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97 page printout
Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.
The value of this 360K disk is $7.00. This disk, its printout,
or copies of either are to be copied and given away, but NOT sold.
Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
**** ****
THE
RATIONALIST'S MANUAL.
IN TWO PARTS
PART I. -- Theology: Its Superstitions and Origin.
PART II. -- Rationalism: Its Philosophy and Ethics.
BY
ALETHEIA, M.D.,
Author of "A Rationalist Catechism," "The Agnostic's Primer," etc.
**** ****
"To the mind, as it develops in speculative power, the problem
of the universe suggests itself. What is it? and Whence comes it?
are questions that press for solution, when, from time to time, the
imagination rises above daily trivialities."
HERBERT SPENCER.
LONDON:
WATTS & CO., 17, JOHNSON'S COURT, FLEET ST.
1897.
**** ****
TO
A DEAR WIFE
THIS MANUAL IS AFFECTIONATELY
DEDICATED,
IN REMEMBRANCE OF JOINT EFFORTS
TO DISCOVER, AMID THE CONFLICTING
BELIEFS AND OPINIONS OF THE DAY,
WHAT IS TRUTH.
PREFACE.
Most of us have been born and bred under the influence of some
form of religious superstition, which was imposed upon us, from a
very proper sense of duty, by our parents. But parents, though
having complete control over the education of their children,
cannot commit them, when they arrive at years of discretion, to any
particular line of thought or opinion. If this were possible, in
what a state of appalling ignorance should we be now! The world
progresses, and why? Because knowledge progresses. Every generation
adds something to the knowledge of the preceding one. Our parents
acted up to their lights, and may their memories be held in honor
and esteem. But, when the enlightenment of the age causes us to
exchange the superstitions of our youth, instilled into us from our
infancy upwards, for something better, wiser, and more in
accordance with the advancement of science and knowledge, it
becomes necessary for us to test the teaching we have received, and
inform ourselves as to what we must reject and what we may safely
retain. It is all very well to say, "Study science and philosophy;"
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
1
THE RATIONALIST'S MANUAL.
but how many of us are in a position to do this? Only the limited
few. How are poor people, and those who have not had the advantage
of a scientific education, to know what is right and true? And if
we take from them that religious belief which has for so long
acted, not only as a power for good in the land, but as a
recognized motive to right living, we must give them something
definite in return. We must give them a better, higher, more real
motive for right living. This has been the object which the Author
has had in view in compiling the following pages. He has endeavored
to furnish sufficient information to enable the least pretentious
student to give a reason for the faith that is in him. The articles
are necessarily short, for he has confined himself as much as
possible to main points. He hopes that his critics will bear with
him in the difficult task he has undertaken; and if his little
manual helps even one inquirer to a knowledge of "what is truth,"
or assists in uniting, in however small a measure, individuals of
similar schools of thought, be they known as Freethinkers,
Rationalists, Secularists, Agnostics, or Atheists (for union is
strength), he will have obtained his reward. He wishes to express
his acknowledgment and indebtedness to the authors from whose works
he has so freely drawn.
The writer may be accused of dogmatism, but it is impossible
to teach without it. The Rationalist has nothing to say against
"dogmatism" itself; it is a dogmatism consisting of unverified and
unverifiable dogmas -- dogmas that must not be questioned or
inquired into, but be held on "faith" as "mysteries," that he
objects to. Let the dogmatism be one of truth, one that can bear
the light of day, that can be explained by human reason, and be
proved by indisputable evidence then the dogmatism is not only
justifiable, but essential.
CONTENTS.
INTRODUCTION.
PART I.
CHRISTIANISM: ITS SUPERSTITIONS AND ORIGIN.
THE SUPERNATURAL.
REVELATION.
THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS NOT ORIGINAL.
INSPIRATION.
MISTRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE TEXT.
SOME BIBLE LEGENDS.
The Creation.
The Two Accounts of the Story of Creation.
The "Fall of Man."
The Deluge.
The Tower of Babel, etc.
A FEW CONTRADICTIONS IN THE "INSPIRED TEXT."
THE CHRISTIAN MESSIAH; AND CONTEMPORARY HISTORY.
EVENTS IN THE LIFE, OF JESUS; MIRACLES, ETC.
ORIGIN OF THE BIBLE.
PRAYER.
WORSHIP, SACRIFICE, AND BAPTISM.
HEAVEN, HELL, GHOSTS, AND BOGIES.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
2
THE RATIONALIST'S MANUAL.
FUTURE LIFE.
CHRISTIAN SYMBOLS; THE CROSS, ETC.
ANCIENT FESTIVALS, SABBATHS, ETC.
ANCIENT GODS, TRINITIES, AND SCRIPTURES.
ORIGIN OF RELIGION (THEOLOGY).
ORIGIN OF THE WORD "CHRISTIAN."
THE FRUITS OF CHRISTIANISM.
PART II.
RATIONALISM: ITS PHILOSOPHY AND RULE OF LIFE.
RATIONALISM.
FIRST PRINCIPLES.
TRUTHS.
SOME DEFINITIONS.
KNOWLEDGE, BELIEF, FAITH, ETC.
THE CAUSE OF ALL.
LIFE.
ORIGIN OF LIFE.
EVOLUTION.
POLARITY.
ASCENT OF MAN.
DEATH AND DISSOLUTION.
MORALITY.
THE UNIVERSE.
THE EARTH; GEOLOGICAL EPOCHS, ETC.
THE SOLAR SYSTEM; SEASONS, ETC.
THE ANCIENT ZODIAC.
ETHICS AND CUSTOMS OF SOCIAL LIFE.
DUTY AND FAULT.
MAN'S MORAL CODE.
RATIONALIST SOCIETIES.
PUBLIC HOLIDAYS AND THEIR ORIGIN.
NAMING AND REGISTRATION OF CHILDREN.
MARRIAGE.
BURIAL OF THE DEAD.
FREEDOM OF THOUGHT AND SPEECH.
OATHS, AFFIRMATIONS, AND LAST WILL.
**** ****
THE RATIONALIST'S MANUAL.
INTRODUCTION.
OUR opening words in this Manual shall be an expression of
gratitude to Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace for their
discovery of the Origin of Species; to Thomas Henry Huxley for his
unrelenting protest against dogmatic creeds, and his victorious
controversy with the clergy, whose pretence to a knowledge of
things divine induced him to coin the term Agnosticism; to the
illustrious Herbert Spencer for the Synthetic Philosophy, which so
clearly demonstrates the truth of the evolution doctrine, and which
sweeps away the cobwebs of theology; and to the great cloud of
witnesses for Reason for the aid they have rendered, and the
disinterested sufferings they have borne, in the cause of liberty
of thought.
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
3
THE RATIONALIST'S MANUAL.
What have these pioneers of science fought for? Why have they
sacrificed time, money, domestic comfort, and popularity? Is it
possible, as the tongue of ignorance suggests, that these men have
devoted their lives and abilities to the deliberate uprooting of
religion and morality, by which society would be thrown into a
state of chaos, and a way of unlimited freedom opened up for the
working of wickedness? Certainly not. They have, indeed, striven to
uproot the evil plant which is variously called theology,
ecclesiastes, clericalism. But they have not striven to uproot
moral and intellectual truth.
And they did well to strike at the power of the priest. For
centuries the human mind has been fettered by the priestly chain.
The priest claimed the whole life. Scarcely had a child entered the
world when he lost his freedom in the rite of baptism; his will was
made captive by the representative of theology; he was educated in
the way of credulity, so that when he came to the age of Reason (or
what should have been Reason) he submissively accepted the priest's
dogmas as being of divine origin and supernaturally revealed.
Ninety-nine men out of every hundred have been satisfied to accept
the word of the priest for the truth of these dogmas, to yield
their souls up as slaves to clericalism, and swear allegiance to
the illegitimate authority of "The Church."
The questions which Rationalists fearlessly set themselves to
solve are: -- Is there any truth in the so-called Christian
"revelation" which has for so long a period maintained its hold
over the Western world? And, further, has any revelation of a
supernatural character ever taken place? Or, is the only revelation
which possesses any human value the revelation of natural science?
