Collected Works of Denis Diderot by Denis Diderot

Author:Denis Diderot [Diderot, Denis]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Delphi Main Series
Publisher: Delphi Classics
Published: 2022-11-08T00:00:00+00:00

Thoughts on Religion (1770)

ADDITION TO THE “PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHTS”

Translated by Mitchell Abidor, 2005

Original French Title: ‘Addition aux Pensées philosophiques’

I

In religion, doubts, far from being acts of impiety, should be looked upon as good works when they issue from a man who humbly recognizes his ignorance, and when they are born of the fear of displeasing God by the abuse of reason

II

Admitting to a degree of conformity between man’s reason and eternal reason – which is God – and then claiming that God demands the sacrifice of human reason, is to establish that he wants and doesn’t want at the same time.

III

When God, from whom we receive reason, demands its sacrifice it is like a prestidigitator who takes back what he has given.

IV

If I renounce reason I no longer have a guide. I have to blindly accept a secondary principle and suppose that which is in question.

V

If reason is a gift from heaven, and the same thing can be said of faith, then heaven has given us two incompatible and contradictory presents.

VI

In order to remove this difficulty one must say that faith is a chimerical principle that doesn’t exist in nature.

VII

Pascal, Nicole, and others have said: “That God should punish innocent children with eternal punishment for the guilty deeds of a father is a superior proposition and is not contrary to reason.” But what then is a proposition contrary to reason if that which obviously expresses a blasphemy isn’t one?

VIII

Lost in an immense forest during the night I only have a small light to guide me. An unknown man appears and says to me: “My friend, blow out your candle so you can better find your way.” This unknown man is a theologian.

IX

If my reason comes from on high then it is the voice of heaven that speaks through it. I must listen to it.

X

Merit and lack of merit cannot be applied to the use of reason, because all the good will in the world cannot make a blind man discern colors. Unless I’m an imbecile I am forced to see evidence where it is, and the lack of evidence where it isn’t. And imbecility is a misfortune and not a vice.

XI

The author of nature, who will not reward me for having been intelligent will not damn me for having been a fool.

XII

And he will not damn you for having been evil. After all, weren’t you unhappy enough because you were evil?

XIII

Every virtuous act is accompanied by internal satisfaction, every criminal act by remorse. Yet without shame or remorse the spirit confesses its repugnance for this or that proposition. There is thus neither virtue nor crime in either believing or rejecting it.

XIV

If grace is necessary in order to do good, then of what use was Jesus Christ’s death?

XV

If there are a hundred thousand damned beings for every one who is saved, then the devil always has the advantage, without having abandoned his son to death.

XVI

The Christian God is a father who makes much of his apples and very little of his children.

XVII

Take the fear of hell from a Christian and you take from him his belief.

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