04-17-2026, 10:52 AM
Mgr. Louis de Ségur: Short Answers to Common Objections Against Religion
SIXTH OBJECTION. IT IS ENOUGH TO HE AN HONEST MAN; THAT IS THE BEST RELIGION OF ALL, AND IT IS ENOUGH.
Answer. Yes; to escape hanging; but not to go to Heaven. Yes: — in the sight of men: — in the sight of God, the sovereign Judge — No!
Firstly. "It is enough to be an honest man." you say. Be it so then; but let us understand each other. What do you call an honest man? That is an expression which appears to me very elastic, remarkably convenient, and which is capable of accommodating itself to many and varied tastes.
Ask some licentious young man, for instance, if it is possible to be an honest man while leading the more than dissipated life that he does? "What a question!" he will reply; "the follies of youth do not prevent one's being called an honest man. Undoubtedly, I claim to be considered such, and I should like to see the person who would dispute my title to it!"
Then, turning to the covetous tradesman, who sets off his goods of inferior quality and sells them as if they were first-rate; to the artisan who works but half as diligently-when he is paid by the day as he does when he is paid by the job; to the master who takes advantage of hard times to rob his workmen of their Sunday's repose; ask all these persons if what they thus do prevents their being really honest people? And not one of them will hesitate to reply that he is an honest man, and that these little artifices, these tricks of trade, have nothing to do with the question.
Ask, once more, that spendthrift, if his prodigality — -that miser, if his avarice — that frequenter of the public house, if his drunkenness —destroys his honesty? Each will claim indemnity for his besetting passion, while he calls himself an honest, nay, a very honest man! Thus from these admissions even of the honest persons of whom we are here treating, men who are dissipated, dishonest, given to intemperance, miserly, usurious, prodigal, dissolute, may be honest men, and no one can refuse them the title, provided they have not stolen any money or committed any murders!!
Don't you think this new morality is very convenient? Whoever is not brought before the assize court will never have any account to render to God? In fact, one must no longer examine the heart to judge persons' characters, but the shoulder, and whoever has not the convict's brand is to be reputed fit for Heaven!! What a religion, then, is the honest man's religion ! And you say that it is your religion! and the best of all religions! One which permits everything short of robbery and murder! But you do not reflect upon it. It is a perversion of ideas, and an atrocious doctrine, and no religion at all
Secondly. "But," you say, "I mean more by an honest man than is usually meant. I call him an honest man who fulfils all his duties, who does good and shuns evil!"
And I, on the other hand, reply, and I affirm it, supported by experience, that if you are such a man without the powerful aid of religion, you are an eighth wonder of the world; but I would stake my life that you are no such thing. For you cannot make me believe that you have no passions — no disorderly inclinations; all men have them, and many of them. If, thus you are naturally inclined to licentiousness, to gluttony or sensual pleasures, what will restrain you? If you are inclined to idleness, to violence, to pride, what will moderate, these passions? What will refrain your arm, what will bridle your tongue? The fear of God? But there is no question of that in the honest man's religion. The voice of reason? We know what reason can do in a combat with a violent passion. What then? I can see nothing but the fear of the police, mere brute force. A noble religion this, truly! I congratulate you upon it — but I prefer my own.
The Christian religion alone offers efficacious remedies for our passions, and opposes a sufficient check upon their extravagances. Unless you claim that a man cannot sin, that he is an angel, we must necessarily infer that without the powerful aids that Christianity furnishes we cannot be constantly faithful to all the great duties, the observing of which constitutes the truly honest man. Without Christianity we cannot, above all, fulfill them with that uprightness of intention which makes all their moral beauty.
The most virtuous Christians (such is the weakness of mankind, from which you pretend to be exempt) — the most virtuous Christians fail from time to time in their duty, in spite of the superhuman strength which they draw from faith. And you who are deprived of this all-powerful check, abandoned to your natural inclinations, exposed to the countless dangers of the world, you pretend to be always faithful to yours! I affirm with certainty that the man who, not being a Christian, calls himself an honest man (in the sense we have just indicated), either is under a most palpable delusion, or else lies to his conscience.
