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
If the truths of religion were, as they assure us, necessary to all men,
they would be clear and intelligible to all men. If the dogmas which
this religion teaches were as important as it is asserted, they would
not only be within the comprehension of the doctors who preach them,
but of all those who hear their lessons. Is it not strange that the
very persons whose profession it is to furnish themselves with religious
knowledge, in order to impart it to others, should recognize their
own dogmas as beyond their own understanding, and that they should
obstinately inculcate to the people, what they acknowledge they do not
comprehend themselves? Should we have much confidence in a physician,
who, after confessing that he was utterly ignorant of his art, should
nevertheless boast of the excellence of his remedies? This, however, is
the constant practice of our spiritual quacks. By a strange fatality,
the most sensible people consent to be the dupes of those empirics who
are perpetually obliged to avow their own profound ignorance.
But if the mysteries of religion are incomprehensible for even those who
inculcate it,--if among those who profess it there is no one who knows
precisely what he believes, or who can give an account of either his
conduct or belief,--this is not so in regard to the difficulties with
which we oppose this religion. These objections are simple, within
the comprehension of all persons of ordinary ability, and capable of
convincing every man who, renouncing the prejudiced of his infancy,
will deign to consult the good sense, that nature has bestowed upon all
beings of the human race.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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