Of the importance of religious opinions

When we see the authors of the different systems, concerning the formation of the world, reject the idea of a God, under the pretext, that this idea is foreign to the nature of our perceptions, should we not have a right to expect some better substitute for it? But, far from answering our expectations, they abandon themselves to all the wanderings of the most fantastic imagination. In fact, whether we refer the origin of the universe to the effect of hazard, the fortuitous concourse of atoms, or whether we establish another hypothesis derived from the same principle, it is necessary at least to suppose the eternal existence of an innumerable multitude of little particles of matter, placed without order in the immensity of space; and to suppose, afterwards, that these atoms, disseminated to infinity, attracted each other, and corresponded by the inherent properties of their nature; and that there resulted, from their adhesion, not only organized, but intelligent faculties; it is necessary, in short, to suppose, that all those incomprehensible atoms have been settled with admirable order through the effect of a blind motion, and by the result of some of the possible chances in the infinity of accidental combinations. Indeed, after so many suppositions without example or foundation, that of an Intelligent Being, soul and director of the universe, had been more analogous and more consonant with our knowledge.

Let us return to the hypothesis we have just mentioned. We shall then recognize the trifling habit of the mind; it is accustomed to proceed from simple to compound ideas, every time it meditates, invents, or executes: thus, by an inverse method, the composers of systems have thought, that, in order to connect the universe to its origin, it was sufficient to detach, by the exercise of thinking, all its parts, and to break and subdivide them afterwards to infinity; but whatever may be the tenuity of these atoms, their existence, having organized and intellectual properties, which we should be obliged to grant them, would be a wonder almost equal to those phœnomena which surround us.

When we see a plant grow, embellished with different colours, we only think of the period when its vegetation may be perceived by our senses; but the seed of this plant, or if you like better, the organized atoms, the first principle of this seed, would have offered also a grand subject of admiration, if we had been endowed with the faculties necessary to penetrate into the occult secrets of nature. But perhaps, in transforming into an imperceptible powder all the parts of matter, which have been collected to compose the world, we have only before our eyes a fugitive vapour, to which even our imagination cannot reach; and those who unfortunately love and defend this admiration, find besides, in the system of divisible atoms, means to defer, according to their fancy, the moment of their astonishment.

All these fantastic combinations serve only to lead us astray in our researches; and I do not think it a matter of indifference to make a general observation. The study of the first elements, of all the sciences which we acquire, such as geometry, languages, civil legislation, and several others, appear to us the simplest parts of our instruction. It is not the same, when we seek to know the laws of the physical world; for the works of nature never appear more simple than in their compounded state; they are then, to our mind, that which harmony is to the ear; it is the agreement of all parts which forms a union perfectly proportioned to our intelligence. Thus, man, for example, that wonderful alliance of so many different faculties, does not astonish our understanding, but appears to us in one point of view, a simple idea; but we are troubled, and, as it were, dismayed, when we try to analyze him, or mount to the elements of his liberty, will, thought, and all the other properties of his nature.

We only advance towards infinity, and consequently towards the most profound darkness, when we destroy the world in order to divide it into atoms, out of the midst of which we make it issue afresh, after having rallied all we have dispersed.

Let us admit, for a moment, that there exists organized and intelligent atoms, and that they are such, either by their nature, or by their adhesion to other atoms. We are now, of all these scattered atoms, to compose the universe, that master-piece of harmony, and perfect assemblage of every beauty and variety, that inexhaustible source of every sentiment of admiration; and in rejecting the idea of a God, creator and preserver, we must have recourse to the power of chance, that is to say, to the effects of an unknown continual motion, which, without any rule, produces, in a limited time, all the combinations imaginable; but, in order to effect an infinite variety of combinations, it is not only necessary to admit a continual motion, but besides, to suppose this continual motion changes its direction in all the parts of space subject to its influence. The existence of such a change, and a similar diversity in the laws of motion, is a new supposition which may be ranked with the other wild ones.

However, after these chimerical systems have been granted, we are not freed from the difficulties which the notion of the formation of the world by a fortuitous concourse of atoms produces.

It is difficult to comprehend how particles of matter, agitated in every manner, and susceptible, as has been supposed, of an infinity of different adhesions, should not have formed such a mixture, such a contexture, as would have rendered, the harmonious composition of the universe in all its parts, impossible.

