I.
Through millions of ages, by countless
efforts to satisfy his wants, to gratify his passions, his appetites, man
slowly developed his brain, changed two of his feet into hands and forced into the
darkness of his brain a few gleams and glimmerings of reason. Hews hindered by
ignorance, by fear, by mistakes, and he advanced only as he found the truth the
absolute facts. Through countless years he has groped and crawled and struggled
and climbed and stumbled toward the light. He has been hindered and delayed and
deceived by augurs and prophets by popes and priests. He has been betrayed by
saints, misled by apostles and Christ’s, frightened By devils and ghosts
enslaved by chiefs and kings robbed by altars and thrones. In the name of
education his mind has been filled with mistakes, with miracles, and lies, with
the impossible, the absurd and infamous. In the name of religion he has been taught
humility and arrogance, love and hatred, forgiveness and revenge.
But the world is changing. We are tired of
barbarian bibles and savage creeds.
Nothing is greater; nothing is of more
importance, than to find amid the errors and darkness of this life, a shining
truth.
Truth is the intellectual wealth of the
world.
The noblest of occupations is to search
for truth.
Truth is the foundation, the
superstructure, and the glittering dome of progress.
Truth is the mother of joy. Truth
civilizes, ennobles, and purifies. The grandest ambition that can enter the
soul is to know the truth.
Truth gives man the greatest power for
good. Truth is sword and shield. It is the sacred light of the soul.
The man who finds a truth lights a torch.
How is Truth to be known?
By investigation, experiment and reason.
Every human being should be allowed to
investigate to the extent of his desire his ability. The literature of the world
should be open to him nothing prohibited, sealed or hidden. No subject can be
too sacred to be understood. Each person should be allowed to reach his own
conclusions and to speak his honest thought.
He, who threatens the investigator with
punishment here, or hereafter, is an enemy of the human race. And he who tries
to bribe the investigator with the promise of eternal joy is a traitor this
fellow-men.
There is no real investigation without
freedom, freedom from the fear of gods and men.
So, all investigation all experiment
should be pursued in the light of reason.
Every man should be true to himself true
to the inward light. Each man, in the laboratory of his own mind, and for himself
alone, should test the so-called facts the theories of the entire world. Truth,
in accordance with his reason, should be his guide and master.
To love the truth, thus perceived, is
mental virtue intellectual purity. This is true manhood. This is freedom.
To throw away your reason at the command
of churches, popes, parties, kings or gods, is to be a serf, a slave.
It is not simply the right, but it is the
duty of every man to think to investigate for himself and every man who tries to
prevent this by force or fear, is doing all he can to degrade and enslave his
fellowmen.
Every man should be mentally honest.
He should preserve as his most precious
jewel the perfect veracity of his soul.
He should examine all questions presented
to his mind, without prejudice, unbiased by hatred or love by desire or fear. His
object and his only object should be to find the truth. He knows, if he listens
to reason, that truth is not dangerous and those errors. He should weigh the
evidence, the arguments, in honest scales that passion or interest cannot
change. He should care
Nothing for
authority nothing for names, customs or creeds nothing for anything that his
reason does not say is true.
Of his world he should be the sovereign,
and his soul should wear the purple. From his dominions should be banished the
hosts of force and fear.
He should be Intellectually Hospitable.
Prejudice, egotism, hatred, contempt,
disdain, are the enemies of truth and progress.
The real
searcher after truth will not receive the old because it is old, or reject the
new because it is new. He will not believe men because they are dead, or
contradict them because they are alive. With him an utterance is worth the
truth, the reason it contains, without the slightest regard to the author. He
may have been a king or serf a philosopher or servant, but the utterance
neither gains nor loses in truth or reason. Its value is absolutely independent
of the fame or station of the man who gave it to the world.
Nothing but falsehood needs the assistance
of fame and place, of robes and maîtres, of tiaras and crowns. The wise, the really
honest and intelligent, are not swayed or governed by numbers by majorities.
They accept what they really believe to be
true. They care nothing for the opinions of ancestors, nothing for creeds,
assertions and theories, unless they satisfy the reason.
In all directions they seek for truth, and
when found, accept it with joy accept it in spite of preconceived opinions in
spite of prejudice and hatred.
This is the course pursued by wise and
honest men, and no other course is possible for them.
In every department of human endeavor men
are seeking for the truth for the facts. The statesman reads the history of the
world, gathers the statistics of all nations to the end that his country may
avoid the mistakes of the past. The geologist
Penetrates the
rocks in search of facts climbs mountains, visits the extinct craters,
traverses islands and continents that he may know something of the history of
the world. He wants the truth.
The chemist, with crucible and retort,
with countless experiments, is trying to find the qualities of substances travel
what nature has woven.
