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.
Interpretation
The quote critiques the concept of eternal punishment by questioning its morality and the nature of a punishing deity.
Baron D'Holbach's quote argues against the traditional view of a God who offers eternal punishment, suggesting that the moral implications are troubling. He believes that it is more rational to rely on the physical world rather than a divine being who sets traps for humanity while allowing sin and crime, only to punish individuals without any constructive outcome. This perspective challenges the idea of a just God and encourages a reevaluation of beliefs surrounding morality and punishment.
In practice
This quote can be used in a discussion about religious beliefs and morality.
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.
Tolerance and freedom of thought are the veritable antidotes to religious fanaticism.
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.
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.
How do we get out of our small mind? When we enquire into the core of our existence. What is life? Who am I? This spirit of self-inquiry can awaken something inside you.
It is not the walls that make the city, but the people who live within them. The walls of London may be battered, but the spirit of the Londoner stands resolute and undismayed.
The law speaks too softly to be heard amidst the din of arms.
I always feel uncomfortable when people speak about ordinary mortals because I've never met an ordinary man, woman or child.
The whole object of the Prophets and the Sages was to declare that a limit is set to human reason where it must halt.
The season when to come, and when to go, to sing, or cease to sing, we never know.
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