If a revelation had been made to the human race by a divine
and almighty being, we should be justified in expecting it to be
done in a manner clear, unmistakable, and evident to all, and it
would have had an irresistible claim upon our allegiance. But this
has not happened. On the contrary: instead of being furnished with
proofs, we are enjoined to ask no questions; we are told that doubt
is sin, and that we must reduce ourselves to a condition of
infantile dependence; we are bidden to accept all the statements
which the priestly dispensers of "revelation" choose to dole out to
us, however much opposed to reason, nature, and science. When we
examine the alleged revelation, we discover that it consists of a
series of legends, characterized by a morality which is frequently
atrocious, and by absurdities which rank with the tales of the
nursery. And we find that the divinity worshipped by the churches
is an imaginary figure, a fetish established for the benefit of the
clerical caste, and supported by the priesthood for mercantile
ends. It is time to cast off the bondage so long imposed upon us,
and snap the rod of hell so long held over our heads. We must
transfer our allegiance from God to Man. Instead of wasting our
time and energy in contemplating and appeasing a fictitious deity,
and obeying the selfish motive of desire for future reward, let us
dedicate our lives to the interests of the present world, to social
cooperation, to the study of natural science, to the explanation of
the phenomena that environs us, to the spread of knowledge and
happiness.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
4
THE RATIONALIST'S MANUAL.
The Christian myth is based on no valid evidence: it rests
only on the assumed "inspiration" of the Bible -- a collection of
ancient writings, most of them written no one knows when, where, or
by whom. Some people fear lest, if the Christian myth were
discarded, each individual would seize the liberty to do as he
liked, and give way to all kinds of libertinism, and repeat the
motto of the debauches, "Eat, drink, and be merry, for to-morrow we
die." But this very fear suggests the existence of an improper
motive to goodness, and that a selfish prudence and pious cunning
had been the only means to virtue furnished by Christianism. Shall
we admit that there can be any true spring of morality in the fear
of offending a deity who possesses the bad attributes of
vindictiveness, jealousy, and cruelty; and in the dread of losing
heaven and incurring the pains of hell? Such an inadequate motive
to right conduct leaves out of the consideration the welfare of our
fellow-men, and the desire to please and make others happy.
When asked to reject the unwarranted theory of a future life,
some experience a revulsion against the idea of not meeting again
those who have become endeared to them in the present life. But, if
it can be shown that we know, and can know, nothing of a world-to-
come, and that assertions on the subject are vain incursions into
the realm of the unknowable, our duty is to resign ourselves to the
solemn Inevitable. He who accepts the belief in Immortality does so
simply on the bare word of another man, who knows no more about the
mystery than himself. Is it right to believe what we cannot
possibly know, merely because other people believe it, or because
it yields irrational comfort? Why should we stake our happiness on
the chances of a visionary future, instead of realizing the
possibilities of a life which, if we develop it in defiance of the
dictates of orthodoxy, may yield so much profit and enjoyment? What
pleasure can we derive from speculating whether our departed
friends have succeeded in obtaining a place in Elysium; or whether,
having fallen short of the regulations laid down by the deity, they
have attained the Middle State of Purgatory, where a due amount of
suffering is officially meted out to them; or whether they (good
and amiable as they appeared to us) have had the misfortune to fall
under the divine displeasure, and are condemned to the eternal
flames of Hell? God is represented to us as being good and merciful
and omnipotent. Could he not, then, have made mankind perfect and
incapable of sin? For, if he had done this, the necessity for a
hell would never have arisen.
Christianism ridicules the superstition of the pagan, and
holds up its hands in sanctimonious horror at the worship of
natural objects. But is it more foolish to adore the glorious and
beneficent sun than to adore a being who has been built up out of
materials supplied by the human imagination? If you ask a
theologian where this creature of fancy exists, and on which of the
innumerable heavenly bodies he has pitched his residence, you get
no intelligible answer. Surely the various forms of Paganism were
as rational as (i.e., not more irrational than) the vague and
plagiarized creed of Christendom?
Can our words of scorn towards Christianism be justified? The
following pages will show.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
5
THE RATIONALIST'S MANUAL.
PART I.
CHRISTIANISM: ITS SUPERSTITIONS & ORIGIN.
______
THE SUPERNATURAL.
FROM the earliest ages man has believed in the supernatural.
Primitive man had no knowledge of the laws of nature and of their
uniformity; he had no conception of cause and effect, nor of the
indestructibility of force; ignorant of medical science, he
believed in charms, magic, amulets, and incantations. It never
occurred to the savage that disease was natural. Unacquainted with
chemistry, medieval man sought for the elixir of life in cunning
compounds, and hoped to discover the philosopher's stone which
should turn the baser metals into gold , unskilled in mechanics, he
has searched for an instrument which would produce perpetual motion
and keep up a ceaseless creation of force. The source of political
authority was traced to a supernatural will. For ages man's only
conception of morality was embodied in the idea of obedience, not
to the requirements of nature, but to the supposed commands of a
being superior to nature. Nature itself was supernatural to
primitive man, But gradually man's confidence in natural law has
increased with the growth of his knowledge; and the miraculous has
vanished from medicine, chemistry, etc. No divine whim is allowed
to confuse the laws of mechanics. The authority to make and execute
laws is recognized as proceeding from the will of the governed, and
not from an extra-mundane power. "Man," says Ingersoll, "should
cease to expect aid from a supernatural source, being satisfied
that the supernatural does not exist that worship has not created
wealth; that prosperity is not the child of prayer that the
supernatural has not succored the oppressed, clothed the naked, fed
the hungry, shielded the innocent, stayed the pestilence, or freed
the slave."
SUPERNATURAL REVELATION.
We should expect that a message divinely revealed to man would
be a unity, and not split into different portions; that each single
part would corroborate and confirm the others; that contradictions
would be absent; that the contents would be reconcilable with
science; and that its morality should be perfect. Now, does the
Christian revelation possess these characteristics? We shall find
that it does not possess one of them. Not only so, but its alleged
divine origin is attested by no reliable evidence, and its purely
human development can be distinctly traced. The sources of its
dogmas may be detected in the older religions of Babylonia, Persia,
Egypt, etc. In other words, the pretended revelation was borrowed
from Paganism. We find its leading myths, such as the supernatural
birth of a Savior, the slaughter of the Innocents, the temptation
in the wilderness, the performance of miracles, the death and
resurrection of the god, forming features in pre-christian
religions.
The very fact of there being more than one "revelation" is
sufficient to raise doubts in the minds of reasoning people as to
the validity of any of them. The particular "revelation" which the
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
6
THE RATIONALIST'S MANUAL.
average man accepts depends upon the accident of his birth, Creeds
follow geographical lines. If we happen to be born in Great Britain
or the British colonies, we adopt one of the many varieties of
Christianism; if in Turkey, Mohammedanism; if in China, Taoism, or
Confucianism, or Buddhism; if in India, Brahmanism; if in a certain
quarter of Bombay, Parseeism, etc. And each "revelation" claims
divine origin. The Mohammedan appeals to the Koran, the Parsee to
the Zend-avesta, the Taoist to the Tau-teh-king; the Buddhist to
his Tripitaka; the Brahman to his Vedas and the Christian to his
Bible. Though we observe in these phases of faith many resemblances
suggestive of borrowing and derivation, we also observe differences
in important details. Each counts itself orthodox, and regards the
rest as heretical or infidel. Our notion of truth or heresy,
therefore, is modified according to the locality of out birth and
the sphere of our education.
Christianity cannot boast an inner unity of its own. It is
divided into a bewildering array of sects. The Churches of Christ
differ from each other on more or less essential questions. In
these schisms they simply exemplify the contradictions presented by
their Scriptures. Yet, marvelous to say, the only point the sects
agree upon is the necessity of appeal to these very scriptures
which yield so many interpretations! In Roman Catholic countries
Protestant agents seek to make converts, a Protestant Bishop being
a short time ago consecrated for Catholic Madrid, while Roman
Catholic bishops map out dioceses in the midst of Protestant
populations. The Catholic churches insist on the duty of eating
their god; the Protestants regard this doctrine as an abomination.
The Christian revelation is blindly accepted on the assumption
that the Bible is inspired. We shall see if there exist solid
grounds for the assumption. Is the "revelation" reconcilable with
science? The researches and discoveries of modern science have laid
bare the fallacies upon which the Bible is founded, and the
erroneous opinions that run through it. They have demonstrated that
there is no such thing as instantaneous creation; that the present
cosmos has been gradually evolved from a preexistent one; that
matter is indestructible, eternal, fixed in quantity; that neither
man nor animals nor plants were called into being so recently as
6,000 years ago; that our ancestors lived millennia before the
supposed date of the creation; and that our race has ascended
through long processes of development from simple protoplasmic
cells. Genesis itself speaks with an uncertain voice. It contains
two separate stories of the creation, and they contradict one
another. The Genesis cosmogony is based upon mistaken ideas of the
universe, the shape and movements of the earth and sun, and their
mutual relations. And upon the truth of the occurrences reported in
Genesis rests the whole Christian theory of "Redemption." If the
"Fall" of man did not occur, sin did not enter the world by the
disobedience of Eve. And if Eve did not introduce the microbes of
sir, there is no sin-disease for all mankind to inherit; and,
consequently, there is no necessity for a Savior or Redeemer to
suffer the sacrifice entailed by the fault of the ancestors of the
race.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
7
THE RATIONALIST'S MANUAL.
