Shelley: The Necessity of Atheism

Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792 - 1822) skrev følgende om "nødvendigheden af ateisme":

Her er et uddrag af "The Necessity of Atheism":

If he is infinitely good, what reason should we have to fear him?
If he is infinitely wise, why should we have doubts concerning our future?
If he knows all, why warn him of our needs and fatigue him with our prayers?
If he is everywhere, why erect temples to him?
If he is just, why fear that he will punish the creatures that he has, filled with weaknesses?
If grace does everything for them, what reason would he have for recompensing them?
If he is all-powerful, how offend him, how resist him?
If he is reasonable, how can he be angry at the blind, to whom he has given the liberty of being unreasonable?
If he is immovable, by what right do we pretend to make him change his decrees?
If he is inconceivable, why occupy ourselves with him?
IF HE HAS SPOKEN, WHY IS THE UNIVERSE NOT CONVINCED?
If the knowledge of a God is the most necessary, why is it not the most evident and the clearest?".

Uddrag fra http://www.infidels.org/