When we represent to ourselves, abstractedly, the unlimmitted number of chances that may be attributed to a blind movement, the imagination, unable to conceive, is left to guess how an infinite number of atoms, endowed with a property of uniting themselves, under an infinite diversity of movements, could compose the heavenly bodies; but, as long before that period, when such an accidental throw would become probable; these same atoms might have formed an innumerable multitude of partial combinations; if one of these combinations had been incompatible with the harmony and composition of a world, that world could not have been formed.

The same considerations may be applied to animated beings: chance might have produced men susceptible of life, and the transmission of it, long before chance gave them all the faculties which they enjoy; and if they had been formed with only four senses, they could not have acquired a fifth; for the same reason that we do not see a new one spring up. Besides, the chance which might have produced living beings, must have always preceded the chance which afforded those beings every thing necessary for their subsistence and preservation.

It may indeed be supposed, that atoms assembled in a manner incompatible with the disposition of the universe, have been separated by the continuation of the motion introduced into the immensity of space; but this continual motion, sufficient to sever that which it has joined, would it not have destroyed that harmony which has been the result of one of the fortuitous chances to which the formation of the world has been attributed?

Will some object, that all the parts of matter, once united in the masses and proportions which constitute the heavenly bodies, have been maintained by the impression of a predominant force at the same time invariable? But how is it possible to reconcile the existence and dominion of such a force with that continual motion, which was requisite for the composition of the universe?

It may be also demonstrated, that the formation of worlds, by the chances of a blind motion, and their regular continuity of existence, are two propositions which disagree. Let us explain this idea. The play of atoms, necessary in order to produce the unformed masses of the heavenly bodies, being infinitely less complicated than that which is necessary to produce them, inhabited as they are with intelligent beings, must have happened long before the other. Thus, in the system of the composition of the universe, by the fortuitous concourse of atoms, it is necessary to suppose, that these atoms, after having been united to form the heavenly bodies, have been severed, and united again, as many times as was necessary, to produce a planet inhabited by intelligent beings. Since beings thus endowed add nothing to the stability of the world, since they do not contribute to the grand coalition of all its parts; why the same blind motion which has united, dissolved, and assembled so often every part of the earth, before it was composed, such as it is; why does it not produce some alteration now? It should again reduce to powder our world, or at least, let us perceive the commencement of some new form.

It is not only to a world inhabited by intelligent beings, that the arguments, just mentioned, may be applicable; for we perceive around us an innumerable multitude of beauties and features of harmony, which were not necessary to the preservation of our world, and which, according to every rule of probability, would never have existed, unless we supposed, that the earth has been formed, dissolved, and reproduced, an infinity of times, before having been composed such as we see it; but then I would ask, why there are no vestiges of those alterations, and why that motion has stopped?

It would be possible, however, by the assistance of a new supposition, to resolve the difficulty I have just mentioned; some may say, that the union, and the successive dispersion of the universal atoms, are executed in a space of time, so slow and insensible, that our observations, and all those which we have from tradition, cannot inform us whether there will not be a separation of all the parts of the universe, by the same causes which have occasioned their adhesion.

It is obvious, that transporting us into infinity and admitting such a series of arbitrary suppositions, they are not indeed exposed to any rational attacks; but, making equally free with infinity, in order to oppose nonsense to nonsense, why may I not be allowed to suppose, that in the infinite combinations arising from perpetual motion, men have been created, destroyed, and again called into being, with the same faculties, remembrances, thoughts, relations, and circumstances; and why each of us separated from our former existence, only by a sleep, whose duration is imperceptible, should not be in our own eyes immortal beings? Infinity permits the supposition of this absurd hypothesis, as it authorises every flight of the imagination in which time is reckoned for nothing. We see, however, how we risk running into error, when with our limited faculties we wish to subject the incomprehensible idea of infinity, and boldly adjust it to the combinations of finite beings.

Let us produce, however, another objection. It may be said, that our planet is the result of chance; but is not this chance improbable, if we suppose that there existed in the infinity of space, an infinite number of other assembled atoms, equally produced by the first throw of the dice, which represent all the possible forms, and imaginable proportions? And I would also ask, by what laws, all these irregular bodies, necessarily subject, by reason of their number and masses, to an infinity of movements, have not disconcerted the planetary system formed, at the same time as they were, by chance?

I ought to observe, above all, that the order which we are acquainted with, is a proof of universal order; for, in immensity, where one part is nothing compared with the whole, no part, without exception, could be preserved, unless it was in equilibrium with every other.

