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.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that human emotions and weaknesses have historically led to the creation and worship of deities.
Baron D'Holbach's quote reflects on the origins of religious beliefs, arguing that they stem from fundamental human emotions such as ignorance and fear. He posits that these emotions give birth to gods, while imagination and deception enhance their appeal, with societal customs and tyrannical powers maintaining their existence for personal gain, thus exploiting the blind faith of the masses.
In practice
In a discussion about the psychological origins of religion, one might use this quote to emphasize how fear influences belief.
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.
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.
Tolerance and freedom of thought are the veritable antidotes to religious fanaticism.
To discover the true principles of Morality, men have no need of theology, of revelation, or of gods: They have need only of common sense.
It is easy to think of potatoes, and fortunately for men who have not much money it is easy to think of them with a certain safety. Potatoes are one of the last things to disappear, in times of war, which is probably why they should not be forgotten in times of peace.
All history is contemporary history.
The idea that an individual can find God is terribly self-centered. It is like a wave thinking it can find the sea.
In every age 'the good old days' were a myth. No one ever thought they were good at the time. For every age has consisted of crises that seemed intolerable to the people who lived through them.
What is the most popular scene in the Bible? Adam and Eve biting the apple. It's not there.
Dreams are shores where the ocean of spirit meets the land of matter. Dreams are beaches where the yet-to-be, the once-were, the will-never-be may walk awhile with the still-are.
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