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Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
The Works of ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
1895
I
THE OLD TESTAMENT.
One of the foundation stones of our faith is the Old
Testament. If that book is not true, if its authors were unaided
men, if it contains blunders and falsehoods, then that stone
crumbles to dust.
The geologists demonstrated that the author of Genesis was
mistaken as to the age of the world, and that the story of the
universe having been created in six days, about six thousand years
ago could not be true.
The theologians then took the ground that the "days" spoken of
in Genesis were periods of time, epochs, six "long whiles," and
that the work of creation might have been commenced millions of
years ago.
The change of days into epochs was considered by the believers
of the Bible as a great triumph over the hosts of infidelity. The
fact that Jehovah had ordered the Jews to keep the Sabbath, giving
as a reason that he had made the world in six days and rested on
the seventh, did not interfere with the acceptance of the "epoch"
theory.
But there is still another question. How long has man been
upon the earth?
According to the Bible, Adam was certainly the first man, and
in his case the epoch theory cannot change the account. The Bible
gives the age at which Adam died, and gives the generations to the
flood -- then to Abraham and so on, and shows that from the
creation of Adam to the birth of Christ it was about four thousand
and four years.
According to the sacred Scriptures man has been on this earth
five thousand eight hundred and ninety-nine years and no more.
Is this true?
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
Geologists have divided a few years of the world's history
into periods, reaching from the azoic rocks to the soil of our
time. With most of these periods they associate certain forms of
life, so that it is known that the lowest forms of life belonged
with the earliest periods, and the higher with the more recent. It
is also known that certain forms of life existed in Europe many
ages ago, and that many thousands of years ago these forms
disappeared.
For instance, it is well established that at one time there
lived in Europe, and in the British Islands some of the most
gigantic mammals, the mammoth, the woolly-haired rhinoceros, the
Irish elk, elephants and other forms that have in those countries
become extinct. Geologists say that many thousands of years have
passed since these animals ceased to inhabit those countries.
It was during the Drift Period that these forms of life
existed in Europe and England, and that must have been hundreds of
thousands of years ago.
In caves, once inhabited by men, have been found implements of
flint and the bones of these extinct animals. With the flint tools
man had split the bones of these beasts that he might secure the
marrow for food.
Many such caves and hundreds of such tools, and of such bones
have been found. And we now know that in the Drift Period man was
the companion of these extinct monsters.
It is therefore certain that many, many thousands of years
before Adam lived, men, women and children inhabited the earth.
It is certain that the account in the Bible of the creation of
the first man is a mistake. It is certain that the inspired writers
knew nothing about the origin of man.
Let me give you another fact:
The Egyptians were astronomers. A few years ago
representations of the stars were found on the walls of an old
temple, and it was discovered by calculating backward that the
stars did occupy the exact positions as represented about seven
hundred and fifty years before Christ. Afterward another
representation of the stars was found, and by calculating in the
same way, it was found that the stars did occupy the exact
positions represented about three thousand eight hundred years
before Christ.
According to the Bible the first man was created four thousand
and four years before Christ. If this is true then Egypt was
founded, its language formed, its arts cultivated, its astronomical
discoveries made and recorded about two hundred years after the
creation of the first man.
In other words, Adam was two or three hundred years old when
the Egyptian astronomers made these representations.
Nothing can be more absurd.
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
Again I say that the writers of the Bible were mistaken.
How do I know?
According to that same Bible there was a flood some fifteen or
sixteen hundred years after Adam was created that destroyed the
entire human race with the exception of eight persons, and
according to the Bible the Egyptians descended from one of the sons
of Noah. How then did the Egyptians represent the stars in the
position they occupied twelve hundred years before the flood?
No one pretends that Egypt existed as a nation before the
flood. Yet the astronomical representations found, must have been
made more than a thousand years before the world was drowned.
There is another mistake in the Bible.
According to that book the sun was made after the earth was
created.
Is this true?
Did the earth exist before the sun?
The men of science are believers in the exact opposite. They
believe that the earth is a child of the sun -- that the earth, as
well as the other planets belonging to our constellation, came from
the sun.
The writers of the Bible were mistaken.
There is another point:
According to the Bible, Jehovah made the world in six days,
and the work done each day is described.
What did Jehovah do on the second day?
This is the record:
"And God said: Let there be a firmament in the midst of the
waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made
the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament
from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so, and
God called the firmament heaven. And the evening and the morning
were the second day."
The writer of this believed in a solid firmament the floor of
Jehovah's house. He believed that the waters had been divided, and
that the rain came from above the firmament. He did not understand
the fact of evaporation -- did not know that the rain came from the
water on the earth.
Now we know that there is no firmament, and we know that the
waters are not divided by a firmament. Consequently we know that,
according to the Bible, Jehovah did nothing on the second day. He
must have rested on Tuesday. This being so, we ought to have two
Sundays a week.
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
Can we rely on the historical parts of the Bible?
Seventy souls went down into Egypt, and in two hundred and
fifteen years increased to three millions. They could not have
doubled more than four times a century. Say nine times in two
hundred and fifteen years.
This makes thirty-five thousand eight hundred and forty,
(35,840) instead of three millions.
Can we believe the accounts of the battles?
Take one instance:
Jereboam had an army of eight hundred thousand men, Abijah of
four hundred thousand. They fought. The Lord was on Abijah's side,
and he killed five hundred thousand of Jereboam's men.
