Now, while this examination was being made, the Christianity of our day applauded, and when the learned men got through with the religion of other countries, they turned their attention to our religion, and by the same methods, by the same mode of reasoning and the same arrangements that they used with the old religions they were overturning the religion of our day. How is that? Because every religion in this world is the work of man. Every book that was ever written was written by man. Man existed before books. If otherwise, we might reasonably admit that there was such a thing as a sacred bible.
I wish to call your attention to another thing. Man never had an original idea, and he never will have one, except it be supplied to him by his surroundings. Nature gave man every idea that he ever had in the world; and nature will continue to give man his ideas so long as he exists. No man can conceive of anything, the hint of which he has not received from the surroundings. And there is nothing on this earth, coming from any other sphere whatever.
As I have before said, man has produced every religion in the world.
Why is this? Because each generation sends forth the knowledge and belief of the people at the time it was made, and in no book is there any knowledge formed, except just at the time it was written.
Barbarians have produced barbarian religions, and always will produce them. They have produced, and always will produce, ideas and belief in harmony with their surroundings, and all the religions of the past were produced by barbarians. We are making religions every day; that is to say, we are constantly changing them, adapting them to our purposes, and the religion of today is not the religion of a few months or a year ago. Well, what changes these religions? Science does it, education does it; the growing heart of man does it. Some men have nothing else to do but produce religions; science is constantly changing them. If we are cursed with such barbarian religions today--for our religions are really barbarous--what will they be an hundred or a thousand years hence?
But, friends, we are making inroads upon orthodoxy that orthodox Christians are painfully aware of, and what think you will be left of their fearful doctrines fifty or a hundred years from tonight? What will become of their endless h.e.l.l--their doctrine of the future anguish of the soul; their doctrine of the eternal burning and never-ending gnashing of teeth. Man will discard the idea of such a future--because there is now a growing belief in the justice of a Supreme Being.
Do you not know that every religion in the world has declared every other religion a fraud? Yes, we all know it. That is the time all religions tell the truth--each of the other.
Now, do you want to know why this is: Suppose Mr. Johnson should tell Mr. Jones that he saw a corpse rise from the grave, and that when he first saw it, it was covered with loathsome worms, and that while he was looking at it, it suddenly was re-clothed in healthy, beautiful flesh. And then, suppose Jones should say to Johnson, "Well, now, I saw that same thing myself. I was in a graveyard once, and I saw a dead man rise and walk away as if nothing had ever happened to him!"
Johnson opens wide his eyes and says to Jones, "Jones, you are a confounded liar!" And Jones says to Johnson, "You are an unmitigated liar!" "No, I"m not; you lie yourself." "No! I say you lie!" Each knew the other lied, because each man knew he lied himself. Thus when a man says: "I was upon Mount Sinai for the benefit of my health, and there I met G.o.d, who said to me, "Stand aside, you, and let me drown these people;" and the other man says to him, "I was upon a mountain, and there I met the Supreme Brahma." And Moses steps in and says, "That is not true!" and contends that the other man never did see Brahma, and the other man swears that Moses never saw G.o.d; and each man utters a deliberate falsehood, and immediately after speaks truth.
Therefore, each religion has charged every other religion with having been an unmitigated fraud. Still, if any man had ever seen a miracle himself, he would be prepared to believe that another man had seen the same or a similar thing. Whenever a man claims to have been cognizant of, or to have seen a miracle, he either utters a falsehood, or he is an idiot. Truth relies upon the unerring course of the laws of nature, and upon reason. Observe, we have a religion--that is, many people have. I make no pretensions to having a religion myself--possibly you do not. I believe in living for this beautiful world--in living for the present, today; living for this very hour, and while I do live to make everybody happy that I can. I cannot afford to squander my short life--and what little talent I am blessed with in studying up and projecting schemes to avoid that seething lake of fire and brimstone.
Let the future take care of itself, and when I am required to pa.s.s over "on the other side," I am ready and willing to stand my chances with you howling Christians.
We have in this country a religion which men have preached for about eighteen hundred years, and men have grown wicked just in proportion as their belief in that religion has grown strong; and just in proportion as they have ceased to believe in it, men have become just, humane and charitable. And if they believed in it tonight as they believed, for instance, at the time of the immaculate Puritan fathers, I would not be permitted to talk here in the city of New York. It is from the coldness and infidelity of the churches that I get my right to preach; and I thank them for it, and I say it to their credit.
As I have said, we have a religion. What is it? In the first place, they say this vast universe was created by a G.o.d. I don"t know, and you don"t know, whether it was or not. Also, if it had not been for the first sin of Adam, they say there would never have been any Devil, in this world, and if there had been no Devil, there would have been no sin, and if no sin, no death. As for myself I am glad there is death in the world, for that gives me a chance. Somebody has to die to give me room, and when my turn comes I am willing to let some one else take my place. But if there is a Being who gave me this life, I thank Him from the bottom of my heart--because this life has been a joy and a pleasure to me. Further, because of this first sin of Adam, they say, all men are consigned to eternal perdition! But, in order to save man from that frightful h.e.l.l of the hereafter, Christ came to this world and took upon himself flesh, and in order that we might know the road to eternal salvation. He gave us a book called the bible, and wherever that bible has been read men have immediately commenced throttling each other; and wherever that bible has been circulated they have invented inquisitions and instruments of torture, and commenced hating each other with all their hearts. Then we are told that this bible is the foundation of civilization, but I say it is the foundation of h.e.l.l and d.a.m.nation!, and we never shall get rid of that dogma until we get rid of the idea that the book is inspired. Now, what does the bible teach?
