1884 lines
94 KiB
Plaintext
1884 lines
94 KiB
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29 page printout
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Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
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**** ****
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Contents of this file page
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THE DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH. 1
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A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE. 13
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This file, its printout, or copies of either
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are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold.
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Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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The Works of ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
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**** ****
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THE DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH.
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1888
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"Let determined things to destiny hold unbewailed their way."
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There is a continual effort in the mind of man to find the
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harmony that he knows must exist between all known facts. It is
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hard for the scientist to implicitly believe anything that he
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suspects to be inconsistent with a known fact. He feels that every
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fact is a key to many mysteries -- that every fact is a detective,
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not only, but a perpetual witness. He knows that a fact has a
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countless number of sides, and that all these sides will match all
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other facts, and he also suspects that to understand one fact
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perfectly -- like the fact of the attraction of gravitation --
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would involve a knowledge of the universe.
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It requires not only candor, but courage, to accept a fact.
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When a new fact is found -- it is generally denied, resisted, and
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calumniated by the conservatives until denial becomes absurd, and
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then they accept it with the statement that they always supposed it
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was true.
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The old is the ignorant enemy of the new. The old has pedigree
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and respectability; it is filled with the spirit of caste; it is
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associated with great events, and with great names; it is
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entrenched; it has an income -- it represents property. Besides, it
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has parasites, and the parasites always defend themselves,
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Long ago frightened wretches who had by tyranny or piracy
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amassed great fortunes, were induced in the moment of death to
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compromise with God and to let their money fall from their
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stiffening hands into the greedy palms of priests. In this way many
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theological seminaries were endowed, and in this way prejudices,
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mistakes, absurdities, known as religious truths, have been
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perpetuated. In this way the dead hypocrites have propagated and
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supported their kind.
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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1
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THE DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH.
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Most religions -- no matter how honestly they originated --
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have been established by brute force. Kings and nobles have used
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them as a means to enslave, to degrade and rob. The priest,
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consciously and unconsciously, has been the betrayer of his
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followers.
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Near Chicago there is an ox that betrays his fellows. Cattle
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-- twenty or thirty at a time -- are driven to the place of
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slaughter. This ox leads the way -- the others follow. When the
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place is reached, this Bishop Dupanloup turns and goes back for
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other victims.
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This is the worst side: There is a better.
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Honest men, believing that they have found the whole truth --
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the real and only faith -- filled with enthusiasm, give all for the
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purpose of propagating the "divine creed." They found colleges and
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universities, and in perfect, pious, ignorant sincerity, provide
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that the creed, and nothing but the creed, must be taught, and that
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if any professor teaches anything contrary to that, he must be
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instantly dismissed -- that is to say, the children must be beaten
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with the bones of the dead.
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These good religious souls erect guide-boards with a provision
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to the effect that the guide-boards must remain, whether the roads
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are changed or not, and with the further provision that the
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professors who keep and repair the guide-boards must always insist
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that the roads have not been changed.
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There is still another side.
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Professors do not wish to lose their salaries. They love their
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families and have some regard for themselves. There is a compromise
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between their bread and their brain. On pay-day they believe -- at
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other times they have their doubts, They settle with their own
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consciences by giving old words new meanings. They take refuge in
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allegory, hide behind parables, and barricade themselves with
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oriental imagery. They give to the most frightful passages a
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spiritual meaning -- and while they teach the old creed to their
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followers, they speak a new philosophy to their equals.
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There is still another side.
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A vast number of clergymen and laymen are perfectly satisfied.
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They have no doubts. They believe as their fathers and mothers did.
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The "scheme of salvation" suits them because they are satisfied
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that they are embraced within its terms. They give themselves no
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trouble. They believe because they do not understand. They have no
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doubts because they do not think. They regard doubt as a thorn in
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the pillow of orthodox slumber. Their souls are asleep, and they
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hate only those who disturb their dreams. These people keep their
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creeds for future use. They intend to have them ready at the moment
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of dissolution. They sustain about the same relation to daily life
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that the small boats carried by steamers do to ordinary navigation
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-- they are for the moment of shipwreck. Creeds, like life-
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preservers, are to be used in disaster.
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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2
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THE DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH.
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We must also remember that everything in nature -- bad as well
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as good -- has the instinct of self-preservation. All lies go
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armed, and all mistakes carry concealed weapons. Driven to the last
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corner, even non-resistance appeals to the dagger.
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Vast interests -- political, social, artistic, and individual
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-- are interwoven with all creeds. Thousands of millions of dollars
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have been invested; many millions of people obtain their bread by
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the propagation and support of certain religious doctrines, and
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many millions have been educated for that purpose and for that
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alone. Nothing is more natural than that they should defend
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themselves -- that they should cling to a creed that gives them
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roof and raiment.
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Only a few years ago Christianity was a complete system. It
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included and accounted for all phenomena; it was a philosophy
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satisfactory to the ignorant world; it had an astronomy and geology
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of its own; it answered all questions with the same readiness and
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the same inaccuracy; it had within its sacred volumes the history
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of the past, and the prophecies of all the future; it pretended to
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know all that was, is, or ever will be necessary for the well-being
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of the human race, here and hereafter,
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When a religion has been founded, the founder admitted the
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truth of everything that was generally believed that did not
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interfere with his system. Imposture always has a definite end in
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view, and for the sake of the accomplishment of that end, it will
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admit the truth of anything and everything that does not endanger
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its success.
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The writers of all sacred books -- the inspired prophets --
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had no reason for disagreeing with the common people about the
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origin of things, the creation of the world, the rising and setting
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of the sun, and the uses of the stars, and consequently the sacred
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books of all ages have indorsed the belief general at the time. You
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will find in our sacred books the astronomy, the geology, the
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philosophy and the morality of the ancient barbarians. The
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religionist takes these general ideas as his foundation, and upon
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them builds the supernatural structure. For many centuries the
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astronomy, geology, philosophy and morality of our ]Bible were
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accepted. They were not questioned, for the reason that the world
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was too ignorant to question.
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A few centuries ago the art of printing was invented. A new
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world was discovered. There was a complete revolution in commerce.
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The arts were born again. The world was filled with adventure;
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millions became self-reliant; old ideas were abandoned -- old
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theories were put aside -- and suddenly, the old leaders of thought
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were found to be ignorant, shallow and dishonest. The literature of
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the classic world was discovered and translated into modern
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languages. The world was circumnavigated; Copernicus discovered the
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true relation sustained by our earth to the solar system, and about
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the beginning of the seventeenth century many other wonderful
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discoveries were made. In 1609, a Hollander found that two lenses
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placed in a certain relation to each other magnified objects seen
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through them. This discovery was the foundation of astronomy. In a
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little while it came to the knowledge of Galileo; the result was a
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telescope, with which man has read the volume of the skies.
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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3
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THE DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH.
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On the 8th day of May, 1618, Kepler discovered the greatest of
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his three laws. These were the first great blows struck for the
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enfranchisement of the human mind. A few began to suspect that the
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ancient Hebrews were not astronomers. From that moment the church
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became the enemy of science. In every possible way the inspired
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ignorance was defended -- the lash, the sword, the chain, the fagot
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and the dungeon were the arguments used by the infuriated church.
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To such an extent was the church prejudiced against the new
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philosophy, against the new facts, that priests refused to look
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through the telescope of Galileo.
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At last it became evident to the intelligent world that the
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inspired writings, literally translated, did not contain the truth
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-- the Bible was in danger of being driven from the heavens.
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The church also had its geology. The time when the earth was
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created had been definitely fixed and was certainly known. This
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fact had not only been stated by inspired writers, but their
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statement had been indorsed by priests, by bishops, cardinals,
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popes and ecumenical councils; that was settled.
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But a few men had learned the art of seeing. There were some
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eyes not always closed in prayer. They looked at the things about
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them; they observed channels that had been worn in solid rock by
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streams; they Saw the vast territories that had been deposited by
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rivers; their attention was called to the slow inroads upon
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continents by seas -- to the deposits by volcanoes -- to the
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sedimentary rocks -- to the vast reefs that had been built by the
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coral, and to the countless evidences of age, of the lapse of time
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-- and finally it was demonstrated that this earth had been
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pursuing its course about the sun for millions and millions of
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ages.
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The church disputed every step, denied every fact, resorted to
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every device that cunning could suggest or ingenuity execute, but
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the conflict could not be maintained. The Bible, so far as geology
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was concerned, was in danger of being driven from the earth.
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Beaten in the open field, the church began to equivocate, to
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evade, and to give new meanings to inspired words. Finally,
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falsehood having failed to harmonize the guesses of barbarians with
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the discoveries of genius, the leading churchmen suggested that the
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Bible was not written to teach astronomy, was not written to teach
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geology, and that it was not a scientific book, but that it was
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written in the language of the people, and that as to unimportant
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things it contained the general beliefs of its time.
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The ground was then taken that, while it was not inspired in
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its science, it was inspired in its morality, in its prophecy, in
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its account of the miraculous, in the scheme of salvation, and in
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all that it had to say on the subject of religion.
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The moment it was suggested that the Bible was not inspired in
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everything within its lids, the seeds of suspicion were sown. The
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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4
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THE DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH.
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priest became less arrogant. The church was forced to explain. The
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pulpit had one language for the faithful and another for the
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philosophical, i.e., it became dishonest with both.
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The next question that arose was as to the origin of man.
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The Bible was being driven from the skies. The testimony of
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the stars was against the sacred volume. The church had also been
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forced to admit that the world was not created at the time
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mentioned in the Bible -- so that the very stones of the earth rose
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and united with the stars in giving testimony against the sacred
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volume.
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As to the creation of the world, the church resorted to the
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artifice of saying that "days" in reality meant long periods of
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time; so that no matter how old the earth was, the time could be
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spanned by six periods -- in other words, that the years could not
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be too numerous to be divided by six.
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But when it came to the creation of man, this evasion, or
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artifice, was impossible. The Bible gives the date of the creation
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of man, because it gives the age at which the first man died, and
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then it gives the generations from Adam to the flood, and from the
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flood to the birth of Christ, and in many instances the actual age
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of the principal ancestor is given. So that, according to this
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account -- according to the inspired figures -- man has existed
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upon the earth only about six thousand years. There is no room left
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for any people beyond Adam.
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If the Bible is true, certainly Adam was the first man;
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consequently, we know, if the sacred volume be true, just how long
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man has lived and labored and suffered on this earth.
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The church cannot and dare not give up the account of the
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creation of Adam from the dust of the earth, and of Eve from the
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rib of the man. The church cannot give up the story of the Garden
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of Eden -- the serpent -- the fall and the expulsion; these must be
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defended because they are vital. Without these absurdities, the
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system known as Christianity cannot exist. Without the fall, the
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atonement is a nan sequitur. Facts bearing upon these questions
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were discovered and discussed by the greatest and most thoughtful
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of men. Lamarek, Humboldt, Haeckel, and above all, Darwin, not only
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asserted, but demonstrated, that man is not a special creation. If
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anything can be established by observation, by reason, then the
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fact has been established that man is related to all life below him
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-- that he has been slowly produced through countless years -- that
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the story of Eden is a childish myth -- that the fall of man is an
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infinite absurdity.
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If anything can, be established by analogy and reason, man has
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existed upon the earth for many millions of ages. We know now, if
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we know anything, that people not only existed before Adam, but
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that they existed in a highly civilized state; that thousands of
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years before the Garden of Eden was planted men communicated to
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each other their ideas by language, and that artists clothed the
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marble with thoughts and passions.
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Bank of Wisdom
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Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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5
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THE DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH.
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This is a demonstration that the origin of man given in the
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Old Testament is untrue -- that the account was written by the
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ignorance, the prejudice and the egotism of the olden time.
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So, if anything outside of the senses can be known, we do know
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that civilization is a growth -- that man did not commence a
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perfect being, and then degenerate, but that from small beginnings
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he has slowly risen to the intellectual height he now occupies.
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|
|
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
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
6
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
7
|
|||
|
|
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.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
8
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE DIVIDED HOUSEHOLD OF FAITH.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
9
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
10
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
11
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
12
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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."
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
13
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
14
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
15
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
16
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
17
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
18
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
19
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
20
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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?
|
|||
|
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|
|||
|
|
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
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
21
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
22
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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,
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
23
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
24
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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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|
|||
|
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|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
25
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
26
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
27
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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.]
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
28
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
A FEW REASONS FOR DOUBTING
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
THE INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
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.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
**** ****
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The Bank of Wisdom Inc. is a collection of the most thoughtful,
|
|||
|
|
scholarly and factual books. These computer books are reprints of
|
|||
|
|
suppressed books and will cover American and world history; the
|
|||
|
|
Biographies and writings of famous persons, and especially of our
|
|||
|
|
nations Founding Fathers. They will include philosophy and
|
|||
|
|
religion. all these subjects, and more, will be made available to
|
|||
|
|
the public in electronic form, easily copied and distributed, so
|
|||
|
|
that America can again become what its Founders intended --
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The Free Market-Place of Ideas.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
The Bank of Wisdom is always looking for more of these old,
|
|||
|
|
hidden, suppressed and forgotten books that contain needed facts
|
|||
|
|
and information for today. If you have such books please contact
|
|||
|
|
us, we need to give them back to America.
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
|
|||
|
|
Bank of Wisdom
|
|||
|
|
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
|
|||
|
|
29
|
|||
|
|
|