All these soldiers were Jews -- all lived in Palestine, a poor
miserable little country about one-quarter as large as the State of
New York. Yet one million two hundred thousand soldiers were put in
the field. This required a population in the country of ten or
twelve millions. Of course this is absurd. Palestine in its
palmiest days could not have supported two millions of people.
The soil is poor.
If the Bible is inspired, is it true?
We are told by this inspired book of the gold and silver
collected by King David for the temple -- the temple afterward
completed by the virtuous Solomon.
According to the blessed Bible, David collected about two
thousand million dollars in silver, and five thousand million
dollars in gold, making a total of seven thousand million dollars.
Is this true?
There is in the bank of France at the present time (1895)
nearly six hundred million dollars, and so far as we know, it is
the greatest amount that was ever gathered together. All the gold
now known, coined and in bullion, does not amount to much more than
the sum collected by David.
Seven thousand millions. Where did David get this gold? The
Jews had no commerce. They owned no ships. They had no great
factories, they produced nothing for other countries. There were no
gold or silver mines in Palestine. Where then was this gold, this
silver found? I will tell you: In the imagination of a writer who
had more patriotism than intelligence, and who wrote, not for the
sake of truth, but for the glory of the Jews.
Is it possible that David collected nearly eight thousand tons
of gold -- that he by economy got together about sixty thousand
tons of silver, making a total of gold and silver of sixty-eight
thousand tons?
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
The average freight car carries about fifteen tons, David's
gold and silver would load about four thousand five hundred and
thirty-three cars, making a train about thirty-two miles in length.
and all this for the temple at Jerusalem, a building ninety feet
long and forty-five feet high and thirty wide, to which was
attached a porch thirty feet wide, ninety feet long and one hundred
and eighty feet high.
Probably the architect was inspired.
Is there a sensible man in the world who believes that David
collected seven thousand million dollars worth of gold or silver?
There is hardly five thousand million dollars of gold now used
as money in the whole world. Think of the millions taken from the
mines of California, Australia and Africa during the present
century and yet the total scarcely exceeds the amount collected by
King David more than a thousand years before the birth of Christ.
Evidently the inspired historian made a mistake.
It required a little imagination and a few ciphers to change
seven million dollars or seven hundred thousand dollars into seven
thousand million dollars. Drop four ciphers and the story becomes
fairly reasonable.
The Old Testament must be thrown aside. It is no longer a
foundation. It has crumbled.
II
THE NEW TESTAMENT.
But we have the New Testament, the sequel of the Old, in which
Christians find the fulfillment of prophecies made by inspired
Jews.
The New Testament vouches for the truth, the inspiration, of
the Old, and if the old is false, the New cannot be true.
In the New Testament we find all that we know about the life
and teachings of Jesus Christ.
It is claimed that the writers were divinely inspired, and
that all they wrote is true.
Let us see if these writers agree.
Certainly there should be no difference about the birth of
Christ. From the Christian's point of view, nothing could have been
of greater importance than that event.
Matthew says: "Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea,
in the days of Herod the King, behold there came wise men from the
east to Jerusalem.
"Saying, where is he that is born king of the Jews? for we
have seen his star in the east and are come to worship him."
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
Matthew does not tell us who these wise men were, from what
country they came, to what race they belonged. He did not even know
their names.
We are also informed that when Herod heard these things he was
troubled and all Jerusalem with him; that he gathered the chief
priests and asked of them where Christ should be born and they told
him that he was to be born in Bethlehem.
Then Herod called the wise men and asked them when the star
appeared, and told them to go to Bethlehem and report to him.
When they left Herod, the star again appeared and went before
them until it stood over the place where the child was.
When they came to the child they worshiped him, -- gave him
gifts, and being warned by God in a dream, they went back to their
own country without calling on Herod.
Then the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and
told him to take Mary and the child into Egypt for fear of Herod.
So Joseph took Mary and the child to Egypt and remained there
until the death of Herod.
Then Herod, finding that he was mocked by the wise men, "sent
forth and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem and in all
the coasts thereof from two years old and under."
After the death of Herod an angel again appeared in a dream to
Joseph and told him to take mother and child and go back to
Palestine.
So he went back and dwelt in Nazareth.
Is this story true? Must we believe in the star and the wise
men? Who were these wise men? From what country did they come? What
interest had they in the birth of the King of the Jews? What became
of them and their star?
Of course I know that the Holy Catholic Church has in her
keeping the three skulls that belonged to these wise men, but I do
not know where the church obtained these relics, nor exactly how
their genuineness has been established.
Must we believe that Herod murdered the babes of Bethlehem?
Is it not wonderful that the enemies of Herod did not charge
him with this horror? Is it not marvelous that Mark and Luke and
John forgot to mention this most heartless of massacres?
Luke also gives an account of the birth of Christ. He says
that there went out a decree from Caesar Augustus that all the
world should be taxed; that this was when Cyrenius was governor of
Syria; that in accordance with this decree, Joseph and Mary went to
Bethlehem to be taxed; that at that place Christ was born and laid
in a manger. He also says that shepherds, in the neighborhood, were
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
told of the birth by an angel, with whom was a multitude of the
heavenly host; that these shepherds visited Mary and the child, and
told others what they had seen and heard.
He tells us that after eight days the child was named, Jesus;
that forty days after his birth he was taken by Joseph and Mary to
Jerusalem, and that after they had performed all things according
to the law they returned to Nazareth. Luke also says that the child
grew and waxed strong in spirit, and that his parents went every
year to Jerusalem.
