Irreligious, having no religion, lacking respect for holy matters and admitting no God; therefore regarding piety and the other virtues deriving from the existence and celebration of religion as words that are empty of meaning.

People can only be irreligious in the society to which they belong. No one would criticize a Moslem in Paris for contempt of Islamic law, nor in Constantinople a Christian for failing to observe his religion.

The same is not true of moral principles, which are the same everywhere. Failing to observe them is and always will be reprehensible at all times and in all places. People hold different beliefs, both religious and irreligious , according to where on the surface of the globe they happen to go or where they live. But morality is the same everywhere.

It is the universal law that God has engraved in all our hearts.

It is the eternal precept of our shared sentiments and needs.

So immorality and irreligion should not be confused. Morality can exist without religion and religion can exist and even often does exist alongside immorality.

Even without applying these opinions beyond this life, there are many reasons that show that to be happy in this world, all in all, there is nothing better than to be virtuous.

It only takes good sense and experience to realise that there is no vice that does not bring with it some share of unhappiness, and no virtue that is not accompanied by some part of happiness; that it is impossible for a bad person to be completely happy and a good person completely unhappy. In spite of momentary interest and impulse, there is always only one line of conduct for us to follow.

From irreligion came the word irreligious , which is not yet widely used in its generally accepted sense.