by Jean Meslier
You say, my dear God-cultists and Christ-cultists, you say that your God is the supreme father of all men and all living creatures; you say that He is the supreme pastor and the supreme leader of men and especially that he is the supreme shepherd of souls; you say that He is the supreme judge of all men and that He is, finally, the sovereign Master and Lord of the whole world, or rather it’s He Himself, you say, who attributes to himself all these fine and honorable qualities of father, shepherd, judge, and sovereign Lord; how, then, can you say that he is an infinitely good and infinitely wise father, since He abandons all His family, i.e., everyone, to chance, and lets so many of these children, i.e., people, to become so ugly, so deformed, so vicious, and so nasty, subject to so many diseases and infirmities, and lets them, with impunity and insolence, carry out so much mischief; does this, in your view, accord with a perfectly good and perfectly wise father? How can you say that He is a perfectly good shepherd when He so negligently lets His flocks be infected by all sorts of errors and vices, and so universally abandons the good to the malice, wickedness, cruelty, and perfidy of the wicked? Is that in keeping with a perfectly good shepherd? How can you call Him a perfectly just judge, when He makes no distinction between the innocent and the guilty, and punishes them both equally, when they miserably find themselves accused; is that perfectly suited to a just judge? Finally, how can you say that He is a perfectly good Prince and the sovereign Lord of the world, since He doesn’t openly show men His intentions and will, and that he lets them be robbed, persecuted, ruined, made desolate, and massacred continually by each other, by continual divisions and continual warfare, is that appropriate for a perfectly good and wise Prince and sovereign Lord of the World? You would blame and condemn such conduct by men every time, if they set themselves up to guide and govern others, by what principle of reason might you then, Gentlemen, approve the same thing in a being who you say is supremely and infinitely perfect? Will you make contemptible and culpable vices, when practiced by men, into adorable and infinitely perfect virtues when practiced by God? There is no man who wouldn’t be blameworthy and deserving of punishment, if, especially in matters as consequential and important as these, he didn’t do all the good he could, and if he didn’t prevent all the evil he could.
If a Doctor, for example, could easily heal all sorts of diseases, and even keep people free of all diseases, and even save them from dying or suffering any harm at all, but who nevertheless refused to heal all their diseases, or preserve them from all harm, and intentionally let them die, and wanted to let them die in their pains and diseases, wouldn’t he be completely blameworthy and deserving of punishment? If a Father could make all his children beautiful, wise, virtuous, perfect, and lavish all kinds of goods on them, but who nevertheless refused to bring them these blessings, but intentionally allowed them to become vicious and wicked, to become ugly and deformed, and let them suffer from hunger and all the miseries of poverty, wouldn’t he be completely blameworthy? Finally, in short, if a Prince could make his people happy and content, and keep all misfortune, harm, and upsetting accidents, but who didn’t want to make them happy, but intentionally left them exposed to the courses and ravages of his enemies and left them wretched and miserable, would he not be completely guilty in this? Yes, certainly. You gentlemen, the God-cultists and Christ-cultists, say and would have us believe that your God can do all sorts of good to men, that He can preserve or happily extract them from all danger and all misfortune, He can make them all perfectly happy and contented, and He can make them all perfectly good, perfectly wise and virtuous, but you must see, and everyone else sees this too, that He falls well short of securing them from all kinds of evil: how, then, can you say and how can you ever convince us that He is all-powerful and that He is infinitely good and infinitely wise, since reality clearly demonstrates the opposite to us.
Do you not know that the more good and perfect a being is, the more perfectly and wisely it must act[753], so that if your God were, as you say, infinitely good, infinitely wise, and omnipotent, He would certainly have made and ordered all things very wisely and very perfectly: there is an axiom in Philosophy which says: quidquid recipitur ad modum recipientis recipitur. If this axiom is true, then it’s equally true to say: quidquid fabricatur ad modum fabricantis fabricatur, so that if there had been an omnipotent and infinitely perfect artisan who made all things, He would infallibly have made them all perfect and consequently without any flaws or defects: but far from finding all things in a this noble and desirable state of perfection, on the contrary we find all of them in a state of derangement, disorder, and confusion, and in a sad and deplorable state of misery and infirmity. What likelihood is there, then, that they were made and that they are governed by an all-powerful, infinitely good, and infinitely wise being? There is certainly no likelihood at all.