Thus, whether an infinite succession of chances be supposed, to which the entire mass of atoms has been uniformly subject, or whether the first general throw is thought sufficient, but divided into an infinity of different sections, our reason opposes invincible difficulties to the result which some want to draw from these various systems.

In short, we must observe, that in order to understand the accidental formation of a world, such as we are at liberty to suppose, the eternal existence of every kind of organized and intelligent atoms, must have preceded the formation of that world. I must again observe, that when they are obliged to such wonderful first principles, and to admit, in the beginning, a nature so astonishing, we can scarcely conceive how they can make it act suddenly a foolish part, in order to finish the work of the universe: a more exalted supposition, would have prevented their drawing a conclusion, so absurd.

It seems to me, that notwithstanding the immensity which has given rise to so many ridiculous notions about the formation of the world, they have such a resemblance to each other, that we can scarcely discern any difference; and considering the little circle which the imagination runs over, when it applies its force to deep conceptions, we think we discover something supernatural in its singular weakness: the authors of these systems seem to have a slavish turn of thinking, and the marks of their chains are very visible; it is always atoms, and atoms that they make play together, either at different times, or all at once, in infinite space; but when some want to form ideas of liberty and will, as they do not know in what manner to analyze these properties, they suppose them pre-existing in the elementary parts, which they made use of to create their universe; and they prudently take care not to grant any action to liberty and will, in order to prevent any resistance to those notions on which they build their universe.

They would not render either more simple or credible, the blind production of worlds, by supposing not only innumerable multitude of organized atoms, but, even an infinite diversity of molds to hold the atoms, and of which force chemical analogy gives us an idea. Such a system, which might serve to explain a few secondary causes of our known nature, is not applicable to the first formation of beings; for with such an assemblage of molds and atoms, all the great difficulties would still subsist. In fact, how should the different molds have classed themselves properly, in order to form the most simple whole, but which beside required a fixed measure and gradation of ranks? The mold destined for the organized atoms, of which the crystalline is to be composed, how is it possible it should have placed itself in the centre of that mold which is to form the pupil of the eye, and this last on that one which is to form the whole, and so on, by an exact gradation, whose divisions and subdivisions are innumerable?

Were they to suppose an infinite succession of molds, of which the largest attracted the smallest, in the same manner as the molds attracted the atoms; this supposition, less ridiculous than any other, is not sufficient to model, even in imagination, the most unimportant phœnomena of nature; it is necessary, besides, that by the direction of a wise and powerful force, the molds, and the atoms which belong to them, set themselves in motion, without confusion; it is necessary that those destined to compose the exterior fibres should not obstruct the passage of those molds calculated to form the interior organs; in short, that every one of those in its course and expansion, should artfully observe those delicate shades which blend or separate all the parts of the simplest of nature’s works.

We are already acquainted with a force which acts in all directions, which disposes every thing in due order, tends towards an end, stops, begins again, and finishes, every moment, a complicated work; and this is the intelligent will, and certainly we have reason to be astonished, that the only faculty we have an intimate consciousness of, is the one philosopher’s turn from, when they investigate the admirable order of the universe.

I allow, that they may, at the same time they reject the idea of a God, admit, as a principle, the eternal existence of a mechanical force, which, by an incomprehensible necessity, directed, towards a wise end, every thing that was at first confusedly scattered in the immensity of space; but this new supposition would form an hypothesis similar to the system of the eternal existence of the universe; in fact, the eternal existence of all the elements, of all substances, forces, and properties which were necessary to produce a certain order of things, would be a phœnomenon as incomprehensible as the existence of that order itself.

We must add, that these two phœnomena would be separated in our thoughts only by an indivisible instant, an instant that we can neither describe nor imagine in the extent of the time represented by eternity; for any chosen period would be still too late by an infinity of ages. The necessary effect of an eternal cause has not, like that cause, any period to which we can fix its commencement.

We thus perceive, under another point of view, how vain and ridiculous are the fantastic operations, they imagine, before the existence of the world, and which are attributed sometimes to the disordered movements of chance, and sometimes to the regular laws of blind necessity.

There is then but one hypothesis to be opposed to the idea of a God: it is the system of the eternal existence of the universe. Such an atheistical system will always be more easily defended than any other, because that being founded on a supposition without bounds, it does not require to be embraced by reasoning, like all the hypothetical ideas, by which men make nature act according to an order of their own invention. We will, in the next chapter, consider this system, and discuss it by every means in our power.