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THE DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH. 1
A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 13
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Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
The Works of ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
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THE DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH.
1888
"Let determined things to destiny hold unbewailed their way."
There is a continual effort in the mind of man to find the
harmony that he knows must exist between all known facts. It is
hard for the scientist to implicitly believe anything that he
suspects to be inconsistent with a known fact. He feels that every
fact is a key to many mysteries -- that every fact is a detective,
not only, but a perpetual witness. He knows that a fact has a
countless number of sides, and that all these sides will match all
other facts, and he also suspects that to understand one fact
perfectly -- like the fact of the attraction of gravitation --
would involve a knowledge of the universe.
It requires not only candor, but courage, to accept a fact.
When a new fact is found -- it is generally denied, resisted, and
calumniated by the conservatives until denial becomes absurd, and
then they accept it with the statement that they always supposed it
was true.
The old is the ignorant enemy of the new. The old has pedigree
and respectability; it is filled with the spirit of caste; it is
associated with great events, and with great names; it is
entrenched; it has an income -- it represents property. Besides, it
has parasites, and the parasites always defend themselves,
Long ago frightened wretches who had by tyranny or piracy
amassed great fortunes, were induced in the moment of death to
compromise with God and to let their money fall from their
stiffening hands into the greedy palms of priests. In this way many
theological seminaries were endowed, and in this way prejudices,
mistakes, absurdities, known as religious truths, have been
perpetuated. In this way the dead hypocrites have propagated and
supported their kind.
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THE DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH.
Most religions -- no matter how honestly they originated --
have been established by brute force. Kings and nobles have used
them as a means to enslave, to degrade and rob. The priest,
consciously and unconsciously, has been the betrayer of his
followers.
Near Chicago there is an ox that betrays his fellows. Cattle
-- twenty or thirty at a time -- are driven to the place of
slaughter. This ox leads the way -- the others follow. When the
place is reached, this Bishop Dupanloup turns and goes back for
other victims.
This is the worst side: There is a better.
Honest men, believing that they have found the whole truth --
the real and only faith -- filled with enthusiasm, give all for the
purpose of propagating the "divine creed." They found colleges and
universities, and in perfect, pious, ignorant sincerity, provide
that the creed, and nothing but the creed, must be taught, and that
if any professor teaches anything contrary to that, he must be
instantly dismissed -- that is to say, the children must be beaten
with the bones of the dead.
These good religious souls erect guide-boards with a provision
to the effect that the guide-boards must remain, whether the roads
are changed or not, and with the further provision that the
professors who keep and repair the guide-boards must always insist
that the roads have not been changed.
There is still another side.
Professors do not wish to lose their salaries. They love their
families and have some regard for themselves. There is a compromise
between their bread and their brain. On pay-day they believe -- at
other times they have their doubts, They settle with their own
consciences by giving old words new meanings. They take refuge in
allegory, hide behind parables, and barricade themselves with
oriental imagery. They give to the most frightful passages a
spiritual meaning -- and while they teach the old creed to their
followers, they speak a new philosophy to their equals.
There is still another side.
A vast number of clergymen and laymen are perfectly satisfied.
They have no doubts. They believe as their fathers and mothers did.
The "scheme of salvation" suits them because they are satisfied
that they are embraced within its terms. They give themselves no
trouble. They believe because they do not understand. They have no
doubts because they do not think. They regard doubt as a thorn in
the pillow of orthodox slumber. Their souls are asleep, and they
hate only those who disturb their dreams. These people keep their
creeds for future use. They intend to have them ready at the moment
of dissolution. They sustain about the same relation to daily life
that the small boats carried by steamers do to ordinary navigation
-- they are for the moment of shipwreck. Creeds, like life-
preservers, are to be used in disaster.
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THE DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH.
We must also remember that everything in nature -- bad as well
as good -- has the instinct of self-preservation. All lies go
armed, and all mistakes carry concealed weapons. Driven to the last
corner, even non-resistance appeals to the dagger.
Vast interests -- political, social, artistic, and individual
-- are interwoven with all creeds. Thousands of millions of dollars
have been invested; many millions of people obtain their bread by
the propagation and support of certain religious doctrines, and
many millions have been educated for that purpose and for that
alone. Nothing is more natural than that they should defend
themselves -- that they should cling to a creed that gives them
roof and raiment.
Only a few years ago Christianity was a complete system. It
included and accounted for all phenomena; it was a philosophy
satisfactory to the ignorant world; it had an astronomy and geology
of its own; it answered all questions with the same readiness and
the same inaccuracy; it had within its sacred volumes the history
of the past, and the prophecies of all the future; it pretended to
know all that was, is, or ever will be necessary for the well-being
of the human race, here and hereafter,
When a religion has been founded, the founder admitted the
truth of everything that was generally believed that did not
interfere with his system. Imposture always has a definite end in
view, and for the sake of the accomplishment of that end, it will
admit the truth of anything and everything that does not endanger
its success.
The writers of all sacred books -- the inspired prophets --
had no reason for disagreeing with the common people about the
origin of things, the creation of the world, the rising and setting
of the sun, and the uses of the stars, and consequently the sacred
books of all ages have indorsed the belief general at the time. You
will find in our sacred books the astronomy, the geology, the
philosophy and the morality of the ancient barbarians. The
religionist takes these general ideas as his foundation, and upon
them builds the supernatural structure. For many centuries the
astronomy, geology, philosophy and morality of our ]Bible were
accepted. They were not questioned, for the reason that the world
was too ignorant to question.
A few centuries ago the art of printing was invented. A new
world was discovered. There was a complete revolution in commerce.
The arts were born again. The world was filled with adventure;
millions became self-reliant; old ideas were abandoned -- old
theories were put aside -- and suddenly, the old leaders of thought
were found to be ignorant, shallow and dishonest. The literature of
the classic world was discovered and translated into modern
languages. The world was circumnavigated; Copernicus discovered the
true relation sustained by our earth to the solar system, and about
the beginning of the seventeenth century many other wonderful
discoveries were made. In 1609, a Hollander found that two lenses
placed in a certain relation to each other magnified objects seen
through them. This discovery was the foundation of astronomy. In a
little while it came to the knowledge of Galileo; the result was a
telescope, with which man has read the volume of the skies.
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THE DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH.
On the 8th day of May, 1618, Kepler discovered the greatest of
his three laws. These were the first great blows struck for the
enfranchisement of the human mind. A few began to suspect that the
ancient Hebrews were not astronomers. From that moment the church
became the enemy of science. In every possible way the inspired
ignorance was defended -- the lash, the sword, the chain, the fagot
and the dungeon were the arguments used by the infuriated church.
To such an extent was the church prejudiced against the new
philosophy, against the new facts, that priests refused to look
through the telescope of Galileo.
At last it became evident to the intelligent world that the
inspired writings, literally translated, did not contain the truth
-- the Bible was in danger of being driven from the heavens.
The church also had its geology. The time when the earth was
created had been definitely fixed and was certainly known. This
fact had not only been stated by inspired writers, but their
statement had been indorsed by priests, by bishops, cardinals,
popes and ecumenical councils; that was settled.
But a few men had learned the art of seeing. There were some
eyes not always closed in prayer. They looked at the things about
them; they observed channels that had been worn in solid rock by
streams; they Saw the vast territories that had been deposited by
rivers; their attention was called to the slow inroads upon
continents by seas -- to the deposits by volcanoes -- to the
sedimentary rocks -- to the vast reefs that had been built by the
coral, and to the countless evidences of age, of the lapse of time
-- and finally it was demonstrated that this earth had been
pursuing its course about the sun for millions and millions of
ages.
The church disputed every step, denied every fact, resorted to
every device that cunning could suggest or ingenuity execute, but
the conflict could not be maintained. The Bible, so far as geology
was concerned, was in danger of being driven from the earth.
Beaten in the open field, the church began to equivocate, to
evade, and to give new meanings to inspired words. Finally,
falsehood having failed to harmonize the guesses of barbarians with
the discoveries of genius, the leading churchmen suggested that the
Bible was not written to teach astronomy, was not written to teach
geology, and that it was not a scientific book, but that it was
written in the language of the people, and that as to unimportant
things it contained the general beliefs of its time.
The ground was then taken that, while it was not inspired in
its science, it was inspired in its morality, in its prophecy, in
its account of the miraculous, in the scheme of salvation, and in
all that it had to say on the subject of religion.
The moment it was suggested that the Bible was not inspired in
everything within its lids, the seeds of suspicion were sown. The
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THE DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH.
priest became less arrogant. The church was forced to explain. The
pulpit had one language for the faithful and another for the
philosophical, i.e., it became dishonest with both.
The next question that arose was as to the origin of man.
The Bible was being driven from the skies. The testimony of
the stars was against the sacred volume. The church had also been
forced to admit that the world was not created at the time
mentioned in the Bible -- so that the very stones of the earth rose
and united with the stars in giving testimony against the sacred
volume.
