal damnation?
The most religious persons have often more respect for a varlet, than for
God. A man who firmly believes, that God sees every thing, and that he is
omniscient and omnipresent, will be guilty, when alone, of actions,
which he would never do in presence of the meanest of mortals. Those,
who pretend to be the most fully convinced of the existence of God, every
moment act as if they believed the contrary.
143.
"Let us, at least," it will be said, "cherish the idea of a God, which
alone may serve as a barrier to the passions of kings." But, can we
sincerely admire the wonderful effects, which the fear of this God
generally produces upon the minds of princes, who are called his images?
What idea shall we form of the original, if we judge of it by the copies!
Sovereigns, it is true, call themselves the representatives of God, his
vicegerents upon earth. But does the fear of a master, more powerful than
they are, incline them seriously to study the welfare of the nations, whom
Providence has intrusted to their care? Does the pretended terror, which
ought to be inspired into them by the idea of an invisible judge, to whom
alone they acknowledge themselves accountable for their actions, render
them more equitable, more compassionate, more sparing of blood and
treasure of their subjects, more temperate in their pleasures, more
attentive to their duties? In fine, does this God, by whose authority
kings reign, deter them from inflicting a thousand evils upon the people
to whom they ought to act as guides, protectors, and fathers? Alas! If we
survey the whole earth, we shall see men almost every where governed by
tyrants, who use religion merely as an instrument to render more stupid
the slaves, whom they overwhelm under the weight of their vices, or whom
they sacrifice without mercy to their extravagancies.
Far from being a check upon the passions of kings, Religion, by its
very principles, frees them from all restraint. It transforms them into
divinities, whose caprice the people are never permitted to resist. While
it gives up the reins to princes, and on their part breaks the bonds of
the social compact, it endeavours to chain the minds and hands of their
oppressed subjects. Is it then surprising, that the gods of the earth
imagine every thing lawful for them, and regard their subjects only as
instruments of their caprice or ambition?
In every country, Religion has represented the Monarch of nature as a
cruel, fantastical, partial tyrant, whose caprice is law; the Monarch God,
is but too faithfully imitated by his representatives upon earth. Religion
seems every where invented solely to lull the people in the lap of
slavery, in order that their masters may easily oppress them, or render
them wretched with impunity.
144.
To guard against the enterprises of a haughty pontiff who wished to
reign over kings, to shelter their persons from the attempts of credulous
nations excited by the priests, several European princes have pretended to
hold their crowns and rights from God alone, and to be accountable only
to him for their actions. After a long contest between the civil and
spiritual power, the former at length triumphed; and the priests, forced
to yield, acknowledged the divine right of kings and preached them to the
people, reserving the liberty of changing their minds and of preaching
revolt, whenever the divine rights of kings clashed with the divine rights
of the clergy. It was always at the expense of nations, that peace was
concluded between kings and priests; but the latter, in spite of treaties,
always preserved their pretensions.
Tyrants and wicked princes, whose consciences continually reproach them
with negligence or perversity, far from fearing their God, had rather deal
with this invisible judge who never opposes any thing, or with his priests
who are always condescending to the rulers of the earth, than with their
own subjects. The people, reduced to despair, might probably _appeal_ from
the divine right of their chiefs. Men when oppressed to the last degree,
sometimes become turbulent; and the divine rights of the tyrant are then
forced to yield to the natural rights of the subjects.
It is cheaper dealing with gods than men. Kings are accountable for their
actions to God alone; priests are accountable only to themselves. There is
much reason to believe, that both are more confident of the indulgence of
heaven, than of that of earth. It is much easier to escape the vengeance
of gods who may be cheaply appeased, than the vengeance of men whose
patience is exhausted.
"If you remove the fear of an invisible power, what restraint will you
impose upon the passions of sovereigns?" Let them learn to reign; let them
learn to be just; to respect the rights if the people; and to acknowledge
the kindness of the nations, from whom they hold their greatness and
power. Let them learn to fear men, and to submit to the laws of equity.
Let nobody transgress these laws with impunity; and let them be equally
binding upon the powerful and the weak, the great and the small, the
sovereign and the subjects.
The fear of gods, Religion, and the terrors of another life, are the
metaphysical and supernatural bulwarks, opposed to the impetuous passions
of princes! Are these bulwarks effectual? Let experience resolve the
question. To oppose Religion to the wickedness of tyrants, is to wish,
that vague, uncertain, unintelligible speculations may be stronger than
propensities which every thing conspires daily to strengthen.
145.
The immense service of religion to politics is incessantly boasted; but, a
little reflection will convince us, that religious opinions equally blind
both sovereigns and people, and never enlighten them upon their true
duties or interests. Religion but too often forms licentious, immoral
despots, obeyed by slaves, whom every thing obliges to conform to their
views.
For want of having studied or known the true principles of administration,
the objects and rights of social life, the real interests of men and
their reciprocal duties, princes, in almost every country, have become
licentious, absolute, and perverse; and their subjects abject, wicked, and
unhappy. It was to avoid the trouble of studying these important objects,
that recourse was had to chimeras, which, far from remedying any thing,
have hitherto only multiplied the evils of mankind, and diverted them from
whatever is most essential to their happiness.
Does not the unjust and cruel manner in which so many nations are
governed, manifestly furnish one of the strongest proofs, not only of
the small effect produced by the fear of another life, but also of the
non-existence of a Providence, busied with the fate of the human race? If
there existed a good God, should we not be forced to admit, that in this
life he strangely neglects the greater part of mankind? It would seem,
that this God has created nations only to be the sport of the passions and
follies of his representatives upon earth.
146.
By reading history with attention, we shall perceive that Christianity,
at first weak and servile, established itself among the savage and free
nations of Europe only intimating to their chiefs, that its religious
principles favoured despotism and rendered them absolute. Consequently,
we see barbarous princes suddenly converted; that is, we see them adopt,
without examination, a system so favourable to their ambition, and use
every art to induce their subjects to embrace it. If the ministers of this
religion have since often derogated from their favourite principles, it
is because the theory influences the conduct of the ministers of the Lord,
only when it suits their temporal interests.
Christianity boasts of procuring men a happiness unknown to preceding
ages. It is true, the Greeks knew not the _divine rights_ of tyrants or
of the usurpers of the rights of their country. Under paganism, it never
entered the head of any man to suppose, that it was against the will of
heaven for a nation to defend themselves against a ferocious beast, who
had the audacity to lay waste their possessions. The religion of the
Christians was the first that screened tyrants from danger, by laying down
as a principle that the people must renounce the legitimate defence
of themselves. Thus Christian nations are deprived of the first law
of nature, which orders man to resist evil, and to disarm whoever is
preparing to destroy him! If the ministers of the church have often
permitted the people to revolt for the interest of heaven, they have never
permitted them to revolt for their own deliverance from real evils or
known violences.
From heaven came the chains, that were used for fettering the minds of
mortals. Why is the Mahometan every where a slave? Because his prophet
enslaved him in the name of the Deity, as Moses had before subdued the
Jews. In all parts of the earth, we see, that the first legislators were
the first sovereigns and the first priests of the savages, to whom they
gave laws.
Religion seems invented solely to exalt princes above their nations, and
rivet the fetters of slavery. As soon as the people are too unhappy here
below, priests are ready to silence them by threatening them with the
anger of God. They are made to fix their eyes upon heaven, lest they
should perceive the true causes of their misfortunes, and apply the
remedies which nature presents.
147.
By dint of repeating to men, that the earth is not their true country;
that the present life is only a passage; that they are not made to be
happy in this world; that their sovereigns hold their authority from God
alone, and are accountable only to him for the abuse of it; that it is not
lawful to resist them, etc., priests have eternized the misgovernment of
kings and the misery of the people; the interests of nations have been
basely sacrificed to their chiefs. The more we consider the dogmas and
principles of religion, the more we shall be convinced, that their sole
object is the advantage of tyrants and priests, without regard to that of
societies.