Do the accounts in Matthew and Luke agree? Can both accounts
be true?
Luke never heard of the star, and Matthew knew nothing of the
heavenly host. Luke never heard of the wise men, nor Matthew of the
shepherds. Luke knew nothing of the hatred of Herod, the murder of
the babes or the flight into Egypt. According to Matthew, Joseph,
warned by an angel, took Mary and the child and fled into Egypt.
According to Luke they all went to Jerusalem, and from there back
to Nazareth.
Both of these accounts cannot be true. Will some Christian
scholar tell us which to believe?
When was Christ born?
Luke says that it took place when Cyrenius was governor. Here
is another mistake. Cyrenius was not appointed governor until after
the death of Herod, and the taxing could not have taken place until
ten years after the alleged birth of Christ.
According to Luke, Joseph and Mary lived in Nazareth, and for
the purpose of getting them to Bethlehem, so that the child could
be born in the right place, the taxing under Cyrenius was used, but
the writer, being "inspired" made a mistake of about ten years as
to the time of the taxing and of the birth.
Matthew says nothing about the date of the birth, except that
he was born when Herod was king. It is now known that Herod had
been dead ten years before the taxing under Cyrenius. So, if Luke
tells the truth, Joseph, being warned by an angel, fled from the
hatred of Herod ten years after Herod was dead. If Matthew and Luke
are both right Christ was taken to Egypt ten years before he was
born, and Herod killed the babes ten years after he was dead.
Will some Christian scholar have the goodness to harmonize
these "inspired" accounts?
There is another thing.
Matthew and Luke both try to show that Christ was of the blood
of David, that he was a descendant of that virtuous king.
As both of these writers were inspired and as both received
their information from God, they ought to agree.
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
According to Matthew there was between David and Jesus twenty-
seven generations, and he gives all the names.
According to Luke there were between David and Jesus forty-two
generations, and he gives all the names.
In these genealogies -- both inspired -- there is a difference
between David and Jesus, a difference of some fourteen or fifteen
generations.
Besides, the names of all the ancestors are different, with
two exceptions.
Matthew says that Joseph's father was Jacob. Luke says that
Heli was Joseph's father.
Both of these genealogies cannot he true, and the probability
is that both are false.
There is not in all the pulpits ingenuity enough to harmonize
these ignorant and stupid contradictions.
There are many curious mistakes in the words attributed to
Christ.
We are told in Matthew, chapter xxiii, verse 35, that Christ
said:
"That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the
earth from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias,
son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar."
It is certain that these words were not spoken by Christ. He
could not by any possibility have known that the blood of Zacharias
had been shed. As a matter of fact, Zacharias was killed by the
Jews, during the siege of Jerusalem by Titus, and this siege took
place seventy-one years after the birth of Christ, thirty-eight
years after he was dead.
There is still another mistake.
Zacharias was not the son of Barachias -- no such Zacharias
was killed. The Zacharias that was slain was the son of Baruch.
But we must not expect the "inspired" to be accurate.
Matthew says that at the time of the crucifixion -- "the
graves were opened and that many bodies of the saints which slept
arose and came out of their graves after his resurrection, and went
into the holy city and appeared unto many."
According to this the graves were opened at the time of the
crucifixion, but the dead did not arise and come out until after
the resurrection of Christ.
They were polite enough to sit in their open graves and wait
for Christ to rise first.
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
To whom did these saints appear? What became of them? Did they
slip back into their graves and commit suicide?
Is it not wonderful that Mark, Luke and John never heard of
these saints?
What kind of saints were they? Certainly they were not
Christian saints.
So, the inspired writers do not agree in regard to Judas.
Certainly the inspired writers ought to have known what
happened to Judas, the betrayer. Matthew being duly "inspired" says
that when Judas saw that Jesus had been condemned, he repented and
took back the money to the chief priests and elders, saying that he
had sinned in betraying the innocent blood. They said to him: "What
is that to us? See thou to that." Then Judas threw down the pieces
of silver and went and hanged himself.
The chief priests then took the pieces of silver and bought
the potter's field to bury strangers in, and it is called the field
of blood.
We are told in Acts of the apostles that Peter stood up in the
midst of the disciples and said: "Now this man, (Judas) purchased
a field with the reward of iniquity -- and falling headlong he
burst asunder and all his bowels gushed out -- that field is called
the field of blood."
Matthew says Judas repented and gave back the money.
Peter says that he bought a field with the money.
Matthew says that Judas hanged himself. Peter says that he
fell down and burst asunder. Which of these accounts is true?
Besides, it is hard to see why Christians hate, loathe and
despise Judas. According to their scheme of salvation, it was
absolutely necessary that Christ should be killed -- necessary that
he should be betrayed, and had it not been for Judas, all the
world, including Christ's mother, and the part of Christ that was
human, would have gone to hell.
Yet, according to the New Testament, Christ did not know that
one of his disciples was to betray him.
Jesus, when on his way to Jerusalem, for the last time, said,
speaking to the twelve disciples, Judas being present, that they,
the disciples should thereafter sit on twelve thrones judging the
twelve tribes of Israel.
Yet, more than a year before this journey, John says that
Christ said, speaking to the twelve disciples: "Have not I chosen
you twelve, and one of you is a devil." And John adds: "He spake of
Judas Iscariot, for it was he that should betray him."
