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
Touching what is said of his omnipresence, it is equally evident that
if there be nothing exterior to this being, either there is no place in
which he must not be present, or that there will be only himself and the
vacuum. This granted, I shall inquire if matter exists; if it does
not at least occupy a portion of space? In this case, matter, or the
universe, must exclude every other being who is not matter, from that
place which the material beings occupy in space. In asking whether the
gods of the theologians be by chance the abstract being which they call
the vacuum or space, they will reply, no! They will further insist, that
their gods, who are not matter, penetrate that which is matter. But it
must be obvious, that to penetrate matter, it is necessary to have some
correspondence with matter, consequently to have extent; now to have
extent, is to have one of the properties of matter. If the Divinity
penetrates matter, then he is material; by a necessary deduction he is
inseparable from matter; then if he is omnipresent, he will be in every
thing. This the theologian will not allow: he will say it is a mystery;
by which I shall understand that he is himself ignorant how to account
for his own positions; this will not be the case with making nature act
after immutable laws; she will of necessity be every where, in my body,
in my arm, in every other material being, because matter composes them
all. The Divinity who has given this invariable system, will without
any incongruous reasoning, without any subterfuge, be also present every
where, inasmuch as the laws he has prescribed will unchangeably act
through the whole; this does not seem inconsistent with reason to
suppose.
_7th, "The Self-existent Being must of necessity be but one."_
If there he nothing exterior to a being who exists necessarily, it must
follow that he is unique. It will be obvious that this proposition is
the same with the preceding one; at least, if they are not willing to
deny the existence of the material world.
_8th, "The self-existent and original Cause of all things, must be an
intelligent being."_
Here Dr. Clarke most unquestionably assigneth a human quality:
intelligence is a faculty appertaining to organized or animated beings,
of which we have no knowledge out of these beings. To have intelligence,
it is necessary to think; to think, it is requisite to have ideas; to
have ideas, supposes senses; when senses exist they are material; when
they are material, they cannot be a pure spirit, in the language of the
theologian.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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