[Ads-l] Quote: When people cease to believe in God they do not then believe in nothing, but in anything

[ADSGarson O'Toole]

The quotation in the subject line is usually attributed to prominent
English writer and philosopher Gilbert K. Chesterton; however,
researchers have been unable to find this saying in his writings or
speeches.

Fred has a helpful entry on this topic in "The New Yale Book of Quotations".

Here are links to the new Quote Investigator article:

Full: https://quoteinvestigator.medium.com/3821673265db
Abbrev: https://quoteinvestigator.com/2023/09/10/believe-anything/

The QI article presents a conjectural evolution for this notion. Here
is an outline:

1844: When people cease to believe in God, they believe in ghosts.
(Attributed to Georg Christoph Lichtenberg)

1867: When men cease to believe in God, they begin again to believe in
ghosts, i. e. in shams. (George M. Grant)

1870: “When men cease to believe in GOD, they believe in ghosts.”
Destroy the venerable edifice of belief in the sober and severely
moral and orderly GOD of the Bible, and amidst the ruins will spring
up superstitions, extravagant and obscene ... (J. Rice Byrne)

1923: It’s the first effect of not believing in God that you lose your
common sense, and can’t see things as they are. A dog is an omen and a
cat is a mystery and a pig is a mascot and a beetle is a scarab,
calling up all the menagerie of polytheism from Egypt and old India.
(Spoken by Father Brown in G. K. Chesterton’s short story “The Oracle
of the Dog”)

1924: You all swore you were hard-shelled materialists; and as a
matter of fact you were all balanced on the very edge of belief—of
belief in almost anything. There are thousands balanced on it to-day;
but it’s a sharp, uncomfortable edge to sit on. You won’t rest till
you believe something. (Spoken by Father Brown in G. K. Chesterton’s
short story “The Miracle Of Moon Crescent”)

1928: Men have always one of two things—either a complete and
conscious philosophy or the unconscious acceptance of the broken bits
of some incomplete and shattered and often discredited philosophy. (G.
K. Chesterton)

1937: The first effect of not believing in God is to believe in
anything. (Émile Cammaerts’s depiction of G. K. Chesterton’s
viewpoint)

1953: When men cease to believe in God they do not then believe in
nothing, but in anything. (Malcolm Muggeridge’s depiction of G. K.
Chesterton’s viewpoint)

Garson

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