Why did Christ a year afterward, tell Judas that he should sit
on a throne and judge one of the tribes of Israel?
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
There is still another trouble.
Paul says that Jesus after his resurrection appeared to the
twelve disciples. According to Paul, Jesus appeared to Judas with
the rest.
Certainly Paul had not heard the story of the betrayal.
Why did Christ select Judas as one of his disciples, knowing
that he would betray him? Did he desire to be betrayed? Was it his
intention to be put to death?
Why did he fail to defend himself before Pilate?
According to the accounts, Pilate wanted to save him. Did
Christ wish to be convicted?
The Christians are compelled to say that Christ intended to be
sacrificed -- that he selected Judas with that end in view, and
that he refused to defend himself because he desired to be
crucified. All this is in accordance with the horrible idea that
without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sin.
III
JEHOVAH.
God the Father.
The Jehovah of the Old Testament is the God of the Christians.
He it was who created the Universe, who made all substance,
all force, all life, from nothing. He it is who has governed and
still governs the world. He has established and destroyed empires
and kingdoms, despotisms and republics. He has enslaved and
liberated the sons of men. He has caused the sun to rise on the
good and on the evil, and his rain to fall on the just and the
unjust.
This shows his goodness.
He has caused his volcanoes to devour the good and the bad,
his cyclones to wreck and rend the generous and the cruel, his
floods to drown the loving and the hateful, his lightning to kill
the virtuous and the vicious, his famines to starve the innocent
and criminal and his plagues to destroy the wise and good, the
ignorant and wicked. He has allowed his enemies to imprison, to
torture and to kill his friends. He has permitted blasphemers to
flay his worshipers alive, to dislocate their joints upon racks,
and to burn them at the stake. He has allowed men to enslave their
brothers, and to sell babes from the breasts of mothers.
This shows his impartiality.
The pious negro who commenced his prayer: "O thou great and
unscrupulous God," was nearer right than he knew.
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
Ministers ask: Is it possible for God to forgive man?
And when I think of what has been suffered -- of the centuries
of agony and tears, I ask: Is it possible for man to forgive God?
How do Christians prove the existence of their God? Is it
possible to think of an infinite being? Does the word God
correspond with any image in the mind? Does the word God stand for
what we know or for what we do not know?
Is not this unthinkable God a guess, an inference?
Can we think of a being without form, without body, without
parts, without passions? Why should we speak of a being without
body as of the masculine gender?
Why should the Bible speak of this God as a man? -- of his
walking in the garden in the cool of the evening -- of his talking,
hearing and smelling? If he has no passions why is he spoken of as
jealous, revengeful, angry, pleased and loving?
In the Bible God is spoken of as a person in the form of man,
journeying from place to place, as having a home and occupying a
throne. These ideas have been abandoned, and now the Christian's
God is the infinite, the incomprehensible, the formless, bodiless
and passionless.
Of the existence of such a being there can be, in the nature
of things, no evidence.
Confronted with the universe, with fields of space sown thick
with stars, with all there is of life, the wise man, being asked
the origin and destiny of all, replies: "I do not know. These
questions are beyond the powers of my mind." The wise man is
thoughtful and modest. He clings to facts. Beyond his intellectual
horizon he does not pretend to see. He does not mistake hope for
evidence or desire for demonstration. He is honest. He neither
deceives himself nor others.
The theologian arrives at the unthinkable, the inconceivable,
and he calls this God. The scientist arrives at the unthinkable,
the inconceivable, and calls it the Unknown.
The theologian insists that his inconceivable governs the
world, that it, or he, or they, can be influenced by prayers and
ceremonies, that it, or he, or they, punishes and rewards, that it,
or he, or they, has priests and temples.
The scientist insist that the Unknown is not changed so far as
he knows by prayers of people or priests. He admits that he does
not know whether the Unknown is good or bad -- whether he, or it,
wants or whether he, or it, is worthy of worship. He does not say
that the Unknown is God, that it created substance and force, life
and thought. He simply says that of the Unknown he knows nothing.
Why should Christians insist that a God of infinite wisdom,
goodness and power governs the world?
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
Why did he allow millions of his children to be enslaved? Why
did he allow millions of mothers to be robbed of their babes? Why
has he allowed injustice to triumph? Why has he permitted the
innocent to be imprisoned and the good to be burned? Why has he
withheld his rain and starved millions of the children of men? Why
has he allowed the volcanoes to destroy, the earthquakes to devour,
and the tempest to wreck and rend?
IV
THE TRINITY.
The New Testament informs us that Christ was the son of Joseph
and the son of God, and that Mary was his mother.
How is it established that Christ was the son of God?
It is said that Joseph was told so in a dream by an angel.
But Joseph wrote nothing on that subject -- said nothing so
far as we know. Mary wrote nothing, said nothing. The angel that
appeared to Joseph or that informed Joseph said nothing to anybody
else. Neither has the Holy Ghost, the supposed father, ever said or
written one word. We have received no information from the parties
who could have known anything on the subject. We get all our facts
from those who could not have known.
How is it possible to prove that the Holy Ghost was the father
of Christ?
Who knows that such a being as the Holy Ghost ever existed?
How was it possible for Mary to know anything about the Holy
Ghost?
How could Joseph know that he had been visited by an angel in
a dream?
Could he know that the visitor was an angel? It all occurred
in a dream and poor Joseph was asleep. What is the testimony of one
who was asleep worth?
