Die Essays von Arthur Schopenhauer: Religion, ein Dialog, usw.

make religion a subject for sarcastic remarks, and even for open ridicule. Every one thinks his religion sacred, and therefore you ought to respect it. _Philalethes_. That doesn't follow! I don't see why, because other people are simpletons, I should have any regard for a pack of lies. I respect truth everywhere, and so I can't respect what is opposed to it. My maxim is _Vigeat veritas et pereat mundus_, like the lawyers' _Fiat justitia et pereat mundus_. Every profession ought to have an analogous advice. _Demopheles_. Then I suppose doctors should say _Fiant pilulae et pereat mundus_,--there wouldn't be much difficulty about that! _Philalethes_. Heaven forbid! You must take everything _cum grano salis_. _Demopheles_. Exactly; that's why I want you to take religion _cum grano salis_. I want you to see that one must meet the requirements of the people according to the measure of their comprehension. Where you have masses of people of crude susceptibilities and clumsy intelligence, sordid in their pursuits and sunk in drudgery, religion provides the only means of proclaiming and making them feel the hight import of life. For the average man takes an interest, primarily, in nothing but what will satisfy his physical needs and hankerings, and beyond this, give him a little amusement and pastime. Founders of religion and philosophers come into the world to rouse him from his stupor and point to the lofty meaning of existence; philosophers for the few, the emancipated, founders of religion for the many, for humanity at large. For, as your friend Plato has said, the multitude can't be philosophers, and you shouldn't forget that. Religion is the metaphysics of the masses; by all means let them keep it: let it therefore command external respect, for to discredit it is to take it away.…