As to the creation of the world, the church resorted to the
artifice of saying that "days" in reality meant long periods of
time; so that no matter how old the earth was, the time could be
spanned by six periods -- in other words, that the years could not
be too numerous to be divided by six.
But when it came to the creation of man, this evasion, or
artifice, was impossible. The Bible gives the date of the creation
of man, because it gives the age at which the first man died, and
then it gives the generations from Adam to the flood, and from the
flood to the birth of Christ, and in many instances the actual age
of the principal ancestor is given. So that, according to this
account -- according to the inspired figures -- man has existed
upon the earth only about six thousand years. There is no room left
for any people beyond Adam.
If the Bible is true, certainly Adam was the first man;
consequently, we know, if the sacred volume be true, just how long
man has lived and labored and suffered on this earth.
The church cannot and dare not give up the account of the
creation of Adam from the dust of the earth, and of Eve from the
rib of the man. The church cannot give up the story of the Garden
of Eden -- the serpent -- the fall and the expulsion; these must be
defended because they are vital. Without these absurdities, the
system known as Christianity cannot exist. Without the fall, the
atonement is a nan sequitur. Facts bearing upon these questions
were discovered and discussed by the greatest and most thoughtful
of men. Lamarek, Humboldt, Haeckel, and above all, Darwin, not only
asserted, but demonstrated, that man is not a special creation. If
anything can be established by observation, by reason, then the
fact has been established that man is related to all life below him
-- that he has been slowly produced through countless years -- that
the story of Eden is a childish myth -- that the fall of man is an
infinite absurdity.
If anything can, be established by analogy and reason, man has
existed upon the earth for many millions of ages. We know now, if
we know anything, that people not only existed before Adam, but
that they existed in a highly civilized state; that thousands of
years before the Garden of Eden was planted men communicated to
each other their ideas by language, and that artists clothed the
marble with thoughts and passions.
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THE DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH.
This is a demonstration that the origin of man given in the
Old Testament is untrue -- that the account was written by the
ignorance, the prejudice and the egotism of the olden time.
So, if anything outside of the senses can be known, we do know
that civilization is a growth -- that man did not commence a
perfect being, and then degenerate, but that from small beginnings
he has slowly risen to the intellectual height he now occupies.
The church, however, has not been willing to accept these
truths, because they contradict the sacred word. Some of the most
ingenious of the clergy have been endeavoring for years to show
that there is no conflict -- that the account in Genesis is in
perfect harmony with the theories of Charles Darwin, and these
clergymen in some way manage to retain their creed and to accept a
philosophy that utterly destroys it.
But in a few years the Christian world will be forced to admit
that the Bible is not inspired in its astronomy, in its geology, or
in its anthropology -- that is to say, that the inspired writers
knew nothing of the sciences, knew nothing of the origin of the
earth, nothing of the origin of man -- in other words, nothing of
any particular value to the human race.
It is, however, still insisted that the Bible is inspired in
its morality. Let us examine this question.
We must admit, if we know anything, if we feel anything, if
conscience is more than a word, if there is such a thing as right
and such a thing as wrong beneath the dome of heaven -- we must
admit that slavery is immoral. If we are honest, we must also
admit that the Old Testament upholds slavery. It will be cheerfully
admitted that Jehovah was opposed to the enslavement of one Hebrew
by another. Christians may quote the commandment "Thou shalt not
steal" as being opposed to human slavery, but after that
commandment was given, Jehovah himself told his chosen people that
they might "buy their bondmen and bondwomen of the heathen round
about, and that they should be their bondmen and their bondwomen
forever." So all that Jehovah meant by the commandment "Thou shalt
not steal" was that one Hebrew should not steal from another
Hebrew, but that all Hebrews might steal from the people of any
other race or creed.
It is perfectly apparent that the Ten Commandments were made
only for the Jews, not for the world, because the author of these
commandments commanded the people to whom they were given to
violate them nearly all as against the surrounding people.
A few years ago it did not occur to the Christian world that
slavery was wrong. It was upheld by the church. Ministers bought
and sold the very people for whom they declared that Christ had
died. Clergymen of the English church owned stock in slave-ships,
and the man who denounced slavery was regarded as the enemy of
morality, and thereupon was duly mobbed by the followers of Jesus
Christ. Churches were built with the results of labor stolen from
colored Christians. Babes were sold from mothers and a part of the
money given to send missionaries from America to heathen lands with
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THE DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH.
the tidings of great joy. Now every intelligent man on the earth,
every decent man, holds in abhorrence the institution of human
slavery.
So with the institution of polygamy. If anything on the earth
is immoral, that is. If there is anything calculated to destroy
home, to do away with human love, to blot out the idea of family
life, to cover the hearthstone with serpents, it is the institution
of polygamy. The Jehovah of the Old Testament was a believer in
that institution.
Can we now say that the Bible is inspired in its morality?
Consider for a moment the manner in which, under the direction of
Jehovah, wars were waged. Remember the atrocities that were
committed. Think of a war where everything was the food of the
sword. Think for a moment of a deity capable of committing the
crimes that are described and gloated over in the Old Testament.
The civilized man has outgrown the sacred cruelties and
absurdities.
There is still another side to this question.
A few centuries ago nothing was more natural than the
unnatural. Miracles were as plentiful as actual events. In those
blessed days, that which actually occurred was not regarded of
sufficient importance to be recorded. A religion without miracles
would have excited derision. A creed that did not fill the horizon
-- that did not account for everything -- that could not answer
every question, would have been regarded as worthless.
After the birth of Protestantism, it could not be admitted by
the leaders of the Reformation that the Catholic Church still had
the power of working miracles. If the Catholic Church was still in
partnership with God, what excuse could have been made for the
Reformation? The Protestants took the ground that the age of
miracles had passed. This was to justify the new faith. But
Protestants could not say that miracles had never been performed,
because that would take the foundation not only from the Catholics
but from themselves; consequently they were compelled to admit that
miracles were performed in the apostolic days, but to insist that,
in their time, man must rely upon the facts in nature. Protestants
were compelled to carry on two kinds of war; they had to contend
with those who insisted that miracles had never been performed; and
in that argument they were forced to insist upon the necessity for
miracles, on the probability that they were performed, and upon the
truthfulness of the apostles. A moment afterward, they had to
answer those who contended that miracles were performed at that
time; then they brought forward against the Catholics the same
arguments that their first opponents had brought against them.
This has made every Protestant brain "a house divided against
itself." This planted in the Reformation the irrepressible
conflict."
But we have learned more and more about what we call Nature --
about what we call facts. Slowly it dawned upon the mind that force
is indestructible -- that we cannot imagine force as existing apart
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THE DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH.
from matter -- that we cannot even think of matter existing apart
from force -- that we cannot by any possibility conceive of a cause
without an effect, of an effect without a cause, of an effect that
is not also a cause. We find no room between the links of cause and
effect for a miracle. We now perceive that a miracle must be
outside of Nature -- that it can have no father, no mother -- that
is to say, that it is an impossibility.
The intellectual world has abandoned the miraculous. Most
ministers are now ashamed to defend a miracle. Some try to explain
miracles, and yet, if a miracle is explained, it ceases to exist.
Few congregations could keep from smiling were the minister to
seriously assert the truth of the Old Testament miracles.
Miracles must be given up. That field must be abandoned by the
religious world. The evidence accumulates every day, in every
possible direction in which the human mind can investigate, that
the miraculous is simply the impossible.
Confidence in the eternal constancy of Nature increases day by
day. The scientist has perfect confidence in the attraction. of
gravitation -- in chemical affinities -- in the great fact of
evolution, and feels absolutely certain that the nature of things
will remain forever the same.
We have at last ascertained that miracles can be perfectly
understood; that there is nothing mysterious about them; that they
are simply transparent falsehoods.
The real miracles are the facts in nature, No one can explain
the attraction of gravitation. No one knows why soil and rain and
light become the womb of life. No one knows why grass grows, why
water runs, or why the magnetic needle points to the north, The
facts in nature are the eternal and the only mysteries. There is
nothing strange about the miracles of superstition, They are
nothing but the mistakes of ignorance and fear, or falsehoods
framed by those who wished to live on the labor of others.
In our time the champions of Christianity, for the most part,
take the exact ground occupied by the Deists. They dare not defend
in the open field the mistakes, the cruelties, the immoralities and
the absurdities of the Bible. They shun the Garden of Eden as
though the serpent was still there. They have nothing to say about
the fall of man. They are silent as to the laws upholding slavery
and polygamy. They are ashamed to defend the miraculous. They talk
about these things to Sunday schools and to the elderly members of
their congregations; but when doing battle for the faith, they
misstate the position of their opponents and then insist that there
must be a God, and that the soul is immortal.
We may admit the existence of an infinite Being; we may admit
the immortality of the soul, and yet deny the inspiration of the
Scriptures and the divine origin of the Christian religion. These
doctrines, or these dogmas, have nothing in common. The pagan world
believed in God and taught the dogma of immortality. These ideas
are far older than Christianity, and they have been almost
universal.
