IDEAS WHICH THEOLOGY GIVES OF DIVINITY, TO LOVE
GOD IS IMPOSSIBLE.

If I take my ideas of God from theology, God shows Himself to me in such
a light as to repel love. The devotees who tell us that they love their
God sincerely, are either liars or fools who see their God but in
profile; it is impossible to love a being, the thought of whom tends to
excite terror, and whose judgments make us tremble. How can we face
without fear, a God whom we suppose sufficiently barbarous to wish to
damn us forever? Let them not speak to us of a filial or respectful fear
mingled with love, which men should have for their God. A son can not
love his father when he knows he is cruel enough to inflict exquisite
torments upon him; in short, to punish him for the least faults. No man
upon earth can have the least spark of love for a God who holds in
reserve eternal, hard, and violent chastisements for ninety-nine
hundredths of His children.

LXVI.--BY THE INVENTION OF THE DOGMA OF THE ETERNAL TORMENTS OF HELL,
THEOLOGIANS HAVE MADE OF THEIR GOD A DETESTABLE BEING, MORE WICKED THAN
THE MOST WICKED OF MEN, A PERVERSE AND CRUEL TYRANT WITHOUT AIM.

The inventors of the dogma of eternal torments in hell, have made of the
God whom they call so good, the most detestable of beings. Cruelty in
man is the last term of corruption. There is no sensitive soul but is
moved and revolts at the recital alone of the torments which the
greatest criminal endures; but cruelty merits the greater indignation
when we consider it gratuitous or without motive. The most sanguinary
tyrants, Caligula, Nero, Domitian, had at least some motive in
tormenting their victims and insulting their sufferings; these motives
were, either their own safety, the fury of revenge, the design to
frighten by terrible examples, or perhaps the vanity to make parade of
their power, and the desire to satisfy a barbarous curiosity. Can a God
have any of these motives? In tormenting the victims of His wrath, He
would punish beings who could not really endanger His immovable power,
nor trouble His felicity, which nothing can change. On the other hand,
the sufferings of the other life would be useless to the living, who can
not witness them; these torments would be useless to the damned, because
in hell is no more conversion, and the hour of mercy is passed; from
which it follows, that God, in the exercise of His eternal vengeance,
would have no other aim than to amuse Himself and insu