nt desires; without being incredulous, they act as if
they believed nothing. We risk being deceived when we judge the opinions
of men by their conduct or their conduct by their opinions. A very
religious man, notwithstanding the austere and cruel principles of a
bloody religion, will sometimes be, by a fortunate inconsistency,
humane, tolerant, moderate; in this case the principles of his religion
do not agree with the mildness of his disposition. A libertine, a
debauchee, a hypocrite, an adulterer, or a thief will often show us that
he has the clearest ideas of morals. Why do they not practice them? It
is because neither their temperament, their interests, nor their habits
agree with their sublime theories. The rigid principles of Christian
morality, which so many attempt to pass off as Divine, have but very
little influence upon the conduct of those who preach them to others. Do
they not tell us every day to do what they preach, and not what they
practice?

The religious partisans generally designate the incredulous as
libertines. It may be that many incredulous people are immoral; this
immorality is due to their temperament, and not to their opinions. But
what has their conduct to do with these opinions? Can not an immoral man
be a good physician, a good architect, a good geometer, a good logician,
a good metaphysician? With an irreproachable conduct, one can be
ignorant upon many things, and reason very badly. When truth is
presented, it matters not from whom it comes. Let us not judge men by
their opinions, or opinions by men; let us judge men by their conduct;
and their opinions by their conformity with experience, reason, and
their usefulness for mankind.

CLXXXII.---REASON LEADS MEN TO IRRELIGION AND TO ATHEISM, BECAUSE
RELIGION IS ABSURD, AND THE GOD OF THE PRIESTS IS A MALICIOUS AND
FEROCIOUS BEING.

Every man who reasons soon becomes incredulous, because reasoning proves
to him that theology is but a tissue of falsehoods; that religion is
contrary to all principles of common sense; that it gives a false color
to all human knowledge. The rational man becomes incredulous, because he
sees that religion, far from rendering men happier, is the first cause
of the greatest disorders, and of the permanent calamities with which
the human race is afflicted. The man who seeks his well-being and his
own tranquillity, examines his religion and is undeceived, because he
finds it inconvenient and useless to pass hi