It would surely be of the goodness and wisdom and even the glory of an infinitely perfect being, to make itself perfectly known and loved by everyone, for the good, according to the received maxim, must be communicated, bonum est sui diffectivum, the greater a goodness is, the more it must communicate and spread, the more it must be felt and loved, and consequently, a goodness and a wisdom that would be infinitely perfect, wouldn’t fail to be perfectly communicated while being perfectly known and loved. Indeed, what would a good be, if it weren’t communicated in any way, i.e., which didn’t make itself felt or known in any way? Such a good would remain completely useless, which is indicated in our so-called Holy Books. “What utility,” says Ecclesiasticus, “is there in a wisdom, or a treasure, which remain hidden? There is,” he says, “no utility in either”[754]. Sapientia abscondita et thesaurus invisus quae utilitas utrisque? “He,” he says, “who hides his faults and imperfections, is better than he who hides his wisdom and his virtues”[755], melior est qui celat insipientiam suam, quam homo qui abscondit sapientiam suam. For this reason, it is also said in one of their supposed prophets that the glory of the Lord God will appear everywhere, and that all flesh will hear the word of the Lord[756]: Revelabitur gloria Domini et videbit omnis caro quod os Domini locutum est. In another prophet it says that the glory of the Lord will be so visible and so manifest everywhere, that nobody will need instruction to learn and know Him. “I will place my law,” says God, “in their innards, I will write it in their hearts”: Dabo legem meam in visceribus eorum et in corde eorum scribam eam. “Nobody,” he says, “will need to teach his brother or his neighbor, to learn how to know me, for all of them will know me, from the least to the greatest[757]”: non docebit ultra vir proximum suum et vir fratrem suum dicens cognosci dominum: omnes enim cognoscent me a minimo eorum usque ad maximum. “And not only,” he says, “will He thus make Himself known to all men, but He even says that He will also be praised and glorified by wild beasts; the beasts of the field,” he says, “dragons, serpents, and ostriches will glorify me”[758]. Glorificabit me bestia agri, dracones et strutiones. “For I will,” he says, “make all things new”: Ecce ego facio nova.
According, then, to what is said by these prophets, God attributes to Himself the glory of thus making Himself known and glorified, He attributes them to Himself, exclusive of all others, He says He is jealous of His glory and that He will share it with nobody else. “I am the Lord,” he says, “I am a strong and mighty God, jealous of His glory. I will keep,” he says, “my name from being blasphemed, I will prevent this,” he says, for love of myself, and I will not give my glory to another[759]”: Ego sum Deus, Deus tuus fortis, zelans, visitans iniquitatem patrum in filios in tertiam et quartam generationem eorum qui oderunt me propter me[760]. Propter me faciam ut non blasphemer et gloriam meam alteri non dabo. This He would also confirm with promises and swearing an oath, as for the greater assurance of the truth of His words: “I have sworn by myself,” He says, “I have sworn truth and justice, my words will be fulfilled, every knee will bow under me, and everyone will glorify me”[761]: in me metipso juravi egredietur de ore meo justitioe verbum et non revertetur quia mihi
curvabitur omne genu et jurabit omnis lingua. It is therefore clear and visible, for the arguments and testimonies I’ve just cited, that the goodness and wisdom, and even the glory of God, i.e., of an infinitely perfect being, demand that He must make Himself perfectly well known to and loved by everyone. But it is evident that there is no infinitely perfect being who has made themselves known to and loved by everyone, for if one did make itself perfectly known to and loved by everyone, then nobody would wish to, or even could deny or even doubt its existence, as so many do, and even our God-cultists wouldn’t find it as hard as they do to prove its existence, and they wouldn’t need so many preachers to try to make Him known to their peoples. Since, then, there is an infinite number of people who do not know Him, who deny His existence, or who question it, and since even the most zealous of our own God-cultists are unable to demonstrate this, either by reason or sentiment, this is a clear proof that there is no such being, and consequently no God.