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Christianity asserts more than this. It is based upon the
inspiration of the Bible, on the fall of man, on the atonement, on
the dogma of the Trinity, on the divinity of Jesus Christ, on his
resurrection from the dead, on his ascension into heaven.
Christianity teaches not simply the immortality of the soul --
not simply the immortality of joy -- but it teaches the immortality
of pain, the eternity of sorrow. It insists that evil, that
wickedness, that immorality and that every form of vice are and
must be perpetuated forever. It believes in immortal convicts, in
eternal imprisonment and in a world of unending pain. It has a
serpent for every breast and a curse for nearly every soul. This
doctrine is called the dearest hope of the human heart, and he who
attacks it is denounced as the most infamous of men.
Let us see what the church, within a few years, has been
compelled substantially to abandon, -- that is to say, what it is
now almost ashamed to defend.
First, the astronomy of the sacred Scriptures; second, the
geology; third, the account given of the origin of man; fourth, the
doctrine of original sin, the fall of the human race; fifth, the
mathematical contradiction known as the Trinity; sixth, the
atonement -- because it was only on the ground that man is
accountable for the sin of another, that he could be justified by
reason of the righteousness of another; seventh, that the
miraculous is either the misunderstood or the impossible; eighth,
that the Bible is not inspired in its morality, for the reason that
slavery is not moral, that polygamy is not good, that wars of
extermination are not merciful, and that nothing can be more
immoral than to punish the innocent on account of the sins of the
guilty; and ninth, the divinity of Christ.
All this must be given up by the really intelligent, by those
not afraid to think, by those who have the courage of their
convictions and the candor to express their thoughts. What then is
left?
Let me tell yon, Everything in the Bible that is true, is
left; it still remains and is still of value. It cannot be said too
often that the truth needs no inspiration; neither can it be said
too often that inspiration cannot help falsehood. Every good and
noble sentiment uttered in the Bible is still good and noble. Every
fact remains. All that is good in the Sermon on the Mount is
retained. The Lord's Prayer is not affected. The grandeur of self-
denial, the nobility of forgiveness, and the ineffable splendor of
mercy are with us still. And besides, there remains the great hope
for all the human race.
What is lost? All the mistakes, all the falsehoods, all the
absurdities, all the cruelties and all the curses contained in the
Scriptures. We have almost lost the "hope" of eternal pain -- the
"consolation" of perdition; and in time we shall lose the frightful
shadow that has fallen upon so many hearts, that has darkened so
many lives.
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THE DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH.
The great trouble for many years has been, and still is, that
the clergy are not quite candid. They are disposed to defend the
old creed. They have been educated in the universities, of the
Sacred Mistake -- universities that Bruno would call "the widows of
true learning." They have been taught to measure with a false
standard; they have weighed with inaccurate scales. in youth, they
became convinced of the truth of the creed. This was impressed upon
them by the solemnity of professors who spoke in tones of awe. The
enthusiasm of life's morning was misdirected. They went out into
the world knowing nothing of value. They preached a creed outgrown.
Having been for so many years entirely certain of their position,
they met doubt with a spirit of irritation -- afterward with
hatred. They are hardly courageous enough to admit that they are
wrong.
Once the pulpit was the leader -- it spoke with authority. By
its side was the sword of the state, with the hilt toward its hand.
Now it is apologized for -- it carries a weight. It is now like a
living man to whom has been chained a corpse. It cannot defend the
old, and it has not accepted the new. In some strange way it
imagines that morality cannot live except in partnership with the
sanctified follies and falsehoods of the past.
The old creeds cannot be defended by argument. They are not
within the circumference of reason -- they are not embraced in any
of the facts within the experience of man. All the subterfuges have
been exposed; all the excuses have been shown to be shallow, and at
last the church must meet, and fairly meet, the objections of our
time.
Solemnity is no longer an argument. Falsehood is no longer
sacred. People are not willing to admit that mistakes are divine.
Truth is more important than belief -- far better than creeds,
vastly more useful than superstitions. The church must accept the
truths of the present, must admit the demonstrations of science, or
take its place in the mental museums with the fossils and
monstrosities of the past.
The time for personalities has passed; these questions cannot
be determined by ascertaining the character of the disputants;
epithets are no longer regarded as arguments; the curse of the
church produces laughter; theological slander is no longer a
weapon; argument must be answered with argument, and the church
must appeal to reason, and by that standard it must stand or fall.
The theories and discoveries of Darwin cannot be answered by the
resolutions of synods, or by quotations from the Old Testament.
The world has advanced. The Bible has remained the same. We
must go back to the book -- it cannot come to us -- or we must
leave it forever. In order to remain orthodox we must forget the
discoveries, the inventions, the intellectual efforts of many
centuries; we must go back until our knowledge -- or rather our
ignorance -- will harmonize with the barbaric creeds.
It is not pretended that all the creeds have not been
naturally produced. It is admitted that under the same
circumstances the same religions would again ensnare the human
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THE DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH.
race. It is also admitted that under the same circumstances the
same efforts would be made by the great and intellectual of every
age to break the chains of superstition.
There is no necessity of attacking people -- we should combat
error. We should hate hypocrisy, but not the hypocrite -- larceny,
but not the thief -- superstition, but not its victim. We should do
all within our power to inform, to educate, and to benefit our
fellow-men.
There is no elevating power in hatred. There is no reformation
in punishment. The soul grows greater and grander in the air of
kindness, in the sunlight of intelligence.
We must rely upon the evidence of our senses, upon the
conclusions of our reason.
For many centuries the church has insisted that man is totally
depraved, that he is naturally wicked, that all of his natural
desires are contrary to the will of God. Only a few years ago it
was solemnly asserted that our senses were originally honest, true
and faithful, but having been debauched by original sin, were now
cheats and liars; that they constantly deceived and misled the
soul; that they were traps and snares; that no man could be safe
who relied upon his senses, or upon his reason; -- he must simply
rely upon faith; in other words, that the only way for man to
really see was to put out his eyes.
There has been a rapid improvement in the intellectual world.
The improvement has been slow in the realm of religion, for the
reason that religion was hedged about, defended and barricaded by
fear, by prejudice find by law. It was considered sacred. It was
illegal to call its truth in question. Whoever disputed the priest
became a criminal; whoever demanded a reason, or an explanation,
became a blasphemer, a scoffer, a moral leper.
The church defended its mistakes by every means within its
power.
But in spite of all this there has been advancement, and there
are enough of the orthodox clergy left to make it possible for us
to measure the distance that has been traveled by sensible people.
The world is beginning to see that a minister should be a
teacher, and that "he should not endeavor to inculcate a particular
system of dogmas, but to prepare his hearers for exercising their
own judgments,"
As a last resource, the orthodox tell the thoughtful that they
are not "spiritual" -- that they are "of the earth, earthy " --
that they cannot perceive that which is spiritual. They insist that
"God is a spirit, and must be worshiped in spirit."
But let me ask, What is it to be spiritual? In order to be
really spiritual, must a man sacrifice this world for the sake of
another? Were the selfish hermits, who deserted their wives and
children for the miserable purpose of saving their own little
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THE DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH.
souls, spiritual? Were those who put their fellow-men in dungeons,
or burned them at the stake on account of a difference of opinion,
all spiritual people? Did John Calvin give evidence of his
spirituality by burning Servetus? Were they spiritual people who
invented and used instruments of torture -- who denied the liberty
of thought and expression -- who waged wars for the propagation of
the faith? Were they spiritual people who insisted that infinite
Love could punish his poor, ignorant children forever? Is it
necessary to believe in eternal torment to understand the meaning
of the word spiritual? Is it necessary to hate those who disagree
with you, and to calumniate those whose argument you cannot answer,
in order to be spiritual? Must you hold a demonstrated fact in
contempt; must you deny or avoid what you know to be true, in order
to substantiate the fact that you are spiritual?
What is it to be spiritual? Is the man spiritual who searches
for the truth -- who lives in accordance with his highest ideal --
who loves his wife and children -- who discharges his obligations
-- who makes a happy fireside for the ones he loves -- who succors
the oppressed -- who gives his honest opinions -- who is guided by
principle -- who is merciful and just?
Is the man spiritual who loves the beautiful -- who is
thrilled by music, and touched to tears in the presence of the
sublime, the heroic and the self-denying? Is the man spiritual who
endeavors by thought and deed to ennoble the human race?
The defenders of the orthodox faith, by this time, should know
that the foundations are insecure.
They should have the courage to defend, or the candor to
abandon. If the Bible is an inspired book, it ought to be true. Its
defenders must admit that Jehovah knew the facts not only about the
earth, but about the stars, and that the Creator of the universe
knew all about geology and astronomy even four thousand years ago.