The great mechanics dwell in the realm of
the real. They seek By natural means to conquer and use the forces of nature.
They want the truth the actual facts.
The physicians, the surgeons, rely on
observation, experiment and reason. They become acquainted with the human body with
muscle, blood and nerve with the wonders of the brain. They want nothing but
the truth.
And so it is with the students of every
science. On every hand they look for facts, and it is of the utmost importance
that they give to the world the facts they find.
Their courage should equal their
intelligence. No matter what the dead have said, or the living believe, they
should tell what they know. They should have intellectual courage.
If it be good for man to find the truth
good for him to be intellectually honest and hospitable, then it is good for
others to know the truths thus found.
Every man
should have the courage to give his honest thought.
This makes the
finder and publisher of truth a public benefactor.
Those who prevent, or try to prevent, the
expression of honest thought, are the foes of civilization the enemies of
truth.
Nothing can
exceed the egotism and impudence of the man who claims the right to express his
thought and denies the same right to others.
It will not do to say that certain ideas
are sacred, and that man has not the right to investigate and test these ideas for
himself.
Who knows that they are sacred? Can
anything be sacred to us that we do not know to be true?
For many centuries free speech has been an
insult to God.
Nothing has
been more blasphemous than the expression of honest thought. For many ages the
lips of the wise were sealed. The Torches that truth had lighted, that courage
carried and held aloft, were extinguished with blood.
Truth has always been in favor of free
speech has always asked to be investigated has always longed to be known and
understood.
Freedom,
discussion, honesty, investigation and courage are the friends and allies of
truth. Truth loves the light and the open field. It appeals to the senses to
the judgment, the reason, toll the higher and nobler faculties and powers of
the mind. It seeks to calm the passions, to destroy prejudice and to increase
the volume and intensity of reason's flame.
It does not ask man to cringe or crawl. It
does not desire the worship of the ignorant or the prayers and praises of the
frightened. It says to every human being, "Think for you.
Enjoy the
freedom of a god, and have the goodness and the courage to express your honest
thought."
Why should we pursue the truth? And why
should we investigate and reason? And why should we be mentally honest and hospitable?
And why should
we express our honest thoughts? To this there is butane answer: for the benefit
of mankind.
The brain us be developed. The world must
think. Speech must
Be free. The
world must learn that credulity is not a virtue and that no question is settled
until reason is fully satisfied.
By these means man will overcome many of
the obstructions of nature. He will cure or avoid many diseases. He will lessen
pain.
He will
lengthen, ennoble and enrich life. In every direction he will increase his
power. He will satisfy his wants, gratify his tastes. He will put roof and
raiment, food and fuel, home and happiness within the reach of all.
He will drive want and crime from the
world. He will destroy the serpents of fear, the monsters of superstition. He
will become intelligent and free, honest and serene.
The monarch of
the skies will be dethroned the flames of hell will be extinguished. Pious
beggars will become honest and useful men. Hypocrisy will collect no tolls from
fear, lies will not be regarded as sacred, this life will not be sacrificed for
another, human beings will love each other instead of gods, men will do right,
not for the sake of reward in some other world, but for the sake of happiness
here. Man will find that Nature is the only revelation, and that he, by his own
efforts, must learn to read the stories told by star and cloud, by rock and
soil, by sea and stream, by rain and fire, by plant and flower, by life in all
its curious forms, and all the things and forces of the world.
When he reads these stories, these
records, he will know that man must rely on himself that the supernatural does
not exist, and that man must be the providence of man.
It is impossible to conceive of an
argument against the freedom of thought against maintaining your self-respect and
preserving the spotless and stainless veracity of the soul.
II
All that I have said seems to be true
almost self-evident, and you may ask who it is that says slavery is better than
liberty. Let me tell you.
All the popes and priests, all the
orthodox churches and clergymen, say that they have a revelation from God.
The Protestants say that it is the duty of
every person to read, to understand, and to believe this revelation that a man
should use his reason; but if he honestly concludes that the Bibles not a
revelation from God, and dies with that conclusion in his mind, he will be
tormented forever. They say: "Read," and then add: "Believe, or
be damned."
"No matter how unreasonable the Bible
may appear to you, you must believe. No matter how impossible the miracles may
seem, you must believe. No matter how cruel the laws, your heart must approve
them all!"
This is what the church calls the liberty
of thought.
We read the Bible under the scowl and
threat of God. We read by the glare of hell. On one side is the devil, with the
instruments of torture in his hands. On the other, God, ready to launch the
infinite curse. And the church says to the readers: "You’re free to
decide. God is good, and he gives you the liberty to choose."
