"I cannot imagine a god who rewards and punishes the objects of his creation, whose purposes are modeled after our own-a god, in short, who is but a reflection of human frailty. Neither can I believe that the individual survives the death of his body, although feeble souls harbor such thoughts through fear or ridiculous egotism."
One of the proofs of the immortality of the soul is that myriad have believed in it. They have also believed the world was flat.
"There is grandeur in this view of life, with its several powers, having been originally breathed into a few forms or into one; and that, whilst this planet has gone cycling on according to the fixed law of gravity from so simple a beginning endless forms most beautiful and most wonderful have been, and are being evolved."