The champions of Christianity must show that the Bible tells
the truth about the creation of man, the Garden of Eden, the
temptation, the fall and the flood. They must take the ground that
the sacred book is historically correct; that the events related
really happened; that the miracles were actually performed; that
the laws promulgated from Sinai were and are wise and just, and
that nothing is upheld, commanded, indorsed, or in any way approved
or sustained that is not absolutely right. In other words, if they
insist that a being of infinite goodness and intelligence is the
author of the Bible, they must be ready to show that it is
absolutely perfect. They must defend its astronomy, geology,
history, miracle and morality.
If the Bible is true, man is a special creation, and if man is
a special creation, millions of facts must have conspired, millions
of ages ago, to deceive the scientific world of to-day.
If the Bible is true, slavery is right, and the world should
go back to the barbarism of the lash and chain. If the Bible is
true, polygamy is the highest form of virtue. If the Bible is true,
nature has a master, and the miraculous is independent of and
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THE DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH.
superior to cause and effect. If the Bible is true, most of the
children of men are destined to suffer eternal pain. If the Bible
is true, the science known as astronomy is a collection of mistakes
-- the telescope is a false witness, and light is a luminous liar.
If the Bible is true, the science known as geology is false and
every fossil is a petrified perjurer.
The defenders of orthodox creeds should have the courage to
candidly answer at least two questions: First, Is the Bible
inspired? Second, Is the Bible true? And when they answer these
questions, they should remember that if the Bible is true, it needs
no inspiration, and that if not true, inspiration can do it no
good.
North American Review, August, 1888.
END
**** ****
A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING
THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE.
THE Old Testament must have been written nearly two thousand
years before the invention of Printing. There were but few copies,
and these were in the keeping of those whose interest might have
prompted interpolations, and whose ignorance might have led to
mistakes.
Second. The written Hebrew was composed entirely of
consonants, without any points or marks standing for vowels, so
that anything like accuracy was impossible, Anyone can test this
for himself by writing an English sentence, leaving out the vowels.
It will take far more inspiration to read than to write a book with
consonants alone.
Third. The books composing the Old Testament were not divided
into chapters or verses, and no system of punctuation was known.
Think of this a moment and you will see how difficult it must be to
read such a book.
Fourth. There was not among the Jews any dictionary of their
language, and for this reason the accurate meaning of words could
not be preserved. Now the different meanings of words are preserved
so that by knowing the age in which a writer lived we can ascertain
with reasonable certainty his meaning.
Fifth. The Old Testament was printed for the first time in
1488. Until this date it existed only in manuscript, and was
constantly exposed to erasures and additions.
Sixth. It is now admitted by the most learned in the Hebrew
language that in our present English version of the Old Testament
there are at least one hundred thousand errors. Of course the
believers in inspiration assert that these errors are not
sufficient in number to cast the least suspicious upon any passages
upholding what are called the fundamentals."
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A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING
THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE.
Seventh. It is not certainly known who in fact wrote any of
the books of the Old Testament. For instance, it is now generally
conceded that Moses was not the author of the Pentateuch.
Eighth. Other books, not now in existence, are referred to in
the Old Testament as of equal authority, such as the books of
Jasher, Nathan, Ahijah, Iddo, Jehu, Sayings of the Seers.
Ninth. The Christians are not agreed among themselves as to
what books are inspired. The Catholics claim as inspired the books
of Maccabees, Tobit, Esdras, etc. Others doubt the inspiration of
Esther, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon.
Tenth. In the book of Esther and the Song of Solomon the name
of God is not mentioned, and no reference is made to any supreme
being, nor to any religions duty. these omissions would seem
sufficient to cast a little doubt upon these books.
Eleventh. Within the present century manuscript copies of the
Old Testament have been found throwing new light and changing in
many instances the present readings. In consequence a new version
is now being made by a theological syndicate composed of English
and American divines, and after this is published it may be that
our present Bible will fall into disrepute.
Twelfth. The fact that language is continually changing that
words are constantly dying and others being born; that the same
word has a variety of meanings during its life, shows how hard it
is to preserve the original ideas that might have been expressed in
the Scriptures, for thousands of years, without dictionaries,
without the art of printing, and without the light of
contemporaneous literature.
Thirteenth. Whatever there was of the Old Testament seems to
have been lost from the time of Moses until the days of Josiah, and
it is probable that nothing like the Bible existed in any permanent
form among the Jews until a few hundred years before Christ. It is
said that Ezra gave the Pentateuch to the Jews, but whether he
found or originated it is unknown. So it is claimed that Nehemiah
gathered up the manuscripts about the kings and prophets, while the
books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ruth, Ecclesiastes, and some others
were either collected or written long after. The Jews themselves
did not agree as to what books were really inspired.
Fourteenth. In the Old Testament we find several contradictory
laws about the same thing, and contradictory accounts of the same
occurrences. In the twentieth chapter of Exodus we find the first
account of the giving of Ten Commandments. In the thirty-fourth
chapter another account is given. These two accounts could never
have been written by the same person. Read these two accounts and
you will be forced to admit that one of them cannot be true. So
there are two histories of the creation, of the flood, and of the
manner in which Saul became king.
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A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING
THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE.
Fifteenth. It is now generally admitted that Genesis must have
been written by two persons, and the parts written by each can be
separated, and when separated they are found to contradict each
other in many important particulars.
Sixteenth. It is also. admitted that copyists made verbal
changes not only, but pieced out fragments; that the speeches of
Elihu in the book of Job were all interpolated, and that most of
the prophecies were made by persons whose names we have never
known.
Seventeenth. The manuscripts of the Old Testament were not
alike, and the Greek version differed from the Hebrew, and there
was no absolutely received text of the Old Testament until after
the commencement of the Christian era. Marks and points to denote
vowels were invented probably about the seventh century after
Christ. Whether these vowels were put in the proper places or not
is still an open question.
Eighteenth. The Alexandrian version, or what is known as the
Septuagint, translated by seventy learned Jews, assisted by
"miraculous power," about two hundred years before Christ, could
not have been, it is said, translated from the Hebrew text that we
now have. The differences can only be accounted for by supposing
that they had a different Hebrew text. The early Christian Churches
adopted the Septuagint, and were satisfied for a time. But so many
errors were found, and so many were scanning every word in search
of something to sustain their peculiar views, that several new
versions appeared, all different somewhat from the Hebrew
manuscripts, from the Septuagint, and from each other. All these
versions were in Greek. The first Latin Bible originated in Africa,
but no one has ever found out which Latin manuscript was the
original. Many were produced, and all differed from each other.
These Latin versions were compared with each other and with the
Hebrew, and a new Latin version was made in the fifth century, but
the old Latin versions held their own for about four hundred years,
and no one yet knows which were right. Besides these there were
Egyptian, Ethiopic, Armenian, and several others, all differing
from each other as well as from all others in the world.
It was not until the fourteenth century that the Bible was
translated into German, and not until the fifteenth that Bibles
were printed in the principal languages of Europe. Of these Bibles
there were several kinds -- Luther's, the Dort, King James's,
Genevan, French, besides the Danish and Swedish. Mort of these
differed from each other, and gave rise to infinite disputes and
crimes without number. The earliest fragment of the Bible in the
"Saxon" language known to exist was written sometime in the seventh
century. The first Bible was printed in England in 1538. In 1560
the first English Bible was printed that was divided into verses.
Under Henry VIII. the Bible was revised; again under Queen
Elizabeth, and once again under King James, This last was published
in 1611, and is the one now in general use.
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A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING
THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE.
Nineteenth. No one in the world has learning enough, nor has
the time enough even if he had the learning, and could live a
thousand years, to find out what books really belong to and
constitute the Old Testament, the authors these books, when they
were written, and what they mean. And until a man has the learning
and the time to do all this he cannot certainly tell whether he
believe Bible or not.
Twentieth. If a revelation from God was actually necessary to
the happiness of man here and to his salvation hereafter, it is not
easy to see why such revelation was not given to all the nations of
the earth. Why were the millions of Asia, Egypt, and America left
to the insufficient light of nature. Why was not a written, or what
is still better, printed revelation given to Adam and Eve in the
Garden of Eden? And why were the Jews themselves without a Bible
until the days of Ezra the scribe? Why was nature not so made that
it would give light enough? Why did God make men and leave them in
darkness -- a darkness that he knew would fill the world with want
and crime, and crowd with damned souls the dungeons of hell? Were
the Jews the only people who needed a revelation? It may be said
that God had no time to waste with other nations, and gave the
Bible to the Jews that other nations through them might learn of
his existence and his will. If he wished other nations to be
informed, and revealed himself to but one, why did he not choose a
people that mingled with others? Why did he give the message to
those who had no commerce, who were obscure and unknown, and who
regarded other nations with the hatred born of bigotry and
weakness? What would we now think of a God who made his will known
to the South Sea Islanders for the benefit of the civilized world?
If it was of such vast importance for man to know that there is a
God, why did not God make himself known? This fact could have been
revealed by an infinite being instantly to all, and there certainly
was no necessity of telling it alone to the Jews, and allowing
millions for thousands of years to die in utter ignorance.
