by Jean Meslier
Therefore, the religions which establish blind belief as the basis for their mysteries, and which take as the rule of their doctrine and their morality, something that is a principle of errors, illusions and imposture, and also a deadly source of disturbances and eternal divisions among mankind, cannot be true, and cannot truly have been instituted by God: and, since all religions take blind belief as the basis of their mysteries, and as the rule of their doctrine and morality, as I have shown, it plainly follows that there is no true religion, and that there cannot be even a single one which might be of truly divine institution, and consequently, I was right to say that they are all only human inventions, and that all they want us to believe about the Gods, their laws and ordinances or mysteries, and about their alleged revelations, are nothing more than errors, illusions, lies, and imposture. All of that clearly follows.
But I can already see our Christ-cultists referring on this point to their alleged grounds for belief, saying that, even though their faith or their belief is blind in one sense, it is confirmed by so many testimonies of truth which are so clear, sure, and convincing, that it would be not only imprudent, but also arrogant, stubborn, and even insane to refuse to submit to them. They usually condense all of their supposed reasons to believe under three or four headings.
They take the first one from the purity and alleged sanctity of their religion, which condemns, they say, every kind of vice, and which rewards the practice of all the virtues. Its doctrine is so pure and holy, they say, that it can obviously originate only from the purity and holiness of an infinitely good and infinitely wise God.
They find the second reason for belief from the innocence and holiness of those who have, in former times, embraced it with so much love, of those who have taught it so zealously, who have supported it with such constancy, and who have so generously defended it at the peril of their lives, to the shedding of their own blood, and even to the point of suffering death and the most cruel torture, rather than abandoning it, since it’s unbelievable, as our Christ-cultists say, that so many great, holy, wise, and enlightened personalities were mistaken in their beliefs, or that they would have truly renounced all their pleasures, all their advantages, and all of life’s comforts, as well as exposing themselves to so many pains and labors, and even so much harsh and cruel persecution, to support mere error and imposture.
They take their third reason for belief from the prophets and oracles who, at various times and for so long, have spoken in their favor, all of which oracles and prophecies, as they say, are so plainly and clearly fulfilled in their religion that it is not possible to doubt that these oracles and prophecies truly came from a fully divine inspiration and revelation, since there is only one God who could so clearly and surely foresee and foretell future things.
Finally, they derive their fourth reason for belief, and as it were, the apex of the others, from the greatness and the multitude of miracles and extraordinary and supernatural wonders which have been performed at all times and in all places in favor of their religion, such as restoring sight to the blind, hearing to the deaf, speech to the dumb, making the lame walk, healing paralytics and demoniacs and, generally speaking, healing every sort of disease and infirmity in a single instant, without applying any physical cure, even resurrecting the dead, and ultimately, doing all manner of miraculous and supernatural works, which could only be performed by a completely divine power; such miracles and wonders are, as our Christ-cultists say, reasons and witnesses which are so clear, certain, and convincing of the truth of their beliefs that nothing is left to be desired to be fully persuaded of the truth of their religion; such that they see it as not only imprudent, but also obstinate, bold, and even insane to even think of contradicting so many so clear and convincing witnesses of the truth. As a famous personality of theirs[66] once said:
It is great folly to not believe the Gospel, whose doctrine is so pure and holy, whose truth has been published by so many great, learned, and holy people, which has been underwritten by the blood of so many glorious martyrs, which has been embraced by so many so pious and learned doctors, and which has, finally, been confirmed by so many great and prodigious miracles, which can only have been worked by the omnipotence of a God.
On this occasion, another famous personality[67] of theirs boldly addressed these words to his God. “Lord,” he said, “if what we believe about you is mistaken, you yourself have led us astray; for everything we believe,” he said, “has been confirmed by so many and such wonderful miracles, that it is impossible to believe that they could have been done by anyone but you.”
