All religions claim to emanate from heaven; all forbid the use of reason [...]; all claim to be true, to the exclusion of others.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Paul Henri Thiry d’Holbach
Paul-Henri Thiry, Baron d'Holbach (8 December 1723 – 21 January 1789) was a French-German author, philosopher, encyclopedist and a prominent figure in the French Enlightenment. He was a passionate and outspoken atheist and a materialist, and he is best known for his work, The System of Nature.
All the religions we see on earth show us nothing but a heap of impostures and reveries that equally revolt reason.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
[Religion] only makes [the Divinity] more inconceivable; it shows in it only a capricious tyrant, whose fancies are [...] most often harmful to the human species.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Does it make men better? Alas! We see that everywhere it divides them, it sets them at odds, it makes them intolerant, it forces them to be the executioners of their brothers.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Wherever [religion] reigns, do we not see the people enslaved, devoid of vigor, energy, activity, stagnating in shameful lethargy [...]?
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
I see everywhere men, more cunning and more educated than the common folk, deceiving them with illusions [...] that they believe to be supernatural, because they are ignorant of the secrets of nature and the resources of art.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
In matters of religion, all testimonies are suspect; the most enlightened man sees very poorly when he is seized by enthusiasm or, drunk with fanaticism, or seduced by his imagination.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
A miracle is an effect contrary to the constant laws of nature; consequently, God himself, without offending his wisdom, cannot perform miracles.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Miracles seem to have been invented only to substitute for good reasoning; truth and evidence do not need miracles to be adopted.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
There would be no need for miracles if one spoke to them with reason. Thus, it is unbelievable things that serve as proof for other unbelievable things.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Any man who performs miracles has no truths, but lies, to prove.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Truth is simple and clear; the marvelous always announces falsehood.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
To say that God performs miracles is to say that he contradicts himself; that he denies the laws he has prescribed to nature; that he renders human reason useless [...].
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Wherever men are ignorant, there will be prophets, inspired ones, miracle-workers; [...] this trade will always diminish in the same proportion as nations become enlightened.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Martyrs prove nothing, except the force of enthusiasm, blindness, and obstinacy that superstition can produce, and the cruel madness of all those who persecute their fellow men for religious opinions.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Thus the difference of minds originates from the difference of passions and the different ends to which appetite leads them.
1772
Source: On human nature
[...] man takes pleasure in discovering an unexpected resemblance between things that seemed disparate, in which consists the excellence of imagination [...].
1772
Source: On human nature
To judge is nothing other than to distinguish or to discern; imagination and judgment are commonly included under the name of mind [...].
1772
Source: On human nature
The opposite virtue [to frivolity] is gravity or steadfastness; the attainment of the goal being its principal pleasure, it serves to direct and retain all other thoughts on the path that leads to it.
1772
Source: On human nature
The difficulty of learning and being instructed; this disposition seems to come from the false opinion that one already knows the truth about the subject in question [...].
1772
Source: On human nature
[...] when they [minds] have once acquiesced to false opinions [...], it is just as impossible to speak to them intelligibly as to write legibly on a paper already scribbled over with writing.
1772
Source: On human nature
The immediate cause of the inability to learn is prejudice, and the cause of prejudice is a false opinion of our own knowledge.
1772
Source: On human nature
Malice is a shade of fury and affectation is a beginning of frenzy.
1772
Source: On human nature
The attributes that one gives to the Divinity signify only our incapacity or the respect we have for him.
1772
Source: On human nature
Indeed, all that is evident, whether by natural reason or by supernatural revelation, is not called faith; [...] it is not said that we believe but that we know the things that are evident.
1772
Source: On human nature
One calls deliberation those desires and fears which succeed one another for as long as it is in our power to do or not to do the action upon which we are deliberating.
1772
Source: On human nature
[...] our wills follow our opinions just as our actions follow our wills; it is in this sense that one is right to say that opinion governs the world.
1772
Source: On human nature
[...] if there is no such evidence, this teaching is called persuasion; it produces in the listener only that which is solely in the opinion of the speaker.
1772
Source: On human nature
There is [...] a very great difference between teaching and persuading; the sign of persuasion is dispute; the sign of teaching is, no dispute.
