To unsettle the existence of a God, it is only necessary to ask a theologian to speak of Him; as soon as he utters one word about Him, the least reflection makes us discover at once that what he says is incompatible with the essence which he attributes to his God.  Therefore, what is God?  It is an abstract word, coined to designate the hidden forces of nature; or, it is a mathematical point, which has neither length, breadth, nor thickness.  A philosopher [David Hume] has very ingeniously said in speaking of theologians, that they have found the solution to the famous problem of Archimedes; a point in the heavens from which they move the world.

XXVII.—­REMARKABLE CONTRADICTIONS OF THEOLOGY.

Religion puts men on their knees before a being without extension, and who, notwithstanding, is infinite, and fills all space with his immensity; before an almighty being, who never executes that which he desires; before a being supremely good, and who causes but displeasure; before a being, the friend of order, and in whose government everything is in disorder.  After all this, let us conjecture what this God of theology is.

XXVIII.—­TO ADORE GOD IS TO ADORE A FICTION.

In order to avoid all embarrassment, they tell us that it is not necessary to know what God is; that we must adore without knowing; that it is not permitted us to turn an eye of temerity upon His attributes.  But if we must adore a God without knowing Him, should we not be assured that He exists?  Moreover, how be assured that He exists without having examined whether it is possible that the diverse qualities claimed for Him, meet in Him?  In truth, to adore God is to adore nothing but fictions of one’s own brain, or rather, it is to adore nothing.

XXIX.—­THE INFINITY OF GOD AND THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF KNOWING THE DIVINE ESSENCE, OCCASIONS AND JUSTIFIES ATHEISM.

Without doubt the more to perplex matters, theologians have chosen to say nothing about what their God is; they tell us what He is not.  By negations and abstractions they imagine themselves composing a real and perfect being, while there can result from it but a being of human reason.  A spirit has no body; an infinite being is a being which is not finite; a perfect being is a being which is not imperfect.  Can any one form any real notions of such a multitude of deficiencies or absence of ideas?  That which excludes all idea, can it be anything but nothingness?  To pretend that the divine attributes are beyond the understanding of the human mind is to render God unfit for men.  If we are assured that God is infinite, we admit that there can be nothing in common between Him and His creatures.  To say that God is infinite, is to destroy Him for men, or at least render Him useless to them.