ssue of chimeras; that religion is contrary to
every principle of good sense, that it tinctures all human knowledge with
falsity. The sensible man is an unbeliever, because he sees, that, far
from making men happier, religion is the chief source of the greatest
disorders, and the permanent calamities, with which man is afflicted. The
man, who seeks his own welfare and tranquillity, examines and throws aside
religion, because he thinks it no less troublesome than useless, to spend
his life in trembling before phantoms, fit to impose only upon silly women
or children.

If licentiousness, which reasons but little, sometimes leads to
irreligion, the man of pure morals may have very good motives for
examining his religion, and banishing it from his mind. Religious terrors,
too weak to impose upon the wicked in whom vice is deeply rooted, afflict,
torment and overwhelm restless imaginations. Courageous and vigorous
minds soon shake off the insupportable yoke. But those, who are weak and
timorous, languish under it during life; and as they grow old their fears
increase.

Priests have represented God as so malicious, austere, and terrible a
being, that most men would cordially wish, that there was no God. It is
impossible to be happy, while always trembling. Ye devout! you adore a
terrible God! But you hate him; you would be glad, if he did not exist.
Can we refrain from desiring the absence or destruction of a master, the
idea of whom destroys our happiness? The black colours, in which priests
paint the Divinity, are truly shocking, and force us to hate and reject
him.

183.

If fear created the gods, fear supports their empire over the minds of
mortals. So early are men accustomed to shudder at the mere name of the
Deity, that they regard him as a spectre, a hobgoblin, a bugbear, which
torments and deprives them of courage even to wish relief from their
fears. They apprehend, that the invisible spectre, will strike them the
moment they cease to be afraid. Bigots are too much in fear of their God
to love him sincerely. They serve him like slaves, who, unable to escape
his power, resolve to flatter their master, and who, by dint of lying, at
length persuade themselves, that they in some measure love him. They make
a virtue of necessity. The love of devotees for their God, and of slaves
for their despots, is only a feigned homage.

184.

Christian divines have represented their God so terrible and so little
w