Verses Across™

  • Atheist, agnostic, deist and skeptic writers. Verses Across shows each tradition in its own words. This section holds the classic public-domain writing of those who questioned or rejected religion.

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Freethought · Atheism

Superstition in All Ages 11IX.—Origin of Superstition

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Freethought · Atheism

Superstition in All Ages 11

IX.—Origin of Superstition

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How is it that we have succeeded in persuading reasonable beings that the thing most impossible to understand was the most essential for them. It is because they were greatly frightened; it is because when men are kept in fear they cease to reason; it is because they have been expressly enjoined to distrust their reason. When the brain is troubled, we believe everything and examine nothing.

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Superstition in All Ages 10Superstition in All Ages 12
Sources & credits: Knoop

Knoop — Superstition in All Ages (Jean Meslier, translated by Anna Knoop) (1729). Public Domain. Jean Meslier, translated by Anna Knoop, Superstition in All Ages; public domain in the US; text from Project Gutenberg #17607. Source

Freethought · Atheism

Superstition in All Ages 12

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