Letters To Eugenia; Or, A Preservative Against Religious PrejudicesHolbach, Paul Henri Thiry, baron d'
Religion
Letters To Eugenia; Or, A Preservative Against Religious Prejudices
Holbach, Paul Henri Thiry, baron d'
Christianity -- Controversial literature
Thus, in the Christian religion, morality uniformly depends on the
fanaticism of priests, their passions, their interests: its principles
are never fixed; they vary according to circumstances: the God of whom
they are the organs, and the interpreters, has not said any thing but
what agrees best with their views, and what never contravenes their
interest Following their caprices, he changes his advice continually;
he approves, and disapproves, of the same actions: he loves, or detests,
the same conduct; he changes crime into virtue, and virtue into crime.
What is the result from all this? It is that the Christians have not
sure principles in morality: it varies with the policy of the priests,
who are in a situation to command the credulity of mankind, and who,
by force of menaces and terrors, oblige men to shut their eyes on their
contradictions, and minds the most honest to commit faults the greatest
which can be committed against religion. It is thus that under a God who
recommends the love of our neighbor, the Christians accustom themselves
from infancy to detest an heretical neighbor, and are almost always in a
disposition to overwhelm him by a crowd of arguments received from their
priests. It is thus that, under a God who ordains we should love our
enemies and forgive their offences, the Christians hate and destroy
the enemies of their priests, and take vengeance, without measure, for
injuries which they pretend to have received. It is thus, that under
a just God, a God who never ceases to boast of his goodness, the
Christians, at the signal of their spiritual guides, become unjust and
cruel, and make a merit of having stifled the cries of nature, the voice
of humanity, the counsels of wisdom, and of public interest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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