Twenty-first The Chinese, Japanese, Hindus, Tartars, Africans,
Eskimo, Persians, Turks, Kurds, Arabs, Polynesians, and many other
peoples, are substantially ignorant of the Bible. All the Bible
societies of the world have produced only about one hundred and
twenty millions of Bibles, and there are about fourteen hundred
million people. There are hundreds of languages and tongues in
which no Bible has yet been printed. Why did God allow, and why
does he still allow, a vast majority of his children to remain in
ignorance of his will?
Twenty-second. If the Bible is the foundation of all
civilization, of all just ideas of right and wrong, of our duties
to God and each other, why did God not give to each nation at least
one copy to start with? He must have known that no nation could get
along successfully without a Bible, and he also knew that man could
not make one for himself. Why, then, were not the books furnished?
He must have known that the light of nature was not sufficient to
reveal the scheme of the atonement, the necessity of baptism, the
immaculate conception, transubstantiation, the arithmetic of the
Trinity, or the resurrection of the dead.
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A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING
THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE.
Twenty-third. It is probably safe to say that not one-third of
the inhabitants of this world ever heard of the Bible, and not one-
tenth ever read it. It is also safe to say that no two persons who
ever read it agreed as to its meaning, and it is not likely that
even one person has ever understood it. Nothing is more needed at
the present time than an inspired translator. Then we shall need an
inspired commentator, and the translation and the commentary should
be written in an inspired universal language, incapable of change,
and then the whole world should be inspired to understand this
language precisely the same. Until these things are accomplished,
all written revelations from God will fill the world with
contending sects, contradictory creeds and opinions.
Twenty-fourth. All persons who know anything of constitutions
and laws know how impossible it is to use words that will convey
the same ideas to all. The best statesmen, the profoundest lawyers,
differ as widely about the real meaning of treaties and statutes as
do theologians about the Bible. When the differences of lawyers are
left to courts, and the courts give written decisions, the lawyers
will again differ as to the real meaning of the opinions. Probably
no two lawyers in the United States understand our Constitution
alike. To allow a few men to tell what the Constitution means, and
to hang for treason all who refuse to accept the opinions of these
few men, would accomplish in politics what most churches have asked
for in religion.
Twenty-fifth. Is it very wicked to deny that the universe was
created of nothing by an infinite being who existed from all
eternity? The human mind is such that it cannot possibly conceive
of creation, neither can it conceive of an infinite being who dwelt
in infinite space an infinite length of time.
Twenty-sixth. The idea that the universe was made in six days,
and is but about six thousand years old, is too absurd for serious
refutation. Neither will it do to say that the six days were six
periods, because this does away with the Sabbath, and is in direct
violation of the text.
Twenty-seventh. Neither is it reasonable that this God made
man out of dust, and woman out of one of the ribs of the man; that
this pair were put in a garden; that they were deceived by a snake
that had the power of speech; that they were turned out of this
garden to prevent them from eating of the tree of life and becoming
immortal; that God himself made them clothes; that the sons of God
intermarried with the daughters of men; that to destroy all life
upon the earth a flood was sent that covered the highest mountains;
that Noah and his sons built an ark and saved some of all animals
as well as themselves; that the people tried to build a tower that
would reach to heaven; that God confounded their language, and in
this way frustrated their design.
Twenty-eighth. It is hard to believe that God talked to
Abraham as one man talks to another; that he gave him land that he
pointed out; that he agreed to give him land that he never did;
that he ordered him to murder his own son; that angels were in the
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A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING
THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE.
habit of walking about the earth eating veal dressed with butter
and milk, and making bargains about the destruction of cities.
Twenty-ninth. Certainly a man ought not to be eternally damned
for entertaining an honest doubt about a woman having been turned
into a pillar of salt, about cities being destroyed by storms of
fire and brimstone, and about people once having lived for nearly
a thousand years.
Thirtieth. Neither is it probable that God really wrestled
with Jacob and put his thigh out of joint, and that for that reason
the Jews refused "to eat the sinew that shrank," as recounted in
the thirty-second chapter of Genesis; that God in the likeness of
a flame inhabited a bush; that he amused himself by changing the
rod of Moses into a serpent, and making his hand leprous as snow.
Thirty-first. One can scarcely be blamed for hesitating to
believe that God met Moses at a hotel and tried to kill him; [Ex.
iv, 24.] that afterward he made this same Moses a god to Pharaoh,
and gave him his brother Aaron for a prophet; [Ex. vii, 1.] that he
turned all the ponds and pools and streams and all the rivers into
blood, [Ex. viii, 19.] and all the water in vessels of wood and
stone; that the rivers thereupon brought forth frogs; [Ex. viii, 3
that the frogs covered the whole land of Egypt; that he changed
dust into lice, so that all the men, women, children, and animals
were covered with them; [Ex. viii, 16, 17.] that he sent swarms of
flies upon the Egyptians; [Ex. viii, 21.] that he destroyed the
innocent cattle with painful diseases; that he covered man and
beast with blains and boils; [Ex. ix, 9.] that he so covered the
magicians of Egypt with boils that they could not stand before
Moses for the purpose of performing the same feat; [Ex. xii, 11.]
that he destroyed every beast and every man that was in the fields,
and every herb, and broke every tree with storm of hail and fire;
[Ex. ix, 25.] that he sent locusts that devoured every herb that
escaped the hail, and devoured every tree that grew; [Ex. x, 15.]
that he caused thick darkness over the land and put lights in the
houses of the Jews; [Ex. x, 22, 23.] that he destroyed all of the
firstborn of Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh upon the throne
to the firstborn of the maidservant that sat behind the mill, [Ex.
xi, 5.] together with the firstborn of all beasts, so that there
was not a house in which the dead were not. [Ex. xii, 29.]
Thirty-second. It is very hard to believe that three millions
of people left a country and marched twenty or thirty miles all in
one day. To notify so many people would require a long time, and
then the sick, the halt, and the old would be apt to impede the
march. It seems impossible that such a vast number -- six hundred
thousand men, besides women and children -- could have been cared
for, could have been fed and clothed, and the sick nursed,
especially when we take into consideration that "they were thrust
out of Egypt, and could not tarry, neither had they prepared for
themselves any victual." [Ex. xii, 37-39.]
Thirty-third. It seems cruel to punish a man forever for
denying that God went before the Jews by day "in a pillar of a
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A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING
THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE.
cloud to lead them the way, and by night in a pillar of fire to
give them light to go by day and night," or for denying that
Pharaoh pursued the Jews with six hundred chosen chariots, and all
the chariots of Egypt, and that the six hundred thousand men of war
of the Jews were sore afraid when they saw the pursuing hosts. It
does seems strange that after all the water in a country had been
turned to blood -- after it had been overrun with frogs and
devoured with flies; after all the cattle had died with the
murrain, and the rest had been killed by the fire and hail and the
remainder had suffered with boils, and the firstborn of all that
were left had died; that after locusts had devoured every herb and
eaten up every tree of the field, and the firstborn had died, from
the firstborn of the king on the throne to the firstborn of the
captive in the dungeon; that after three millions of people had
left, carrying with them the jewels of silver and gold and the
raiment of their oppressors, the Egyptians still had enough
soldiers and chariots and horses left to pursue and destroy an army
of six hundred thousand men, if God had not interfered.
Thirty-fourth. It certainly ought to satisfy God to torment a
man for four or five thousand years for insisting that it is but a
small thing for an infinite being to vanquish an Egyptian army;
that it was rather a small business to trouble people with frogs,
flies, and vermin; that it looked almost malicious to cover people
with boils and afflict cattle with disease; that a real good God
would not torture innocent beasts on account of something the
owners had done; that it was absurd to do miracles before a king to
induce him to act in a certain way, and then harden his heart so
that he would refuse; and that to kill all the firstborn of a
nation was the act of a heartless fiend.