The popes and the priests say to the poor
people: "You need not read the Bible. You cannot understand it. That is
the reason it’s called a revelation. We will read it for you, and you must
believe what we say. We carry the key of hell. Contradict us adieu will become
eternal convicts in the prison of God."
This is the freedom of the Catholic
Church.
And all these
priests and clergymen insist that the Bible is superior to human reason that it
is the duty of man to accept it to believe it, whether he really thinks it is
true or not, and without the slightest regard to evidence or reason.
It is his duty to cast out from the temple
of his soul the goddess Reason, and bow before the coiled serpent of Fear.
This is what the church calls virtue.
Under these conditions what can thought be
worth? The brain, swept by the sirocco of God's curse, becomes a desert.
But this is not all. To compel man to
desert the standard of Reason, the church does not entirely rely on the threat
of eternal pain to be endured in another world, but holds out the reward of
everlasting joy.
To those who believe, it promises the
endless ecstasies of heaven. If it cannot frighten, it will bribe. It relies on
fear and hope.
A religion, to command the respect of
intelligent men, should rest on a foundation of established facts. It should
appeal, not to Passion, not to hope and fear, but to the judgment. It should ask
that all the faculties of the mind, all the senses, should assemble and take
counsel together, and that its claims be passed upon and tested without
prejudice, without fear, in the calm of perfect candor.
But the church cries: "Believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." Without this belief there is
no salvation.
Salvation is
the reward for belief.
Belief is, and forever must be, the result
of evidence. Promised reward is not evidence. It sheds no intellectual light. It
establishes no fact, answers no objection, and dissipates no doubt.
Is it honest to offer a reward for belief?
The man who gives money to a judge or
juror for a decision or verdict is guilty of a crime. Why? Because he induces
the judge, the juror, to decide, not according to the law, to the facts, the
right, but according to the bribe.
The bribe is not evidence.
So, the promise of Christ to reward those
who will believe Isa bribe. It is an attempt to make a promise take the place of
evidence. He who says that he believes, and does this for the sake of the
reward, corrupts his soul.
Suppose I should say that at the center of
the earth there Isa diamond one hundred miles in diameter, and that I would
give ten thousand dollars to any man who would believe my statement. Could such
a promise be regarded as evidence?
Intelligent
people would ask not for rewards, but reasons. Only hypocrites would ask for
the money.
Yet, according to the New Testament,
Christ offered a reward to those who would believe, and this promised reward
was to take the place of evidence. When Christ made this promise he forgot, ignored,
or held in contempt the rectitude of a brave, free and natural soul.
The declaration that salvation is the
reward for belief is inconsistent with mental freedom, and could have been made
by no man who thought that evidence sustained the slightest relation to belief.
Every sermon in which men have been told
that they could save their souls by believing, has been an injury. Such sermons
dull the moral sense and subvert the true conception of virtue and duty.
The true man, when asked to believe, asks
for evidence. The true man, who asks another to believe, offers evidence.
But this is not all.
In spite of the threat of eternal pain of
the promise of everlasting joy, unbelievers increased, and the churches took
another step.
The churches said to the unbelievers, the
heretics: "Although our God will punish you forever in another world in
his prison the doors of which open only to receive, we, unless you believe,
will torment you now."
And then the members of these churches,
led by priests, popes, and clergymen, sought out their unbelieving neighbors chained
them in dungeons, stretched them on racks, crushed their bones, cutout their
tongues, extinguished their eyes, flayed them alive and consumed their poor bodies
in flames.
All this was done because these Christian
savages believed in the dogma of eternal pain. Because they believed that
heaven waste reward for belief. So believing, they were the enemies of free
thought and speech they cared nothing for conscience, nothing for the veracity
of a soul, nothing for the manhood of a man. In all ages most priests have been
heartless and relentless. They have calumniated and tortured. In defeat they
have crawled and whined.
In victory they
have killed. The flower of pity never blossomed in their hearts and in their
brain. Justice never held aloft the scales. Now they are not as cruel. They
have lost their power, but they are still trying to accomplish the impossible.
They fill their pockets with "fool's gold" and think they are rich.
They stuff their minds with mistakes and think they are wise. They console
themselves with legends and myths, have faith in fiction and forgery give their
hearts to ghosts and phantoms and seek the aid of the non-existent.
They put a monster a master a tyrant in
the sky, and seek to enslave their fellow-men. They teach the cringing virtues
of serfs. They abhor the courage of manly men. They hate the man who thinks.
They long for revenge.
They warm their hands at the imaginary
fires of hell.
I show them that hell does not exist and
they denounce me for destroying their consolation.
Horace Greeley, as the story goes, one
cold day went into country store, took a seat by the stove, unbuttoned his coat
and spread out his hands.
In a few minutes, a little boy who clerked
in the store said:"Mr.Greeley,theren't no fire in that stove."