Till a comparatively recent date Christianity taught the
Ptolemaic theory of the universe -- i.e., that the earth was the
center of a system of planets, and that the sun rose and set daily
over it. By order of the Congregation of the Holy Office, Giordano
Bruno was burned at the stake in 1600 for indulging in astronomical
speculations; for supporting the Copernican theory, the reason
given being because it was "contrary to the bible;" and for
suggesting that the Bible did not contain the whole of science. In
1616 Galileo was summoned before the Inquisition, and cawed by
threats for teaching new theories of the heavens. He was again
hauled up, at the age of seventy, for writing a book on the System
of the World, in which he proved the truth of the Copernican
theory, which is now accepted by all the civilized world. He was
made to kneel, and swear, with his hands on the gospels, that it
was not true that the earth moved round the sun, and that he would
never again spread the "damnable heresy." Here we have evidence of
two failures on the part of the Christian Church: it condemned the
thinkers, who maintained a theory of the universe now everywhere
admitted; and it publicly declared its conviction that the
Copernican theory ran counter to the science of the Bible.
Again, is Christianity sound in its moral teaching? The Yahuh
(Jehovah) of the Old Testament authorizes, directly or indirectly,
the burning of witches (Ex. xxii. 18), human sacrifice (Ex. xiii.),
slavery (Ex. xxi., xxv.), adultery (Gen. xii. 10), violation of
virgins (Mum. xxxi. 17), and many other acts of gross injustice.
The Jesus of the New Testament teaches improvidence by the precept
that no thought is to be taken for the morrow as to food, drink, or
clothing -- an injunction which is at variance with all prudence
and economic wisdom. He took part in encouraging the ignorant and
cruel method of treating disease as the work of demons. He
pretended to drive "unclean spirits" out of the poor lunatic who
spent his life among the tombs, and whom no man could bind with
chains. We are expected to believe that the devils asked to be sent
into a herd of swine, after which they ran violently down the hill
into the sea and were drowned. No mention is made of any recompense
having been made to the owner of the herd (numbering about 2,000),
and, as Jesus is said to have been in a chronically impecunious
state, we may assume that none was made. Another example of
injustice is exemplified in the statement, "Whosoever hath to him
shall be given, and he shall have abundance; but whosoever hath
not, from him shall be taken away even that which he hath." As
further cases, take the advice to offer the other cheek when
smitten -- a course which insults human dignity -- or the
admonition to hand over a second garment to the robber who has
despoiled you of your coat -- a direct premium on stealing. The
cursing of the barren fig-tree was a display of folly and childish
petulance. Immorality marks the prophecy of Jesus, which has only
too literally been fulfilled, that bloodshed should prepare the way
of Christian triumph. He said: "Think not that I am come to send
peace on earth, but a sword." In the fulfillment of this prophecy
fifty millions of people were destined to perish.
We may, therefore, accept it as proved that the "revelation"
which Christian priests offer for our acceptance is not of divine
origin, and that, in the words of Mr. S. Laing, "The subjects which
their theologians profess to have such an exact knowledge of are,
for the most part, subjects respecting which nothing is or can be
known." Christianism is nothing but "Paganism writ different" -- in
other words, it is Paganism modernized.
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
8
THE RATIONALIST'S MANUAL.
THE TEACHINGS OF JESUS CHRIST NOT
ORIGINAL.
We often hear of the beauty and charm of the teachings of
Jesus, and of the self-evidence of their divine source. But, on
investigation, we find that his doctrines do not bear the stamp of
originality. Nor did he so far value them himself as to put them
consistently into practice -- e.g., having taught his followers
that whosoever should call his brother a fool should be in danger
of hell-fire, he himself called the Pharisees fools, and so
unconsciously pronounced his own sentence!
If he had been a true Messiah, he would surely have utilized
the opportunity afforded him when the lawyer came and asked him,
before a large crowd, what he should do to inherit eternal life.
Yet what happened? Did the Son of God adduce any striking proof of
his divinity by enunciating new and wonderful precepts of wisdom
and morality? No he repeated, nearly word for word, certain maxims
which he had culled from the books of Deuteronomy and Leviticus.
The commands given in Matt. Vii. 22 and xxiii. 37-46 simply echo
the teachings of previous sages. Thus, Confucius, who lived some
550 years before Christ, uttered the words: "Do not to another what
you would not want done to yourself; thou hast need of this law
alone; it is the foundation of all the rest"; and "Acknowledge thy
benefits by return of other benefits, but never avenge injuries."
The so-called "Lord's Prayer" is merely a reiteration of similar
prayers in the Jewish Talmud. The conversation between Jesus and
Nicodemus echoes the teaching of Krishna in the Hindu poem of the
Bhagavat-Gita. The doctrine of the water that removes thirst for
ever has its parallel in Hindu mythology, and Philo had already
taught it as follows: "The Word (Logos) is the fountain of
life...... it is of the greatest consequence to every person to
strive without remission to approach the divine Word of God above,
who is the fountain of all wisdom, that, by drinking largely of
that sacred spring, instead of death, he may be rewarded with
everlasting life." Many other passages in the Fourth Gospel show
dependence on the non-Christian works of Philo.
INSPIRATION OF THE BIBLE.
This is, as Mr. Laing remarks, "a theory which breaks down
when tested by the ordinary rules of criticism, and examined
impartially by the light of modern knowledge." As before pointed
out, no inspired writing should be self-contradictory, or contain
false statements; and the Bible suffers from both these marks of
fallibility.
The Bible comprises a Hebrew and a Christian portion, both
being, as regards the bulk of their contents, of unknown
authorship. Both are accepted by Christians as inspired, it being
popularly supposed that the New Testament contains the fulfillment
of the types and prophecies of the Old. The most important theme of
the Old Testament is that of the Creation and Fall; and the leading
topic of the New is the career of the Christian Savior who appeared
as the propitiation for the sin which occurred at the beginning of
human history.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
9
THE RATIONALIST'S MANUAL.
Now, the Bible not only makes mistakes in matters of science,
but it puts forward two contradictory accounts of the Creation.
These are given in the first and second chapters of Genesis, and
they disagree in nearly every detail. If such errors occur in one
historical particular, they may occur elsewhere. The whole theory
of inspiration is vitiated and our confidence disappears. The more
we read the Bible, the more convinced we feel of its lack of
clearness and authority and educative value. Had it been divinely
inspired, we may be sure it would have taken the form of
unimpeachable history and logical instruction, so that no doubt
could or would have arisen in the mind of the most cultured reader,
If we are born tainted with original sin, and if that sin is
removable, means would have been taken to impart to the world the
mode of salvation, and this in such a way that conviction of its
truth would follow immediately on hearing or reading. What, on the
contrary, has occurred? We hear of miracles having been performed
in cases where they were not needed; and we find them absent in
circumstances where they might have rendered real aid. Surely, if
miracles could have been worked for such trifling purposes as the
provision of wine for wedding guests, we might have expected some
miraculous intervention to secure the general acceptance of the
Bible canon. Where is our certainty? Books once regarded with
suspicion now find an honored place in the Bible; and books once
included in the sacred collections of the early churches are now
cast into outer darkness. We are left, in this happy-go-lucky
manner, to ascertain the mode of redemption from a sin which we did
not commit, but yet have to incur the penalty for. The divine
message, instead of being published in the sight of all men, has
been inscribed on old parchments hidden away in all sorts of holes
and corners, as if the very authors had been ashamed of their
productions. These parchments are, in some instances, old skins
from which pagan manuscripts had been partially erased before the
"Word of God" was written on them by Christian pens. Is this the
way in which a good and just God would treat mankind? It does not
seem reasonable. Goodness and justice, forsooth! Look at the
attitude which, according to the New Testament itself, God adopts
towards the race he has created. Jesus tells his followers that,
before some of them taste of death, he will return (of course, he
did not) on clouds of glory and in the day of vengeance. Vengeance!
A jealous and revengeful God will return to wreak his anger upon
the helpless creatures, who are guiltless of the responsibility of
the sin of their "first parents," and whose appearance on this
planet at all he might have mercifully prevented!
MISTRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE TEXT.
The current translations in this country are known as the
Authorized and the Douay versions, the latter having been rendered
into English from the Latin. The authorized version of the time of
James I. was so erroneously executed that a revised translation was
called for a few years ago. Though more correct than its
predecessor, this is still marred by many faulty readings; and some
interpolations, admitted as suspicious by the revisers themselves,
are suffered to remain. An instance of these interpolations will be
found in the last chapter of the Mark-gospel, from verse 9 to the
end.