1772
Source: On human nature
[...] it is not the truth, it is the image that excites the passion: a well-acted tragedy affects as much as the sight of a murder.
1772
Source: On human nature
Churchmen are commonly reproached for their harshness; in them, it is an effect of the most sublime virtue; a good Christian must be perfectly insensitive.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
[Christian education] consists in making children contract from infancy the salutary habit of unreasoning, of believing everything they are told, [and] of hating all those who do not believe what they believe.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
[Hell] is the kitchen hearth that keeps the Sacerdotal pot boiling in this world.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
[Error] is any way of thinking in matters of Religion that differs from that of the Priests [...]. There is no more unpardonable crime among Christians than to be mistaken.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
[Faith] is a holy confidence in Priests, which makes us believe everything they say, even without understanding any of it. Its effects are to plunge one into a holy stupefaction accompanied by a pious stubbornness.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
[Religious wars are] salutary & copious bleedings that the Physicians of our souls prescribe for the bodies of nations, whom God wishes to favor with a very pure doctrine.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
[Humanity is a] virtue of profane morality, which it is necessary to stifle when one wants to be a good Christian; it almost never accords with the interests of the Divinity.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
[Ignorance] is the opposite of science, & the first disposition to faith. One feels its full importance for the Church.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
[Freedom of thought] must be repressed with the greatest rigor; the Priests are paid to think, the faithful have nothing to do but to pay handsomely those who think for them.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
A religion that was clear would soon be finished; our sacred interpreters would have nothing to tell us if God had spoken too clearly.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
[The trade of priests] consists in distributing fears for free in order to have the pleasure of then distributing hopes for money.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
[Reason] is of all things in this world the most harmful to a reasonable being: God leaves reason only to those he wishes to damn, he removes it in his goodness from those he wishes to save.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
The Church is at peace only when it does everything it wants or when it can, without obstacle, disturb the tranquility of others.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
[Theological quarrels] are very useful to the Church; when one argues about the form, one does not argue about the substance.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
It is impossible [to be an honest man] if one is not intimately convinced that the Church is infallible, that its Priests can neither lie nor be deluded.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
All industry is equally forbidden to perfect Christians, who lead a provisional life on earth, and who must never worry about the morrow.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Christianity has always declared war on science and human knowledge; they were regarded as an obstacle to salvation.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Neither reason nor study is needed for men who must submit their reason to the yoke of faith.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
If science is useful to political society, ignorance is far more useful to religion and its ministers.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
The centuries devoid of science and industry were golden ages for the church of Jesus Christ.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
A Christian who, as he should, strives for perfection, is the most useless member to his country, his family, and all those around him.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
If Christians, fortunately, were not inconsistent [...], no Christian society could subsist, and the nations enlightened by the Gospel would return to a savage state.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
A religion whose maxims tend to make men intolerant, [...] whose obscure dogmas are eternal subjects of dispute [...] is destructive to any society.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
The priests of all religions have found the means to base their own power, their wealth, and their greatness on the fears of the common people.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Priests were always the first to recover from religious fervor; ambition and avarice must have soon disabused them of the selfless maxims they taught to others.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Superstition and despotism thus made an eternal alliance, and united their efforts to make the people enslaved and unhappy.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
True morality has only one measure for judging men's faults; the most serious are those that do the most harm to society.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Religion is the art of intoxicating men with enthusiasm, to prevent them from dealing with the evils with which their rulers overwhelm them here below.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Intolerance and the spirit of persecution are of the essence of any sect that has Christianity as its basis.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
True tolerance and freedom of thought are the true antidotes to religious fanaticism.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
