“. . . In all parts of our globe, fanatics have cut each other's throats, publicly burnt each other, committed without a scruple and even as a duty, the greatest crimes, and shed torrents of blood . . . Savage and furious nations, perpetually at war, adore, under divers names, some God, conformable to their ideas, that is to say, cruel, carnivorous, selfish, blood-thirsty. We find, in all the religions, 'a God of armies,' a 'jealous God,' an 'avenging God,' a 'destroying God,' a 'God,' who is pleased with carnage, and whom his worshippers consider it a duty to serve. Lambs, bulls, children, men, and women, are sacrificed to him. Zealous servants of this barbarous God think themselves obliged even to offer up themselves as a sacrifice to him. Madmen may everywhere be seen, who, after meditating upon their terrible God, imagine that to please him they must inflict on themselves, the most exquisite torments. The gloomy ideas formed of the deity, far from consoling them, have every where disquieted their minds, and prejudiced follies destructive to happiness.” WarGodHappinessDeathReligionSacrificeBloodAtheismCrimeDivineMurderKillingSelfishJealousGodsFanaticsMeditatingCruelConsolingMonotheismCarnageMassacreSavageDeityPolytheism Author:Baron d'Holbach
“If experience be consulted, it will be found there is no action, however abominable, that has not received the applause of some people. Parricide - the sacrifice of children - robbery - usurpation - cruelty - intolerance - prostitution, have all in their turn been licensed actions, and have been deemed laudable and meritorious deeds with some nations of the earth. Above all, Religion has consecrated the most unreasonable, the most revolting customs.” PeopleIfsChildrenHas BeensActionEarthReligionTurnsFoundNationsSacrificeDeedsCrueltyCustomsIntoleranceApplauseProstitutionUnreasonableRobberyUsurpation Author:Baron d'Holbach
“If the ignorance of nature gave birth to gods, the knowledge of nature is calculated to destroy them.” IfsScienceReligionKnowledgeAtheismIgnoranceBirthAtheistAtheisticTheismTheistIgnorance And Fear Author:Baron d'Holbach
“If we go back to the beginnings of things, we shall always find that ignorance and fear created the gods; that imagination, rapture and deception embellished them; that weakness worships them; that custom spares them; and that tyranny favors them in order to profit from the blindness of men.” IfsMenReligionOrderImaginationIgnoranceWorshipWeaknessAtheistProfitFavorsTyrannyDeceptionCustomsSparesBlindnessRaptureIgnorance And Fear Author:Baron d'Holbach
“In Nature nothing; is mean or contemptible, and it is only pride, originating in a false idea of our superiority, which causes our contempt for some of her productions. In the eyes of Nature, however, the oyster that vegetates at the bottom of the sea is as dear and perfect as the proud biped who devours it.” MeanIdeasEyeReligionCausesPerfectSeaPrideProudBottomDearProductionsContemptSuperiorityOysters Author:Baron d'Holbach
“It is only by dispelling the clouds and phantoms of religion that we shall discover truth, reason and morality.” LifeInspirationalReasonReligionAtheismMoralityAtheistCloudsPhantomsAtheisticDispelling Author:Baron d'Holbach
“People have suffered and become insane for centuries by the thought of eternal punishment after death. Wouldn't it be better to depend on blind matter... than a god who puts out traps for people, invites them to sin, and allows them to sin and commit crimes he could prevent. Only to finally get the barbarian pleasure to punish them in an excessive way, of no use for himself, without them changing their ways and without their example preventing others from committing crimes.” PeopleWayMatterUseDeathReligionSinPleasureHellCenturyCrimeExampleDependsEternalBlindPunishmentCommitInsaneInvitesTrapsAfter DeathPreventingBarbariansCommitting Crimes Author:Baron d'Holbach
“Suns are extinguished or become corrupted, planets perish and scatter across the wastes of the sky; other suns are kindled, new planets formed to make their revolutions or describe new orbits, and man, an infinitely minute part of a globe which itself is only an imperceptible point in the immense whole, believes that the universe is made for himself.” MenBelieveMadeWholeReligionUniverseSunSkyMinutesPlanetsRevolutionWasteImmenseGlobesOrbit Author:Baron d'Holbach
“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
“All children are born Atheists; they have no idea of God.” ChildrenIdeasReligionBornAtheismAtheistNo Idea Author:Baron d'Holbach
“These principles, universally recognized, are at fault when the question of the existence of God is considered; what has been said of Him is either unintelligible or perfectly contradictory; and for this reason must appear impossible to every man.” MenHas BeensSaidReasonReligionCommonImpossibleAtheismAtheistEvery ManCommon SenseContradictory Author:Baron d'Holbach
“Nature, you say, is totally inexplicable without a God. That is to say, to explain what you understand very little, you have need of a cause which you understand not at all.” NeedsLittlesReligionCausesAtheismAtheistInexplicableAnti Religious Author:Baron d'Holbach
“The atheist . . . destroys the chimeras which afflict the human race, and so leads men back to nature, to experience and to reason.” MenHumansReasonReligionRaceAtheistHuman RaceChimera Author:Baron d'Holbach