"You d--d little rascal," said
Greeley, "What did you tell me for, I was getting real warm."
III
"THE SCIENCE OF
THEOLOGY."
All the sciences except Theology are eager
for facts hungry for the truth. On the brow of a finder of a fact the laurels
placed.
In a theological seminary, if a professor
finds a fact inconsistent with the creed, he must keep it secret or deny it, or
lose his place. Mental veracity is a crime, cowardice and hypocrisy are
virtues.
A fact, inconsistent with the creed, is
denounced as a lie, and the man who declares or announces the fact is a
blasphemer.
Every professor
breathes the air of insincerity. Everyone is mentally dishonest. Everyone is a
pious fraud. Theology is the only dishonest science the only one that is based
on belief on credulity, the only one that abhors investigation that despises
thought and denounces reason.
All the great theologians in the Catholic
Church have denounced reason as the light furnished by the enemy of mankind as
the road that leads to perdition. All the great Protestant theologians, from
Luther to the orthodox clergy of our time, have been the enemies of reason. All
orthodox churches of all ages have been the enemies of science. They attacked
the astronomers although they were criminals the geologists as though they were
assassins. They regarded physicians as the enemies of God as men who were
trying to defeat the decrees of Providence. The biologists, the
anthropologists, the archaeologists, the readers of ancient inscriptions, the
delvers in buried cities, were all hated by the theologians. They were afraid
that these men might find something inconsistent with the Bible.
The theologians attacked those who studied
other religions.
They insisted
that Christianity was not a growth not an evolution but a revelation. They
denied that it was in any way connected with any natural religion.
The facts now show beyond all doubt that
all religions came from substantially the same source but there is not an orthodox
Christian theologian who will admit the facts. He must defend his creed his
revelation. He cannot afford to be honest. He was not educated in an honest
school. He was not taught to be honest. Hews taught to believe and to defend
his belief, not only against argument but against facts.
There is not a theologian in the whole
world that can produce the slightest, the least particle of evidence tending to
show that the Bible is the inspired word of God.
Where is the evidence that the book of
Ruth was written by an inspired man? Where is the evidence that God is the
author of the Song of Solomon? Where is the evidence that any human being has
been inspired? Where is the evidence that Christ was and is God?
Where is the
evidence that the places called heaven and hell exist?
Where is the
evidence that a miracle was ever wrought?
There is none.
Theology is entirely independent of
evidence.
Where is the evidence that angels and
ghosts that devils and gods exist? Have these beings been seen or touched? Does
one of our senses certify to their existence?
The theologians depend on assertions. They
have no evidence.
They claim that
their inspired book is superior to reason and independent of evidence.
They talk about probability analogy
inferences but they present no evidence. They say that they know that Christ
lived, in the same way that they know that Caesar lived. They might add that
they know Moses talked with Jehovah on Sinai the same way they know that
Brigham Young talked with God in Utah. The evidence
In both cases
is the same, none in either.
How do they prove that Christ rose from
the dead? They find the account in a book. Who wrote the book? They do not
know. What evidence is this? None, unless all things found in books are true.
It is impossible to establish one miracle
except by another and that would have to be established by another still, and
so on without end. Human testimony is not sufficient to establish miracle. Each
human being, to be really convinced, must witness the miracle for himself.
They say that Christianity was
established, proven to be true, and by miracles wrought nearly two thousand
years ago. Not one of these miracles can be established except by impudent and ignorant
assertion except by poisoning and deforming the minds of the ignorant and the
young. To succeed, the theologians invade the cradle, the nursery. In the brain
of innocence they plant the seeds of superstition. They pollute the minds and
imaginations of children. They frighten the happy with threats of pain they soothe the wretched with gilded lies.
This perpetual insincerity stamps itself
on the face affects every feature. We all know the theological countenance,
cold, unsympathetic, cruel, and lighted with a pious smirk, no line of laughter no dimpled mirth no touch
of humor nothing human.
This face is a rebuke, a reprimand to
natural joy. It says tithe happy: "Beware of the dog" "Prepare
for death." This face, like the fabled Gorgon, turns cheerfulness to
stone. It is a protest against pleasure a warning and a threat.
You see every soul is a sculptor that
fashions the features, and in this way reveals itself.
Every thought leaves its impress. The
student of this science of theology must be taught in youth, in his mother's
arms. These lies must be sown and planted in his brain the first of all. He
must be taught to believe, to accept without question. He must be told that it
is wicked to doubt, that it is sinful to inquire that Faith is a virtue and
unbelief a crime.
In this way his mind is poisoned,
paralyzed. On all other subjects he has liberty and in all other directions he
is urged to study and think. From his mother's arms he goes to the Sunday
school. His poor little mind is filled with miracles and wonders.
