Part 1 (2/2)
Thus, without a G.o.d or master-builder, the universe and man would not exist: such is the social profession of faith. But also without man G.o.d would not be thought, or--to clear the interval--G.o.d would be nothing. If humanity needs an author, G.o.d and the G.o.ds equally need a revealer; theogony, the history of heaven, h.e.l.l, and their inhabitants,--those dreams of the human mind,--is the counterpart of the universe, which certain philosophers have called in return the dream of G.o.d. And how magnificent this theological creation, the work of society! The creation of the demiourgos was obliterated; what we call the Omnipotent was conquered; and for centuries the enchanted imagination of mortals was turned away from the spectacle of Nature by the contemplation of Olympian marvels.
Let us descend from this fanciful region: pitiless reason knocks at the door; her terrible questions demand a reply.
”What is G.o.d?” she asks; ”where is he? what is his extent? what are his wishes? what his powers? what his promises?”--and here, in the light of a.n.a.lysis, all the divinities of heaven, earth, and h.e.l.l are reduced to an incorporeal, insensible, immovable, incomprehensible, undefinable I-know-not-what; in short, to a negation of all the attributes of existence. In fact, whether man attributes to each object a special spirit or genius, or conceives the universe as governed by a single power, he in either case but SUPPOSES an unconditioned, that is, an impossible, ent.i.ty, that he may deduce therefrom an explanation of such phenomena as he deems inconceivable on any other hypothesis. The mystery of G.o.d and reason! In order to render the object of his idolatry more and more RATIONAL, the believer despoils him successively of all the qualities which would make him REAL; and, after marvellous displays of logic and genius, the attributes of the Being par excellence are found to be the same as those of nihility. This evolution is inevitable and fatal: atheism is at the bottom of all theodicy.
Let us try to understand this progress.
G.o.d, creator of all things, is himself no sooner created by the conscience,--in other words, no sooner have we lifted G.o.d from the idea of the social me to the idea of the cosmic me,--than immediately our reflection begins to demolish him under the pretext of perfecting him. To perfect the idea of G.o.d, to purify the theological dogma, was the second hallucination of the human race.
The spirit of a.n.a.lysis, that untiring Satan who continually questions and denies, must sooner or later look for proof of religious dogmas. Now, whether the philosopher determine the idea of G.o.d, or declare it indeterminable; whether he approach it with his reason, or retreat from it,--I say that this idea receives a blow; and, as it is impossible for speculation to halt, the idea of G.o.d must at last disappear. Then the atheistic movement is the second act of the theologic drama; and this second act follows from the first, as effect from cause. ”The heavens declare the glory of G.o.d,” says the Psalmist. Let us add, And their testimony dethrones him.
Indeed, in proportion as man observes phenomena, he thinks that he perceives, between Nature and G.o.d, intermediaries; such as relations of number, form, and succession; organic laws, evolutions, a.n.a.logies,-- forming an unmistakable series of manifestations which invariably produce or give rise to each other. He even observes that, in the development of this society of which he is a part, private wills and a.s.sociative deliberations have some influence; and he says to himself that the Great Spirit does not act upon the world directly and by himself, or arbitrarily and at the dictation of a capricious will, but mediately, by perceptible means or organs, and by virtue of laws. And, retracing in his mind the chain of effects and causes, he places clear at the extremity, as a balance, G.o.d.
A poet has said,--
Par dela tous les cieux, le Dieu des cieux reside.
Thus, at the first step in the theory, the Supreme Being is reduced to the function of a motive power, a mainspring, a corner-stone, or, if a still more trivial comparison may be allowed me, a const.i.tutional sovereign, reigning but not governing, swearing to obey the law and appointing ministers to execute it. But, under the influence of the mirage which fascinates him, the theist sees, in this ridiculous system, only a new proof of the sublimity of his idol; who, in his opinion, uses his creatures as instruments of his power, and causes the wisdom of human beings to redound to his glory.
Soon, not content with limiting the power of the Eternal, man, increasingly deicidal in his tendencies, insists on sharing it.
If I am a spirit, a sentient me giving voice to ideas, continues the theist, I consequently am a part of absolute existence; I am free, creative, immortal, equal with G.o.d. Cogito, ergo sum,--I think, therefore I am immortal, that is the corollary, the translation of Ego sum qui sum: philosophy is in accord with the Bible. The existence of G.o.d and the immortality of the soul are posited by the conscience in the same judgment: there, man speaks in the name of the universe, to whose bosom he transports his me; here, he speaks in his own name, without perceiving that, in this going and coming, he only repeats himself.
