
Can anyone say that there's no such thing as stars because occasionally we see meteorites falling, which for a time seemed to be stars? Can anyone say that the blossoms of trees never bear fruit because many of them fall to the ground, or that fruits are never good because there are many fruits which seem good on the outside but are rotten within?
It is no less foolish for someone to say that true religion does not exist in the world because many of those who call themselves religious fall away and ultimately prove to be hypocrites deep down.
Can one say that a certain medicine does not do good because, though it heals the fever, it does not instantly restore the patient’s strength? Likewise, it is incorrect and foolish to say that religion does not make its followers better because it does not immediately render them perfect or turn them into angels.
All those things in the world which are false and counterfeit, rather than proving that religion does not exist, not only prove that it does exist, but that it is priceless; for naturally, one does not go to the trouble of falsifying a thing that does not exist or has no worth whatsoever.
No one makes false stones and colours, yet not a few make false pearls and diamonds. And so, if true religion did not exist, there could be no false religion either: the one could never exist without the other just as a shadow cannot exist without an object. Whoever, then, rejects the Christian religion on the grounds that hypocrites at times assume its name and appearance, he behaves just as senselessly as a man who tosses gold and diamonds into the fire because gold and diamonds have at some time or other been counterfeited.
If Christianity is a fraud (as the unbelievers say) then truly it is a blessed fraud, and whosoever endeavours to destroy it is an enemy of the human race. For if it is a fraud, yet it teaches us to live temperately, fairly and piously, to love our Maker with all our heart and our neighbour as ourselves. Has there ever been a fraud in the world which leads people to love, to forgive, to pray for their enemies, to return good for evil, and to promote the glory of God and the happiness of our neighbour as best as one is able?
When has there ever been a fraud that has given rise to humility, gentleness, benevolence, and peace wherever it has been introduced and which, if it existed everywhere, would drive out wars, sins, and misery from the world? Who has ever known such a fraud, one that is not only able to comfort us while travelling in this vale of tears, but to accompany us till death and help us triumph over its sorrow and grief? If fraud can accomplish all these things, let us live in this fraud and let us die in it, for what better can the truth do?
(This article originally appeared in the Greek conservative newspaper “I Ellas” on November 1st, 1839).
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