He is told about
a God who made the world and who rewards and punishes. He is told that this God
is the author of the Bible that Christ is his son. He is told about original
sin and the atonement, and he believes what he hears. No reasons are given any
facts no evidence is presented nothing but assertion. If he asks questions, he
is silenced by more solemn assertions and warned against the devices of the
evil one. Every Sunday school Isa kind of inquisition where they torture and
deform the minds of children where they force their souls into Catholic or
Protestant
molds and do all they can to destroy the originality, the individuality, and
the veracity of the soul. In the theological seminary the destruction is
complete.
When the minister leaves the seminary, he
is not seeking the truth. He has it. He has a revelation from God, and he has a
creed in exact accordance with that revelation. His business is to standby that
revelation and to defend that creed. Arguments against the revelation and the
creed he will not read. He will not hear. All facts that are against his
religion he will deny. It is impossible for him to be candid. The tremendous
"verities" of eternal joy, of everlasting pain are in his creed, and
they result from believing the false and denying the true.
Investigation is an infinite danger,
unbelief is an infinite offence and deserves and will receive infinite
punishment. In the shadow of this tremendous "fact" his courage dies,
his manhood is lost, and in his fear he cries out that he believes, whether heroes
or not.
He says and teaches that credulity is safe
and thought dangerous. Yet he pretends to be a teacher a leader, one selected
by God to educate his fellow-men.
These orthodox ministers have been the
slanderers of the really great men of our century. They denounced Lyell. The great
geologist, for giving facts to the world. They hated and belittled Humboldt,
one of the greatest and most intellectual of the race.
They ridiculed
and derided Darwin, the greatest naturalist, the keenest observer, the best
judge of the value of a fact, the most wonderful discoverer of truth that the
world has produced.
In every orthodox pulpit stood a traducer
of the greatest of scientists of one who filled the world with intellectual
light.
The church has been the enemy of every
science, of every real thinker, and for many centuries has used her power to prevent
intellectual progress.
Ministers ought to be free. They should be
the heralds of the ever coming day, but they are the bats, the owls that inhabit
ruins, that hate the light. They denounce honest men who express their
thoughts, as blasphemers, and do what they can to close their mouths. For their
Bible they ask the protection of law. They wish to be shielded from laughter by
the Legislature. They ask that the arguments of their opponents be answered by
the courts. This is the result of a due admixture of cowardice, hypocrisy and
malice.
What valuable fact has been proclaimed
from an orthodox pulpit? What ecclesiastical council has added to the intellectual
wealth of the world?
Many centuries ago the church gave to
Christendom a code of laws, stupid, unphilosophical and brutal to the last
degree.
The church insists that it has made man merciful
and just. Digit do this by torturing heretics by extinguishing their eyes by
flaying them alive? Did it accomplish this result through the Inquisition by
the use of the thumb-screw, the rack and the fagot? Of what science has the
church been the friend and champion?
What orthodox
church has opened its doors to a persecuted truth? Of what use has Christianity
been to man?
They tell us that the church has been and
is the friend of education. I deny it. The church founded colleges not to educate
men, but to make proselytes, converts, defenders. This was in accordance with
the instinct of self-preservation. No orthodox
church ever
was, or ever will be in favor of real education. Catholic is in favor of enough
education to make a Catholic out of savage, and the Protestant is in favor of
enough education to make a Protestant out of a Catholic, but both are opposed
to the education that makes free and manly men.
So, ministers say that they teach charity.
This is natural.
They live on
alms. All beggars teach that others should give.
So, they tell us that the church has built
hospitals. This is not true. Men have not built hospitals because they were
Christians, but because they were men. They have not built them for charity but
in self-defense. If a man comes to your door with the smallpox, you cannot let
him in, you cannot kill him. As necessity, you provide a place for him. And you
do this to protect yourself. With this Christianity has had nothing to do.
The church cannot give, because it does
not produce. It is claimed that the church has made men and women forgiving. I admit
that the church has preached forgiveness, but it has never forgiven an enemy
never. Against the great and brave thinkers it has coined and circulated
countless lies. Never has the church told, or tried to tell, the truth about an
honest foe.
The church teaches the existence of the Supernatural.
It believes in
the divine sleight-of-hand in the "presto" and "open sesame"
of the Infinite; in some invisible Being who produces effects without causes
and causes without effects; whose caprice governs the world and who can be
persuaded by prayer, softened by ceremony, and who will, as a reward for faith,
save men from the natural consequences of their actions.
The church denies the eternal, inexorable
sequence of events.
What Good has the Church Accomplished?
It claims to have preached peace because
its founder said, "Came not to bring peace but a sword."