Thirdly. I will go further. Supposing even that I were to see you perfectly fulfilling your duties of citizen, father, husband, son, friend, in a word, all those duties which make the honest man, according to the world's definition, I should say still: "That is not enough!"
No; that is not enough. And why? Because there is a God who reigns in the Heavens, who has created you, who preserves you, who calls you to Himself, who imposes a fixed law upon you, which no one has the power to annul. Because you have duties toward this great God, of adoration, of thanksgiving, of prayer, as strict, as necessary, and even more essential, than your duties toward your fellow creatures." Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doth the will of my Father who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." (Matt. vii. 21.)
Can a man who has treated some friend with ingratitude say to himself, "I am a good man, I have nothing to reproach myself with?" No, certainly! Well, then; you — honest man, according to the world — are guilty of ingratitude toward God in forgetting Him! He is your father, you owe to him your being, your life, your intelligence, your moral dignity, the health you enjoy, the goods of this world, all, in fact; He has created the universe for you, for your use, for your enjoyment. He has Himself taught you His law, He has saved you. He prepares for you in Heaven eternal happiness. He is your Lord; He is your master; He gives you His blessing; He pardons you; He loves you; He waits for you! . . .
And what do you give Him in exchange? How much love, respect, homage? You coldly discuss the pretexts that have been invented by His enemies to withdraw you from His service! You, perhaps, have nothing but sarcasms, hatred, contempt for everything that pertains to his worship! You do not pray to Him. You do not adore Him. You do not give thanks to Him, You jest at faith in His word, at the observance of His laws!! Ungrateful that you are! And you have nothing to reproach yourself with? And you fulfil all your duties? ...
Cease, I beg you, to cherish this illusion! Of what use is it to deceive one's self? Of what use to disguise one's faults? Rather acknowledge that the yoke of religion, that is, of duty, alarms yon, and that it is to release yourself from it with decorum that you have adopted this religion of the honest man.
Not only is it not enough-, but it is, to say the truth, only a well-sounding phrase, empty of meaning and intended to palliate in our own eyes and those of the world the disorders and weaknesses for which the practice of Christianity is the sole remedy. "Every tree that doth not yield good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire/' (Matt. iii. 10.)
SIXTH OBJECTION. IT IS ENOUGH TO HE AN HONEST MAN; THAT IS THE BEST RELIGION OF ALL, AND IT IS ENOUGH.
Answer. Yes; to escape hanging; but not to go to Heaven. Yes: — in the sight of men: — in the sight of God, the sovereign Judge — No!
Firstly. "It is enough to be an honest man." you say. Be it so then; but let us understand each other. What do you call an honest man? That is an expression which appears to me very elastic, remarkably convenient, and which is capable of accommodating itself to many and varied tastes.
Ask some licentious young man, for instance, if it is possible to be an honest man while leading the more than dissipated life that he does? "What a question!" he will reply; "the follies of youth do not prevent one's being called an honest man. Undoubtedly, I claim to be considered such, and I should like to see the person who would dispute my title to it!"
Then, turning to the covetous tradesman, who sets off his goods of inferior quality and sells them as if they were first-rate; to the artisan who works but half as diligently-when he is paid by the day as he does when he is paid by the job; to the master who takes advantage of hard times to rob his workmen of their Sunday's repose; ask all these persons if what they thus do prevents their being really honest people? And not one of them will hesitate to reply that he is an honest man, and that these little artifices, these tricks of trade, have nothing to do with the question.
Ask, once more, that spendthrift, if his prodigality — -that miser, if his avarice — that frequenter of the public house, if his drunkenness —destroys his honesty? Each will claim indemnity for his besetting passion, while he calls himself an honest, nay, a very honest man! Thus from these admissions even of the honest persons of whom we are here treating, men who are dissipated, dishonest, given to intemperance, miserly, usurious, prodigal, dissolute, may be honest men, and no one can refuse them the title, provided they have not stolen any money or committed any murders!!
Don't you think this new morality is very convenient? Whoever is not brought before the assize court will never have any account to render to God? In fact, one must no longer examine the heart to judge persons' characters, but the shoulder, and whoever has not the convict's brand is to be reputed fit for Heaven!! What a religion, then, is the honest man's religion ! And you say that it is your religion! and the best of all religions! One which permits everything short of robbery and murder! But you do not reflect upon it. It is a perversion of ideas, and an atrocious doctrine, and no religion at all
Secondly. "But," you say, "I mean more by an honest man than is usually meant. I call him an honest man who fulfils all his duties, who does good and shuns evil!"
