“Many men without morals have attacked religion because it was contrary to their inclinations. Many wise men have despised it because it seemed to them ridiculous. Many persons have regarded it with indifference, because they have never felt its true disadvantages. But it is as a citizen that I attack it, because it seems to me harmful to the happiness of the state, hostile to the march of the mind of man, and contrary to sound morality, from which the interests of state policy can never be separated.” MenMindPersonsStatesSeemsFeltSoundInterestMoralWiseAtheismPolicyCitizensMoralityPositive AtheismContraryRidiculousIndifferenceMarchHostileInclinationDisadvantagesDespised Author:Baron d'Holbach
“If the ministers of the Church have often permitted nations to revolt for Heaven's cause, they never allowed them to revolt against real evils or known violencess. It is from Heaven that the chains have come to fetter the minds of mortals.” IfsMindRealEvilHeavenNationsCausesChurchKnownAtheismPositive AtheismChainsMortalsMinistersRevoltFetters Book:Superstition In All Ages (1732) Common Sense Source: Superstition In All Ages (1732) Common Sense
“The Jehovah of the Jews is a suspicious tyrant, who breathes nothing but blood, murder, and carnage, and who demands that they should nourish him with the vapours of animals. The Jupiter of the Pagans is a lascivious monster. The Moloch of the Phoenicians is a cannibal. The pure mind of the Christians resolved, in order to appease his fury, to crucify his own son. The savage god of the Mexicans cannot be satisfied without thousands of mortals which are immolated to his sanguinary appetite.” ShouldMindChristianReligionOrderAnimalBloodAtheismSonPureDemandMurderJewBreatheMonstersSatisfiedMortalsAppetiteTyrantsSavagesSuspiciousFuryPaganJehovahJupiterCannibalAppeaseCarnageVapourPhoenicians Author:Baron d'Holbach
“Religion has ever filled the mind of man with darkness, and kept him in ignorance of his real duties and true interests. It is by dispelling the clouds and phantoms of religion, that we shall discover truth, morality and reason. Religion diverts us from the causes of evils, and from these remedies which nature advocates, far from curing; it only aggravates, perpetuates and multiplies them.” MenMindRealReasonEvilCausesInterestDarknessIgnoranceDutyMoralityFilledCloudsRemedyPhantomsAgnosticismDispelling Author:Baron d'Holbach
“How could the human mind progress, while tormented with frightful phantoms, and guided by men, interested in perpetuating its ignorance and fears? Man has been forced to vegetate in his primitive stupidity: he has been taught stories about invisible powers upon whom his happiness was supposed to depend. Occupied solely by his fears, and by unintelligible reveries, he has always been at the mercy of priests, who have reserved to themselves the right of thinking for him, and of directing his actions.” ThinkingMenMindHumansHas BeensStoriesActionProgressIgnoranceTaughtDependsMercyStupidityInvisiblePriestsHuman MindPrimitiveReservedPhantomsReveriePerpetuatingIgnorance And Fear Author:Baron d'Holbach
“Can theology give to the mind the ineffable boon of conceiving that which no man is in a capacity to comprehend? Can it procure to its agents the marvellous faculty of having precise ideas of a god composed of so many contradictory qualities?” MenGivingMindIdeasQualityAtheismCapacityPositive AtheismTheologyAgentsFacultyPreciseContradictoryMarvellousIneffableBoonConceiving Author:Baron d'Holbach
