Quote#Nature
If the ignorance of nature gave birth to such a variety of gods, the…
Quote byBaron d'Holbach · 1723–1789
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: Samuel Wilkinson, trans., The System of Nature (Project Gutenberg e-text), vol. 2, chap. I.
English (original)
If the ignorance of nature gave birth to such a variety of gods, the knowledge of this nature is calculated to destroy them.
— Baron d'Holbach
More from Baron d'Holbach
Pascal proves nothing in favour of Religion, unless that a man of genius may be foolish on some subjects, and is but a child, when he is weak enough to listen to his prejudices.
All children are born Atheists; they have no idea of God.
It is thus superstition infatuates man from his infancy, fills him with vanity, and enslaves him with fanaticism.
Savage and furious nations, perpetually at war, adore, under diverse names, some God, conformable to their ideas, that is to say, cruel, carnivorous, selfish, blood-thirsty.
When we examine the opinions of men, we find that nothing is more uncommon, than common sense; or, in other words, they lack judgment to discover plain truths, or to reject absurdities, and palpable contradictions.
Religion has ever filled the mind of man with darkness, and kept him in ignorance of his real duties and true interests. It is only by dispelling the clouds and phantoms of Religion, that we shall discover Truth, Reason, and Morality. …