The System of Nature, or, the Laws of the Moral and Physical World. Volume 2Holbach, Paul Henri Thiry, baron d'
Religion
The System of Nature, or, the Laws of the Moral and Physical World. Volume 2
Holbach, Paul Henri Thiry, baron d'
Materialism; Philosophy and religion; Psychology
the mind of each individual; varies every moment in all the beings
of the human species; so much so, that there are not two who admit
precisely the same Deity; there is not a single one, who, under
different circumstances, does not see him variously.
Do not then let us be surprised at the variety of systems adopted by
mankind on this subject; it ought not to astonish us that there is so
little harmony existing among men upon a point of such consequence; it
ought not to appear strange that so much contradiction should prevail
in the various doctrines held forth; that they should have such
little consistency, such slender connection with each other; that the
professors should dispute continually upon the rectitude of the opinions
adopted by each: they must necessarily wrangle upon that which each
contemplates so variously--upon which there is hardly a single mortal
who is constantly in accord with himself.
All men are pretty well agreed upon those objects which they are enabled
to submit to the test of experience; we do not hear any disputes upon
the principles of geometry; those truths that are evident, that are
easily demonstrable, never vary in our mind; we never doubt that
the part is less than the whole; that two and two make four; that
benevolence is an amiable quality; that equity is necessary to man in
society. But we find nothing but perpetual controversy upon all those
systems which have the Divinity for their object; they are full of
incertitude; subject to continual variations: we do not see any harmony
either in the principles of theology, or in the principles of its
graduates. Even the proofs offered of his existence have been the
subject of cavil; they have either been thought too feeble, have been
brought forward against rule, or else have not been taken up with
sufficient zeal to please the various reasoners who advocate the cause;
the corollaries drawn from the premises laid down, are not the same in
any two nations, scarcely in two individuals; the thinkers of all
ages, in all countries, are perpetually in rivalry with each other;
unceasingly quarrel upon all the points of religion; can never agree
either upon their theological hypotheses, or upon the fundamental
truths which should serve for their basis; even the attributes, the
very qualities ascribed, are as warmly contested by some, as they are
zealously defended by others.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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