It claims to have preserved the family
because its founder offered a hundred-fold here and life everlasting to those
who would desert wife and children.
So, it claims to have taught the
brotherhood of man and that the gospel is for the entire world, because Christ
said to the woman of Samaria that he came only to the lost sheep of the house of
Israel, and declared that it was not meet to take the bread of the children and
cast it unto dogs.
In the name of Christ, who threatened
eternal revenge. it has preached forgiveness.
Of what use are the Orthodox Ministers?
They are the enemies of pleasure. They
denounce dancing as one of the deadly sins. They are shocked at the wickedness
of the waltz the pollution of the polka. They are the enemies of the theater.
They slander
actors and actresses. They hate them because they arrivals. They are trying to
preserve the sacredness of the Sabbath.
It fills them
with malice to see the people happy on that day. They preach against excursions
and picnics against those who seek the woods and the sea, the shadows and the
waves. They are filled withhold wrath against bicycles and bloomers. They are
opposed to divorces. They insist that for the glory of God, husbands and wives
who loathe each other should be compelled to live together. They abhor all
works of fiction, and love the Bible. They declare that the literary
master-pieces of the world are unfit to be read. They think that the people
should be satisfied with sermons and poems about death and hell. They hate art
abhor the marbles of the Greeks, and all representations of the human form.
They want nothing painted or sculptured but hands, faces and clothes. Most of
the priests are prudes, and publicly denounce what they secretly admire and
enjoy. In the presence of the nude they cover their faces with their holy
hands, but keep their fingers apart. They pretend to believe in moral suasion,
and want everything regulated by law. If they had the power, they would
prohibit everything that men and women really enjoy. They want libraries,
museums and art galleries closed on the Sabbath. They would abolish the Sunday
paper stop the running of cars and all public conveyances on the holy day, and
compel all the people to enjoy sermons, prayers and psalms.
These dear ministers, when they have poor congregations,
thunder against trusts, syndicates, and corporations against wealth, fashion
and luxury. They tell about Dives and Lazarus, paint rich men in hell and
beggars in heaven. If their congregations are rich they turn their guns in the
other direction.
They have no confidence in education in
the development of the brain. They appeal to hopes and fears. They ask no one to
think to investigate. They insist that all shall believe. Credulity is the
greatest of virtues, and doubt the deadliest of sins.
These men are the enemies of science of intellectual
progress. They ridicule and calumniate the great thinkers. They deny everything
those conflicts with the "sacred Scriptures." They still believe in
the astronomy of Joshua and the geology of Moses.
They believe in
the miracles of the past, and deny the demonstrations of the present. They are
the foes of facts the enemies of
knowledge. A desire to be happy here, they regard as wicked and worldly but a
desire to be happy in another world, as virtuous and spiritual.
Every orthodox church is founded on
mistake and falsehood. Every good orthodox minister asserts what he does not
know, and denies what he does know.
What are the Orthodox Clergy Doing for the
good of Mankind?
Absolutely nothing.
What harm are they doing?
On every hand they sow the seeds of
superstition. They paralyze the minds, and pollute the imaginations of
children. They fill their hearts with fear. By their teachings, thousands become
insane. With them, hypocrisy is respectable and candor infamous.
They enslave
the minds of men. Under their teachings men waste and misdirect their energies,
abandon the ends that can be accomplished, dedicate their lives to the
impossible, worship the unknown, pray to the inconceivable, and become the
trembling slaves of a monstrous myth born of ignorance and fashioned by the
trembling hands of fear.
Superstition is the serpent that crawls
and hisses in every Eden and fastens its poisonous fangs in the hearts of men.
It is the deadliest foe of the human race.
Superstition is a beggar a robber, a
tyrant.
Science is a benefactor.
Superstition sheds blood.
Science sheds light.
The dear preachers must give up the
account of creation the Garden of Eden, the mud-man, the rib-woman, and the walking,
talking, snake. They must throw away the apple, the fall of man, the expulsion,
and the gate guarded by angels armed with swords.
They must give
up the flood and the tower of Babel and the confusion of tongues. They must
give up Abraham and the wrestling match between Jacob and the Lord. So, the
story of Joseph, the enslavement of the Hebrews by the Egyptians, the story of
Moses in the bulrushes, the burning bush, the turning of sticks into serpents,
of water into blood, the miraculous creation of frogs, the killing of cattle
with hail and changing dust into lice, all must be given up. The sojourn of
forty years in the desert, the opening of the Red Sea, the clothes and shoes
that refused to wear out, the manna, the quails and the serpents, the water
that ran uphill, the talking of Jehovah with Moses face to face, the giving of
the Ten Commandments, the opening of the earth to swallow the enemies of Moses all
must be thrown away.
