Is it not more natural and more intelligible to deduce all which exists, from the bosom of matter, whose existence is demonstrated by all our senses, whose effects we feel at every moment, which we see act, move, communicate, motion, and constantly bring living beings into existence, than to attribute the formation of things to an unknown force, to a spiritual being, who can not draw from his ground that which he has not himself, and who, by the spiritual essence claimed for him, is incapable of making anything, and of putting anything in motion?  Nothing is plainer than that they would have us believe that an intangible spirit can act upon matter.

XXIII.—­WHAT IS THE METAPHYSICAL GOD OF MODERN THEOLOGY?

The material Jupiter of the ancients could move, build up, destroy, and propagate beings similar to himself; but the God of modern theology is a sterile being.  According to his supposed nature he can neither occupy any place, nor move matter, nor produce a visible world, nor propagate either men or Gods.  The metaphysical God is a workman without hands; he is able but to produce clouds, suspicions, reveries, follies, and quarrels.

XXIV.—­IT WOULD BE MORE RATIONAL TO WORSHIP THE SUN THAN A SPIRITUAL GOD.

Since it was necessary for men to have a God, why did they not have the sun, the visible God, adored by so many nations?  What being had more right to the homage of mortals than the star of the day, which gives light and heat; which invigorates all beings; whose presence reanimates and rejuvenates nature; whose absence seems to plunge her into sadness and languor?  If some being bestowed upon men power, activity, benevolence, strength, it was no doubt the sun, which should be recognized as the father of nature, as the soul of the world, as Divinity.  At least one could not without folly dispute his existence, or refuse to recognize his influence and his benefits.

XXV.—­A SPIRITUAL GOD IS INCAPABLE OF WILLING AND OF ACTING.

The theologian tells us that God does not need hands or arms to act, and that He acts by His will alone.  But what is this God who has a will?  And what can be the subject of this divine will?  Is it more ridiculous or more difficult to believe in fairies, in sylphs, in ghosts, in witches, in were-wolfs, than to believe in the magical or impossible action of the spirit upon the body?  As soon as we admit of such a God, there are no longer fables or visions which can not be believed.  The theologians treat men like children, who never cavil about the possibilities of the tales which they listen to.

XXVI.—­WHAT IS GOD?