All the evidence we have is that somebody who wrote part of
the New Testament says that the Holy Ghost was the father of
Christ, and that somebody who wrote another part of the New
Testament says that Joseph was the father of Christ.
Matthew and Luke give the genealogy and both show that Christ
was the son of Joseph.
The "Incarnation" has to be believed without evidence. There
is no way in which it can be established. It is beyond the reach
and realm of reason. It defies observation and is independent of
experience.
It is claimed not only that Christ was the Son of God, but
that he was, and is, God.
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
Was he God before he was born? Was the body of Mary the
dwelling place of God?
What evidence have we that Christ was God?
Somebody has said that Christ claimed that God was his father
and that he and his father were one. We do not know who this
somebody was and do not know from whom he received his information.
Somebody who was "inspired" has said that Christ was of the
blood of David through his father Joseph.
This is all the evidence we have.
Can we believe that God, the creator of the Universe, learned
the trade of a carpenter in Palestine, that he gathered a few
disciples about him, and after teaching for about three years,
suffered himself to be crucified by a few ignorant and pious Jews?
Christ, according to the faith, is the second person in the
Trinity, the Father being the first and the Holy Ghost the third.
Each of these three persons is God. Christ is his own father and
his own son. The Holy Ghost is neither father nor son, but both.
The son was begotten by the father, but existed before he was
begotten -- just the same before as after. Christ is just as old as
his father, and the father is just as young as his son. The Holy
Ghost proceeded from the Father and Son, but was equal to the
Father and Son before he proceeded, that is to say, before he
existed, but he is of the same age of the other two.
So, it is declared that the Father is God, and the Son God and
the Holy Ghost God, and that these three Gods make one God.
According to the celestial multiplication table, once one is
three, and three times one is one, and according to heavenly
subtraction if we take two from three, three are left. The addition
is equally peculiar, if we add two to one we have but one. Each one
is equal to himself and the other two. Nothing ever was, nothing
ever can be more perfectly idiotic and absurd than the dogma of the
Trinity.
How is it possible to prove the existence of the Trinity?
Is it possible for a human being, who has been born but once,
to comprehend, or to imagine the existence of three beings, each of
whom is equal to the three?
Think of one of these beings as the father of one, and think
of that one as half human and all God. and think of the third as
having proceeded from the other two, and then think of all three as
one. Think that after the father begot the son, the father was
still alone, and after the Holy Ghost proceeded from the father and
the son, the father was still alone -- because there never was and
never will be but one God.
At this point, absurdity having reached its limit, nothing
more can be said except: "Let us pray."
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
V
THE THEOLOGICAL CHRIST.
In the New Testament we find the teachings and sayings of
Christ. If we say that the book is inspired, then we must admit
that Christ really said all the things attributed to him by the
various writers. If the book is inspired we must accept it all. We
have no right to reject the contradictory and absurd and accept the
reasonable and good. We must take it all just as it is.
My own observation has led me to believe that men are
generally consistent in their theories and inconsistent in their
lives.
So, I think that Christ in his utterances was true to his
theory, to his philosophy.
If I find in the Testament sayings of a contradictory
character, I conclude that some of those sayings were never uttered
by him. The sayings that are, in my judgment, in accordance with
what I believe to have been his philosophy, I accept, and the
others I throw away.
There are some of his sayings which show him to have been a
devout Jew, others that he wished to destroy Judaism, others
showing that he held all people except the Jews in contempt and
that he wished to save no others, others showing that he wished to
convert the world, still others showing that he was forgiving,
self-denying and loving, others that he was revengeful and
malicious, others, that he was an ascetic, holding all human ties
in utter contempt.
The following passages show that Christ was a devout Jew.
"Swear not, neither by heaven, for it is God's throne, nor by the
earth for it is his footstool, neither by Jerusalem for it is his
holy city."
"Think not that I am come to destroy the law or the prophets,
I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil."
"For after all these things, (clothing, food and drink) do the
Gentiles seek."
So, when he cured a leper, he said: "Go thy way, show thyself
unto the priest and offer the gift that Moses commanded."
Jesus sent his disciples forth saying: "Go not into the way of
the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not, but
go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
A woman came out of Canaan and cried to Jesus: "Have mercy on
me, my daughter is sorely vexed with a devil" -- but he would not
answer. Then the disciples asked him to send her away, and he said;
"I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel."
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
Then the woman worshiped him and said: "Lord help me." But he
answered and said: "It is not meet to take the children's bread and
cast it unto dogs." Yet for her faith he cured her child.
So, when the young man asked him what he must do to be saved,
he said: "Keep the commandments."
Christ said: "The scribes and the Pharisees sit in Moses'
seat, all therefore whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe
and do."
"And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one
tittle of the law to fail."
Christ went into the temple and cast out them that sold and
bought there, and said: "It is written, my house is the house of
prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves."
"We know what we worship for salvation is of the Jews."
Certainly all these passages were written by persons who
regarded Christ as the Messiah.
Many of the sayings attributed to Christ show that he was an
ascetic, that he cared nothing for kindred, nothing for father and
mother, nothing for brothers or sisters, and nothing for the
pleasures of life.
Christ said to a man: "Follow me." The man said: "Suffer me
first to go and bury my father." Christ answered: "Let the dead
bury their dead." Another said: "I will follow thee, but first let
me go bid them farewell which are at home."