These good preachers must admit that
blowing horns could not throw down the walls of a city, that it was horrible
for Jephthah to sacrifice his daughter, that the day was not lengthened and the
moon stopped for the sake of Joshua, that the dead Samuel was not raised by a
witch, that a man was not carried to heaven in chariot of fire, that the river
Jordan was not divided by the stroke of a cloak, that the bears did not destroy
children for laughing at a prophet, that a wandering soothsayer did not collect
lightnings from heaven to destroy the lives of innocent men, that he did not
cause rain and make iron float, that ravens did not keep hotel where preachers
got bored and lodging free, that the shadow on a dial was not turned back ten
degrees to show that a king was going to recover from a boil, that Ezekiel was
not told by God how to prepare a dinner, that Jonah did not take cabin passage
in fish and that all the miracles in the old Testament are not allegories, or
poems, but just old-fashioned lies. And the dear preachers will be compelled to
admit that there never was a miraculous babe without a natural father, that
Christ, if he lived, was a man and nothing more. That he did not cast devils
out of folks that he did not cure
blindness with spittle and clay, nor turn water into wine, nor make fishes and
loaves of bread out of nothing that he did not know where to catch fishes with money
in their mouths that he did not take a walk on the water that he did not at
will become invisible that he did not pass through closed doors that he did not
raise the dead that angels never rolled stones from a sepulcher that Christ did
not rise from the dead and did not ascend to heaven.
All these mistakes and illusions and
delusions all these miracles and myths must fade from the minds of intelligent
men.
My dear
preachers, I beg you to tell the truth. Tell your congregations that Moses was
not the author of the Pentateuch. Tell them that nobody knows who wrote the
five books. Tell them that Deuteronomy was not written until about six hundred
years before
Christ. Tell
them that nobody knows who wrote Joshua, or Judges, or Ruth, Samuel, Kings, or
Chronicles, Job, or the Psalms, or the Song of Solomon. Be honest, tell the
truth. Tell them that nobody knows who wrote Esther which Ecclesiastes was
written long after Christ that many of the prophecies were written after the events
pretended to be foretold had happened. Tell them that Ezekiel and Daniel were
insane. Tell them that nobody knows who wrote the gospels, and tell them that
no line about Christ written by contemporary has been found. Tell them it is
all guess and maybe, and perhaps. Be honest. Tell the truth, develop your brains,
use all your senses and hold high the torch of Reason.
In a few years the pulpits will be filled
with teachers instead of preachers with thoughtful brave, and honest men. The
congregations will be civilized intellectually honest and hospitable.
Now, most of the ministers insist that the
old falsehoods shall be treated with reverence that ancient lies with long
white beards wrinkled and bald-headed frauds round-shouldered and toothless
miracles, and palsied mistakes on crutches, shall be called allegories,
parables, oriental imagery, and inspired poems. In their presence the ungodly
should remove their hats. They should respect the mound and moss of antiquity.
They should remember that these lies, these frauds, the miracles and mistakes,
have for thousands of years ruled, enslaved, and corrupted the human race.
These ministers ought to know that their
creeds are based on imagined facts and demonstrated by assertion.
They ought to know that they have no
evidence, nothing but promises and threats. They ought to know that it is
impossible to conceive of force existing without and before matter that it is
equally impossible to conceive of matter without force that it’s impossible to
conceive of the creation or destruction of matter or force, that it is
impossible to conceive of infinite intelligence dwelling from eternity in
infinite space, and that it’s impossible to conceive of the creator, or
creation, of substance.
The God of the Christian is an enthroned
guess a perhaps an inference.
No man, and no body of men, can answer the
questions of the Whence and Whither. The mystery of existence cannot be
explained byte intellect of man.
Back of life, of existence, we cannot go
beyond death we cannot see. All duties, all obligations, all knowledge, all
experience, are for this life, for this world.
We know that men and women and children
exist. We know that happiness, for the most part, depends on conduct.
We are satisfied that all the gods are
phantoms and that the supernatural does not exist.
We know the difference between hope and
knowledge, we hope for happiness here and we dream of joy hereafter, but we do
not know.
We cannot
assert, we can only hope. We can have our dream. In the wide night our star can
shine and shed its radiance on the graves of those we love. We can bend above
our pallid dead and say that beyond this life there are no sighs no tears no breaking
hearts.
CONCLUSION.
Let us be honest. Let us preserve the
veracity of our souls.
Let education
commence in the cradle in the lap of the loving mother. This is the first
school. The teacher, the mother, should be absolutely honest.
The nursery should not be an asylum for
lies.
Parents should be modest enough to be
truthful honest enough to admit their ignorance. Nothing should be taught as true
that cannot be demonstrated.