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Then, again, the language has been so manipulated as to induce
the reader to believe that the Jews were monotheists or worshippers
of one God only, and to render obscure the immortal character of
Yahuh (the "Lord"). Elohim (literally the gods) is rendered God,
and Yahuh Elohim (literally Yahuh of the Gods) is rendered Lord
God. Jephthah, who sacrificed his daughter because she came to
greet him, argues with the Amorites that every nation is entitled
to what its national God bestows upon it (Judges ii. 24). The
sixty-eighth Psalm is positively a song to the Sun-God! It opens
with the invocation, "Let God arise" (literally, "Let the Mighty
One arise"), and bids all inferior creatures "cast up a highway for
him that rideth through the heavens by his name Yah." The frequent
references to sun-gods under various names are all disguised by the
English version. The title Adonai, the Phoenician name for the sun-
god, is, when it occurs single, translated "the Lord;" but, when it
is met with in conjunction with Yahuh or Elghiin, "the Lord God."
Psalm cx. i ought to read "Yahuh said to Adonai (or "to our
Adonis"), Sit at my right hand." The popular deity of Thebes, Amen-
Ra, is met with in the Psalms as "Ammon" (the hidden sun). He is
one with Adonai; with "the Stygian Jupiter" when he descended to
the lowest point of his annual declination in December; with the
Olympian Zeus, rising to his highest point of ascension in June;
and with the Jupiter Ammon, worshipped as the hidden or occult God,
and reappearing in the sign "Aries" (see Is. xlv. 15). The name
"Ammon" in Is. lxv. 16 is twice wrongly rendered "the God of
Truth," instead of "the God Ammon." This deity is again alluded to
in Ps. x. 1, where "Lord" ought to read "Yahuh," and again in Ps.
lxxxix, 46, "Yahuh, how long wilt thou hide thyself?" and verse 52,
"Blessed be Yahuh for ever more (who is) Ammon, even Ammon." The
name Ammon, in its shortened form of "Amen," found its way later
into the Greek language, and was used in the sense of truly. In the
Apocalypse the word is written with "Ho" prefixed, when it is
rendered "The Amen," a senseless expression. In Rev. iii. 4 we
ought to read "These things, saith Ammon, the true and faithful
witness."
Another name for the Hebrew sun-god is Shaddai, sometimes
conjoined with the prefix El, Bel (the Babylonian sun-god), and
Baal (the Syrian). Yahuh, or Yahweh, is usually written "Jehovah,"
which does not convey to the mind any idea of the true Hebrew
pronunciation of Yahouyeh. The name was pronounced by the Semites
generally (by whom Yahuh was worshipped) as Yahuh, Yahu, or Yho. In
the reign of the Assyrian King Sargon II. the throne of Hamath was
occupied by Yahou-behdi, which name literally means the "Servant of
Yahuh." The Phoenicians venerated this deity also, for in the
inscriptions of Assur-bani-pal, another Assyrian King, we read that
the name of the then crown-prince of Tyrenus Yahu-melek = "Yahuh is
my King." On a coin from Gaza of the fourth century B.C., now in
the British Museum, is a figure of a deity in a chariot of fire,
over whose head is written Yho in old Phoenician characters. But
Yahuh held only a subordinate position in the general mythology of
the Semites, and he only owes his notoriety to the fact that he was
chosen as the patron deity of the Beni-Israel. The word Ashera or
Asherah is admitted in the preface to the Revised Bible to be
"uniformly and wrongly rendered grove" in the authorized version.
Why this misleading device? In order, probably, to conceal the
gross character of the thing signified. The Ashera was an upright
stone, and was undoubtedly a Phallic (sexual) emblem.
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The "two angels," who are represented as appearing to Lot in
the city of Sodom, are, in the original text, gods. Adam's demon-
wife, Lilith, has been suppressed in Isaiah xxxiv. 14, and the
meaningless expression, "the night monster," substituted.
Jesus, pronounced in Hebrew Yezua, was a very common name. The
Jesus of the New Testament was, to a large extent, a mythical
personage, being a personification of the sun-god and Savior --
Bacchus, the Phoenician Ies, identical with the Hindu Krishna or
Christna, the Persian Mithra, the Egyptian Horus, and other sun-
gods. After the captivity the name was interchanged with Joshua or
Yahoshua -- the successor of Moses; in the Greek it was Yesous and
Jason. In the authorized version it was rendered Jesus (Acts vii.
45, Heb. iv. 8), but in the revised version it is rendered Joshua
-- the "same word rendered Jeshua in Nehemiah viii. 17. The idea
connected with the word Jesus, and with the letters I H S and I E
E S, was Phallic vigor.
The word repent has been in the Douay version wrongly rendered
through the Latin do penance.
We shall now examine some of the many renderings of the Hebrew
word Ruach, and shall see how they illustrate ecclesiastical
ingenuity in building up a system of ghosts, and even a theory of
Apostolic succession!
The word rendered Ghost, Holy Ghost, and Spirit in the New
Testament is the Greek word Pneuma, which is the equivalent of
Ruach in the Hebrew of the Old Testament. Both words mean air in
motion or breath. Ruach is rendered in Gen. iii. 8, "in the cool of
the evening;" in Gen. viii. 1 as "wind;" and in Gen. i. 2 Ruach
Elohini is translated "the spirit of God," but, literally rendered,
it should be "the breath of the gods." In the Latin Vulgate, from
which the Catholic or Douay translation is made, pneuma is rendered
"spiritus," from Spiro = I breathe. When the Bible was translated
from the Latin into Anglo-Saxon, "spiritus" was rendered gast. In
the Middle English gast became goost and gost, approaching very
near to, and probably derived from, the old German geist, which is
the present equivalent of pneuma, spiritus, and ruach. If these
words mean breath in Genesis, they also mean breath in the New
Testament.
"Jesus gave up the Ghost," "the Holy Ghost shall come upon
thee," and "receive ye the Holy Ghost," etc., are all
mistranslations. In Luke iv. 1 the same word pneuma is rendered
differently: "And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost (pneuma) ...
was led by the Spirit (pneuma)," In Luke viii. 55 the same word
again is rendered spirit, instead of breath. These are only a few
of the inaccuracies to be found. And thus the various translations
of the Bible, instead of being executed in a spirit of scholarly
candor, have only testified to the theological bias of the
translators.
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SOME BIBLE LEGENDS.
A cursory notice of the stories of "Creation" and "Fall of
Man," "the Deluge," and the "Tower of Babel" (all of Babylonian
origin), with a few remarks on the New Testament, will suffice to
show the kind of literature that educated men are asked by
Christians to accept as "inspired."
THE CREATION STORY. ERRORS OF FACT.
1. "The earth was without form and void." Every object has
form, which is an essential of material existence. Void means empty
or vacant. To speak of the earth as being -- i.e., existing,
occupying space, and yet void -- is a direct contradiction. 2.
First day. -- "Light and darkness" created and "divided" from each
other. Light and darkness could not be created, for every educated
person knows that they are both produced by the relative position
of the earth with regard to the sun; but the sun is not created
till the fourth day; and light and darkness could not be divided,
for they were never mixed. The writer was obviously ignorant of the
nature and property of light, and would have been much surprised
had he been told that it is radiant energy transmitted from the sun
through the ethereal medium of the universe in vibratory waves. 3.
Second day. -- "A firmament in the midst of the waters" created.
The writer evidently is laboring under the delusion that the earth
was flat and occupied a position in the center of the universe. In
the old Vedic cosmology the world was round and supported on
columns; that of the Hindus was convex, and was supported on
elephants which stood on an immense tortoise. 4. Third day. -- The
vegetable kingdom created -- Grass, herbs, fruit trees, yielding
fruit" -- mosses, trees, insectivorous plants (though insects are
not yet created), and flowing plants without insects to fertilize
them. All this without a ray of sunshine, and without an atom of
chlorophyll to give color to the plants, leaves, and flowers. 5.
Fourth day. -- "The sun to rule the day, and the stars to rule the
night." Here is evidence that the writer was a planet worshipper.
He was unaware of the fact that it is to the sun that we are
indebted for light and vegetation. 6. Fifth day. -- "Whales,
fishes, and birds" created. The water population first, the winged
population second, and the land population third. Here is an error
again, for science proves that a part of the water population
appeared first, the land population second, and the winged popula-
tion last. 7. Sixth day. -- "Insects, reptiles, cattle, man"
created. Insects and reptiles are proved by science to have been
evolved thousands, possibly millions, of years before man. 8.
Discrepancies in the two stories. -- The first account (the
Elohistic) in Genesis extends from i. i to ii. 3, when the second
account (the Yahvistic) commences, and extends to the end of the
chapter. The word Elohim (plural), meaning the gods or the mighty
ones, is used in the first account; the words Yahuh Elohim,
erroneously rendered Lord God, meaning Yahuh of the Gods, are used
in the second account.