It is equally clear and evident that it would belong to the goodness and wisdom of an all-powerful, infinitely good, and infinitely wise being, as well as His glory, His goodness and wisdom, to make everything perfectly good that He makes, and consequently to allow no flaw, or any imperfection in them, and, for the same reason, it would belong to the infinite goodness, glory, and wisdom of such a being to always maintain and preserve His works in a complete and perfect condition, and if He doesn’t do so, it’s surely because He either can’t or won’t: If He won’t, then He is assuredly not infinitely good, since He refuses to do all the good He could do, and if it’s because He can’t, then He’s certainly not all-powerful, since He can’t do all the good he wants to do: and thus, whether for lack of goodness or lack of power to do all things perfectly, it clearly follows that He is not infinitely perfect and, consequently, He would not be God, as our Christ-cultist use the word.
Could it be possible for a Being who is infinitely good and infinitely wise to refuse to do all the good He could do, and which would be in keeping with His glory, too? Could it be possible for Him not to wish to prevent all the evil that He might stop, and which it would also be fitting for His glory to prevent? Could it be possible that an infinitely good and infinitely wise God, who could, easily and effortlessly, make all His creatures happy and perfect forever, would nevertheless leave them vicious and defective, weak and imperfect forever, to see them and then leave them forever to miserably suffer all sorts of ills and miseries in life. Would it be possible that an infinitely good and infinitely wise God could be happy to see evil, disorder, vice, and confusion in His creatures? Would He be happy, for example, to see them crippled, botched in body or mind; would He be happy to see them languish and die of hunger and in poverty; would He be happy to watch them hate, persecute, tear, destroy, and cruelly consume each other, as they do? This is certainly not believable: I’ll refuse to believe that a being who is infinitely perfect, infinitely good, and infinitely wise could be capable of such a thing, for it’s completely against the nature of an infinitely good and infinitely wise being; it’s destructive of the infinite goodness and wisdom, to think it capable of wishing to create or to allow so much evil and wickedness to afflict its creatures. It’s such a fine, praiseworthy, and honorable thing to do all things well, it’s such a sweet, lovely, and worthy of the perfection and grandeur of a noble and generous heart to be as beneficent everywhere, that it becomes inconceivable to think that a being who is supposed to be infinitely perfect, would mean to escape or neglect any occasion to do what is good, and like any other person who, lacking a beneficent soul and heart and, in emergencies, refuse to help their fellows, wouldn’t be worthy to be well off, and instead deserve to be miserable and unhappy, in the same vein, I dare to say that if there were Gods who were capable of doing all manner of good and preventing all manner of evil, and they nevertheless refused to do all the good they could do and refused to prevent all the evil they could have prevented, they certainly wouldn’t deserve to be Gods, or to receive any divine honor, I even dare say they would deserve to be flogged more than to be served and worshiped as Gods.
What? “It’s the Gods themselves,” say the God-cultists, “It’s God Himself,” say our Christ-cultists,” It’s God Himself or it’s the Gods themselves, who recommend and order men to do all the good they can, and prevent as much evil as possible, but God Himself or the Gods themselves won’t do all the good they can, or stop all the evil they can? In this they would become a thousand times guiltier than men. If men don’t do all the good they can, and if they don’t always prevent all the evil they can, it’s often because this comes at a cost of trouble, labor, and concern that they don’t want to take on; it’s also often because they can’t do good to others without suffering some diminution of their own; but it would be different for God or the Gods, if they were truly Gods. For if they were truly all-powerful gods, they could easily do all sorts of good to men and prevent all sorts of evil, without incurring any trouble or any worry, and they could likewise do all sorts of good, without fearing any diminution of their own, for they would only have to want it to be so, and everything would be done according to their wishes, it costs nothing if all it takes is a wish. Since, then, we clearly see that they don’t do all this good, which it would be right for them to do, and that they don’t prevent all the evil that it would be right for them to prevent everywhere, this is a clear proof, either that they are not good or that they are not omnipotent, and consequently, that they are not Gods.
