Francis Bacon – On Atheism
I would sooner believe all the stories from Legends, and the Talmud, and the Quran, rather than that this Universe is without a mind. That is why God never created miracles to refute atheism, because his ordinary works refute it. It is true that a little philosophy inclines the human mind towards atheism; but deep knowledge of philosophy brings it back to religion. For when the human mind observes secondary causes in isolation, it may sometimes stop there and not go further; but when it beholds their connected and linked chain, it must resort to Providence and Divinity. Moreover, even the school that is most accused of atheism, expresses religion to the fullest; that is the school of Leucippus, Democritus, and Epicurus. For it is a thousand times more likely that four mutable elements and one immutable fifth essence, properly and eternally arranged, do not require a God, than that an army of infinitely minute particles or unsown seeds could produce this order and beauty without a divine general. Scripture says: The fool said in his heart, “There is no God.” In the heart: “There is no God.” And it does not say: A fool thinks in his heart; because he says it out of mere habit, as something he would like to believe in, rather than something he can really believe in or be convinced of. Because no one denies the existence of God, except those who find it convenient to believe that there is no God.
The fact that atheism is more on people’s lips than in their hearts is best seen by the fact that atheists constantly talk about their opinion, as if they themselves doubt it and would like to strengthen it with the agreement of others. Moreover, there are atheists who try to gain followers, just like other sects do. And, most strangely, there are those who are willing to sacrifice for atheism and will not renounce it; however, if they truly believed that there is no God, why would they suffer because of it? Epicurus is criticized for pretending for the sake of his reputation when he claimed that there are blessed natures that are happy, although they do not care about governing the world. They say he was hypocritical because he secretly believed that there is no God. But he was certainly slandered; for there w Words are noble and divine: It is not impious to deny the gods of the common people, but it is impious to attribute to them what the common people think of them. Not even Plato could say more. And although he had the courage to deny their rule over the world, he did not have the strength to deny their nature. Western Indians have names for their individual gods, even though they do not have a name for God – as if pagans had names like Jupiter, Apollo, Mars, etc., but did not have the word Deus – which shows that even those barbaric peoples have a concept of Him, although not in its full breadth and scope. Thus, both atheists and barbarians are opposed to the keenest philosophers. Atheists inclined to contemplation are rare: Diagoras, Bion, perhaps Lucian, and a few others; although it seems that there are more of them than there really are, because all those who refute a recognized faith or superstition are branded as atheists by their opponents. Great atheists, however, are truly hypocrites; they continually They talk about sacred things, but without feeling; and in the end, they devour themselves.
The causes of atheism are religious schisms, if there are many; because one great schism gives fervor to both sides, while several lead to atheism. Another cause is scandals caused by the clergy, when it comes to what St. Bernard says: Non est jam dicere, ut populus sic sacerdos; quia nec sic populus ut sacerdos.