In parallel columns we shall expose the discrepancies of the
two Creation stories: --
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GENESIS i. to ii. 3. GENESES ii. 4 to end.
1. The appellation of 1. The appellation of deity
deity is uniformly "Elohim" is uniformly "Yahuh Elohim"
(the gods), rendered God. (Yahuh of the gods), rendered
Lord God.
2. The portion of the 2. It is called "the
universe beyond the earth is heavens."
called "the heaven."
3. The earth, a chaos 3. The earth is a dry
covered with water. The waters plain. Vegetation cannot exist
must be assuaged before because there is no moisture
vegetation can appear. (ii. 5).
4. Plants are created 4. Plants appear to be
from the earth generally confined to the Garden of Eden
(i. 12). (ii. 8, 9).
5. Fowls, fish, and 5. Fowls and land animals
aquatic animals form one created at the same time in one
act of creation, land animals creative act (ii. 19).
and reptiles another
(i. 21-25).
6. Fowls created out of 6. Fowls created out of the
the water (i. 20). ground (ii. 19).
7. Trees created before 7. Trees created after man
man (i. 12-27). (ii. 7, 8).
8. Fowls created before 8. Fowls created after man
man. (ii. 19).
9. Man created after 9. Man created before
beasts (i. 24-31). beasts (ii. 7-19).
10. Man and woman created 10. Woman created after man
at the same time (i. 27). with a considerable interval
between.
11. Man created in the 11. This is not intimated.
image of God." It is only after Adam and Eve
have partaken of the tree of
knowledge that "God" is led to
say: "The man is become as one
of us."
12. Man at the creation 12. He is given fruit
given fruit and herbs to alone, and only after he sins
subsist upon (i. 29). and the curse is pronounced
upon him is he ordered to "eat
the herb of the field," as a
consequence of his "fall"
(iii.18).
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13. Man given dominion 13. Man confined to a
over all the earth (i. 26). garden (ii. 15).
14. The heavens and the 14. No mention made of the
earth created in six literal six days' creation. On the
days. contrary, the account mentions
"the day that the Lord God made
the earth and the heavens"
(ii. 4).
15. The purpose of this 15. Contains no recognition
story appears to be to of the Sabbath. The purpose
inculcate the divine appears to be to establish the
institution of the Sabbath. doctrine of the Fall of Man.
16. Anthropomorphic 16. Absent.
conception of God present.
17. Elohim comprises 17. Yahuh is a deity in one
two separate beings -- body, both sexes combined.
male and female.
18. God from his throne 18. God comes down on
in heaven calls various earth, plants a garden, molds
elements into being -- man out of clay, breathes into
"Let the earth bring forth his nostrils, fashions woman
...... and it was so." out of a rib, makes birds and
animals, and brings them to
Adam to see what he will call
them.
19. Though not in accord 19. Is destitute of
with science, possesses scientific and literary merit.
literary merit.
These two accounts can neither be reconciled with each other,
nor be made to harmonize with science. Dean Stanley says "The first
and second chapters of Genesis contain two narratives, differing
from each other in almost every particular of time, place, and
order."
THE FALL OF MAN.
This story is about as foolish and illogical a legend as that
of the Creation. Here we have presented to us a pair of human
beings, who have no "knowledge of good and evil," and are commanded
by the deity (literally, the gods) not to eat a certain fruit which
would give them that knowledge, and which a wise deity would
naturally have allowed them to eat, if, thereby, they would know
good from evil. They ate the fruit, and the deity, in fright
because man has now "become as one of us" (plural) -- i.e., having
equal power with gods -- comes hurrying down from his throne in
heaven, and curses not only Adam, Eve, and the serpent, but even
the ground. The first three are condemned to certain punishments,
in which their innocent posterity are to participate. These
legendary punishments have, of ,course, never been fulfilled. Man
was to "eat bread by the sweat of his face," which we know all men
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THE RATIONALIST'S MANUAL.
do not do. Woman was to "bring forth children in sorrow and
multiplied conceptions;" many perform this function of nature
without sorrow, and some actually with pleasure, and the process in
the human female is only similar to what may be observed every day
among the cattle and beasts, who have never been "cursed," and
whose conceptions are conspicuously "multiplied." The Serpent was
doomed to glide on his belly and consume a diet of "dust." Serpents
have crawled ever since they were evolved as reptiles, and they do
not eat "dust."
Leaving out of view the peevish and undignified action of the
Hebrew deity, what shall we say to the patent injustice and
incongruity of the punishment? The innocent serpent and all future
serpents cursed because the devil pretended to be a serpent; the
guilty devil getting off scot free, and permitted to roam about the
world to do further mischief; and all mankind condemned to bear the
burden of Original Sin as an after-effect of this one trivial act
of disobedience, the theft of a fruit! For such a theft in the
present day a human and uninspired magistrate would mete out,
perhaps, a day's imprisonment; but here we have a deity,
represented to us by himself and his followers as all-good, all-
wise, benevolent, merciful, and forgiving, condemning the whole
human race to a punishment far in excess of any sin that could be
remitted by man, and utterly disproportionate with the offence.
Then we are told that man was made in "the image and likeness of
God" -- who, we are also told, "has no image nor likeness" -- "no
form nor parts." The fact is, instead of man being made in the
image and likeness of God," the god that man desires to worship has
been made in his own image and likeness, and the originators of the
story, in their primeval ignorance and credulity, drew the
inconsistent materials of the legend from the store of their own
anthropomorphic fancy. The deity at first pronounces all his
"creations" "good," and afterwards repents of having made man. It
might be difficult to conceive a deity of infinite wisdom and
knowledge regretting his work, but not so difficult when we
consider that he was also given to changing his mind; for do we not
find him laying down at one time (Leviticus xxiv. 20) the theory of
"an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth" as a principle, and at
another Matthew (v. 38) the reverse? Yet, unless Christians accept
all this tissue of contradictions, their theory of redemption falls
to the ground like a house of cards.
"The discovery and decipherment of the Assyrian records," says
Mr. Edwards, (Witness of Assyria, p. 9.) "have raised the curtain
upon forgotten dramas of the earth's history, and have removed the
Jewish writings from the solitary position they once occupied. We
have now before us the voluminous literature of a race allied to
the Jews in blood, creed, thought, and language. The stories of
Creation, Deluge, and Tower of Babel are shown to be Babylonian;
the ritual, dress, and furniture of the Temple were Babylonian; and
the religious poetry of the Hebrews is anticipated by that of
Babylon. The history and chronology of the Hebrew scriptures are
proved faulty and unreliable, and the whole evidence at command
supports the opinion of critics as to the very late date of the
Jewish literature."
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During the explorations of the ancient cities of Assyria and
Babylonia a number of clay tablets have been discovered, containing
accounts of Creation, Flood, and Tower of Babel. They are written
in cuneiform (wedge-shaped) characters, in the form of epic poems.
The story of Creation occupies seven tablets, and gives two
accounts, which are now called the "Akkadian" and the "Babylonian."
Tablets have also been discovered amid the ruins of the ancient
city of Tel-el-Amarna, in Egypt, evidently relics of an ancient
library containing the official correspondence between the King of
Egypt and the officers and sovereigns of Assyria, Babylonia, and
other Asiatic countries; one was also discovered among the ruins of
Lachish in Southern Palestine. The decipherment of these may be
looked upon as one of the wonderful discoveries of our age; for, by
this, the origin of the two contradictory accounts of Creation
given in Genesis, which before was a puzzle, is now disclosed. The
Babylonian account is identical with the Elohistic, relating how
the creation of the world took place by successive stages, man
being the final act; the Akkadian is identical with the Yavistic,
man being created before plants and animals. The first tablet opens
with a description of chaos: "At that time the heaven above had not
yet announced, or the earth beneath recorded, a name. The unopened
deep was their generator; Mummu-Tiamat (the chaos of the sea) was
the mother of them all. Their waters were embosomed as one, and the
cornfield was unharvested. The pasture was ungrown. At that time
the gods had not appeared, any of them ...... no destiny had they
fixed. Then the great gods were created."