Jesus said: "No man having put his hand to the plough, and
looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. If thine right eye
offend thee pluck it out. If thy right hand offend thee cut it off"
One said unto him: "Behold thy mother and thy brethren stand
without, desiring to speak with thee." And he answered: "Who is my
mother, and who are my brethren?" Then he stretched forth his hand
toward his disciples and said: "Behold my mother and my brethren.
"And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren or
sisters, or father or mother, or wife or children, or lands for my
name's sake shall receive an hundred fold and shall inherit
everlasting life."
"He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of
me; and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy
of me."
Christ it seems had a philosophy.
He believed that God was a loving father, that he would take
care of his children, that they need do nothing except to rely
implicitly on God.
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
"Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.
"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them
that hate you and pray for them which despitefully use you and
persecute you."
"Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat or what ye
shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. * * * For
your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these
things."
"Ask and it shall be given you. Whatsoever ye would that men
should do to you, do ye even so to them. If ye forgive men their
trespasses your heavenly Father will also forgive you. The very
hairs of your head are all numbered."
Christ seemed to rely absolutely on the protection of God
until the darkness of death gathered about him, and then he cried:
"My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?"
While there are many passages in the New Testament showing
Christ to have been forgiving and tender, there are many others
showing that he was exactly the opposite.
What must have been the spirit of one who said: "I am come to
send fire on the earth? Suppose ye that I am come to give peace on
earth? I tell you, nay, but rather division. For from henceforth
there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and
two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and
the son against the father, the mother against the daughter and the
daughter against the mother, the mother-in-law against her
daughter-in-law, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-
law."
"If any man come to me and hate not his father and mother, and
wife, and children and brethren and sisters, yea, and his own life
also, he cannot be my disciple."
"But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign
over them, bring hither and slay them before me."
This passage built dungeons and lighted fagots.
"Depart ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil
and his angels."
"I came not to bring peace but a sword."
All these sayings could not have been uttered by the same
person. They are inconsistent with each other. Love does not speak
the words of hatred. The real philanthropist does not despise all
nations but his own. The teacher of universal forgiveness cannot
believe in eternal torture.
From the interpolations, legends, accretions, mistakes and
falsehoods in the New Testament is it possible to free the actual
man? Clad in mist and myth, hidden by the draperies of gods,
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
deformed, indistinct as faces in clouds, is it possible to find and
recognize the features, the natural face of the actual Christ?
For many centuries our fathers closed their eyes to the
contradictions and inconsistencies of the Testament and in spite of
their reason harmonized the interpolations and mistakes.
This is no longer possible. The contradictions are too many,
too glaring. There are contradictions of fact not only, but of
philosophy, of theory.
The accounts of the trial, the crucifixion and ascension of
Christ do not agree. They are full of mistakes and contradictions.
According to one account Christ ascended the day of, or the
day after his resurrection. According to another he remained forty
days after rising from the dead. According to one account, he was
seen after his resurrection only by a few women and his disciples.
According to another he was seen by the women, by his disciples on
several occasions and by hundreds of others.
According to Matthew, Luke and Mark, Christ remained for the
most part in the country, seldom going to Jerusalem. According to
John he remained mostly in Jerusalem, going occasionally into the
country, and then generally to avoid his enemies.
According to Matthew, Mark and Luke, Christ taught that if you
would forgive others God would forgive you. According to John,
Christ said that the only way to get to heaven was to believe on
him and be born again.
These contradictions are gross and palpable and demonstrate
that the New Testament is not inspired, and that many of its
statements must be false.
If we wish to save the character of Christ, many of the
passages must be thrown away.
We must discard the miracles or admit that he was insane or an
impostor. We must discard the passages that breathe the spirit of
hatred and revenge, or admit that he was malevolent.
If Matthew was mistaken about the genealogy of Christ, about
the wise men, the star, the flight into Egypt and the massacre of
the babes by Herod, -- then he may have been mistaken in many
passages that he put in the mouth of Christ.
The same may be said in regard to Mark, Luke and John.
The church must admit that the writers of the New Testament
were uninspired men -- that they made many mistakes, that they
accepted impossible legends as historical facts, that they were
ignorant and superstitious, that they put malevolent, stupid,
insane and unworthy words in the mouth of Christ, described him as
the worker of impossible miracles and in many ways stained and
belittled his character.
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
The best that can be said about Christ is that nearly nineteen
centuries ago he was born in the land of Palestine in a country
without wealth, without commerce, in the midst of a people who knew
nothing of the greater world -- a people enslaved, crushed by the
mighty power of Rome. That this babe, this child of poverty and
want grew to manhood without education, knowing nothing of art, or
science, and at about the age of thirty began wandering about the
hills and hamlets of his native land, discussing with priests,
talking with the poor and sorrowful, writing nothing, but leaving
his words in the memory or forgetfulness of those to whom he spoke.
That he attacked the religion of his time because it was
cruel. That this excited the hatred of those in power, and that
Christ was arrested, tried and crucified.
For many centuries this great Peasant of Palestine has been
worshiped as God.
Millions and millions have given their lives to his service.
The wealth of the world was lavished on his shrines. His name
carried consolation to the diseased and dying. His name dispelled
the darkness of death, and filled the dungeon with light. His name
gave courage to the martyr, and in the midst of fire, with
shriveling lips the sufferer uttered it again and again. The
outcasts, the deserted, the fallen, felt that Christ was their
friend, felt that he knew their sorrows and pitied their
sufferings.
The poor mother, holding her dead babe in her arms, lovingly
whispered his name. His gospel has been carried by millions to all
parts of the globe, and his story has been told by the self-denying
and faithful to countless thousands of the sons of men. In his name
have been preached charity, -- forgiveness and love.
He it was, who according to the faith, brought immortality to
light, and many millions have entered the valley of the shadow with
their hands in his.
All this is true, and if it were all, how beautiful, how
touching, how glorious it would be. But it is not all. There is
another side.
In his name millions and millions of men and women have been
imprisoned, tortured and killed. In his name millions and millions
have been enslaved. In his name the thinkers, the investigators,
have been branded as criminals, and his followers have shed the
blood of the wisest and best. In his name the progress of many
nations was stayed for a thousand years. In his gospel was found
the dogma of eternal pain, and his words added an infinite horror
to death. His gospel filled the world with hatred and revenge; made
intellectual honesty a crime; made happiness here the road to hell,
denounced love as base and bestial, canonized credulity, crowned
bigotry and destroyed the liberty of man.
It would have been far better had the New Testament never been
written -- far better had the theological Christ never lived. Had
the writers of the Testament been regarded as uninspired, had
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
Christ been thought of only as a man, had the good been accepted
and the absurd, the impossible, and the revengeful thrown away,
mankind would have escaped the wars, the tortures, the scaffolds,
the dungeons, the agony and tears, the crimes and sorrows of a
thousand years.
VI
THE "SCHEME."
We have also the scheme of redemption.
According to this "scheme," by the sin of Adam and Eve in the
Garden of Eden, human nature became evil, corrupt and depraved. It
became impossible for human beings to keep, in all things, the law
of God. In spite of this, God allowed the people to live and
multiply for some fifteen hundred years, and then on account of
their wickedness drowned them all with the exception of eight
persons.
The nature of these eight persons was evil, corrupt and
depraved, and in the nature of things their children would be
cursed with the same nature. Yet God gave them another trial,
knowing exactly what the result would be. A few of these wretches
he selected and made them objects of his love and care, the rest of
the world he gave to indifference and neglect. To civilize the
people he had chosen, he assisted them in conquering and killing
their neighbors, and gave them the assistance of priests and
inspired prophets. For their preservation and punishment he wrought
countless miracles, gave them many laws and a great deal of advice.
He taught them to sacrifice oxen, sheep, and doves, to the end that
their sins might be forgiven. The idea was inculcated that there
was a certain relation between the sin and the sacrifice, -- the
greater the sin, the greater the sacrifice. He also taught the
savagery that without the shedding of blood there was no remission
of sin.
In spite of all his efforts, the people grew gradually worse.
They would not, they could not keep his laws.
A sacrifice had to be made for the sins of the people. The
sins were too great to be washed out by the blood of animals or
men. It became necessary for God himself to be sacrificed. All
mankind were under the curse of the law. Either all the world must
be lost or God must die.
In only one way could the guilty be justified, and that was by
the death, the sacrifice of the innocent. And the innocent being
sacrificed must be great enough to atone for the world. There was
but one such being -- God.
Thereupon God took upon himself flesh, was born into the world
-- was known as Christ -- was murdered, sacrificed by the Jews, and
became an atonement for the sins of the human race.
This is the scheme of Redemption, -- he atonement.
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
It is impossible to conceive of anything more utterly absurd.
A man steals, and then sacrifices a dove, or gives a lamb to
a priest. His crime remains the same. He need not kill something.
Let him give back the thing stolen, and in future live an honest
life.
A man slanders his neighbor and then kills an ox. What has
that to do with the slander. Let him take back his slander, make
all the reparation that he can, and let the ox alone.
There is no sense in sacrifice, never was and never will be.
Make restitution, reparation, undo the wrong and you need shed
no blood.
A good law, one springing from the nature of things, cannot
demand, and cannot accept, and cannot be satisfied with the
punishment, or the agony of the innocent. A god could not accept
his own sufferings in justification of the guilty. -- This is a
complete subversion of all ideas of justice and morality. A god
could not make a law for man, then suffer in the place of the man
who had violated it, and say that the law had been carried out, and
the penalty duly enforced. A man has committed murder, has been
tried, convicted and condemned to death. Another man goes to the
governor and says that he is willing to die in place of the
murderer. The governor says: "All right, I accept your offer, a
murder has been committed, somebody must be hung and your death
will satisfy the law."
But that is not the law. The law says, not that somebody shall
be hanged, but that the murderer shall suffer death.
Even if the governor should die in the place of the criminal,
it would be no better. There would be two murders instead of one,
two innocent men killed, one by the first murderer and one by the
State, and the real murderer free.
This, Christians call, "satisfying the law."
VII
BELIEF.
We are told that all who believe in this scheme of redemption
and have faith in the redeemer will be rewarded with eternal joy.
Some think that men can he saved by faith without works, and some
think that faith and works are both essential, but all agree that
without faith there is no salvation. If you repent and believe on
Jesus Christ, then his goodness will be imputed to you and the
penalty of the law, so far as you are concerned, will he satisfied
by the sufferings of Christ.
You may repent and reform, you may make restitution, you may
practice all the virtues, but without this belief in Christ, the
gates of heaven will be shut against you forever.
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
Where is this heaven? The Christians do not know.
Does the Christian go there at death, or must he wait for the
general resurrection?
They do not know.
The Testament teaches that the bodies of the dead are to be
raised. Where are their souls in the meantime? They do not know.
