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?

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.