Superstition in All Ages 31 – Knoop · Verses Across
Freethought · Atheism
Superstition in All Ages 31XLVIII.—Continuation
18
Freethought · Atheism
Superstition in All Ages 31
XLVIII.—Continuation
KnoopEnglish
The slightest reflection suffices to prove to us that God can not have any of the human qualities, virtues, or perfections. Our virtues and our perfections are the results of our temperament modified. Has God a temperament like ours? Our good qualities are our habits relative to the beings in whose society we live. God, according to you, is a solitary being. God has no one like Him; He does not live in society; He has no need of any one; He enjoys a happiness which nothing can alter. Admit, then, upon your own principles, that God can not possess what we call virtues, and that man can not be virtuous in regard to Him.
XLIX.--IT IS ABSURD TO SAY THAT THE HUMAN RACE IS THE OBJECT AND THE END OF CREATION.
Man, charmed with his own merits, imagines that it is but his own kind that God proposed as the object and the end in the formation of the universe. Upon what is this so flattering opinion based? It is, we are told, upon this: that man is the only being endowed with an intelligence which enables him to know the Divine nature, and to render to it homage worthy of it. We are assured that God created the world for His own glory, and that the human race was included in His plan, in order that He might have somebody to admire and glorify Him in His works. But by these intentions has not God visibly missed His end?
1. According to you, it would always be impossible for man to know his God, and he would be kept in the most invincible ignorance of the Divine essence.
2. A being who has no equals, can not be susceptible of glory. Glory can result but from the comparison of his own excellence with that of others.
3. If God by Himself is infinitely happy and is sufficient unto Himself, why does He need the homage of His feeble creatures?
4. In spite of all His works, God is not glorified; on the contrary, all the religions of the world show Him to us as perpetually offended; their great object is to reconcile sinful, ungrateful, and rebellious man with his wrathful God.