Thirty-fifth. Certainly one ought to be permitted to doubt
that twelve wells of water were sufficient for three millions of
people, together with their flocks and herds [Ex. xv, 27.] and to
inquire a little into the nature of manna that cooked by baking and
seething and yet would melt in sun, [Ex. xvi, 23, 21.] and that
would swell or shrink so as to make an exact omer, no matter how
much or how little there really was. [Ex. xix, 12.] Certainly it is
not a crime to say that water cannot be manufactured by striking a
rock with a stick, and that the fate of battle cannot be decided by
lifting one hand up or letting it fall. [Ex. xvii, 11, 12.] Must we
admit that God really did come down upon Mount Sinai in the sight
of all the people; that he commanded that all who should go up into
the Mount or touch the border of it should be put to death, and
that even the beasts that came near it should be killed? [Ex. xix,
12, 13.] Is it wrong to laugh at this? Is it Sinful to say that God
never spoke from the top of a mountain covered with clouds these
words to Moses, "Go down, charge the people, lest they break
through unto the Lord to gaze, and many of them perish; and let the
priests also, which come near to Lord, sanctify themselves, lest
the Lord break forth upon them"? [Ex. xix, 21, 22.] Can it be that
an infinite intelligence takes delight in scaring savages, and that
he is happy only when somebody trembles? Is it reasonable to
suppose that God surrounded himself with thunderings and lightnings
and thick darkness to tell the priests that they should not make
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A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING
THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE.
altars of hewn stones, nor with stairs? [Ex. xix, 25, 26.] And that
this God at the same time he gave the Ten Commandments ordered the
Jews to break the most of them? According to the Bible these
infamous words came from the mouth of God while he was wrapped and
clothed in darkness and clouds upon the Mount of Sinai:
If thou buy an Hebrew servant six years he shall serve:
and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If he
came in by himself he shall go out by himself; if he were
married, then his wife shall go out with him. If his master
have given him a wife, and she have borne him sons or
daughters, the wife and her children shall be her master's,
and he shall go out by himself. And if the servant shall
plainly say, I love my master, my wife, and my children; I
will not go out free: then his master shall bring him unto the
judges; he shall also bring him to the door or unto the
doorpost; and his master shall bore his ear through with an
awl; and he shall serve him forever. [Ex. xxi, 2-6.] And if a
man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die
under his hand, he shall be surely punished. Notwithstanding,
if he continue a day or two, he shall not be punished; for he
is his money." [Ex. xxi, 20, 21.]
Do you really think that a man will be eternally damned for
endeavoring to wipe from the record of God those barbaric words?
Thirty-sixth. Is it because of total depravity that some
people refuse to believe that God went into partnership with
insects and granted letters of marque and reprisal to hornets; [Ex.
xxiii, 28.] that he wasted forty days and nights furnishing Moses
with plans and specifications for a tabernacle, an ark, a mercy
seat and two cherubs of gold, a table, four rings, some dishes and
spoons, one candlestick, three bowls, seven lamps, a pair of tongs,
some snuff dishes (for all of which God had patterns), ten curtains
with fifty loops, a roof for the tabernacle of rams' skins dyed
red, a lot of boards, an altar with horns, ash pans, basins, and
flesh hooks, and fillets of silver and pins of brass; that he told
Moses to speak unto all the wise-hearted that he had filled with
wisdom, that they might make a suit of clothes for Aaron, and that
God actually gave directions that an ephod "shall have the two
shoulder-pieces thereof joined at the two edges thereof," and gave
all the orders concerning mitres, girdles, and onyx stones, ouches,
emeralds, breastplates, chains, rings, Urim and Thummim, and the
hole in the top of the ephod like the hole of a habergeon? [Ex.
xxvii and xxviii.]
Thirty-seventh. Is there a Christian missionary who could help
laughing if in any heathen country he had seen the following
command of God carried out? "And thou shalt take the other ram; and
Aaron and his sons shall put their hands upon the head of the ram.
Then shalt thou kill the ram and take of his blood and put it upon
the tip of the right ear of Aaron, and upon the tip of the right
ear of his sons, and upon the thumb of their right hand, and upon
the great toe of their right foot. [Ex. xxix, 19, 20.] Does one
have to be born again to appreciate the beauty and solemnity of
such a performance? Is not the faith of the most zealous Christian
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A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING
THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE.
somewhat shaken while reading the recipes for cooking mutton, veal,
beef, birds, and unleavened dough, found in the cook book that God
made for Aaron and his sons?
Thirty-eighth. Is it to be wondered at that some people have
doubted the statement that God told Moses how to make some
ointment, hair oil, and perfume, and then made it a crime
punishable with death to make any like them ? Think of a God
killing a man for imitating his ointment! [Ex. xxx, 23.] Think of
a God saying that be made heaven and earth in six days and rested
on the seventh day and was refreshed! [Ex. xxxi, 17.] Think of this
God threatening to destroy the Jews, and being turned from his
purpose because Moses told him that the Egyptians might mock him!
[Ex. xxxii, 11, 12.]
Thirty-ninth. What must we think of a man impudent enough to
break in pieces tables of stone upon which God had written with his
finger? What must we think of the goodness of a man that would
issue the following order: "Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Put
every man his sword by his side, and go in and out from gate to
gate throughout the camp, and slay every man his brother, and every
man his companion, and every man his neighbor. Consecrate
yourselves to-day to the Lord, even every man upon his son, and
upon his brother; that he may bestow upon you a blessing this day"?
[Ex. xxxii, 27-29.] Is it true that the God of the Bible demanded
human sacrifice? Did it please him for man to kill his neighbor,
for brother to murder his brother, and for the father to butcher
his son? If there is a God let him cause it to be written in the
book of his memory, opposite my name, that I refuted this slander
and denied this lie.
Fortieth. Can it be true that God was afraid to trust himself
with the Jews for fear he would consume them? Can it be that in
order to keep from devouring them he kept away and sent one of his
angels in his place? [Ex. xxxiii, 2, 3.] Can it be that this same
God talked to Moses "face to face, as a man speaketh unto his
friend," when it is declared in the same chapter, by God himself,
"Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and
live"? [Ex. xxxiii, 11, 20.]
Forty-first. Why should a man, because he has done a bad
action, go and kill a sheep? How can man make friends with God by
cutting the throats of bullocks and goats? Why should God delight
in the shedding of blood? Why should he want his altar sprinkled
with blood, and the horns of his altar tipped with blood, and his
priests covered with blood? Why should burning flesh be a sweet
savor in the nostrils of God? Why did he compel his priests to be
butchers, cutters and stabbers? Why should the same God kill a man
for eating the fat of an ox, a sheep, or a goat?
Forty-second. Could it be a consolation to a man when dying to
think that he had always believed that God told Aaron to take two
goats and draw cuts to see which goat should be killed and which
should be a scapegoat? [Lev. xvi, 8.] And that upon the head of the
scapegoat Aaron should lay both his hands and confess over him all
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the iniquities of the children of Israel, and all their
transgressions, and put them all on the head of the goat, and send
him away by the hand of a fit man into the wilderness; and that the
goat should bear upon him all the iniquities of the people into a
land not inhabited? [Lev. xvi, 21, 22.] How could a goat carry away
a load of iniquities and transgressions? Why should he carry them
to a land uninhabited? Were these sins contagious? About how many
sins could an average goat carry? Could a man meet such a goat now
without laughing?
Forty-third. Why should God object to a man wearing a garment
made of woolen and linen? Why should he care whether a man rounded
the corners of his beard? [Lev. xix, 19, 27.] Why should God
prevent a man from offering the sacred, bread merely because he had
a flat nose, or was lame, or had five fingers on one hand, or had
a broken foot, or was a dwarf? If he objected to such people, why
did he make them?" [Lev. xxi, 18-20.]
Forty-fourth. Why should we believe that God insisted upon the
sacrifice of human beings? Is it a sin to deny this, and to deny
the inspiration of a book that teaches it? Read the twenty-eighth
and twenty-ninth verses of the last chapter of Leviticus, a book in
which there is more folly and cruelty, more stupidity and tyranny,
than in any other book in this world except some others in the same
Bible. Read the thirty-second chapter of Exodus and you will see
how by the most infamous of crimes man becomes reconciled to this
God. You will see that he demands of fathers the blood of their
sons. Read the twelfth and thirteenth verses of the third chapter
of Numbers, "And I, behold, I have taken the Levites from among the
children of Israel," etc.
How, in the desert of Sinai, did the Jews obtain curtains of
fine linen? How did these absconding slaves make cherubs of gold?
Where did they get the skins of badgers, and how did they dye them
red? How did they make wreathed chains and spoons, basins and
tongs? Where did they get the blue cloth and their purple? Where
did they get the sockets of brass? How did they coin the shekel of
the sanctuary? How did they overlay boards with gold? Where did
they get the numberless instruments and tools necessary to
accomplish all these things? Where did they get the fine flour and
the oil? Were all these found in the desert of Sinai? Is it a sin
to ask these questions? Are all these doubts born of a malignant
and depraved heart? Why should God in this desert prohibit priests
from drinking wine, and from eating moist grapes? How could these
priests get wine?
Do not these passages show that these laws were made long
after the Jews had left the desert, and that they were not given
from Sinai? Can you imagine a God silly enough to tell a horde of
wandering savages upon a desert that they must not eat any fruit of
the trees they planted until the fourth year?
Forty-fifth. Ought a man to be despised and persecuted for
denying that God ordered the priests to make women drink dirt and
water to test their virtue? [Num. v, 12-31.] Or for denying that
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over the tabernacle there was a cloud during the day and fire by
night, and that the cloud lifted up when God wished the Jews to
travel, And that until it was lifted they remained in their tents?
[Num. ix, 16-18.] Can it be possible that the "ark of the covenant
"traveled on its own account," and that "when the ark set forward"
the people followed, as is related in the tenth chapter of the holy
book of Numbers?
Forty-sixth. Was it reasonable for God to give the Jews manna,
and nothing else, year after year? He had infinite power, and could
just as easily have given them something good, in reasonable
variety, as to have fed them on manna until they loathed the sight
of it, and longingly remembered the fish, cucumbers, melons, leeks,
onions, and garlic of Egypt. And yet when the poor people
complained of the diet and asked for a little meat, this loving and
merciful God became enraged, sent them millions of quails in his
wrath, and while they were eating, while the flesh was yet between
their teeth, before it was chewed, this amiable God smote the
people with a plague and killed all those that lusted after meat.
In a few days after, he made up his mind to kill the rest, but was
dissuaded when Moses told him that the Canaanites would laugh at
him. [Num. xiv, 15, 16.] No wonder the poor Jews wished they were
back in Egypt. No wonder they had rather be the slaves of Pharaoh
than the chosen people of God, No wonder they preferred the wrath
of Egypt to the love of heaven. In my judgment, the Jews would have
fared far better if Jehovah had let them alone, or had he even
taken the side of the Egyptians.
When the poor Jews were told by their spies that the
Canaanites were giants, they, seized with fear, said, "Let us go
back to Egypt." For this, their God doomed all except Joshua and
Caleb to a wandering death. Hear the words of this most merciful
God: "But as for you, your carcasses they shall fall in this
wilderness, and your children shall wander in the wilderness forty
years and bear your" sins "until your carcasses be wasted in the
wilderness." [Num. xiv, 32-33.] And yet this same God promised to
give unto all these people a land flowing with milk and honey.
Forty-seventh. And while the children of Israel were in the
wilderness they found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath
day.
"And they that found him gathering sticks brought him unto
Moses and Aaron, and unto all the congregation.
"And they put him in ward, because it was not declared what
should be done to him.
"And the Lord said unto Moses, The man shall be surely put to
death; all the congregation shall stone him with stones without the
camp.
"And all the congregation brought him without the camp, and
stoned him with stones, and he died." [Num. xv, 32-36.] When the
last stone was thrown, and he that was a man was but a mangled,
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A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING
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bruised, and broken mass, this God turned, and, touched with pity,
said: "Speak unto the children of Israel, and bid them that they
make them fringes in the borders of their garments throughout their
generations, and that they put upon the fringe of the borders a
riband of blue." [Num. xv, 38.]
In the next chapter, this Jehovah, whose loving kindness is
over all his works, because Korah, Dathan, and Abiram objected to
being starved to death in the wilderness, made the earth open and
swallow not only them, but their wives and their little ones. Not
yet satisfied, he sent a plague and killed fourteen thousand seven
hundred more. There never was in the history of the world such a
cruel, revengeful, bloody, jealous, fickle, unreasonable, and
fiendish ruler, emperor, or king as Jehovah. No wonder the children
of Israel cried out, "Behold we die, we perish, we all perish."
Forty-eighth. I cannot believe that a dry stick budded,
blossomed, and bore almonds; that the ashes of a red heifer are a
purification for sin; [Num. xix, 2-10.] that God gave the cities
into the hands of the Jews because they solemnly agreed to murder
all the inhabitants; that God became enraged and induced snakes to
bite his chosen people; that God told Balaam to go with the
Princess of Moab, and then got angry because he did go; that an
animal ever saw an angel and conversed with a man. I cannot believe
that thrusting a spear through the body of a woman ever stayed a
plague; [Num. xxv, 8.] that any good man ever ordered his soldiers
to slay the men and keep the maidens alive for themselves; that God
commanded men not to show mercy to each other; that he induced men
to obey his commandments by promising them that he would assist
them in murdering the wives and children of their neighbors; or
that he ever commanded a man to kill his wife because she differed
with him about religion; [Deut. xiii, 6-10.] or that God was
mistaken about hares chewing the cud; [Deut. xiv, 7.] or that he
objected to the people raising horses; [Deut. xvii, 16.] or that
God wanted a camp kept clean because he walked through it at night;
[Deut. xxiii, 13, 14.] or that he commanded widows to spit in the
faces of their brothers-in-law; [Deut. xxv, 9.] or that he ever
threatened to give anybody the itch; [Deut. xxviii, 27.] or that he
ever secretly buried a man and allowed the corpse to write an
account of the funeral.
Forty-ninth. Does it necessarily follow that a man wishes to
commit some crime if he refuses to admit that the river Jordan cut
itself in two and allowed the lower end to run away? [Josh. iii,
16.] Or that seven priests could blow seven ram's horns loud enough
to throw down the walls of a city; [Josh. vi, 20.] or that God,
after Achan had confessed that he had secreted a garment and a
wedge of gold, became good natured as soon as Achan and his sons
and daughters had been stoned to death and their bodies burned?
[Josh. vii, 24, 25.] Is it not a virtue to abhor such a God?
Must we believe that God sanctioned and commanded all the
cruelties and horrors described in the Old Testament; that he waged
the most relentless and heartless wars; that he declared mercy a
crime; that to spare life was to excite his wrath; that he smiled
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A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING
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when maidens were violated, laughed when mothers were ripped open
with a sword, and shouted with joy when babes were butchered in
their mothers' arms? Read the infamous book of Joshua, and then
worship the God who inspired it if you can.
Fiftieth. Can any sane man believe that the sun stood still in
the midst of heaven and hasted not to go down about a whole day,
and that the moon stayed? [Josh. x, 13.] That these miracles were
performed in the interest of massacre and bloodshed; that the Jews
destroyed men, women, and children by the million, and practiced
every cruelty that the ingenuity of their God could suggest? Is it
possible that these things really happened? Is it possible that God
commanded them to be done? Again I ask you to read the book of
Joshua. After reading all its horrors you will feel a grim
satisfaction in the dying words of Joshua to the children of
Israel: "Know for a certainty that the Lord your God will no more
drive out any of these nations from before you; but they shall be
snares and traps unto you, and scourges in your sides, and thorns
in your eyes, until ye perish from off this good land." [Josh.
xiii, 13.]
Think of a God who boasted that he gave the Jews a land for
which they did not labor, cities which they did not build, and
allowed them to eat of olive-yards and vineyards which they did not
plant. [Josh. xxiv, 13.] Think of a God who murders some of his
children for the benefit of the rest, and then kills the rest
because they are not thankful enough. Think of a God who had the
power to stop the sun and moon, but could not defeat an army that
had iron chariots. [Judges 1, 19.]
Fifty-first. Can we blame the Hebrews for getting tired of
their God? Never was a people so murdered, starved, stoned, burned,
deceived, humiliated, robbed, and outraged. Never was there so
little liberty among men. Never did the meanest king so meddle,
eavesdrop, spy out, harass, torment, and persecute his people.
Never was ruler so jealous, unreasonable, contemptible, exacting,
and ignorant as this God of the Jews. Never was such ceremony, such
mummery, such staff about bullocks, goats, doves, red heifers,
lambs, and unleavened dough -- never was such directions about
kidneys and blood, ashes and fat, about curtains, tongs, fringes,
ribands, and, brass pins -- never such details for killing of
animals and men and the sprinkling of blood and the cutting of
clothes. Never were such unjust laws, such punishments, such damned
ignorance and infamy!
Fifty-second. Is it not wonderful that the creator of all
worlds, infinite in power and wisdom, could not hold his own
against the gods of wood and stone? Is it not strange that after he
had appeared to his chosen people, delivered them from slavery, fed
them by miracles, opened the sea for a path, led them by cloud and
fire, and overthrown their pursuers, they still preferred a calf of
their own making? Is it not beyond belief that this God, by
statutes and commandments, by punishments and penalties, by rewards
and promises, by wonders and plagues, by earthquakes and
pestilence, could not in the least civilize the Jews -- could not
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A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING
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get them beyond a point where they deserved killing? What shall we
think of a God who gave his entire time for forty years to the work
of converting three millions of people, and succeeded in getting
only two men, and not a single woman, decent enough to enter the
promised land? Was there ever in the history of man so detestable
an administration of public affairs? Is it possible that God sold
his children to the king of Mesopotamia; that he sold them to
Jabin, king of Canaan, to the Philistines, and to the children of
Ammon? Is it possible that an angel of the Lord devoured unleavened
cakes and broth with fire that came out of the end of a stick as he
sat under an oak-tree? Judges vi, 21.] Can it be true that God made
known his will by making dew fall on wool without wetting the
ground around it? [Judges vi, 37.] Do you really believe that men
who lap water like a dog make the best soldiers? [Judges vii, 5.]
Do you think that a man could hold a lamp in his left hand, a
trumpet in his right hand, blow his trumpet, shout "the sword of
the Lord and of Gideon," and break pitchers at the same time?
[Judges vii, 5.]
