"I once believed," says Rousseau, "that it was possible to be an
honest man and dispense with God; but I have recovered from that
error." Fundamentally the same argument as that of Voltaire, the
same justification of intolerance: Man does good and abstains
from evil only through consideration of a Providence which
watches over him; a curse on those who deny its existence! And,
to cap the climax of absurdity, the man who thus seeks for our
virtue the sanction of a Divinity who rewards and punishes is the
same man who teaches the native goodness of man as a religious
dogma.
And for my part I say: The first duty of man, on becoming
intelligent and free, is to continually hunt the idea of God out
of his mind and conscience. For God, if he exists, is
essentially hostile to our nature, and we do not depend at all
upon his authority. We arrive at knowledge in spite of him, at
comfort in spite of him, at society in spite of him; every step
we take in advance is a victory in which we crush Divinity.
Let it no longer be said that the ways of God are impenetrable.
Pages:
692
693
694
695
696
697
698
699
700
701
702
703
704
705
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716