No. Religion is essentially superstition.

SOCRATES

But has been closely connected with morality.

ANTAGORAS

People thought the gods would punish them for being bad and reward them for being good. A pretty debased sort of morality! Surely you, Socrates, would say that virtue is for its own sake and not for a reward!

SOCRATES

Let’s go slowy. In philosophy if you aren’t moving at a snail’s pace you aren’t moving at all. Perhaps inside that connection with morality we may find many different things wrapped up.

ACASTOS

A pious superstitious peasant could be a better man than I am.

ANTAGORAS quickly

I wonder if you really believe that, Acastos? Superstitious belief is degrading, it’s corrupting, it prevents thought, it’s the acceptance of a lie.

SOCRATES

So you think religion is over, finished by the age of science. And this is a good thing?

ANTAGORAS

Well, yes – and no – Now this is quite another argument, it’s a political argument. We intellectuals, we understand the situation, we can bear the burden –

SOCRATES

Of being gods.

ANTAGORAS

Of freedom and value and a responsible unaided morality. But considered simply as a social phenomenon religion can be a useful stabilising factor. We’re living in a period of intellectual and psychological shock, a time of deep change, an interregnum, a dangerous interim. Public morality could break down, some would say it is breaking down.

SOCRATES

If you were a tyrant you wouldn’t abolish religion?

ANTAGORAS

Not until I had found a substitute! Of course as you know I detest tyrants. But if people worshipped the gods and kept quiet this might save the state from worse things. So long as there’s an uneducated mob, there’s a place for something like religion. Personally, I don’t like the smell of it, religiosity is in bad taste, ‘religious experience’ is infantile fantasy; it’s a matter of style. But this doesn’t mean one should disrupt society to put people right. Religious sanctions, even rather vague ones, support popular morality and social order. Let’s face it, ordinary morals are full of superstition, fear of the gods, fear of your neighbour, fear of the state. When young people lose that fear and become fearless, when they lose all respect for authority, things can really fall apart. It’s a dangerous time. Religion is ritual and ritual is a symbol of order. Religion carries moral tradition. It’s dying a natural and inevitable death, but the majority of people are slow in growing up. Meanwhile the state may have to take the place of the gods. [ Looking at Timonax. ] It’s this transition that we intellectuals must try to think about. And we mustn’t let sentimental modern political attitudes stop us from thinking.

During Antagoras’s increasingly passionate speech Timonax has become extremely restive. He now bursts out.

TIMONAX

This is cynicism, it’s elitism – !

ANTAGORAS

Public morality needs a popular background.

TIMONAX