THE DELUGE -- The twelve tablets in which this legend appears
correspond with the twelve signs of the zodiac and the twelve
months of the Akkadian year, and describe the exploits of the
Chaldean Hercules-Gilgames. The story is told by the Chaldean Noah-
Tamzi, Izduhar, or Hasisadra (Xisuthros of Berosus, and in Semitic
-- Shamas napisti -- the "Sun of Life") -- to Gilgames, in the
eleventh tablet. This flood lasted six days and nights. The story
tells how, at the end of the Flood, Tamzi looked out of his ship
and saw that "mankind was turned to clay; like reeds the corpses
floated." Relating how he was commissioned by the gods to save
himself and family, he says: "I alone was the servant of the great
gods. Their father, Anu, their king; their counsellor, the warrior
Bel; their throne-bearer, the god Uras; their prince, En-nugi; and
Hea, the Lord of the Underworld, repeated their decree. I this
destiny hearing, Hea said to me: Destroy thy house and build a
ship, for I will destroy the seed of life." Instructions are then
given as to the size of the ship, which eventually landed on Mount
Nizor (Mount Rowandiz) -- the Akkadian Olympus. In the Hindu legend
of the flood a rainbow appeared on the surface of the subsiding
water, the ark or ship resting on the Himalayas. In the ancient
Greek legend Deucalion is the hero, and the ship rested on Mount
Parnassus. The Chinese, Parsees, Scandinavians, Mexicans, and other
ancient nations, also had similar legends. The Biblical legend, and
the older legend from which it took its rise (probably during the
captivity), may have been founded on a real occurrence in the
Tigris-Euphrates valley. A flood of considerable extent may have
been originated by the usual periodical rise of the two great
rivers, which took place in the eleventh month of the Chaldean
year; and was caused probably by a combination of accidental
circumstances favorable to the event -- a typhoon in the Indian
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ocean and a favorable wind. Noah's ark was 150 yards long by 25
feet wide, and 15 feet high. In this ark were crammed pairs,
sevens, or fourteens of every living thing. There are already known
at least 1,600 species of mammalia, 12,500 of birds, 600 of
reptiles, and 1,000,000 of insects and other inferior creatures,
besides animalcule. These came from all parts of the earth. The
South American sloth, it is calculated, must have started several
years before the Creation to have been there in time. The voyage
lasted over a year (compare Genesis vii. 11 and vii. 14,) Eight
persons attended to the wants of some two million living creatures,
and Noah provided food for all of them! The flood is said to have
covered the whole earth, so that it must have risen higher than 5
1/2, miles -- the height of the highest mountain, Mount Everest --
about 2 1/2 miles above the level of the top of Mount Ararat, on
which the ark is said to have filially rested! The injustice of
drowning all created beings because the Creator had made one
species imperfect is obvious.
THE TOWER OF BABEL is said to have been named so "because the
Lord did there confound the language of all the earth," and we have
always been given to understand that the name "Babel" is derived
from balal, to confound; but this is altogether erroneous. The
"inspired" writer must have been romancing! We now know, from the
tablets that have been found among the ruins of Babylon, the exact
form of the name by which its inhabitants called it Bab-ilu = the
gate of God, (Witness of Assyria," P- 37.) sometimes written with
two signs -- a gate and god; and there can, therefore, be no
mistake about it. The Hebrew bears the same interpretation without
any forced etymology -- Babel = the gate of God. The place was not
founded by Semitic Babylonians, but by the Akkadians, and it was
neither a city nor a town, but a temple, consisting of seven
platforms, each being tinted a different color, and dedicated to
the seven planets, the topmost one being dedicated to the moon. It
was called by the Semitic invaders Ca-dimorra, the gate of God thus
being translated by them into their own tongue. The story of the
confusion of languages was a theory born in the imagination of the
writer of the "inspired text." So much for the veracity and
"inspiration" of Genesis xiv. 9.
We have neither time nor space to do more than mention some of
the other chief absurd stories and legends found in the Bible, in
many of which immoral teaching is very conspicuous. The stories of:
DANIEL AND THE LION'S PIT (Daniel vi.) and the injustice to
the Royal officers, their wives and families, allowed by the Hebrew
god. The same power that saved the God-fearing and divinely-
protected Daniel could have prevented the in justice of punishing
the innocent wives and children of the officers who were simply
carrying out their orders, for a fault they did not commit. THE
EXODUS FROM EGYPT (Exodus vii.), the writer of which was evidently
familiar with a similar legend of the Sun-god Bacchus; for Orpheus,
the earliest Greek poet, relates that Bacchus had a rod with which
he drew water from a rock, and performed miracles, and which he
could change into a serpent at pleasure; and that he passed through
the Red Sea dry shod at the head of his army. That Pharaoh and his
host should have been drowned in the Red Sea, and the fact not be
mentioned by any historian of the period, is incredible; but such
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THE RATIONALIST'S MANUAL.
is the case. RECEIPT OF THE DECALOGUE by Moses (Exodus xix.).
Almost every nation of antiquity had a legend of their holy men
ascending a mountain to ask counsel of their gods. Minos, the
Cretan law-giver, ascended Mount Dicta and received from Zeus the
sacred laws. A similar legend is told of Zoroaster, to whom Ormuzd
handed "The Book of the Law" -- the "Zend Avesta." SAMSON'S SIX
EXPLOITS (Judas xiv. and xv.) are culled from the exploits of
Hercules and lzdubar. JONAH AND THE FISH (Jonah i. and ii.), where
he is thrown from a ship and swallowed up by a whale, in whose
stomach he remained alive three days and nights, during which time
he offered up a prayer to Yahuh, apparently composed of odd bits
taken from the Psalms. When Yahuh spoke to the whale, it vomited
Jonah on to dry land, alive and well! The truth of this story is
guaranteed by Jesus, in Matthew xii. 40. ELIJAH ASCENDING IN A
WHIRLWIND. THE RE-ANIMATION OF DRY BONES to form a large army
(Ezekiel xxxvii.).The TALKING ASS (Numbers xxii,); the TALKING
SERPENT (Genesis iii.); and the TALKING CLOUD (Exodus xxxiii.). The
ARMY OF DEAD MEN, wakening up and finding themselves dead corpses
(2 Kings xix.). THE GOING BACK OF THE SUN to guarantee the efficacy
of a fig poultice (2 Kings xx.), and the STANDING STILL. OF THE SUN
one whole day, until the people had avenged themselves upon their
enemies (Joshua x.). THE GIANTS generated by the sons of God with
the women of the earth -- becoming "mighty men and men of renown"
(Genesis vii.). THE FLOATING IRON AXE-HEAD (2 Kings vi.). THE RIVAL
GODS in the house of Dapon; the Jewish god being in a box (i Samuel
v.). The RAISING OF THE SPIRITS OF THE DEAD by means of the witch
of Endor (i Samuel xxviii.). (Where are the witches of the present
day?) The DESTRUCTION OF 600 PHILISTINES with an ox-goad, by one
man (judges iii.). MOSES turning the water of the river into blood
with his magic rod (Exodus vii.), and DESCRIBING HIS OWN DEATH
(Deuteronorny xxiv.). AARON'S PLAGUE OF FROGS, produced by
stretching his hands over the waters of Egypt (Exodus viii.).
These are specimens of absurd legends, which, with the
abominable immoralities of the Pentateuch, form part of the Holy
Scriptures, the same "inspired word" which Jesus "expounded" to his
followers, and which he told them were able to make them wise unto
salvation (Luke xxiv. 25); and "given by inspiration of God" (2
Timothy iii. 15), "as profitable for doctrine, reproof, correction,
and instruction in righteousness;" and for the non-acceptance of
which he reproves them (Luke xvi. 31; John vi. 39, 46); and
containing "the Law," which he said he had "not come to destroy" --
"the Law," with the Jews, being the Pentateuch."
The New Testament upholds the innumerable atrocities of the
Old, and adds worse terrors and atrocities of its own in the shape
of eternal torments (Matthew V. 28; xviii. 8; xxiii. 32 3. xxv. 41;
Mark ix. 43); a minute description being given of Hell by Christ to
the multitude (Luke xvi. 23), and by "John the Divine;" and the
rejoicing of the saints over the sufferings of the tormented
(Revelation xiv. 9, 11; xix. 1-4, 20; xx. 1-3, 10). The way to life
made by a beneficent Creator, we are told (Matthew vii. 14), is
"narrow," and to be found by "few,;" that "many" of his own
creations, which he pronounced to be "very good," are called by
this loving Creator "but few chosen " (Matthew xxii. 13; Luke xiii.
23). This Hell, as described in Revelation xxi. 8, xxii. 15" 1
Corinthians vi. 9, is for those "that know not God" (2
Thessalonians 1. 7), for those who describe a fool correctly
(Matthew v. 22), for unbelief, and for the rich.
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THE RATIONALIST'S MANUAL.
A FEW CONTRADICTIONS TAKEN FROM THE
"INSPIRED WORD."
Adam condemned to a prompt death.
"But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt
not eat; for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely
die" (Gen. ii. 17).
Yahuh pleased with his work.
"And God saw everything that he had made, and behold it was
very good" (Gen. i. 31)
Does not repent.
"God is not a man that he should lie; neither the son of man
that he should repent" (Num. xxiii. 19).
Lives 930 years.
"And all the days that Adam lived were nine hundred and thirty
years, and he died" (Gen. v. 5).
