The Nations Cannot Agree on Their Gods

But one may see their godlessness not only from these considerations, but also from their conflicting opinions about the idols themselves. For if these are gods, as they claim and suppose, which of them is one to give allegiance to, and which is one to judge the higher, so as either to worship God with confidence or, as they say, to recognize the deity through them without doubt? For the same beings are not called gods among all people. On the contrary, almost every nation imagines a god of its own. There are even cases of a single district and a single town at odds within itself over the superstition of its idols. The Phoenicians, for example, do not know the beings called gods among the Egyptians, nor do the Egyptians worship the same idols as the Phoenicians. While the Scythians reject the gods of the Persians, the Persians reject those of the Syrians. The Pelasgians, too, refuse the gods of Thrace, while the Thracians do not know those of Thebes. The Indians, moreover, differ from the Arabs in their idols, the Arabs from the Ethiopians, and the Ethiopians from the Arabs. The Syrians do not worship the idols of the Cilicians, while the Cappadocian nation calls other beings gods than these. The Bithynians have adopted others, and the Armenians have imagined others again. What need is there for me to multiply examples? The people on the mainland worship other gods than the islanders, while the islanders serve other gods than those of the mainland. [a]

In general, every city and village, not knowing the gods of its neighbors, prefers its own and thinks that these alone are gods. As for the abominations of Egypt, there is no need even to speak of them, since they are before everyone’s eyes. The cities there have religions that are opposed and incompatible, and neighbors always make a point of worshiping the opposite of what those next to them worship. So much so that the crocodile, which some pray to, is loathed by their neighbors; the lion, which others worship as a god, their neighbors, far from worshiping, kill as a wild beast if they find it; and the fish that some people hold sacred is eaten as food in another place. And so fights and riots arise, and frequent bloodshed, and every indulgence of the passions among them. And strange to say, according to the historians, the very Pelasgians who learned the names of the gods from the Egyptians do not know the gods of Egypt, but worship others instead. Speaking generally, all the nations that are infatuated with idols hold different opinions and religions, and consistency is not to be found in any one case. Nor is this surprising.

For having fallen from the contemplation of the one God, they have come down to many and different objects. Having turned from the Word of the Father, Christ the Savior of all, they naturally have minds that wander in many directions. Think of people who have turned away from the sun and gone into dark places. They go around by many pathless ways, and do not see those who are present, while they imagine others to be there who are not; seeing, they do not see. In the same way, those who have turned from God, and whose souls are darkened, have minds that roam about, and like men who are drunk and cannot see, they imagine what is not true.