Arnobius, Against the Nations, Book I

I have found that certain people, convinced of their own superior wisdom, are actually raving and frenzied, spouting pronouncements as if they came straight from an oracle. They claim that ever since the Christian people appeared in the world, the earth has perished and the human race has been afflicted by every kind of evil. They even assert that the heavenly beings have abandoned their solemn duty of watching over our affairs and have been driven from the regions of the earth. Accordingly, I have decided — within the limits of my ability and my modest rhetorical skill — to counter this malicious envy and refute these slanderous accusations. I do this so that these accusers cannot delude themselves into thinking they are saying something profound merely by uttering popular slogans, nor can they claim victory by default if we remain silent, as if our silence proved their case rather than their own fault.

I will not deny that their accusation carries great weight, nor that we would deserve hostile hatred — if it were established that we are the cause of the world straying from its laws, of the gods being exterminated, and of such vast misfortunes being imported into human history. Let us therefore examine the mindset behind this opinion and test the truth of what is said. Setting aside all contentious wrangling that only obscures reality, let us weigh the claim on a balance of equal evidence. The logical consequence will inevitably show that the guilty parties are not us, but those very people who profess to be worshipers of the divine and devotees of ancient religion.

First, I put this question to them in a calm and reasonable tone: since the name of the Christian religion began to exist on earth, what has nature itself — the world we see and experience — either perceived or suffered that is unseen, unknown, or contrary to the fundamental laws established at the beginning? Have the primary elements, from which all things are composed, been altered into opposite qualities? Has any part of the cosmic machine that encloses and sustains us been loosened or dissolved? Has the rotation of the world, which governs the primordial motion, begun to run slower or faster, or has it been seized by a wild, precipitous volatility? Have the stars begun to rise in the west and set in the east, reversing their appointed courses? Has the sun, the prince of the stars, whose light clothes all things and whose heat animates them, flared up or grown cold, corrupting the temperate balance of its usual governance? Has the moon ceased to renew itself, failing to return to its old phases through the cycle of new moons? Have cold, heat, and the moderate temperatures of the seasons perished in confusion? Has winter begun to have long days, and has night begun to recall the late dawns of summer? Have the winds breathed their last? And, with the winds dead, has the sky not been forced into clouds, and have rain-soaked fields not followed? Does the earth refuse to receive the seeds entrusted to it, or do the trees refuse to sprout? Has the flavor of edible fruits and the juice of the vine been changed? Does the oil pressed from olives no longer feed the lamp when it is extinguished? Do land animals and sea creatures no longer suckle or conceive? Do fetuses in the womb no longer develop according to their natural law? Finally, do human beings — scattered by the earliest navigation to the remotest shores — no longer join in marriage with the solemn rites of just nuptials? Do they no longer produce the sweetest offspring of children, nor conduct public, private, and domestic affairs?