And I, on the other hand, reply, and I affirm it, supported by experience, that if you are such a man without the powerful aid of religion, you are an eighth wonder of the world; but I would stake my life that you are no such thing. For you cannot make me believe that you have no passions — no disorderly inclinations; all men have them, and many of them. If, thus you are naturally inclined to licentiousness, to gluttony or sensual pleasures, what will restrain you? If you are inclined to idleness, to violence, to pride, what will moderate, these passions? What will refrain your arm, what will bridle your tongue? The fear of God? But there is no question of that in the honest man's religion. The voice of reason? We know what reason can do in a combat with a violent passion. What then? I can see nothing but the fear of the police, mere brute force. A noble religion this, truly! I congratulate you upon it — but I prefer my own.
The Christian religion alone offers efficacious remedies for our passions, and opposes a sufficient check upon their extravagances. Unless you claim that a man cannot sin, that he is an angel, we must necessarily infer that without the powerful aids that Christianity furnishes we cannot be constantly faithful to all the great duties, the observing of which constitutes the truly honest man. Without Christianity we cannot, above all, fulfill them with that uprightness of intention which makes all their moral beauty.
The most virtuous Christians (such is the weakness of mankind, from which you pretend to be exempt) — the most virtuous Christians fail from time to time in their duty, in spite of the superhuman strength which they draw from faith. And you who are deprived of this all-powerful check, abandoned to your natural inclinations, exposed to the countless dangers of the world, you pretend to be always faithful to yours! I affirm with certainty that the man who, not being a Christian, calls himself an honest man (in the sense we have just indicated), either is under a most palpable delusion, or else lies to his conscience.
Thirdly. I will go further. Supposing even that I were to see you perfectly fulfilling your duties of citizen, father, husband, son, friend, in a word, all those duties which make the honest man, according to the world's definition, I should say still: "That is not enough!"
No; that is not enough. And why? Because there is a God who reigns in the Heavens, who has created you, who preserves you, who calls you to Himself, who imposes a fixed law upon you, which no one has the power to annul. Because you have duties toward this great God, of adoration, of thanksgiving, of prayer, as strict, as necessary, and even more essential, than your duties toward your fellow creatures." Not every one that saith to me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven; but he that doth the will of my Father who is in Heaven, he shall enter into the Kingdom of Heaven." (Matt. vii. 21.)
Can a man who has treated some friend with ingratitude say to himself, "I am a good man, I have nothing to reproach myself with?" No, certainly! Well, then; you — honest man, according to the world — are guilty of ingratitude toward God in forgetting Him! He is your father, you owe to him your being, your life, your intelligence, your moral dignity, the health you enjoy, the goods of this world, all, in fact; He has created the universe for you, for your use, for your enjoyment. He has Himself taught you His law, He has saved you. He prepares for you in Heaven eternal happiness. He is your Lord; He is your master; He gives you His blessing; He pardons you; He loves you; He waits for you! . . .
And what do you give Him in exchange? How much love, respect, homage? You coldly discuss the pretexts that have been invented by His enemies to withdraw you from His service! You, perhaps, have nothing but sarcasms, hatred, contempt for everything that pertains to his worship! You do not pray to Him. You do not adore Him. You do not give thanks to Him, You jest at faith in His word, at the observance of His laws!! Ungrateful that you are! And you have nothing to reproach yourself with? And you fulfil all your duties? ...
Cease, I beg you, to cherish this illusion! Of what use is it to deceive one's self? Of what use to disguise one's faults? Rather acknowledge that the yoke of religion, that is, of duty, alarms yon, and that it is to release yourself from it with decorum that you have adopted this religion of the honest man.
Not only is it not enough-, but it is, to say the truth, only a well-sounding phrase, empty of meaning and intended to palliate in our own eyes and those of the world the disorders and weaknesses for which the practice of Christianity is the sole remedy. "Every tree that doth not yield good fruit shall be cut down and cast into the fire/' (Matt. iii. 10.)
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre