And if they could be so demonstrated, it would only be on grounds that are equally good for some other creeds with the same pretensions.

The sceptic was left triumphantly weighing one revealed system against another in an equal balance.[36] The position of the writer of the Philosophical Thoughts is distinctly theistic.

Yet there is at least one striking passage to show how forcibly some of the arguments on the other side impressed him.

"I open," says Diderot, "the pages of a celebrated professor, and I read--'Atheists, I concede to you that movement is essential to matter; what conclusion do you draw from that?
That the world results from the fortuitous concourse of atoms?
You might as well say that Homer's Iliad, or Voltaire's Henriade, is a result of the fortuitous concourse of written characters.' Now for my part, I should be very sorry to use that reasoning to an atheist; the comparison would give him a very easy game to play.

According to the laws of the analysis of chances, he would say to me, I ought not to be surprised that a thing comes to pass when it is possible, and the difficulty of the event is compensated by the number of throws.