12. THE WEAKNESS AND VANITY OF THE SUPPOSED GROUNDS FOR BELIEF TO ESTABLISH ANY RELIGIOUS TRUTH WHATSOEVER.
But it is easy to refute all these vain arguments, and to show clearly the vanity of all these supposed reasons to believe in all these supposedly so great and amazing miracles which our Christ-cultists think are clear and sound testimonies of the truth of their religion. For, to begin with, it is obviously a mistake to think that arguments and proofs which can equally and no less easily serve to establish or confirm lies and imposture than truth, can be safe guarantees of truth, but the arguments and proofs which our Christ-cultists find in their supposed reasons to believe can serve as well to establish and confirm lies and imposture as to establish and confirm the truth. As proof of this, it’s indeed true that there is no religion, as false as you like, which doesn’t claim to base itself on similar reasons for belief; there are none that don’t claim their own holy and true Doctrine, and there are none that fail to claim, in their own way at least, to condemn all the vices and commend the practice of all the virtues; there are none that don’t have their own well-educated and zealous apologists, that haven’t suffered harsh persecution, including death, for holding to and defending their religion; and finally, there are none that do not claim that certain miracles and wonders have been performed in their favor. Muslims, for example, invoke them in favor of their false religion, just like the Christians do. The Indians invoke them in favor of theirs, and all the pagans cite many in favor of their false religion; witness all these wondrous and miraculous metamorphoses, which are so many wondrous miracles performed in favor of the pagan religions. If our Christ-cultists boast of the oracles and prophecies, which they say were given in their favor and in favor of their religion, the same things are found no less frequently in the pagan religions, and thus, any advantage that might be claimed from all these supposed rounds for belief can be found more or less equally in every religion. This led judicious Montaigne to note “that all appearances are common to all religions: hope, confidence, rites, ceremonies, penitence, martyrs, etc.” God, he says, receives and takes “with good grace the honors and reverence that humans give Him, under whatever form, under whatever name, and in whatever manner it may come.” He says, “This zeal has universally been regarded favorably from heaven.” And he adds that “All the rulers have plucked the fruit of their devotion.”
The pagan histories recognize, he says, dignity, order, justice, and wonders and oracles employed for their benefit and instruction in their fabulous religions[68]. Augustus, he says, again, as I have already pointed out, had more temples than Jupiter, and was served with both religion and belief, and with miracles. In Delphi, a town of Boeotia, there was once a famous temple dedicated to Apollo, where he delivered his oracles, and therefore people came from all over the world to visit it, and it was enriched and ornamented with an infinity of vows and offerings of the utmost costliness. Similarly, Epidaurus, a city of Peloponnesus or Dalmatia[69], once had a famous temple dedicated to Asclepius, the god of medicine, where he issued his oracles, and where the Romans consulted him in times of plague, having this god transported in the form of Dragons in their city, Rome; and in his temple at Epidaurus, many tableaus depicted the cures and miraculous healings which he had performed, and many other similar examples, which would be too numerous to share in this place. This being so, as all the histories and practices of all the religions
show, it clearly follows that all these so-called reasons to believe, which our Christ-cultists are so eager to promote, are found just as much among all religions, and consequently can’t be used as proofs or sure testimonies of the truth of their religion, and even less the truth of any other. The conclusion is clear and evident.
13. THE UNCERTAINTY AND VANITY OF THE SUPPOSED MIRACLES AUTHORIZE ANY RELIGIOUS TRUTH WHATSOEVER.
Secondly, it is an obvious mistake to take as secure testimonies of the truth and sanctity of a religion any signs or effects which can equally come from vice or virtue, or from error as easily as truth, or which could have been done as easily by impostors and shysters as by men of piety and probity. This is easy to prove clearly, as much with examples of those which are said to have been done in the past in the false religions as by the testimony of that which our Christ-cultists call “the word of God”, as by the very testimony of he whom they worship as their God and their Savior: which testimonies expressly inform us that these kinds of signs and alleged miracles have been done, and that they can still be done in favor of error and lies by false prophets and impostors.