I am not going to ask this preacher or that preacher what the bible teaches; but the question is, "Ought a man be sent to an eternal h.e.l.l for not believing this bible to be the work of a merciful G.o.d?" A very few people read it now; perhaps they should read it, and perhaps not; if I wanted to believe it, I should never read a word of it--never look upon its pages, I would let it lie on its shelf, until it rotted!
Still, perhaps, we ought to read it in order to see what is read in schools that our children might become charitable and good; to be read to our children that they may get ideas of mercy, charity humanity and justice! Oh, yes! Now read:
"I will make mine arrows drunk with blood and my sword shall devour flesh."--Deut. x.x.xii, 42.
Very good for a merciful G.o.d!
"That thy foot may be dipped in the blood of thine enemies, and the tongue of the dogs in the same."--Psalms lxviii, 24.
Merciful Being! I will quote several more choice bits from this inspired book, although I have several times made use of them.
"But the Lord thy G.o.d shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed.
"And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven; there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them."--Deut. vii, 23, 24.
"And Joshua did unto them as the Lord bade him; he houghed their horses, and burnt their chariots with fire. And Joshua at that time turned back, and took Hazor, and smote the king thereof with the sword; for Hazor beforetime was the head of all those kingdoms.
"And all the cities of those kings, and all the kings of them, did Joshua take, and smote them with the edge of the sword, and he utterly destroyed them, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, commanded.
"And they smote all the souls that were therein with the edge of the sword, utterly destroying them; there was not any left to breathe; and he burnt Hazor with fire."
(Do not forget that these things were done by the command of G.o.d!)
"But as for the cities that stood still in their strength, Israel burnt none of them, save Hazor only, that did Joshua burn.
"And all the spoil of those cities and the cattle, the children of Israel took for a prey unto themselves; but every man they smote with the edge of the sword, until they had destroyed them, neither left they any to breathe." (As the moral and just G.o.d had commanded them.)
"As the Lord commanded Moses His servant, so did Moses command Joshua, and so did Joshua; he left nothing undone of all that the Lord had commanded Joshua.
"So Joshua took all that land, the hills, and all the south country, and all the land of Goshen, and the valley, and the plain and mountain of Israel, and the valley of the same;
"Even from the Mount Halak, that goeth up to Seir, even unto Baalgad in the valley of Lebanon under Mount Hermon; and all their kings he took, and smote theme and slew them.
"Joshua made war a long time on all those kings. There was not a city that made peace with the children of Israel, save the Hivites, the inhabitants of Gibeon; all the others they took in battle.
"So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the Lord said unto Moses; and Joshua gave it for an inheritance unto Israel, according to their divisions by their tribes. And the land rested from war."--Josh. xi, 7-23.
"When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then proclaim peace unto it.
"And it shall be, if it make thee answer of peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be that all the people that is found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee.
"And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee, then thou shalt besiege it.
"And when the Lord thy G.o.d hath delivered it into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of the sword.
"But the women, and the little ones, and the cattle, and all that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shaft thou take unto thyself; and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies, which the Lord thy G.o.d hath given thee.
"Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of those nations.
"But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy G.o.d doth give thee for an inheritance, thou shaft save alive nothing that breatheth.
"But thou shalt utterly destroy them."
(Neither the old man nor the woman, nor the beautiful maiden, nor the sweet dimpled babe, smiling upon the lap of its mother.)
"And He said unto them, Thus saith the Lord G.o.d of Israel (a merciful G.o.d, indeed), 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 neighbor."--Es. x.x.xii, 29.
(Now recollect, these instructions were given to an army of invasion, and the people who were slayed were guilty of the crime of fighting for their homes and their firesides. Oh, most merciful G.o.d! The old testament is full of curses, vengeance, jealousy and hatred, and of barbarity and brutality. Now, do you for one moment believe that these words were written by the most merciful G.o.d? Don"t pluck from the heart the sweet flower of piety and crush it by superst.i.tion. Do not believe that G.o.d ever ordered the murder of innocent women and helpless babes. Do not let this superst.i.tion turn our heart into stone. When anything is said to have been written by the most merciful G.o.d, and the thing is not merciful, that I deny it, and say He never wrote it. I will live by the standard of reason, and if thinking in accordance with reason takes me to perdition, then I will go to h.e.l.l with my reason, rather than to heaven without it.)
Now, does this bible teach political freedom; or does it teach political tyranny? Does it teach a man to resist oppression? Does it teach a man to tear from the throne of tyranny the crowned thing and robber called king. Let us see.
"Let every soul be subject to the higher powers; For there is no power but G.o.d: the powers that be are ordained of G.o.d."--Rom. xiii, I.
"Therefore to must needs be subject not only for wrath, but also for conscience sake."--Rom. viii, 4, 4.
(I deny this wretched doctrine. Wherever the sword of rebellion is drawn to protect the rights of man, I am a rebel. Wherever the sword of rebellion is drawn to give men liberty, to clothe him in all his just rights, I am on the side of that rebellion.)
Does the bible give woman her rights? Does it treat woman as she ought to be treated, or is it barbarian? We will see:
"Let woman learn in silence with all subjection."--I Tim. ii, 11
(If a woman should know anything let her ask her husband. Imagine the ignorance of a lady who had only that source of information.)
"But suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence. For Adam was first formed, then Eve. (Indeed!)
"And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, was in the transgression." (Poor woman!)
Here is something from the old testament: