However, the usual opinion is that nothing is more
lamentable than madness. The Christian religion has some kinship
with folly, while it has none at all with wisdom. For proof of
this, notice that children, old people, women, and fools take more
delight than anyone else in holy and religious things, led no
doubt solely by instinct. Next, notice that the founders of
religion have prized simplicity and have been the bitterest foes
of learning. Finally, no people act more foolishly than those who
have been truly possessed with Christian piety. They give away
whatever is theirs; they overlook injuries, allow themselves to be
cheated, make no distinction between friends and enemies, shun
pleasure, and feast on hunger, vigils, tears, labors, and scorn.
They disdain life, and utterly prefer death. In short, they have
become altogether indifferent to ordinary interests, as if their
souls lived elsewhere and not in their bodies. What is this, if
not to be mad? The life of Christians is run over with nonsense.
They make elaborate funeral arrangements, with candles, mourners,
singers, and pallbearers. They must think that their sight will be
returned to them after they are dead, or that their corpses will
fall ashamed at not being buried grandly. Christian theologians,
in order to prove a point, will pluck four or five words out from
different places, even falsifying the sense of them if necessary,
and disregard the fact that their context was relevant or even
contradicted their points.
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