Can the dead be raised? The atoms composing their bodies enter
into new combinations, into new forms, into wheat and corn, into
the flesh of animals and into the bodies of other men. Where one
man dies, and some of his atoms pass into the body of another man
and he dies, to whom will these atoms belong in the day of
resurrection?
If Christianity were only stupid and unscientific, if its God
was ignorant and kind, if it promised eternal joy to believers and
if the believers practiced the forgiveness they teach, for one I
should let the faith alone.
But there is another side to Christianity. It is not only
stupid, but malicious. It is not only unscientific, but it is
heartless. Its god is not only ignorant, but infinitely cruel. It
not only promises the faithful an eternal reward, but declares that
nearly all of the children of men, imprisoned in the dungeons of
God will suffer eternal pain. This is the savagery of Christianity.
This is why I hate its unthinkable God, its impossible Christ, its
inspired lies, and its selfish, heartless heaven.
Christians believe in infinite torture, in eternal pain.
Eternal Pain!
All the meanness of which the heart of man is capable is in
that one word -- Hell.
That word is a den, a cave, in which crawl the slimy reptiles
of revenge.
That word certifies to the savagery of primitive man. That
word is the depth, the dungeon, the abyss, from which civilized man
has emerged.
That word is the disgrace, the shame, the infamy, of our
revealed religion.
That word fills all the future with the shrieks of the damned.
That word brutalizes the New Testament, changes the Sermon on
the Mount to hypocrisy and cant, and pollutes and hardens the very
heart of Christ.
That word adds an infinite horror to death, and makes the
cradle as terrible as the coffin.
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
That word is the assassin of joy, the mocking murderer of
hope. That word extinguishes the light of life and wraps the world
in gloom. That word drives reason from his throne, and gives the
crown to madness.
That word drove pity from the hearts of men, stained countless
swords with blood, lighted fagots, forged chains, built dungeons,
erected scaffolds, and filled the world with poverty and pain.
That word is a coiled serpent in the mother's breast, that
lifts its fanged head and hisses in her ear: -- "Your child will be
the fuel of eternal fire."
That word blots from the firmament the star of hope and leaves
the heavens black.
That word makes the Christian's God an eternal torturer, an
everlasting inquisitor -- an infinite wild beast.
This is the Christian prophecy of the eternal future:
No hope in hell.
No pity in heaven.
No mercy in the heart of God.
VIII
CONCLUSION.
The Old Testament is absurd, ignorant and cruel, -- the New
Testament is a mingling of the false and true -- it is good and
bad.
The Jehovah of the Jews is an impossible monster. The Trinity
absurd and idiotic, Christ is a myth or a man.
The fall of man is contradicted by every fact concerning human
history that we know. The scheme of redemption -- through the
atonement -- is immoral and senseless. Hell was imagined by
revenge, and the orthodox heaven is the selfish dream of heartless
serfs and slaves. The foundations of the faith have crumbled and
faded away. They were miracles, mistakes, and myths, ignorant and
untrue, absurd, impossible, immoral, unnatural, cruel, childish,
savage. Beneath the gaze of the scientist they vanished, confronted
by facts they disappeared. The orthodox religion of our day has no
foundation in truth. Beneath the superstructure can be found no
fact.
Some may ask, "Are you trying to take our religion away?"
I answer No -- superstition is not religion. Belief without
evidence is not religion. Faith without facts is not religion.
To love justice, to long for the right, to love mercy, to pity
the suffering, to assist the weak, to forget wrongs and remember
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THE FOUNDATIONS OF FAITH.
benefits -- to love the truth, to be sincere, to utter honest
words, to love liberty, to wage relentless war against slavery in
all its forms, to love wife and child and friend, to make a happy
home, to love the beautiful; in art, in nature, to cultivate the
mind, to be familiar with the mighty thoughts that genius has
expressed, the noble deeds of all the world, to cultivate courage
and cheerfulness, to make others happy, to fill life with the
splendor of generous acts, the warmth of loving words, to discard
error, to destroy prejudice, to receive new truths with gladness,
to cultivate hope, to see the calm beyond the storm, the dawn
beyond the night, to do the best that can be done and then to be
resigned -- this is the religion of reason, the creed of science.
This satisfies the brain and heart.
But, says the prejudiced priest, the malicious minister, "You
take away a future life."
I am not trying to destroy another world, but I am endeavoring
to prevent the theologians from destroying this.
If we are immortal it is a fact in nature, and that fact does
not depend on bibles, or Christs, or priests or creeds.
The hope of another life was in the heart, long before the
"sacred books" were written, and will remain there long after all
the "sacred books" are known to be the work of savage and
superstitious men. Hope is the consolation of the world.
The wanderers hope for home. -- Hope builds the house and
plants the flowers and fills the air with song.
The sick and suffering hope for health. -- Hope gives them
health and paints the roses in their cheeks.
The lonely, the forsaken, hope for love. -- Hope brings the
lover to their arms. They feel the kisses on their eager lips.
The poor in tenements and huts, in spite of rags and hunger
hope for wealth. -- Hope fills their thin and trembling hands with
gold.
The dying hopes that death is but another birth, and Love
leans above the pallid face and whispers, "We shall meet again."
Hope is the consolation of the world.
Let us hope, if there be a God that he is wise and good.
Let us hope that if there be another life it will bring peace
and joy to all the children of men.
And let us hope that this poor earth on which we live, may be
a perfect world -- a world without a crime -- without a tear.
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