The immortality of the soul, a true division of divinity, which, at the time of its first promulgation, arriving after a long interval, seemed a heresy to those faithful to the old dogma, has been none the less considered the complement of divine majesty, necessarily postulated by eternal goodness and justice.
Unless the soul is immortal, G.o.d is incomprehensible, say the theists; resembling in this the political theorists who regard sovereign representation and perpetual tenure of office as essential conditions of monarchy. But the inconsistency of the ideas is as glaring as the parity of the doctrines is exact: consequently the dogma of immortality soon became the stumbling-block of philosophical theologians, who, ever since the days of Pythagoras and Orpheus, have been making futile attempts to harmonize divine attributes with human liberty, and reason with faith. A subject of triumph for the impious! . . . . But the illusion could not yield so soon: the dogma of immortality, for the very reason that it was a limitation of the uncreated Being, was a step in advance. Now, though the human mind deceives itself by a partial acquisition of the truth, it never retreats, and this perseverance in progress is proof of its infallibility. Of this we shall soon see fresh evidence.
In making himself like G.o.d, man made G.o.d like himself: this correlation, which for many centuries had been execrated, was the secret spring which determined the new myth. In the days of the patriarchs G.o.d made an alliance with man; now, to strengthen the compact, G.o.d is to become a man. He will take on our flesh, our form, our pa.s.sions, our joys, and our sorrows; will be born of woman, and die as we do. Then, after this humiliation of the infinite, man will still pretend that he has elevated the ideal of his G.o.d in making, by a logical conversion, him whom he had always called creator, a saviour, a redeemer. Humanity does not yet say, I am G.o.d: such a usurpation would shock its piety; it says, G.o.d is in me, IMMANUEL, n.o.bisc.u.m Deus. And, at the moment when philosophy with pride, and universal conscience with fright, shouted with unanimous voice, The G.o.ds are departing!
excedere deos! a period of eighteen centuries of fervent adoration and superhuman faith was inaugurated.
But the fatal end approaches. The royalty which suffers itself to be limited will end by the rule of demagogues; the divinity which is defined dissolves in a pandemonium. Christolatry is the last term of this long evolution of human thought. The angels, saints, and virgins reign in heaven with G.o.d, says the catechism; and demons and reprobates live in the h.e.l.ls of eternal punishment. Ultramundane society has its left and its right: it is time for the equation to be completed; for this mystical hierarchy to descend upon earth and appear in its real character.
When Milton represents the first woman admiring herself in a fountain, and lovingly extending her arms toward her own image as if to embrace it, he paints, feature for feature, the human race.--This G.o.d whom you wors.h.i.+p, O man! this G.o.d whom you have made good, just, omnipotent, omniscient, immortal, and holy, is yourself: this ideal of perfection is your image, purified in the s.h.i.+ning mirror of your conscience. G.o.d, Nature, and man are three aspects of one and the same being; man is G.o.d himself arriving at self-consciousness through a thousand evolutions. In Jesus Christ man recognized himself as G.o.d; and Christianity is in reality the religion of G.o.d-man. There is no other G.o.d than he who in the beginning said, ME; there is no other G.o.d than THEE.
Such are the last conclusions of philosophy, which dies in unveiling religion's mystery and its own.
II.
It seems, then, that all is ended; it seems that, with the cessation of the wors.h.i.+p and mystification of humanity by itself, the theological problem is for ever put aside. The G.o.ds have gone: there is nothing left for man but to grow weary and die in his egoism. What frightful solitude extends around me, and forces its way to the bottom of my soul! My exaltation resembles annihilation; and, since I made myself a G.o.d, I seem but a shadow. It is possible that I am still a ME, but it is very difficult to regard myself as the absolute; and, if I am not the absolute, I am only half of an idea.
Some ironical thinker, I know not who, has said: ”A little philosophy leads away from religion, and much philosophy leads back to it.” This proposition is humiliatingly true.
Every science develops in three successive periods, which may be called--comparing them with the grand periods of civilization--the religious period, the sophistical period, the scientific period.[3] Thus, alchemy represents the religious period of the science afterwards called chemistry, whose definitive plan is not yet discovered; likewise astrology was the religious period of another science, since established,--astronomy.
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