- We discard atheism, not only because it is false, but again, and
more especially, because it is disintegrating and unwholesome.[93] We
want an effective, consolatory and fortifying religion, and that
religion is natural religion, which is social as well as true.
"Without this,[94] as Rousseau has said, it is impossible to be a good
citizen... ...The existence of divinity, the future life, the
sacredness of the social contract and of the laws," all are its
dogmas; "no one may be forced to believe in these, but whoever dares
say that he does not believe in them, sets himself up against the
French people, the human species and nature." Consequently, we decree
that "the French people recognizes the Supreme Being and the
immortality of the soul." - The important thing now is to plant this
entirely philosophic faith in all hearts. We introduce it into the
civil order of things, we take the calendar out of the hands of the
Church, we purge it of its Christian imagery; we make the new era
begin with the advent of the Republic; we divide the year according to
the metric system, we name the months according to the vicissitudes of
the seasons, "we substitute, in all directions, the realities of
reason for the visions of ignorance, the truths of nature for a
sacerdotal prestige,"[95] the decade for the week, the d?cadi for
Sundays, lay festivals for ecclesiastical festivals.
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