Superstition In All Ages (1732) | Page 9

"a spirit!"
Ask our philosophers what moves the universe, they will tell you "it is
a spirit."

XXI.--SPIRITUALITY IS A CHIMERA.
The barbarian, when he speaks of a spirit, attaches at least some sense
to this word; he understands by it an agent similar to the wind, to the
agitated air, to the breath, which produces, invisibly, effects that we
perceive. By subtilizing, the modern theologian becomes as little
intelligible to himself as to others. Ask him what he means by a spirit?
He will answer, that it is an unknown substance, which is perfectly
simple, which has nothing tangible, nothing in common with matter. In
good faith, is there any mortal who can form the least idea of such a
substance? A spirit in the language of modern theology is then but an
absence of ideas. The idea of spirituality is another idea without a
model.

XXII.--ALL WHICH EXISTS SPRINGS FROM THE BOSOM OF
MATTER.
Is it not more natural and more intelligible to deduce all which exists,
from the bosom of matter, whose existence is demonstrated by all our
senses, whose effects we feel at every moment, which we see act, move,
communicate, motion, and constantly bring living beings into existence,
than to attribute the formation of things to an unknown force, to a
spiritual being, who can not draw from his ground that which he has
not himself, and who, by the spiritual essence claimed for him, is
incapable of making anything, and of putting anything in motion?
Nothing is plainer than that they would have us believe that an
intangible spirit can act upon matter.

XXIII.--WHAT IS THE METAPHYSICAL GOD OF MODERN
THEOLOGY?
The material Jupiter of the ancients could move, build up, destroy, and
propagate beings similar to himself; but the God of modern theology is
a sterile being. According to his supposed nature he can neither occupy

any place, nor move matter, nor produce a visible world, nor propagate
either men or Gods. The metaphysical God is a workman without hands;
he is able but to produce clouds, suspicions, reveries, follies, and
quarrels.

XXIV.--IT WOULD BE MORE RATIONAL TO WORSHIP THE
SUN THAN A SPIRITUAL GOD.
Since it was necessary for men to have a God, why did they not have
the sun, the visible God, adored by so many nations? What being had
more right to the homage of mortals than the star of the day, which
gives light and heat; which invigorates all beings; whose presence
reanimates and rejuvenates nature; whose absence seems to plunge her
into sadness and languor? If some being bestowed upon men power,
activity, benevolence, strength, it was no doubt the sun, which should
be recognized as the father of nature, as the soul of the world, as
Divinity. At least one could not without folly dispute his existence, or
refuse to recognize his influence and his benefits.

XXV.--A SPIRITUAL GOD IS INCAPABLE OF WILLING AND OF
ACTING.
The theologian tells us that God does not need hands or arms to act,
and that He acts by His will alone. But what is this God who has a will?
And what can be the subject of this divine will? Is it more ridiculous or
more difficult to believe in fairies, in sylphs, in ghosts, in witches, in
were-wolfs, than to believe in the magical or impossible action of the
spirit upon the body? As soon as we admit of such a God, there are no
longer fables or visions which can not be believed. The theologians
treat men like children, who never cavil about the possibilities of the
tales which they listen to.

XXVI.--WHAT IS GOD?

To unsettle the existence of a God, it is only necessary to ask a
theologian to speak of Him; as soon as he utters one word about Him,
the least reflection makes us discover at once that what he says is
incompatible with the essence which he attributes to his God. Therefore,
what is God? It is an abstract word, coined to designate the hidden
forces of nature; or, it is a mathematical point, which has neither length,
breadth, nor thickness. A philosopher [David Hume] has very
ingeniously said in speaking of theologians, that they have found the
solution to the famous problem of Archimedes; a point in the heavens
from which they move the world.

XXVII.--REMARKABLE CONTRADICTIONS OF THEOLOGY.
Religion puts men on their knees before a being without extension, and
who, notwithstanding, is infinite, and fills all space with his immensity;
before an almighty being, who never executes that which he desires;
before a being supremely good, and who causes but displeasure; before
a being, the friend of order, and in whose government everything is in
disorder. After all this, let us conjecture what this God of