1. As for the examples of these alleged miracles, if anyone wishes to believe in them, they’ll find an infinite number of them in the false Religions of Paganism: a million of them can be seen, as it were, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, and in all the other fables of the Pagans; many are shared by Philostratus in his biography of Apollonius of Tyana, a city of Cappadocia. In the Acts of the Apostles we find that Simon, called the Magician, performed such marvelous works in the city of Samaria that everyone called him the great virtue of God. As I have already noted, he performed so many wonders and miracles in Rome that a statue was set up for him with this inscription: “To Simon the Holy God”. Titus Livy reports that when Tuccia, a Vestal virgin, had been accused of incest, she proved her chastity by carrying, from the Tiber to the Temple of the goddess Vesta, a sieve that stayed full of water. Ovid[70] equally reports that Claudia, another Vestal virgin, established her virginity by towing, with her belt only, the ship carrying the simulacra of the goddess Cibele, which had been stuck so immovably in the mire that many thousands of people hadn’t been able to budge. Tacitus reports[71] that Emperor Vespasian once healed a blind man instantaneously by simply touching his eyes, and that he also healed a legless man by simply touching the stem of his leg. Elius Spartianus says that Emperor Hadrian also healed a man born blind by touching his eyes. It’s said that Emperor Aurelian also did similar miraculous cures by mere touch. Pyrrhus[72], the king of Epirus, healed, says Plutarch, everyone’s spleen by touching these with the big toe of his right foot; and he adds that, when he died and his body was burned, the above-mentioned big toe was found completely intact. Strabo says that those who sacrificed to the Goddess Feronia walked barefoot on burning coals without being burned; he says the same about the devotees of the goddess Diana.
Coelius reports that the god Bacchus gave to the children of Anius, Apollo’s high priest, the power to change anything into wheat, wine, oil, etc., by simple touch. Ovid[73] in his Fastes, Diodorus the Sicilian[74], and Strabo[75] all relate that Jupiter gave to the nymphs who had fed him, a horn from the goat who had given him its milk; which horn had the power to give them an abundance of whatever they asked for, and which was therefore called the Cornucopia.
If the waters of the Red Sea were separated and divided to give free passage to the Israelites while fleeing before the Egyptians, as it says in the Jewish histories, the same thing, says Josephus the Jewish Historian, happened much later to the Macedonians when they passed the Sea of Pamphylia under the leadership of Alexander, while traveling to subdue the Persian Empire. Finally, the magicians of Pharaoh who are mentioned in the books of Moses, performed the same miracles as Moses. If Moses changed his staff into a serpent, the magicians did the same to theirs. If Moses made water change to blood, the magicians did it too. If Moses had the power to make a horde of frogs appear, the magicians did too. If Moses produced vermin and flies, so did the Magicians[76]: fecerunt autem et malefici per incantationes suas similiter eduxerunt que ranes super terram Egypti. And, if it says that the magicians of Pharaoh were ultimately bested by Moses in performing such wonders, even if that’s true, we shouldn’t be surprised by it, nor can it be claimed for that reason that Moses acted by a supernatural and divine power, since one can see every day that in all sorts of arts and sciences some workers and doctors are more learned and subtle than others. Even in dancing or prancing on a rope, or magic tricks, some people are more skilled and subtle some than others in these fine exercises. And so, even assuming that Moses actually did things the other magicians couldn’t replicate, this wouldn’t mean that he did what he did by divine power, but only that he had proved more capable, more learned or skilled, and more experienced in their art than the other parties. An infinity of similar examples could be shared to prove the same thing, but there is no use sharing anything further here.
