326 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
326 lines
15 KiB
Plaintext
5 page printout
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XI.
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A LETTER TO ANDREW DEAN.
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[NOTE: Mr. Dean, who rented Paine's farm at New Rochelle, had
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written: "I have read with good attention your manuscript on
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Dreams, and Examination on the Prophecies in the Bible., I am now
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searching the old prophecies and comparing the same to those said
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to be quoted in the New Testament. I confess the comparison is a
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matter worthy of our serious attention; I know not the result till
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I finish; then, if you be living, I shall communicate the same to
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you I hope to be with you soon." -- Editor.]
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A LETTER TO ANDREW DEAN.
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RESPECTED FRIEND,
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I received your friendly letter, for which I am obliged to
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you. It is three weeks ago to day (Sunday, Aug. 15,) that I was
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struck with a fit of an apoplexy, that deprived me of all sense and
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motion. I had neither pulse nor breathing, and the people about me
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supposed me dead. I had felt exceedingly well that day, and had
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just taken a slice of bread and butter for supper, and was going to
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bed. The fit took me on the stairs, as suddenly as if I had been
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shot through the head; and I got so very much hurt by the fall,
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that I have not been able to get in and out of bed since that day,
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otherwise than being lifted out in a blanket, by two persons; yet
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all this while my mental faculties have remained as perfect as I
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ever enjoyed them. I consider the scene I have passed through as an
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experiment on dying, and I find that death has no terrors for me.
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As to the people called Christians, they have no evidence that
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their religion is true. There is no more proof that the Bible is
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the word of God, than that the Koran of Mahomet is the word of God.
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It is education makes all the difference. Man, before he begins to
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think for himself, is as much the child of habit in Creeds as he is
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in ploughing and sowing. Yet creeds, like opinions, prove nothing.
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Where is the evidence that the person called Jesus Christ is
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the begotten Son of God? The case admits not of evidence either to
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our senses or our mental faculties: neither has God given to man
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any talent by which such a thing is comprehensible. It cannot
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therefore be an object for faith to act upon, for faith is nothing
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more than an assent the mind gives to something it sees cause to
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believe is fact. But priests, preachers, and fanatics, put
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imagination in the place of faith, and it is the nature of the
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imagination to believe without evidence.
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If Joseph the carpenter dreamed, (as the book of Matthew (i)
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says he did,) that his betrothed wife, Mary, was with child by the
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Holy Ghost, and that an angel told him so, I am not obliged to put
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faith in his dreams; nor do I put any, for I put no faith in my own
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dreams, and I should be weak and foolish indeed to put faith in the
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dreams of others.
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The Christian religion is derogatory to the Creator in all its
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articles. It puts the Creator in an inferior point of view, and
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places the Christian Devil above him. It is he, according to the
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absurd story in Genesis, that outwits the Creator in the garden of
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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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PREDESTINATION.
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Eden, and steals from him his favorite creature, Man, and at last
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obliges him to beget a son, and put that son to death, to get Man
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back again; and this the priests of the Christian religion call
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redemption.
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Christian authors exclaim against the practice of offering up
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human sacrifices, which, they say, is done in some countries; and
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those authors make those exclamations without ever reflecting that
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their own doctrine of salvation is founded on a Human Sacrifice.
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They are saved, they say, by the blood of Christ. The Christian
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religion begins with a dream and ends with a murder.
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As I am now well enough to sit up some hours in the day,
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though not well enough to get up without help, I employ myself as
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I have always done, in endeavoring to bring man to the right use of
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the reason that God has given him, and to direct his mind
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immediately to his Creator, and not to fanciful secondary beings
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called mediators, as if God was superannuated or ferocious.
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As to the book called the Bible, it is blasphemy to call it
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the word of God. It is a book of lies and contradictions, and a
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history of bad times and bad men. There are but a few good
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characters in the whole book. The fable of Christ and his twelve
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apostles, which is a parody on the Sun and the twelve signs of the
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Zodiac, copied from the ancient religions of the Eastern world, is
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the least hurtful part. Every thing told of Christ has reference to
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the Sun. His reported resurrection is at sunrise, and that on the
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first day of the week; that is, on the day anciently dedicated to
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the Sun, and from thence called Sunday -- in Latin 'Dies Solis,'
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the day of the Sun; as the next day, Monday, is Moon-day. But there
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is no room in a letter to explain these things.
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While man keeps to the belief of one God, his reason unites
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with his creed. He is not shocked with contradictions and horrid
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stories. His bible is the heavens and the earth. He beholds his
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Creator in all his works, and everything he beholds inspires him
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with reverence and gratitude. From the goodness of God to all, he
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learns his duty to his fellow-man, and stands self-reproved when he
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transgresses it. Such a man is no persecutor.
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But when he multiplies his creed with imaginary things, of
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which he can have neither evidence nor conception, such as the tale
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of the garden of Eden, the Talking Serpent, the Fall of Man, the
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Dreams of Joseph the Carpenter, the pretended Resurrection and
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Ascension, of which there is even no historical relation, -- for no
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historian of those times mentions such a thing, -- he gets into the
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pathless region of confusion, and turns either fanatic or
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hypocrite. He forces his mind, and pretends to believe what he does
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not believe. This is in general the case with the Methodists. Their
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religion is all creed and no morals.
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I have now, my friend, given you a 'fac simile' of my mind on
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the subject of religion and creeds, and my wish is, that you make
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this letter as publicly known as you find opportunities of doing.
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Yours, in friendship,
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THOMAS PAINE.
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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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PREDESTINATION.
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XII.
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PREDESTINATION.
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[NOTE: Reprinted from an Appendix to Paine's Theological Works,
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published in London, by Mary Ann Carlile, in 1820. This I believe
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to be the last piece written by Paine. -- Editor.]
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REMARKS ON ROMANS IX. 18-21.
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Addressed to the Ministers of the Calvinistic Church.
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PAUL, in speaking of God, says, "Therefore hath he mercy on
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whom he will have mercy, and whom he will be hardeneth. Thou wilt
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say, why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
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Nay, but who art thou, O man, that repliest against God? Shall the
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thing formed Say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
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Hath not the potter power over the clay of the same lump, to make
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one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor?"
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I shall leave it to Calvinists and Universalists to wrangle
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about these expressions, and to oppose or corroborate them by other
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passages from other books of the Old or New Testament. I shall go
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to the root at once, and say, that the whole passage is presumption
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and nonsense. Presumption, because it pretends to know the private
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mind of God: and nonsense, because the cases it states as parallel
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cases have no parallel in them, and are opposite cases.
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The first expression says, "Therefore hath he (God) mercy on
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whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth." As this is
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ascribing to the attribute of God's power, at the expense of the
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attribute of his justice, I, as a believer in the justice of God,
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disbelieve the assertion of Paul. The Predestinarians, of which the
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loquacious Paul was one, appear to acknowledge but one attribute in
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God, that of power, which may not improperly be called the Physical
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attribute. The Deists, in addition to this, believe in his moral
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attributes, those of justice and goodness.
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In the next verses, Paul gets himself into what in vulgar life
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is called a hobble, and he tries to get out of it by nonsense and
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sophistry; for having committed himself by saying that "God hath
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mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth,"
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he felt the difficulty he was in, and the objections that would be
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made, which he anticipates by saying, "Thou wilt say then unto me,
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Why doth he (God) yet find fault? for who hath resisted his will?
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Nay, but, O man, who art thou, that repliest against God! "This is
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neither answering the question, nor explaining the case. It is down
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right quibbling and shuffling off the question, and the proper
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retort upon him would have been, "Nay, but who art thou,
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presumptuous Paul, that puttest thyself in God's place!" Paul,
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however, goes on and says, "Shall the thing formed say to him that
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formed it, why hast thou, made me thus?" Yes, if the thing felt
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itself hurt, and could speak, it would say it. But as pots and pans
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have not the faculty of speech, the supposition of such things
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speaking is putting nonsense in the place of argument, and is too
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ridiculous even to admit of apology. It shows to what wretched
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shifts sophistry will resort.
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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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PREDESTINATION.
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Paul, however, dashes on, and the more he tries to reason the
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more he involves himself, and the more ridiculous he appears. "Hath
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not," says he, "the potter power over the clay of the same lump, to
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make one vessel unto honor and another unto dishonor"? In this
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metaphor, and a most wretched one it is, Paul makes the potter to
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represent God; the lump of clay the whole human race; the vessels
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unto honor those souls "on whom he hath mercy because he will have
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mercy;" and the vessels unto dishonor, those souls "whom he
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hardeneth (for damnation) because be will harden them." The
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metaphor is false in every one of its points, and if it admits of
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any meaning or conclusion, it is the reverse of what Paul intended
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and the Calvinists understand.
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In the first place a potter doth not, because he cannot, make
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vessels of different qualities, from the same lump of clay; he
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cannot make a fine china bowl, intended to ornament a side-board,
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from the same lump of clay that he makes a coarse pan, intended for
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a close-stool. The potter selects his clays for different uses,
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according to their different qualities, and degrees of fineness and
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goodness.
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Paul might as well talk of making gun-flints from the same
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stick of wood of which the gun-stock is made, as of making china
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bowls from the same lump of clay of which are made common earthen
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pots and pans. Paul could not have hit upon a more unfortunate
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metaphor for his purpose, than this of the potter and the clay; for
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if any inference is to follow from it, it is that as the potter
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selects his clay for different kinds of vessels according to the
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different qualities and degrees of fineness and goodness in the
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clay, so God selects for future happiness those among mankind who
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excel in purity and good life, which is the reverse of
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predestination.
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In the second place there is no comparison between the souls
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of men, and vessels made of clay; and, therefore, to put one to
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represent the other is a false position. The vessels, or the clay
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they are made from, are insensible of honor or dishonor. They
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neither suffer nor enjoy. The clay is not punished that serves the
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purpose of a close-stool, nor is the finer sort rendered happy that
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is made up into a punch-bowl. The potter violates no principle of
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justice in the different uses to which he puts his different clays;
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for he selects as an artist, not as a moral judge; and the
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materials he works upon know nothing, and feel nothing, of his
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mercy or his wrath. Mercy or wrath would make a potter appear
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ridiculous, when bestowed upon his clay. He might kick some of his
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pots to pieces.
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But the case is quite different with man, either in this world
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or the next. He is a being sensible of misery as well as of
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happiness, and therefore Paul argues like an unfeeling idiot, when
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he compares man to clay on a potter's wheel, or to vessels made
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therefrom: and with respect to God, it is an offence to his
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attributes of justice, goodness, and wisdom, to suppose that he
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would treat the choicest work of creation like inanimate and
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insensible clay. If Paul believed that God made man after his own
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image, he dishonours it by making that image and a brick-bat to be
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alike.
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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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PREDESTINATION.
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The absurd and impious doctrine of predestination, a doctrine
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destructive of morals, would never have been thought of had it not
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been for some stupid passages in the Bible, which priestcraft at
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first, and ignorance since, have imposed upon mankind as
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revelation. Nonsense ought to be treated as nonsense, wherever it
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be found; and had this been done in the rational manner it ought to
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be done, instead of intimating and mincing the matter, as has been
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too much the case, the nonsense and false doctrine of the Bible,
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with all the aid that priestcraft can give, could never have stood
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their ground against the divine reason that God has given to man.
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Doctor Franklin gives a remarkable instance of the truth of
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this, in an account of his life, written by himself. He was in
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London at the time of which he speaks. "Some volumes," says he,
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"against Deism, fell into my hands. They were said to be the
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substance of Sermons preached at Boyle's Lectures. It happened that
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they produced on me an effect precisely the reverse of what was
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intended by the writers; for the arguments of the Deists, which
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were cited in order to be refuted, appeared to me more forcible
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than the refutation itself. In a word I soon became a perfect
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Deist." -- New York Edition of Franklin's Life, page 93.
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All America, and more than all America, knows Franklin. His
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life was devoted to the good and improvement of man. Let, then,
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those who profess a different creed, imitate his virtues, and excel
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him if they can.
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THOMAS PAINE.
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**** ****
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Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
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**** ****
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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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**** ****
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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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