Displeased with his world.
"And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth,
and it grieved him at his heart" (Gen. vi. 6).
Does repent.
"And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil
way; and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do
unto them" (Jonah iii. 10).20
Unchangeable.
"For I am the Lord; I change not" (Mal, iii. 6).
Peaceful.
"God is not the author of confusion, but of peace" (i
Cor. xiv. 33).
Merciful.
"The Lord is good to all, and his tender mercies are over all
his work" (Ps. cxlv. 9).
"The lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy" (Jas. v. 11).
"For his mercy endureth for ever" (i Chron. xvi. 34).
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THE RATIONALIST'S MANUAL.
Visible.
"And the Lord spake to Moses face to face, as a man speaketh
to his friend" (Ex. xxiii. 11).
"For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved"
(Gen. xxxii. 30).
"And I will take away mine hand, and thou shalt see my back
parts, but my face shall not be seen" (Ex. xxii. 23).
Changeable.
"Therefore the Lord God of Israel saith, I said indeed that
thy house, and the house of thy father, should walk before me for
ever; but now the Lord sayeth, be it far from me ... Behold, the
days come that I will cut off thine arm, and the arm of thy
father's house" (i Sam. ii. 30).
Warlike.
"The Lord is a man of war" (Ex. xv. 3).
"Think ye that I am come to give peace on earth? I tell you
no, but a sword [division]" (Luke xii. 51).
Unmerciful.
I will not pity, nor spare, nor have mercy, but destroy them"
(Jer. xiii. 14).
"And Joshua did unto them as the Lord bade him. He houghed
their horses, and burnt their chariots with fire ... and smote all
the souls that were therein, with the edge of the sword, utterly
destroying them" (Josh. xi. 9).
"For ye have kindled a fire in mine anger that shall burn for
ever" (Jer. xvii. 4).
"And the Lord said unto Moses, take all the heads of the
people, and hang them up before the Lord against the Sun, that the
fierce anger of the Lord may be turned away from Israel" (Num. xxv.
4).
Invisible.
"No man hath seen God at any time" (John i. 18).
Rests and is refreshed.
"For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, and on the
seventh day he rested and was refreshed" (Ex. xxxi. 17).
Omnipresent.
"Whither shall I flee from thy presence? If I ascend up into
heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art
there. If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the
uttermost parts of the sea; even there shall thy hand lead me, and
thy right hand shall hold me" (Ps. cxxxix. 7).
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THE RATIONALIST'S MANUAL.
Omniscient.
"For his eyes are upon the ways of man and he seeth all his
goings, there is no darkness nor shadow of death, where the workers
of iniquity may hide themselves" (Job xxxiv. 21).
All-powerful.
"With God all things are possible" (Matt. xix. 26).
Impartial.
"There is no respect of persons with God" (Rom. ii. 11).
Of truth.
"A God of truth he is, and without iniquity" (Deut. xxxii. 4).
Is never tired.
"Hast thou not heard that the everlasting God, the Lord, the
creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary
(Is. xi. 28).
Not omnipresent.
"And the Lord said, because of the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah
is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down
now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry
of it which is come unto me, and if not, I will know" (Gen. xviii.
20).
Not omniscient.
"And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the
Lord God, among the trees of the garden" (Gen. iii. 8).
Not all-powerful.
"And the Lord was with Judah, and he drove out the inhabitants
of the mountain, but could not drive out the inhabitants of the
valley, because they had chariots of iron" (judges i. 19).
Partial.
"For the children being not yet born, neither having done any
good or evil, that the purpose of God, according to election, might
stand, ... it was said unto her, the elder shall serve the younger.
As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated" (Rom.
ix. 11).
Of untruth.
"And there came forth a spirit and stood before the Lord and
said ... I will go forth, and I will be a lying spirit in the mouth
of all his prophets. And be said ... go forth and do so" (i Kings
xxii. 21).
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THE RATIONALIST'S MANUAL.
Of Justice and rectitude.
"Just and right is he" (Deut. xxxii. 4).
"Shall not the judge of all the earth do right?" (Gen. xviii.
25).
Is love.
"And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us.
God is love" (i John iv. 16).
His anger lasts but a moment.
"His anger endureth but a moment" (Ps. xxx. 5).
Requires burnt offerings.
"Thou shalt offer every day a bullock for a sin offering for
atonement" (Ex. xxix, 36).
"And the priest shall burn all on the altar to be a burnt
sacrifice, an offering made by fire, of a sweet savoir unto the
Lord" (Lev. i. 9).
Tempts no man.
Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for
God cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempteth he any man (James
i. 13).
Of injustice and wrong.
"For I the Lord thy God am a jealous God, visiting the
iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth
generation" (Exod. xx. 5).
"Prepare slaughter for his children for the iniquity of their
fathers (Is. xiv. 21).
"For it was of the Lord to harden their hearts that they
should come against Israel in battle, that he might utterly destroy
them, and that they might have no favor (Josh. xi. 20).
"I make peace and create evi: I, the Lord, do all these things
(Is. xlv. 7).
Is not love.
"The Lord thy God is a consuming fire" (Deut. iv. 24).
Last forty years.
"And the Lord's anger was kindled against Israel, and he made
them wander in the wilderness forty years, until all the generation
that had done evil in the sight of the Lord was consumed" (Num.
xxxii. 13).
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Does not require burnt offerings.
"To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me,
saith the Lord ... I delight not in the blood of bullocks or of
lambs" (Is. i. 11).
"For I spake not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the
day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt
offerings or sacrifices" (Jer. vii. 22).
Does tempt man.
"And it came to pass after these things that God did tempt
Abraham (Gen. xxii. 1).
Is compassionate.
"The Lord is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger,
and of great mercy (Ps. clv 8).
Is revengeful and cruel.
"God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; and is furious the
Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries" (Nahum i. 2).
"And the Lord said unto Joshua ... he that is taken with the
accursed thing [the gold, kept back from the priests] shall be
burnt with fire, he and all that he hath; ... and Joshua and all
Israel with him took action, and his sons, daughters ... and all
that he had ... and stoned him, and burnt them with fire after they
bad stoned them ... so the Lord turned from the firmness of his
anger" (Josh. vii. 10).
"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Avenge the children of
Israel of the Midianites ... and they slew all the males; and the
children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives ... and
Moses said unto them: Have ye saved all the women alive? Kill every
male among the children and every woman that hath known man, ...
but all the female children ... keep alive for yourselves" (Num.
xxxi. 1).
"I will send wild beasts among you that will rob you of your
children" (Lev. xxvi. 23).
"Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury ... and ye
shall eat the flesh of your Sons and of your daughters" (Lev. xxvi.
28).
"A wind from the Lord brought forth quails from the sea, and
let them fall by the camp ... and while the flesh was between their
teeth, the wrath of the Lord was kindled against them, and he smote
them with a great plague" [for desiring a change of food from
manna] (Num. xi. 31).
"And that night the angel of the Lord smote in the camp of the
Assyrians 185,000 men" (2 Kings xix. 35).
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THE RATIONALIST'S MANUAL.
His statutes are right.
"The statutes of the Lord are right" (Ps. xix. 8).
Wills to save man.
"Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the
knowledge of truth" (i Tim. ii. 4).
is good.
"Good and upright is the Lord" (Ps. xxv. 8).
Forbids human sacrifice.
"Take heed to thyself that thou be not snared by following
them, ... for even their sons and their daughters have they burnt
in the fire of their gods" (Deut. xii. 30).
Prayer shall be answered.
"Every man that asketh receiveth, and he that seeketh findeth"
(Matt. vii. 8).
Forbids murder.
"Thou shalt not kill" (Ex. xx. 13).
"And he that killeth any man shall surely be put to death"
(Lev. xxiv. 17).
Forbids stealing
"Thou shalt not steal (Ex. xx. 15).
His statutes are not right.
"Wherefore I gave them also statutes that were not good, and
judgments whereby they should not live" (Ezek. xx. 25).
Wills not that all shall be saved.
"God shall send them a strong delusion, that they shall
believe a lie; that all might be damned who believe not the truth"
(2 Thess. ii. 11).
Is not good.
"Shall there be evil in a city, and the Lord hath not done
it?" (Amos iii. 6).
Commands human sacrifice.
"No devoted thing that a man shall devote unto the Lord of all
that he hath, both of man and of beast, and of the field of his
possession, shall be sold or redeemed; every devoted thing is most
holy unto the Lord. None devoted [consecrated] which shall be
devoted of men shall be redeemed, but shall surely be put to death"
(Lev. xxvii. 28).
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Prayers shall not be answered.
"Then they shall call upon me, but I will not answer; they
shall seek me early, but shall not find me" (Prov. i. 28).
Commands murder.