Our Christ-cultists wouldn’t want to say that all these supposed miracles of Pharaoh's magicians were clear and convincing proofs of truth, or that they were performed by holy men: in spite of themselves, they must recognize that such signs and deeds can equally come from vice as from virtue, from error as from truth, and that they can be seen as having been done by deceivers and impostors, as well as by persons of probity, and consequently, that they can’t constitute any kind of proof, nor are they certain and secure testimonies of the truth of a religion. If they say that all these supposed miracles done by the magicians of Pharaoh, or those that are said to have been done in paganism in favor of error, or in favor of some false religion, are only false miracles, or that they are only fables and that we should place no confidence in what they say, we will respond thus: 1, that it’s just as easy to say the same thing about their own case, and that there is no more reason to believe in some than in the others, or at least it is certain that a person will not be able to discern by any sure means whether there is a better reason to believe some and not others, and it might even be said, in such a dubious matter, that there might be less reason to believe the miracles that are said to have occurred at the beginnings of Christianity, since those of paganism are, for the most part, reported by the more serious historians, who were well known and respected in their own times; whereas those of the origins of Christianity are only reported by ignorant, vulgar, men, who were neither known nor respected in their own day, and of whom we now know nothing more than their names: and it’s not even certain that these are their real names.
14. THE UNCERTAINTY OF THE HISTORIES ON THIS SUBJECT.
It might be said, for example, that it seems more reasonable to believe Philostratus[77] in his story in the 8th book of the Life of Apollonius than to believe all the Evangelists together in what they say of the miracles of Jesus Christ, since at least we do know that Philostratus was a man who was learned, eloquent, and discreet; that he was the favorite and Secretary to Empress Julia, wife of Emperor Severus, and that it was at the request of this Empress that he wrote his eight books of the life and marvelous acts of Apollonius; a definite indication that this Apollonius had become famous because of certain great and extraordinary actions, since an Empress was made curious enough to want his life and deeds recorded. But we cannot say the same thing for Jesus Christ or his biographer, since, as I’ve said, they were only ignoramuses, the dregs of humanity, poor mercenaries and poor fishermen, who lacked even the mental capacity to report their facts in an orderly and sequential fashion, and who often contradict each other in their narratives. And, with respect to he whose life and deeds they were chronicling, whether or not he truly did all the miracles they claim for him, he would be infallibly made commendable and illustrious by all his fine deeds and would not have failed to draw the admiration of the people, like all great men, especially as the above-mentioned Apollonius and Simon did, and who were regarded in their own times as fully divine men, to whom statues were erected, as to gods. But instead, the Christ of the Christians
was, during his life, seen as a nobody, as a contemptible man, as a madman and a fanatic, and ultimately as a miserable hangdog: why, then should we be expected to believe that he actually did such fine miracles? On the contrary, it is far more likely that he was in reality nothing but a mad fanatic, and thus, Christianity was originally only a pure fanaticism; this is what I will also show more fully in what follows.
Secondly, I will respond that the same books that speak, for example, about the miracles of Moses, also mention the miracles of Pharaoh’s magicians, and pointedly state that the magicians did the same miracles, that is, the same things that Moses did, feceruntque similiter, etc. That being so, our Christ-cultists cannot deny that these alleged miracles cannot be performed by wicked men as well as by good ones, and that they can perform them equally in favor of vice and lies as in favor of truth and virtue, and consequently, it is clear and evident that these so-called reasons to believe are neither proofs nor assured testimonies of truth. It would serve nothing to say, as they tend to do, that Pharaoh’s magicians were ultimately defeated by Moses, and that they could bring no further resistance to him: that may be true; but that doesn’t show, as I have said, that his power was any more supernatural and divine than that of the magicians, since in all arts and sciences, certain operators are more skilled and subtle than others. And, besides, if on this occasion Moses did beat the magicians, he might have been bested by them on another one, or defeated by other magicians who were more skilled than himself, had they been present on the same occasion; and thus, the proof from these supposed miracles is a weak proof of truth, so weak that there isn’t even any room, if we’re prudent, to accept what the authors say about it. This is why even Josephus, the false historian of the Jews, after having discussed the greater miracles that were said and believed to have been performed in favor of his nation and his religion, immediately afterwards diminishes this belief and renders it suspect when he says that he leaves everyone free to believe what they please about it, a sure sign that he didn’t attach much faith himself on what was said on the subject; and this is also what led the wiser writers to regard the histories about these sorts of things as fabulous narrations that aren’t credible. Note what the author of the Apology of Great Men[78] says about it: