by Jean Meslier
What judgment, and what conclusion follow from this silence on the part of this supposed divinity on such an urgent occasion and conjuncture as this, except that there truly is no divinity, or that, if there is one, it must be a Divinity who despises the worship of men, who doesn’t care about them, and who is happier to keep them in division and disturbance, than to bring them peace and actually blessing them. I find no reason to believe that there really is such a Divinity. The only thing left to conclude and say is that there isn’t one; this conclusion is clearly derived from all the arguments I’ve just offered, and which I’ll offer in what follows.
Our God-cultists usually respond to this by saying that their God makes Himself clearly known by the amazing works He has made. The heavens and the earth, they say, manifestly show the greatness, the glory, the power, the goodness, and the infinite wisdom of He who made them, who is none other than a God who is omnipotent, infinitely good, and infinitely wise. This is why their great Mirmadolin, St. Paul[778], says that God has set the evidence before human eyes, that which can be known of His greatness, by the manifestation and the consideration of the things He did in the creation of the world; having, by this means, made visible what was invisible in Him, namely His eternal power and even His divinity, so, he says, that men remain without excuse, if, having thus known of the existence of a God, they fail to glorify Him or give thanks for His blessings. And, with respect to His will, they also say that He has made them known clearly to men by the laws and ordinances He has established, and the observance of which He has commanded by His most faithful servants, who are the Angels and the Prophets, whom He has sent several times to teach them His divine will. This is why this great Mirmadolin St. Paul says that God in times past made Himself known to men by speaking to them in many ways by His Prophets, and that finally He has spoken to them in these last times by His beloved Son[779], whom He called and appointed as heir of all his own, and by whom He even created the eons, himself being the splendor of his glory and the vivid impression of his person, who sustains, he says, all things by his all-powerful word and who, after having purified all sins, sat down at the right hand of the sovereign Majesty of God in heaven; and this same supposed son of God, speaking about himself to the people, said[780] that he was sent from God, his Father, and that the wonderful works He performed among them, gave testimony that he was truly sent from God, his Father[781]. This is why, he added, if he hadn’t come among them and hadn’t performed the miraculous works that he did, they wouldn’t have had any sins, and they would have been excused for not believing in him[782], but, since he did come among them, and since he did so many miracles among them, they had no excuse not to believe in him or not to do what he told them, and many other such testimonies, which it would take too long to share here, etc.; but it is easy to refute this response and to show the vanity and falsity of all these supposed testimonies of divinity.
For 1). As for the supposed knowledge of the will of God, our superstitious God-cultists claim that these are quite clearly and sufficiently shown to us by the laws and ordinances He established, and which He commands men to observe, this is a sheer illusion: for, in all honesty, what are these laws and these ordinances, which can be manifestly or sufficiently known as coming from a God? Is it that of the Pagans, who recognize and worship many kinds of Deities, which are rejected by all those who acknowledge only a single God? Will it be those of the Jews, who worship only one God, but whose supposed laws and ordinances have only ever been observed in a small corner of the earth, as well as being observed only by a people which has always been regarded as the vilest, as the most contemptible, and the most miserable on earth? Will it be that of the Christians, which have their source and origin in those of this base and contemptible people, whom I just mentioned, who now condemn those of Judaism itself and those of Paganism, although the Christian Religion is not, itself, anything but a ridiculous mixture of Judaism and Paganism? Will it be those of the Muslims, which the Christians regard as having been done by an impostor and a false prophet? Will it be those of the Indians, the Chinese, and the Japanese, which we know nothing about? Or will it, finally, be certain other laws and ordinances, which we may never have heard of? Certainly not, if men or clearly or sufficiently acknowledged that one or another of these different kinds of laws and religions truly came from a God, why wouldn’t they agree peaceably, what would keep them from embracing this supposedly divine law which would be sufficiently well known to them, why wouldn’t they all follow and observe it with a common agreement, without inaptly holding to any error, without arguing so much with each other about the differences in these laws, and without so cruelly persecuting each other, as they do, for this reason? It’s certain that prudence would lead them to do this, if any of these different religions were clearly or sufficiently well known to have emanated from God.
But, since men have never been able to agree on a single religion, and since even within each religion there are many sorts of different sects who blame and condemn each other, and whose partisans of different sects persecute each other with fire and bloodshed, with respect to the diversity and mutually contradictory opinions and views that they have on their different laws and the explanation of their so-called divine laws, this is a clear proof that the will and intentions of their God are not clearly or adequately known to them, for, if they were clearly or adequately known to them, they would find it easy to agree and they would have no reason to dispute with such heat or to persecute each other, as they do, with such animosity. And if the laws and will of their God are inadequately known to them, this is a clear proof that this God does not make them sufficiently well-known, it's a clear proof that there is no Divinity, who wants to be worshiped by men, for, as I’ve said, it would be contrary to the goodness and wisdom and against the justice of an infinitely perfect God to wish to be loved, worshiped, and served by any rites whatsoever, without making Himself clearly or sufficiently known to men and without clearly and sufficiently acquainting them with His intentions, His laws, and His will.
78. THERE ARE MANY FALSE PROPHETS AND FALSE MIRACLES.
Since there are no God-cultists, of whatever law or Religion they may be, who don’t imagine and claim that their law is the only true law of God, which all men must follow, none of them don’t claim that their Religion comes from God Himself, and that He has given them sufficiently to know His intentions and will, whether by Himself or by the ministering of His Angels, or that of His Prophets, and that consequent to that, all men are obliged to keep to the testimony of these Angels and these Prophets, believing all they have said and religiously observing everything they ordain as God-inspired, and who sent them to declare His will to men: but it’s vain for them to claim that God has thereby made His will sufficiently known to men. For 1), the very fact that they all believe that their faith is divine and they all think they’re in good faith, although they are all contrary to each other, in their dogmas and worship, is a clear proof that they are, at least most of them, mistaken, and that God doesn’t make His will sufficiently well-known to those who are mistaken, since they think they’re doing what is right by doing what they do, and by believing what they believe, as must be supposed. 2). What knowledge and what sufficient certainty can they have, that these supposed Angels or supposed prophets, of which they speak, truly were sent or inspired by God, to make His intentions and will known to them? They can’t have any sufficient certainty of this; for, even supposing that there really are Angels, as they claim, which I won’t discuss here, it is clear that those who believe in these Angels say that there are good ones, called Angels of light, and that there are bad ones, called Angels of darkness, and they say that Angels of darkness often transfigure themselves into Angels of light, to deceive and lead men astray. That’s why the great Mirmadolin of our Christ-cultists, I mean the great St. Paul, expressly forbade his followers to believe anything other than what he had taught them, even if, he said[783], an Angel from heaven can to teach them anything else
. If it’s true that there are evil Angels, then it’s no less true that there are false prophets, and in addition, it is not certain that there was any true prophet, as understood here, it can even be assured that there were none, but it is certain that there have been a great many false ones, who call themselves true prophets and who, on this fine and specious pretext, retail in lies and imposture with the same confidence as if they were indeed true prophets, especially and expressly sent by God to make His will known to men. Our God-cultists cannot deny this, since it’s plain that, among all the religions in the world, not one of them doesn’t claim to be based on the authority and testimony of one of these supposed Prophets, who say they were specially sent and inspired by God; this in particular is something our Christ-cultists can’t deny, since they’ve seen in their Religion, as holy and divine as they consider it, many of these false prophets and they’ve even appeared since it first began. Their St. Paul complained of this in his day, referring to these false prophets; he calls them false apostles and deceitful workers, transforming themselves, he says, into Apostles of Jesus Christ. And this should come as no surprise, he says[784] since Satan himself is transformed into an Angel of light. In another place they are called: false doctors, 2 Peter 2:1; seducers, 2 John. 7; deceitful men and scoffers, Jude 18; and finally, Antichrists and wicked men, were already numerous from the beginning of Christianity. 1 John. 2: 18. And even their Christ was doubtful, that many like himself would appear, and would mislead many; this is also why he carefully warned his disciples to take care and give no credence to what they would tell them[785].
That being the case, what confidence can we prudently have about the words of deceivers, scoffers, visionaries, fanatics, or impostors, when they contradict and condemn each other; for it is obvious that those who take up this fine profession of prophesying and aping the confidants and messengers of God, are only shameless liars, madmen, visionaries, fanatics, wicked impostors, scoffers[786], for clever and cunning, deceitful politicians, who only use the name and authority of God to better play their role, of deceiving men. Viri illusores ambulantes secundum desideria sua in impietatibus. Judah 18. -- Isaiah 28:14. And even if assume that there were any true prophets, it would be morally impossible, amid such a great muddle of errors and imposture, to discern the supposedly true prophets from the false ones, since external appearances are no more favorable in either direction, to the point that it’s impossible to prudently believe what all these shameless impostors say. Thus, it can’t be said, and I even consider it folly to say that God makes His will manifestly and sufficiently well known to men by such vain, suspect, and deceptive witnesses as these, and it’s simply incredible that a God who is infinitely good and infinitely wise would ever use such witnesses to make His will known to men.
What? You’d believe that He’d reveal the holiest mysteries in secret to fools, to fanatics, and not present them openly to an infinity of wise men who would seek to be educated in them? You’d believe that He’d only want to share His will secretly to a few individuals, and that He wouldn’t want to declare it manifestly to whole peoples and to all the nations of the earth, who would love Him, who would worship Him, who would serve Him, and who would bless Him with all their hearts and affections, if only He would make Himself clearly and sufficiently known to them?
You’d want to believe that a God would reveal the ridiculous and absurd mysteries to insane fanatics, that they want you to believe and worship? You’d believe that it would be a God who would have given them these fine laws and fine ordinances that they want you to observe on the sole basis of their words? And you’d believe that after He’d spoken in this secret and hidden fashion, and even in the night and while dreaming, to this or that supposed prophet, he would have thereby manifestly or sufficiently make His intentions and will known to men, and He would have obliged them to do whatever He might command them, and this on threat of incurring His indignation and receiving eternal damnation, if they were found to be lacking on any point? That is certainly too far removed from any semblance of truth and unworthy of the supreme goodness and the supreme wisdom of a God, who is supposed to be all-powerful; and thus, that can’t be at all.
Our pious and devout Christ-cultists won’t fail to reply here simply that their God principally wants to make Himself known, worshiped, and served by the dim lights of Faith and by motives of love and charity conceived by faith, and not by the clear lights of human Reason, so that, as they say[787], to humble the human mind and confound its pride, and to give, by the same means, occasion for all men to exercise their virtue all the better, and to have all the more merit, by thus captivating their mind in obedience to Faith. But, 1). who could keep from laughing at this response, and who wouldn’t see its vanity and ineptitude after even a little reflection? For it is plain that it would be no less easy to suggest such an argument to maintain and support lies, as well as to maintain a truth, since there is no impostor who couldn’t say the same thing as a pretext for their errors, illusions, and imposture. This alone would suffice to show the vanity and absurdity of this response.
Besides, we don’t see anyone becoming more humble for that, or their God being better served and worshiped by men by this blind belief, which they have, as much by their faith in His divine will, as by a clear and entire knowledge that He would give them of His divine mysteries and His divine commandments; we don’t see that at all, I say: on the contrary, it’s certain that if an omnipotent and infinitely perfect God gave men a clear and entire, or perfect knowledge of His divine commandments, they would love and serve him far more perfectly than they do, and they would all be delighted at their beautiful and lovely perfections, and they would become far more wise and virtuous than they are. It’s an illusion, then, for our God-cultists to want, on the pretext of devotion, to so vainly interpret the aims and intentions of their God, and it’s even stupid for them to want to cover His weakness and powerlessness with such a vain pretext as what they are suggesting on this occasion.
But here's another argument, which does no less to show the weakness and vanity of this response; it’s that it’s not credible that a God who is infinitely good and infinitely wise would wish never to use a way that’s full of errors, illusions, and imposture to have Himself worshiped and served; it is not credible that He would wish to establish and provide a principle of errors and imposture as the basis for His divine truths and as the rule of His divine commands. For faith, or blind belief, is, as I’ve said, a principle of errors, illusions, and imposture, because on this pretext of blindly believing and observing everything said to have been revealed in a holy fashion by some supposed Divinity, it would be as easy to promulgate and gain observance for everything invented by impostors and visionary madmen or fanatics, who ridiculously think that anything they might imagine is true divine revelation, and who want others to believe them. It can’t be said, then, that it’s by these supposed secret revelations, either by this blind path, that God would like to announce His will to men, since such ways are so full of errors, illusions, and imposture; for ways that are so full of errors, illusions, and imposture are not appropriate ways for a God to proclaim any truth.
Our God-cultists might say that only those revelations which are given secretly to particular people aren’t truly sufficient to sufficiently indicate to men the will of a God, and that for this reason the Prophets and even the Angels who have nothing but revelations to offer, wouldn’t deserve to be taken at their word; but that if they showed by clearer and surer testimony that they truly are sent and inspired by God, as, for example, if they showed by miracles and wonders, which would surpass all the powers of nature, and which could only by a wholly divine power, then this would be a sufficient testimony, that they were true and truly sent by God to make His will known to men, because it wouldn’t be credible that an infinitely good and infinitely wise God would want to perform any miracle to promote impostors, or to confirm lies or errors.
But although this response is somewhat more likel
y than the previous one, still, there is no more solidity in either of the two, because these supposed miracles, which are so highly boasted of, and whose renown and fame makes such an impression in the minds of the ignorant, are no less suspect in themselves, or less prone to error, illusion and imposture, than the same alleged revelations are. And the clear proof of this is that there is no Religion which doesn’t claim to have its own miracles and revelations, just like the Christian Religion. The pagan religions are full, if we grant their truth, of similar miracles and divine revelations. That of the Jews, if we grant their truth, has many to offer, that of the Christ or the Messiah, which is followed by the Christians, has no fewer, that of Muhammad, which is followed by the Turks and the Barbarians, has no lack of them either. We must not think less of that of Confucius, followed by the Chinese and the Japanese and so on with all the other Religions, who claim to rely on these kinds of testimonies of Divinity; so that our wise Frenchman Montaigne[788] is quite right to say in his book that all appearances are common to all the Religions, hope, confidence, event, ceremony, penitence, martyrdom; the word “events” includes miracles, which are supposedly miraculous events. And in another place, he says[789] that the Emperor Augustus had more temples than Jupiter, and that he was served with as much religion and belief in miracles. In another place he says that the Divinity welcomes the honor and reverence that humans offer Him, whatever form, whatever name, and whatever manner are used. He adds that this zeal of men has been universally seen from Heaven with a friendly eye, that all the policies have borne fruit from their devotion; men, the ungodly actions have had everywhere, he says, appropriate events. The pagan histories, he continues, recognize the dignity, order, justice, wonders, and oracles used for their benefit and instruction in their fabulous Religion[790], which even the most scrupulous of our Christ-cultists cannot deny, since their Christ directly tells his Disciples that many false Christs and many false Prophets would arise, who would perform such great marvels that even his Elect would be in danger of being led astray[791].