To mask the impotence of its deaf gods, religion has persuaded mortals,
that iniquities always kindle the wrath of heaven. People impute to
themselves alone the disasters that daily befal them. If nations sometimes
feel the strokes of convulsed nature, their bad governments are but
too often the immediate and permanent causes, from whence proceed
the continual calamities which they are forced to endure. Are not
the ambition, negligence, vices, and oppressions of kings and nobles,
generally the causes of scarcity, beggary, wars, pestilences, corrupt
morals, and all the multiplied scourges which desolate the earth?
In fixing men's eyes continually upon heaven; in persuading them, that
all their misfortunes are effects of divine anger; in providing none but
ineffectual and futile means to put an end to their sufferings, we might
justly conclude, that the only object of priests was to divert nations
from thinking about the true sources of their misery, and thus to render
it eternal. The ministers of religion conduct themselves almost like those
indigent mothers, who, for want of bread, sing their starved children to
sleep, or give them playthings to divert their thoughts from afflicting
hunger.
Blinded by error from their very infancy, restrained by the invisible
bonds of opinion, overcome by panic terrors, their faculties blunted
by ignorance, how should the people know the true causes of their
wretchedness? They imagine that they can avert it by invoking the gods.
Alas! do they not see, that it is, in the name of these gods, that they
are ordered to present their throats to the sword of their merciless
tyrants, in whom they might find the obvious cause of the evils under
which they groan, and for whom they cease not to implore, in vain, the
assistance of heaven?
Ye credulous people! In your misfortunes, redouble your prayers,
offerings, and sacrifices; throng to your temples; fast in sack-cloth and
ashes; bathe yourselves in your own tears; and above all, completely ruin
yourselves to enrich your gods! You will only enrich their priests. The
gods of heaven will be propitious, only when the gods of the earth shall
acknowledge themselves, men, like you, and shall devote to your welfare
the attention you deserve.
148.
Negligent, ambitious, and perverse Princes are the real causes of public
misfortunes. Useless, unjust Wars depopulate the earth. Encroaching and
despotic Governments absorb the benefits of nature. The rapacity of Courts
discourages agriculture, extinguishes industry, produces want, pestilence
and misery. Heaven is neither cruel nor propitious to the prayers of the
people; it is their proud chiefs, who have almost always hearts of stone.
It is destructive to the morals of princes, to persuade them that they
have God alone to fear, when they injure their subjects, or neglect their
happiness. Sovereigns! It is not the gods, but your people, that you
offend, when you do evil. It is your people and yourselves that you
injure, when you govern unjustly.
In history, nothing is more common than to see Religious Tyrants; nothing
more rare than to find equitable, vigilant, enlightened princes. A
monarch may be pious, punctual in a servile discharge of the duties of his
religion, very submissive and liberal to his priests, and yet at the same
time be destitute of every virtue and talent necessary for governing. To
princes, Religion is only an instrument destined to keep the people
more completely under the yoke. By the excellent principles of religious
morality, a tyrant who, during a long reign, has done nothing but oppress
his subjects, wresting, from them the fruits of their labour, sacrificing
them without mercy to his insatiable ambition,--a conqueror, who has
usurped the provinces of others, slaughtered whole nations, and who,
during his whole life, has been a scourge to mankind,--imagines his
conscience may rest, when, to expiate so many crimes, he has wept at the
feet of a priest, who generally has the base complaisance to console and
encourage a robber, whom the most hideous despair would too lightly punish
for the misery he has caused upon earth.
149.
A sovereign, sincerely devout, is commonly dangerous to the state.
Credulity always supposes a contracted mind; devotion generally absorbs
the attention, which a prince should pay to the government of his people.
Obsequious to the suggestions of his priests, he becomes the sport of
their caprices, the favourer of their quarrels, and the instrument and
accomplice of their follies, which he imagines to be of the greatest
importance. Among the most fatal presents, which religion has made the
world, ought to be reckoned those devout and zealous monarchs, who, under
an idea of working for the welfare of their subjects, have made it
a sacred duty to torment, persecute, and destroy those, who thought
differently from themselves. A bigot, at the head of an empire, is one of
the greatest scourges. A single fanatical or knavish priest, listened to
by a credulous and powerful prince, suffices to put a state in disorder.