We must believe, on pain of being damned, that the God of mercies [...] eternally damns the greatest number of men for fleeting faults; [...] he will make them last forever, in order to have the pleasure of burning them forever.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
[The Datery is] a sacred office where, in exchange for money, one can receive benefices, dispensations, graces of the Holy Spirit, and even the right to commit sins.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
[David] was rebellious, lecherous, an adulterer, a murderer, etc., but he was very devout and very submissive to the Priests, which earned him the name of a man after God's own heart.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
[Deism is an] impious system, seeing that it supposes a God who is too reasonable, who requires nothing of men but to be good and honest [...]. Such a religion would not need Priests.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
The Christian Religion is [...] the support of Society [...]. This is why [...] the Church has spies and forces parents, friends, and servants to inform on each other; which makes [...] the intercourse of life infinitely agreeable.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
[The Deluge is a] paternal correction [...] by divine providence, which, for having failed to foresee the malice of men, repented of having made them so malicious, and drowned them once and for all to make them better; which had, as we know, marvelous success.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
In Religion, [duties] are those which are founded on the relations that exist between men and their Priests. From which we see that it is up to the Priests alone to determine the duties of a good Christian.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
[The Devil] is the lynchpin of the Church. God could with a single word plunge him back into nothingness, but He is careful not to, He needs him too much, to blame on him all the foolishness of which He could be accused.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
By substituting the word Priests for that of God, Theology becomes the simplest of sciences. [...] there are no true Atheists, since, unless one is an imbecile, one cannot deny the existence of the Clergy.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
[Disputes are] debates [...] between the infallible interpreters of the word of God, who [...] did not wish to speak too clearly, for fear that his dear Priests would have nothing to squabble about.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
[Doctrine] is what every good Christian must believe, on pain of being burned [...]. The dogmas of Religion are immutable decrees of God who can only change his mind when the Church changes hers.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
Whenever a great event, a revolution, or a calamity turns to the profit of the Clergy, these things indicate the finger of God, who always has his good friends the Priests in mind.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
[The dominant Religion is] that of the Prince, who with the help of sabers, bayonets, and muskets, invincibly proves to the other religions of his country that they are wrong, that his confessor is right.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
[Sacred jurisprudence] is sometimes contrary to reason, to civil law, to the rights of Sovereigns, and even to natural law, but all these rights are made to yield to divine rights.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
The clergy are commonly reproached for their harshness; in them it is an effect of the most sublime virtue; a good Christian must be perfectly insensitive.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
A religion founded on a bloodthirsty God can only be a religion of blood.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
A good Christian, who literally follows the conduct prescribed by the Gospel [...] can only be a useless misanthrope if he lacks energy, and a turbulent fanatic if his soul is impassioned.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
The common people read no more than they reason; they have neither the leisure nor the capacity for it: [...] it is not religion, but the law that restrains them.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
You are not [...] among those pusillanimous thinkers who believe that truth can be harmful: it harms only those who deceive men, and it will always be useful to the rest of humankind.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
It is religion that hatched despots and tyrants; they made bad laws; their example corrupted the great; the great corrupted the people; and the debased people became wretched slaves.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Men, for the most part, hold to their religion only by habit; they have never seriously examined the reasons that attach them to it, the motives for their conduct, the foundations of their opinions.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Whatever has lasted a long time seems sacred to men; they would think themselves guilty if they cast their reckless gaze upon things sealed with the stamp of antiquity.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Authority also supports men's prejudices, forbids them from examining, forces them into ignorance, and is always ready to punish anyone who would attempt to undeceive them.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
The surest way to deceive men and to perpetuate their prejudices is to deceive them in childhood.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Religion seems devised only to make Sovereigns and peoples equally slaves of the priesthood.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
To say that God has revealed Himself only to announce mysteries is to say that God has revealed Himself only to remain unknown, to hide His ways from us, to confuse our minds, to increase our ignorance.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
A revelation that were true [...] ought to be clear enough to be understood by all of humankind. Is the Bible so clear?