Similarly, if there truly were an all-powerful, infinitely good and infinitely wise God and Lord, His goodness and wisdom would require him to protect the good everywhere and always reward virtue, just as His justice would require Him to punish the wicked everywhere and prevent the execution of their evil designs everywhere. This proposition cannot reasonably be questioned, since nothing could be more suitable to an infinite goodness and an infinite wisdom than to protect all the good and always reward virtue; that is even essential to a supremely perfect goodness; it would constitute an insult to it, and it would even destroy it to say that it wouldn’t protect the good or give virtue its reward. Similarly, nothing could be better suited to the wisdom and justice of an all-powerful and infinitely perfect being than to punish the wicked and to prevent the execution of their evil designs; it is essential to the wisdom and justice of an infinitely perfect being; it would destroy it to say that it does not punish the wicked and would not prevent the execution of their evil designs. For, to avoid doing good, not preventing evil, not rewarding virtue, and not punishing vice, it’s effectively as if there were no sovereign goodness, no sovereign wisdom and no sovereign justice. Our God-cultists can’t help but acknowledge this, since they are so careful to attribute to their God the quality of sovereign protector of the righteous and sovereign avenger of crimes; they attribute such titles to Him in an infinity of places in their so-called Holy Scriptures, where it is stated that God promises His protection and all manner of blessings and great rewards to the righteous, and where He threatens the complete loss of sinners and to severe punishment for their crimes. “I am,” he says, “a strong and powerful God, I am a God who is jealous of my glory, punishing the sins of the fathers on the children unto the third and fourth generation, of those who hate me and do evil[762], and extending mercy to thousands of those who love me and do good.” “God” says the Prophet, King David[763], “is the protector of all those who hope in him, the salvation of the righteous,” he says[764], “comes from the Lord God. He is their protector in the time of their afflictions, He will deliver them from the hands of sinners and He will grant their wishes, since they hope in Him[765].” “The Lord,” he says, “always has a favorable eye upon the just; His ears are always attentive to their prayers; He is near those whose hearts are heavy, He will deliver them from all their afflictions, and will not allow any of their bones to be broken.” “The Lord,” he adds[766], “loves the righteous, He protects all those who love Him and He protects the widow and the orphan[767], He d
elivers those who are captives and gives sight to those who are blind, whereas He will lay waste,” he says”, to all sinners”: omnes peccatores disperdet.
“Fear not”, said God himself to Abraham[768], “Fear not, for I am your protector, and I myself will be your reward, a very great reward. If you heed my words,” says the same God by the mouth of Moses, (for the Gods only speak through human mouths) “If you heed my words,” he says, “and closely observe what I command you today, all these blessings,” he says, “will come upon you[769].” You will be blessed in your cities and your fields, the Lord will shower you with the treasure of His blessings, He will give you all manner of goods in abundance.” And on the other side, He threatens sinners with of all manner of punishment and retribution. He says[770] that He will pour out His wrath and fury upon them. “If you do not heed my voice,” He tells[771] the wicked, “and refuse to do as I command, you will be cursed in your cities and in your fields[772]. You will be afflicted by famine, plague, war, and you will be crushed beneath all manner of ills…” And many other similar testimonies, which are set out in these so-called holy and divine Scriptures, which confirm everywhere what I’ve said about the protection and the reward of the righteous and the punishment of the wicked. It is evident, then, for the reason I’ve just given, and confirmed by all the testimonies I’ve shared, that God’s justice would require an all-powerful and infinitely perfect being to punish all the guilty and all the wicked, to prevent the execution of all their evil plans.