The different religions of the world do not give to those who profess them
equal motives of attachment; this depends greatly on the manner in which
they agree with the turn of thought and perceptions of mankind.
We are extremely addicted to idolatry, and yet have no great
inclination for the religion of idolaters; we are not very fond of
spiritual ideas, and yet are most attached to those religions which
teach us to adore a spiritual being. This proceeds from the satisfaction
we find in ourselves at having been so intelligent as to choose a
religion which raises the deity from that baseness in which he had been
placed by others. We look upon idolatry as the religion of an ignorant
people, and the religion which has a spiritual being for its object as
that of the most enlightened nations.
When with a doctrine that gives us the idea of a spiritual supreme
being we can still join those of a sensible nature and admit them into
our worship, we contract a greater attachment to religion; because those
motives which we have just mentioned are added to our natural
inclinations for the objects of sense. Thus the Catholics, who have more
of this kind of worship than the Protestants, are more attached to their
religion than the Protestants are to theirs, and more zealous for its
propagation.
When the people of Ephesus were informed that the fathers of the
council had declared they might call the Virgin Mary the Mother of God,
they were transported with joy, they kissed the hands of the bishops,
they embraced their knees, and the whole city resounded with
acclamations.
[1]
When an intellectual religion superadds a choice made by the deity,
and a preference for those who profess it over those who do not, this
greatly attaches us to religion. The Mahometans would not be such good
Mussulmans if, on the one hand, there were not idolatrous nations who
make them imagine themselves the champions of the unity of God; and on
the other Christians, to make them believe that they are the objects of
his preference.
A religion burdened with many ceremonies
[2]
attaches us to it more
strongly than that which has a fewer number. We have an extreme
propensity to things in which we are continually employed: witness the
obstinate prejudices of the Mahometans and the Jews,
[3]
and the
readiness with which barbarous and savage nations change their religion,
who, as they are employed entirely in hunting or war, have but few
religious ceremonies.
Men are extremely inclined to the passions of hope and fear; a
religion, therefore, that had neither a heaven nor a hell could hardly
please them. This is proved by the ease with which foreign religions
have been established in Japan, and the zeal and fondness with which
they were received.
[4]
In order to raise an attachment to religion it is necessary that it
should inculcate pure morals. Men who are knaves by retail are extremely
honest in the gross; they love morality. And were I not treating of so
grave a subject I should say that this appears remarkably evident in our
theatres: we are sure of pleasing the people by sentiments avowed by
morality; we are sure of shocking them by those it disapproves.
When external worship is attended with great magnificence, it
flatters our minds and strongly attaches us to religion. The riches of
temples and those of the clergy greatly affect us. Thus even the misery
of the people is a motive that renders them fond of a religion which has
served as a pretext to those who were the cause of their misery.