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
A miracle is an effect contrary to the constant laws of nature; consequently, God himself, without injuring his wisdom, cannot perform miracles.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Miracles were invented only to prove to men things impossible to believe; there would be no need for miracles if one spoke to them with reason.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
If martyrs proved the truth of a religion, there is no religion, nor sect, that could not be regarded as true.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
We have a host of portable dictionaries on all sciences, on the arts, and even on frivolous subjects.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
In the century we live in, efforts have been made from all sides to simplify knowledge [...], to put it within everyone's reach.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
However, until now, no one had yet attempted to do the same for Theology.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
[Theology], this divine science, has often only appeared more entangled as a result.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
The people who dealt with it most seriously [...] have not always had very clear and distinct ideas about it.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
It is to remedy these inconveniences that this Work is published, which can be regarded as [...] a pocket Theology.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
Everyone will very promptly find the solution to all the difficulties that might arise on this important matter.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
With the help of this little dictionary, the great and the small, the enlightened as well as the simplest people, even women, will be able to speak pertinently.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
It is hoped that this work [...] will merit above all the approval of the Clergy, who will find all their rights established therein on an unshakeable basis.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
At a first glance, everyone will be convinced that all Theological truths are linked.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
[One] will see that they start from the Clergy as from a common center, into which they always necessarily end up returning.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
One will feel that all parts of Religion lend each other mutual aid, from which results a complete chain of truths that give each other reciprocal support.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
In a word, one will perceive without difficulty that Theologians make Religion and that Religion never has anything but Theologians as its object.
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
A truly celestial system whose solidity nothing on earth can ever alter!
1768
Source: Portable Theology, or Abridged Dictionary of the Christian Religion
Under a God who has revealed himself only to confound human reason, everything must be incomprehensible, everything must defy common sense.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
If the dogmas [...] are mysteries inaccessible to reason; if the God [...] is an inconceivable God, we should not be surprised to see that [...] this religion maintains an unintelligible and mysterious tone.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
[...] man dies only as a consequence of Adam's sin; and if, by baptism, this sin is erased, how is it that Christians are still subject to death?
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
[...] how can it be that Christians continue to sin, as if they had not been redeemed [...]? From which we see that [this mystery] is impenetrable to reason, its effectiveness disproven by experience.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Those [...] who, by the most perfect renunciation of their reason, most fully enter into the spirit of their inconceivable religion...
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
At the [...] voice of a priest, the god of the universe is forced to descend [...] to change himself into bread; and this bread, having become God, is the object of adoration by a people who boast of detesting idolatry.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
The divinity, forced by the magical power of a few words, [...] obeys the voice of its priests [...] and, upon their orders, it performs wonders.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Thus, in this religion, the priest acquires the right to command God himself.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
[It is] the power that priests arrogate to themselves [...] to forgive, in the name of heaven, the sins confessed to them.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
[These are] the ceremonies that imprint upon some men a sacred character, which distinguishes them from profane mortals.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
[...] it is supposed that this natural union could not be approved by heaven if the ceremonies of a priest did not render it valid.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
[It is] the opinion [...] that words, arranged in a certain way, can alter the will of their god, and oblige him to change his immutable decrees.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Holy water [...] possesses, according to them, the most astonishing virtues; it makes sacred the places and things that were previously profane.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
[Theurgy] employed by a pontiff in the coronation of kings contributes to making the leaders of nations more respectable in the eyes of the people, and imprints upon them an entirely divine character.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Thus, all is mystery, all is magic, all is incomprehensible in the dogmas, as well as in the worship of a revealed religion [...] which wanted to draw mankind from its blindness.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
How, without the help of reason, can one know if it is true that the divinity has spoken?
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
The Christian religion [...] proscribes [...] reason? Does it not forbid its use in the examination of the marvelous dogmas it presents to us?
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Before being able to judge divine revelation, one would need a correct idea of the divinity. But where to draw this idea, if not from revelation itself [...]?
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Thus, revelation itself will prove the authority of revelation.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Is this god not a heap of contradictory qualities, which make him an inexplicable enigma?
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
How can one trust the god [...] who portrays himself as unjust, as false, as dissembling, as setting traps for men, as taking pleasure in seducing them [...]?
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
From the very first steps, the man who wants to ascertain revelation [...] is thrown into distrust and perplexity.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
What idea can one form of a god who punishes millions of men for having been ignorant of secret laws, which he himself only published stealthily [...]?
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Should a god manifest himself to men, only to not be understood? Is this conduct not as ridiculous as it is insane?
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
To say that God revealed himself only to announce mysteries is to say that God revealed himself only to remain unknown, [...] to confuse our minds, to increase our ignorance and our uncertainties.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
A revelation that were true [...] should be clear enough to be understood by all of humankind.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
By what fatality do the scriptures, revealed by the divinity itself, still need commentaries [...]?
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Is it not cruel that what is most important for them [men] is the least known to them?
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
In the Christian religion, everything seems abandoned to the imagination, whims, and arbitrary decisions of its ministers [...].
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Are not men subject to deceiving themselves, and to deceiving others?
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Whenever reason is against a man, a man will be against reason.
1772
Source: On human nature
Government and peace have to this day been founded only on mutual fears.
1772
Source: On human nature
To get a clear idea of the elements of Natural Law and Politics, it is important to know the nature of Man.
1772
Source: On human nature
All the accidents or qualities that our senses show us as existing in the world are not really there, but should only be regarded as appearances.
1772
Source: On human nature
A man can never know that he is dreaming; he may dream that he doubts whether he is dreaming or not.
1772
Source: On human nature
No man can have in his mind a conception of the future [...] it is from our conceptions of the past that we form the future.
1772
Source: On human nature
Experience provides no universal conclusion.
1772
Source: On human nature
It is therefore evident that there is nothing universal but names.
1772
Source: On human nature
Instead of reading books, one must read one's own conceptions, and it is in this sense that [...] the famous words 'Know thyself' may be worthy of the reputation they have acquired.
1772
Source: On human nature
Every man calls Good that which is pleasing to himself and calls Evil that which displeases him. [...] there exists no absolute goodness considered without relation.
1772
Source: On human nature
Felicity, by which we mean continual pleasure, consists not in having succeeded but in succeeding.
1772
Source: On human nature
Glory [...] is a passion produced by the imagination or by the conception of our own power, which we judge to be superior to the power of the one with whom we are comparing ourselves.
1772
Source: On human nature
Pity is the imagination or fiction of a future misfortune for ourselves, produced by the feeling of another's misfortune.
1772
Source: On human nature
The passion of laughter is a sudden movement of vanity produced by a sudden conception of some personal advantage, compared to a weakness we notice [...] in others.
1772
Source: On human nature
Human life can be compared to a race [...] where one has no other goal and no other reward than to outpace one's competitors.
1772
Source: On human nature
If we examine the virtues that Christianity recommends, we will see that they are ill-suited for man, that they raise him above his sphere, that they are useless to society, and that they are often of the most dangerous consequence for it.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
To love an angry, capricious, unjust god [...] To love the most dreadful object the human mind could ever conceive! [...] How can one love what one fears?
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
To love one's enemies is therefore an impossible precept. One can abstain from doing harm to one who harms us; but love is a movement of the heart, which is stirred in us only at the sight of an object we judge to be favorable to us.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Who does not see, in these sublime counsels, the language of enthusiasm, of hyperbole? Are these marvelous counsels not made to discourage man, and to cast him into despair?
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Fanaticism and enthusiasm form the basis of Christ's morality; the virtues he recommends tend to isolate men, to plunge them into a somber mood, and often to make them harmful to their fellow beings.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
[Faith] forbids doubt and examination; it deprives man of the faculty of exercising his reason, of the freedom to think; it reduces him to the stupefaction of beasts [...].
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Faith is a virtue invented by men who feared the enlightenment of reason, who wanted to deceive their fellow men in order to subject them to their own authority [...].
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Faith disappears as soon as one reasons; this virtue never withstands a calm examination; this is what makes the priests of Christianity so hostile to science.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
[Hope] makes them lose sight of present happiness; it renders them useless to society; it makes them believe [...] that God will reward in heaven their uselessness, their dark moods, [...] their idleness.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
Fear is a passion totally opposed to love. A son who fears his father, [...] who dreads his whims, will never love him sincerely.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
It is this zeal, derived from divine love, which is the source of the persecutions and furies of which Christianity has so often been guilty.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
This so-called virtue [humility] is only fit to degrade man, to debase him in his own eyes, to stifle in him all energy and all desire to be useful to society.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
A religion that prides itself on being supernatural must seek to denature man: [...] it forbids him to love himself; it orders him to hate pleasures and to cherish pain.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
How could common sense admit a god who claims that one should make oneself unhappy, and who takes pleasure in contemplating the torments his creatures inflict upon themselves?
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled
All the virtues that Christianity admires are either extreme and fanatical, or they only tend to make man timid, abject, and unhappy.
1766
Source: Christianity Unveiled