s; a point in the heavens
from which they move the world.

XXVII.--REMARKABLE CONTRADICTIONS OF THEOLOGY.

Religion puts men on their knees before a being without extension, and
who, notwithstanding, is infinite, and fills all space with his
immensity; before an almighty being, who never executes that which he
desires; before a being supremely good, and who causes but displeasure;
before a being, the friend of order, and in whose government everything
is in disorder. After all this, let us conjecture what this God of
theology is.

XXVIII.--TO ADORE GOD IS TO ADORE A FICTION.

In order to avoid all embarrassment, they tell us that it is not
necessary to know what God is; that we must adore without knowing; that
it is not permitted us to turn an eye of temerity upon His attributes.
But if we must adore a God without knowing Him, should we not be assured
that He exists? Moreover, how be assured that He exists without having
examined whether it is possible that the diverse qualities claimed for
Him, meet in Him? In truth, to adore God is to adore nothing but
fictions of one's own brain, or rather, it is to adore nothing.

XXIX.--THE INFINITY OF GOD AND THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF KNOWING THE DIVINE
ESSENCE, OCCASIONS AND JUSTIFIES ATHEISM.

Without doubt the more to perplex matters, theologians have chosen to
say nothing about what their God is; they tell us what He is not. By
negations and abstractions they imagine themselves composing a real and
perfect being, while there can result from it but a being of human
reason. A spirit has no body; an infinite being is a being which is not
finite; a perfect being is a being which is not imperfect. Can any one
form any real notions of such a multitude of deficiencies or absence of
ideas? That which excludes all idea, can it be anything but nothingness?
To pretend that the divine attributes are beyond the understanding of
the human mind is to render God unfit for men. If we are assured that
God is infinite, we admit that there can be nothing in common between
Him and His creatures. To say that God is infinite, is to destroy Him
for men, or at least render Him useless to them.

God, we are told, created men intelligent, but He did not create them
omniscient: that is to say, capable of knowing all things. We conclude
that He was not able to endow him with intelligence sufficient to
understand the divine essence. In this case it is demonstrated that God
has neither