M. Bayle has pretended to prove
[1]
that it is better to be an Atheist than an Idolater; that is, in other words,
that it is less dangerous to have no religion at all than a bad one. "I
had rather," said he, "it should be said of me that I had no existence
than that I am a villain." This is only a sophism founded on this, that
it is of no importance to the human race to believe that a certain man
exists, whereas it is extremely useful for them to believe the existence
of a God. From the idea of his non-existence immediately follows that of
our independence; or, if we cannot conceive this idea, that of
disobedience. To say that religion is not a restraining motive, because
it does not always restrain, is equally absurd as to say that the civil
laws are not a restraining motive. It is a false way of reasoning
against religion to collect, in a large work, a long detail of the evils
it has produced if we do not give at the same time an enumeration of the
advantages which have flowed from it. Were I to relate all the evils
that have arisen in the world from civil laws, from monarchy, and from
republican government, I might tell of frightful things. Were it of no
advantage for subjects to have religion, it would still be of some, if
princes had it, and if they whitened with foam the only rein which can
restrain those who fear not human laws.
A prince who loves and fears religion is a lion, who stoops to the
hand that strokes, or to the voice that appeases him. He who fears and
hates religion is like the savage beast that growls and bites the chain
which prevents his flying on the passenger. He who has no religion at
all is that terrible animal who perceives his liberty only when he tears
in pieces and when he devours.
The question is not to know whether it would be better that a
certain man or a certain people had no religion than to abuse what they
have, but to know what is the least evil, that religion be sometimes
abused, or that there be no such restraint as religion on mankind.
To diminish the horror of Atheism, they lay too much to the charge
of idolatry. It is far from being true that when the ancients raised
altars to a particular vice, they intended to show that they loved the
vice; this signified, on the contrary, that they hated it. When the
Lacedmonians erected a temple to Fear, it was not to show that this
warlike nation desired that he would in the midst of battle possess the
hearts of the Lacedmonians. They had deities to whom they prayed not to
inspire them with guilt; and others whom they besought to shield them
from it.
