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
to the various dispositions of their adherents--in conformity with the
wayward passions of those who contemplate, them. The essence of things,
and the immutable laws of nature, are not subject to fluctuate; it
is imperative with the atheist, as he is facetiously called by the
theologian, to call whatever injures himself either vice or folly; to
designate that which injures others, crime; to describe all that is
advantageous to society, every thing which contributes to its permanent
happiness, virtue.
It will be obvious, then, that the principles of the miscalled atheist
are much less liable to be shaken, than those of the enthusiast, who
shall have studied a baby from his earliest Infancy; who should have
devoted not only his days, but his nights, to gleaning the scanty
portion of actual information that he scatters through his volumes;
they will have a much more substantive foundation than those of the
theologian, who shall construct his morality upon the harlequin scenery
of systems that so frequently change, even in his own distempered brain.
If the atheist, as they please to call those who differ in opinion with
themselves, objects to the correctness, of--their systems, he cannot
deny his own existence, nor that of beings similar to himself, by whom
he is surrounded; he cannot doubt the reciprocity of the relations that
subsist between them; he cannot question the duties which spring out
of these relations; Pyrrhonism, then, cannot enter his mind upon the
actual principles of morality; which is nothing more than the science of
the relations of beings living together in society.
If, however, satisfied with a barren, speculative knowledge of his
duties, the atheist of the theologian should not apply them in
his conduct--if, hurried along by the current of his ungovernable
passions--if, borne forward by criminal habits--if, abandoned to
shameful vices-if, possessing a vicious temperament, which he has
not been sedulous to correct--if, lending himself to the stream of
outrageous desires, he appears to forget his moral obligations, it by no
means follows, either that he hath no principles, or that his principles
are false: it can only be concluded from such conduct, that in the
intoxication of his passions, in the delirium of his habits, in the
confusion of his reason, he does not give activity to doctrines grounded
upon truth; that he forgets to give currency to ascertained principles;
that he may follow those propensities which lead him astray. In this,
indeed, he will have dreadfully descended to the miserable level of
the theologian, but he will nevertheless find him the partner of his
folly--the partaker of his insanity--the companion of his crime.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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