Every child should be taught to doubt, to
inquire, to demand reasons. Every soul should defend itself should be on its guard
against falsehood, deceit, and mistake, and should beware of all kinds of
confidence men, including those in the pulpit.
Children should be taught to express their
doubts -- to demand reasons. The object of education should be to develop the
brain, to quicken the senses. Every school should be a mental gymnasium. The
child should be equipped for the battle of life. Credulity, implicit obedience,
are the virtues of slaves and the en-slaves of the free. All should be taught
that there is nothing too sacred tube investigated too holy to be understood.
Each mind has the right to lift all
curtains, withdraw all veils, scale all walls, explore all recesses, all
heights, and all depths for itself, in spite of church or priest, or creed or
book.
The great volume of Nature should be open
to all. None but the intelligent and honest can really read this book. Prejudice
clouds
and darkens
every page. Hypocrisy reads and misquotes, and credulity accepts the quotation.
Superstition cannot read a line or spell the shortest word. And yet this volume
holds all knowledge, all truth, and is the only source of thought. Mental liberty
means the right of all to read this book. Here the Pope and Peasant are equal.
Each must read for himself and each ought honestly and fearlessly to give to
his fellow-men what he learns.
There is no authority in churches or
priests no authority in numbers or majorities. The only authority is Nature the
facts we know. Facts are the masters, the enemies of the ignorant, the servants
and friends of the intelligent.
Ignorance is the mother of mystery and
misery, of superstition and sorrow, of waste and want.
Intelligence is
the only light. It enables us to keep to the highway, to avoid the
obstructions, and to take advantage of the forces of nature. It is the only
lever capable of raising mankind.
To develop the
brain is to civilize the world. Intelligence reeves the heavens of winged and
frightful monsters drives ghosts and leering fiends from the darkness, and
floods with light the dungeons of fear.
All should he taught that there is no evidence
of the existence of the supernatural that the man who bows before an idol of
wood or stone is just as foolish as the one who prays to unimagined God, that
all worship has for its foundation the same mistake the same ignorance, the
same fear that it is just as foolish to believe in a personal god as in a
personal devil Justas foolish to believe in great ghosts as little ones.
So, all should be taught that the forces,
the facts in Nature, cannot be controlled or changed by prayer or praise, by supplication,
ceremony, or sacrifice; that there is no magic, no miracle; that force can be
overcome only by force, and that the whole world is natural.
All should be taught that man must protect
himself -- that there is no power superior to Nature that cares for man that
Nature has neither pity nor hatred that her forces act without the slightest
regard for man that she produces without intention and destroys without regret.
All should be taught that usefulness is
the bud and flower and fruit of real religion. The popes and cardinals, the bishops,
priests and parsons are all useless. They produce nothing. They live on the
labor of others. They are parasites that feed on the frightened. They are
vampires that suck the blood of honest toil.
Every church is
an organized beggar. Every one lives on alms collected by force and fear. Every
orthodox church promises heaven and threatens hell, and these promises and
threats are made for the sake of alms, for revenue. Every church cries:
"Believe and give."
A new era is dawning on the world. We are
beginning to believe in the religion of usefulness.
The men who felled the forests, cultivated
the earth, spanned the rivers with bridges of steel, built the railways and canals,
the great ships, invented the locomotives and engines, supplying the countless
wants of man: the men who invented the telegraphs and cables, and freighted the
electric spark with thought and love; theme who invented the looms and spindles
that clothe the world, the inventors of printing and the great presses that
fill the earth with poetry, fiction and fact, that save and keep all knowledge for
the children yet to be; the inventors of all the wonderful machines that deftly
mold from wood and steel the things we use; the men who have explored the
heavens and traced the orbits of the stars who have read the story of the world
in mountain range and billowed sea; the men who have lengthened life and
conquered pain; the great philosophers and naturalists who have filled the
world with light; the great poets whose thoughts have charmed the souls, the great
painters and sculptors who have made the canvas speak, the marble live; the
great orators who have swayed the world, the composers who have given their
souls to sound, the captains of industry, the producers, the soldiers who have
battled for the right, the vast host of useful men these are our Christ’s, our
apostles and our saints. The triumphs of science are our miracles. The books filled
with the facts of Nature are our sacred scriptures, and the force that is in
every atom and in every star in everything that lives and grows and thinks,
that hopes and suffers, is the only possible god.
The absolute we cannot know -- beyond the
horizon of the Natural we cannot go. All our duties are within our reach -- all
our obligations must be discharged here, in this world. Let us love and labor.
Let us wait and work. Let us cultivate courage and cheerfulness open our hearts
to the good our minds to the true. Let us live free lives. Let us hope that the
future will bring peace and joy to all the children of men, and above all, lotus
preserve the veracity of our souls.