Fifty-third. Read the story of Jephthah and his daughter, and
then tell me what you think of a father who would sacrifice his
daughter to God, and what you think of a God who would receive such
a sacrifice. This one story should be enough to make every tender
and loving father hold this book in utter abhorrence. Is it
necessary, in order to be saved, that one must believe that an
angel of God appeared unto Manoah in the absence of her husband;
that this angel afterward went up in a flame of fire; that as a
result of this visit a child was born whose strength was in his
hair? a child that made beehives of lions, incendiaries of foxes,
and had a wife that wept seven days to get the answer to his
riddle? Will the wrath of God abide forever upon a man for doubting
the story that Samson killed a thousand men with a new jawbone? Is
there enough in the Bible to save a soul with this story left out?
Is hell hungry for those who deny that water gashed from a "hollow
place" in a dry bone? Is it evidence of a new heart to believe that
one man turned over a house so large that over three thousand
people were on the roof? For my part, I cannot believe these
things, and if my salvation depends upon my credulity I am as good
as damned already. I cannot believe that the Philistines took back
the ark with a present of five gold mice, and that thereupon God
relented. [1 Sam. vi, 4.] I cannot believe that God killed fifty
thousand men for looking into a box. [1 Sam. vi, 19.] It seems
incredible, after all the Jews had done, after all their wars and
victories, even when Saul was king, that there was not among them
one smith who could make a sword or spear, and that they were
compelled to go to the Philistines to sharpen every plowshare,
coulter, and mattock. [1 Sam.xiii, 19, 20.] Can you believe that
God said to Saul, "Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all
that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman,
infant and suckling"? Can you believe that because Saul took the
king alive after killing every other man, woman, and child, the
ogre called Jehovah was displeased and made up his mind to hurl
Saul from the throne and give his place to another? [1 Sam. xv.] I
cannot believe that the Philistines all ran away because one of
their number was killed with a stone. I cannot justify the conduct
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A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING
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of Abigail, the wife of Nabal, who took presents to David. David
hardly did right when he said to this woman, "I have hearkened to
thy voice, and have accepted thy person." It could hardly have been
chance that made Nabal so deathly sick next morning and killed him
in ten days. All this looks wrong, especially as David married his
widow before poor Nabal was fairly cold."
Fifty-fourth. Notwithstanding all I have heard of Katie King,
I cannot believe that a witch at Endor materialized the ghost of
Samuel and caused it to appear with a cloak on. [1 Sam. xxviii.] I
cannot believe that God tempted David to take the census, and then
gave him his choice of three punishments: First, Seven years of
famine; Second, Flying three months before their enemies; Third, A
pestilence of three days; that David chose the pestilence, and that
God destroyed seventy thousand men. [2 Sam. xxiv.] Why should God
kill the people for what David did? Is it a sin to be counted? Can
anything more brutally hellish be conceived? Why should man waste
prayers upon such a God?
Fifty-fifth. Must we admit that Elijah was fed by ravens; that
they brought him bread and flesh every morning and evening? Must we
believe that this same prophet could create meal and oil, and
induce a departed soul to come back and take up its residence once
more in the body? That he could get rain by praying for it; that he
could cause fire to burn up a sacrifice and altar, together with
twelve barrels of water? [1 Kings xviii.] Can we believe that an
angel of the Lord turned cook and prepared two suppers in one night
for Elijah, and that the prophet ate enough to last him forty days
and forty nights? [1 kings xix.] Is it true that when a captain
with fifty men went after Elijah, this prophet caused fire to come
down from heaven and consume them all? Should God allow such
wretches to manage his fire? Is it true that Elijah consumed
another captain with fifty men in the same way? [2 kings i.] Is it
a fact that a river divided because the water was struck with a
cloak? Did a man actually go to heaven in a chariot of fire drawn
by horses of fire, or was he carried to Paradise by a whirlwind?
Must we believe, in order to be good and tender fathers and
mothers, that because some "little children" mocked at an old man
with a bald head, God -- the same God who said, "Suffer little
children to come unto me" -- sent two she-bears out of the wood and
tare forty-two of these babes? Think of the mothers that watched
and waited for their children. Think of the wailing when these
mangled ones were found, when they were brought back and pressed to
the breasts of weeping women. What an amiable gentleman Mr. Elisha
must have been. [2 Kings ii.]
Fifty-sixth. It is hard to believe that a prophet by lying on
a dead body could make it sneeze seven times; [2 Kings iv.] or that
being dipped seven times in the Jordan could cure the leprosy. [2
Kings v.] Would a merciful God curse children; and children's
children yet unborn, with leprosy for a father's fault? [2 Kings v.
27.] Is it possible to make iron float in water? [2 Kings vi, 6.]
Is it reasonable to say that when a corpse touched another corpse
it came to life? [2 Kings xiii, 21.] Is it a sign that a man wants
to commit a crime because he refuses to believe that a king had a
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boil and that God caused the sun to go backward in heaven so that
the shadow on a sun-dial went back ten degrees as a sign that the
aforesaid would get well? [2 Kings xx, 1-2.] Is it true that this
globe turned backward, that its motion was reversed as a sign to a
Jewish king? If it did not, this story is false, and that part of
the Bible is not true even if it is inspired.
Fifty-seventh. How did the Bible get lost? [2 Kings xxii, 8.]
Where was the precious Pentateuch from Moses to Josiah? How was it
possible for the Jews to get along without the directions as to fat
and caul and kidney contained in Leviticus? Without that sacred
book in his possession a priest might take up ashes and carry them
out without changing his pantaloons. Such mistakes kindled the
wrath of God.
As soon as the Pentateuch was found Josiah began killing
wizards and such as had familiar spirits.
Fifty-eighth, I cannot believe that God talked to Solomon,
that he visited him in the night and asked him what he should give
him; I cannot believe that he told ban, "I will give thee riches
and wealth and honor, such as none of the kings have had before
thee, neither shall there any after thee have the like." [2 Kings
i, 7, 12.] If Jehovah said this he was mistaken. It is not true
that Solomon had fourteen hundred chariots of war in a country
without roads. It is not true that he made gold and silver at
Jerusalem as plenteous as stones. There were several kings in his
day, and thousands since, that could have thrown away the value of
Palestine without missing the amount. The Holy Land was and is a
wretched country. There are no monuments, no ruins attesting former
wealth and greatness. The Jews had no commerce, knew nothing of
other nations, had no luxuries, never produced a painter, a
sculptor, architect, scientist, or statesman until after the
destruction of Jerusalem. As long as Jehovah attended to their
affairs they had nothing but civil war, plague, pestilence, and
famine. After he abandoned, and the Christians ceased to persecute
them, they became the most prosperous of people. Since Jehovah, in
anger and disgust, cast them away they have produced painters,
sculptors, scientists, statesmen, composers, and philosophers.
Fifty-ninth. I cannot admit that Hiram, the King of Tyre,
wrote a letter to Solomon in which he admitted that the "God of
Israel made heaven and earth." [2 Chron. ii, 12.] This King was not
a Jew. It seems incredible that Solomon had eighty thousand men
hewing timber for the temple, with seventy thousand bearers of
burdens, and thirty-six hundred over-seers." [2 Chron. ii, 18.]
Sixtieth. I cannot believe that God shuts up heaven and
prevents rain, or that he sends locusts to devour a land, or
pestilence to destroy the people. [2 Chron. vii, 13.] I cannot
believe that God told Solomon that his eyes and heart should
perpetually be in the house that Solomon had built. [2 Chron. vii,
16.]
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Sixty-first. I cannot believe that Solomon passed all the
kings of the earth in riches; that all the kings of the earth
sought his presence and brought presents of silver and gold,
raiment, harness, spices, and mules -- a rate year by year. [2
Chron. ix, 22-24.] Is it possible that Shishak, a King of Egypt,
invaded Palestine with seventy thousand horsemen and twelve hundred
chariots of war? [2 Chron. xii, 2, 3.] I cannot believe that in a
battle between Jeroboam and Abijah, the army of Abijah actually
slew in one day five hundred thousand chosen men. [2 Chron. xiv,
17.] Does anyone believe that Zerah, the Ethiopian, invaded
Palestine with a million men? [2 Chron. xiv, 9.] I cannot believe
that Jehoshaphat had a standing army of nine hundred and sixty
thousand men. [2 Chron. xvii, 14-19.] I cannot believe that God
advertised for a liar to act as his messenger. [2 Chron. xviii, 19-
22.] I cannot believe that King Amaziah did right in the sight of
the Lord, and that he broke in pieces ten thousand men by casting
them from a precipice. [2 Chron. xxv, 12.] I cannot think that God
smote a king with leprosy because he tried to burn incense. [2
Chron. xxvi, 19.] I cannot think that Pekah slew one hundred and
twenty thousand men in one day. [2 Chron. xxviii, 6.]
NOTE: This article was printed from manuscript notes found among
Colonel Ingersoll's papers, evidently written in the early 1880's.
While much of the argument and criticism will be found embodied in
his various lectures, magazine articles and contributions to the
press. it was thought to be too valuable In its present form to be
left out of a complete edition of his writings.
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