"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 ... his companion, and ... his
neighbor" (Ex. xxxii. 27).
"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" (i Sam. xv. 3).
Commands stealing.
"When ye go ye shall not go empty; but every woman shall borrow of
her neighbor, and of her that sojourneth in her home, jewels of
silver and of gold and raiment; and ye shall put them on your sons
and your daughters; and ye shall spoil the Egyptians" (Ex iii. 21).
Forbids adultery.
Thou shalt not commit adultery" (Ex. xx. 14).
Forbids vengeance.
"Thou shalt not avenge nor bear any grudge against the
children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbor as
thyself" (Lev. xix. 18).
The name of the Lord shall save.
"Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved" (Rom. x. 13).
Commands adultery.
When thou goest forth to war against thine enemies, and the
Lord thy God hath delivered them into thy hands ... and seest among
the captives a beautiful woman, and thou hast a desire unto her
that thou wouldst have her to thy wife, then shalt thou bring her
home to thine home ... and she shall be thy wife" (Deut. xxxi. 10).
Commands vengeance.
"Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the lord and
of them that speak evil against my soul ... Let his children be
fatherless, and his wife a widow ... Let his children be
continually vagabonds and beg; let them seek their bread also out
of desolate places (Ps. cix.).
The name of the Lord shall not save.
"Not every one that saith unto me Lord, lord, shall enter into
the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my father
which is in heaven" (Matt. vii. 21).
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THE RATIONALIST'S MANUAL.
THE CHRISTIAN MESSIAH.
Certain of the doctrines and stories contained in the
Christian Scriptures are almost identical with those held by the
Buddhists, and the Essene or Therapeut monks of Egypt -- Essene
being the Egyptian, and Therapeut the Greek name for "healer." This
is not surprising, when we find that the first followers of Jesus
-- Jesusites or Yesuans -- were nearly all Essenes, he being one
himself. The Yesuans were not called Christians till the latter
part of the first century, at Antioch. It was to the espousal of
the cause of Jesus by the Essene magicians that the future success
of Christianism was due. They accepted the Jesus of Nazareth whom
the Jews, for very good reasons, rejected as the expected Messiah,
or Avator. It simply required a change of names for the scriptures
of these Essenes to become the scriptures of the new sect. "The
probability that that sect of vagrant quack-doctors -- the
Therapeutae -- who were established in Egypt and its neighborhood
many ages before the period assigned by later theologians as that
of the birth of Jesus, were the original fabricators of the
writings contained in the New Testament, becomes a certainty on the
basis of evidence (than which history has nothing more certain)
furnished by the unguarded but explicit, unwary, but most
unqualified and positive, statement of the historian Eusebius, that
'those ancient Therapeutae were Christians, and that their ancient
writings were our gospels and epistles.'" ['Bible Myths' by T.W.
Doane.] Eusebius was Christian, Bishop of Caesarea (fourth
century). A messiah was expected every 600 years, and Jesus
appeared on the scene at the time when one was expected. This was
a great inducement to the Jews to accept Jesus, if he could but
show proofs of his divine mission, which he was unable to do. The
Christians were to the Essenes what the Essenes were to their
predecessors -- the Buddhists of Egypt and the Jews, and what these
were to the Brahmins, Egyptians, Babylonians, and Akkadians. As
each messiah was accepted, the old legends were repeated with
slight alterations, and so became part of the new revelation. The
Essenes had a full hierarchy, similar to that of the present
Catholic Church -- Bishops, Priests, Deacons, etc., and they
worshipped Serapis (a sun-god) long after they became followers of
Jesus. The Emperor Hadrian, in a letter to the Consul Servanus,
writes: "There are there (in Egypt) Christians who worship Serapis
and devoted to Serapis are those who call themselves 'Bishops of
the Christ."' In contrast to the great antiquity of the sacred
books and theologies of Paganism, we have the facts that the
gospels were not written by the persons whose names they bear. They
are worse than anonymous, being written many years after the
lifetime of the reputed writers, and rendered almost undecipherable
by the numerous additions and erasures. Bishop Faustus admits that
"it is certain that the New Testament was not written either by
Christ or his Apostles, but a long time after them, by some unknown
persons ... Besides these gospels, there were many more which were
subsequently deemed apocryphal." Yet he is satisfied to take these
writings as inspired, though they were not written by the persons
whose names were attached to them, and therefore are admitted
forgeries! Marvelous credulity! The discrepancies between the
fourth gospel and the first three (called "Synoptic") are numerous:
"If Jesus was the man of the first, he was not the mysterious being
of the fourth. If his ministry was only one year long, it was not
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three years long. If he made but one journey to Jerusalem, he did
not make many. If his method of teaching was that of the Synoptics,
it was not that of the fourth gospel. If he was the Jew of the
first, he was not the anti-Jew of the fourth." ["Old and New
Testament" Julian.] Eusebius relates the absurd story of King
Abgarus writing a letter to Jesus, and of Jesus's answer. And
Socrates relates how the Empress Helena, Constantine's mother, went
to Jerusalem to find the cross of Christ. She is said not only to
have found the cross, but the nails with which Christ was attached.
"Besides forging, lying, and deceiving for the cause of Jesus, the
Christian Fathers destroyed all evidence against themselves and
their theology, which they came across. Gibbon tells us that, in
book viii., ch. 21, Eusebius says that he has related what might
redound to the glory, and that he has suppressed all that could
tend to the disgrace, of religion." Such an admission of the
violation of our fundamental laws of history speaks for itself. In
Cruse's translation of Eusebius's History, all after chapter xiii.
of book viii. is omitted. Why?
A fragment of a Gospel of Peter, which, according to early
Christian writers, was in common use in the second century, and
received as inspired with the rest of the New Testament writings,
has recently been found in an Egyptian tomb at Akhmim. This gospel
directly contradicts most important details in the accounts given
of the alleged appearances of Jesus after his death in the so-
called canonical gospels, the Acts, and the Pauline epistles. Thus,
at one fell swoop, disappear Peter's following of triple denial the
presence of John and others at the foot of the cross the
appearances to Mary Magdalene and other women; the walk to Emmaus;
the apparition to the eleven of a material body through closed
doors; the second apparition to remove Thomas's doubts; the
appearances at Jerusalem during forty days by many living proofs;
those mentioned in the epistles to the Corinthians." ["Gospel of
Peter" by S. Laing.] The gospel was at a later period dropped,
probably for the reason, says Mr. Laing, that it "fevered the
heresy of the Docetae, who held that the body of the Christ was a
specter or illusion for the gospel says, relating to the
Crucifixion "They brought two malefactors, and crucified him
between them; but he kept silence, as feeling no pain," and this
silence is maintained until he died, crying out, "My power, my
power, thou hast left me," which sounds, says Mr. Laing, "more like
the cry of a baffled magician than of either a natural man or a Son
of God... This contradicts no less than eight utterances from the
cross recorded in the canonical gospels: (1) 'My God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me?'; (2) 'Father, forgive them, for they know
not what they do' (3) 'Verily, this day thou shalt be with me in
Paradise;' (4) 'Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit;' (5)
'Woman, behold thy son';' (6) 'Behold thy mother;' (7) 'I thirst;'
(8) 'It is finished.'" Still more startling is the account given of
the Resurrection and Ascension, which differs in essential points
from the already contradictory accounts given in the canonical
gospels.
We will now proceed to inquire if there is any evidence in the
writings of the historians contemporary with the time of Jesus.
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JESUS AND CONTEMPORARY HISTORY.
IF all the wonderful things said about Jesus were true, we
should naturally expect to hear something about him in the writings
of the period. But not one of the writers of the first century --
"the Augustan Age of Letters" -- even mentions him, his apostles,
or his miracles. There were writers in History, Natural History,
Medicine, Materia Medica, Astronomy, Miracles, Fables, Satire, etc.
What do Josephus and Tacitus say? Nothing. Such extraordinary
events as feeding thousands of people with a few small loaves and
fishes; raising the dead to life again; their ghosts walking about
the streets; miraculous darkness covering all the land for several
hours; earthquakes; mysterious voices from the clouds; rising
through the air into the clouds, etc., must have formed topics of
general conversation, and must have found a place in the literature
of the day. Cures being wrought must have interested the writers on
medicine; but not a word on the subject. It is incredible that no
one except the four interested partisans, who are supposed to have
written the gospels, should ever have referred to them. Josephus
was a Jew, and lived in the country where all these things are said
to have occurred, and wrote a history of the period; yet he makes
no mention of even the existence of Jesus. But in the manuscript of
his "Antiquities" (book xviii., 3) an unknown hand has inserted
between the account of the Sedition of the Jews against Pontius
Pilate, and that of Anubis and Pauline in the Temple of Isis, a
purple patch relating to Jesus, which is clearly a forgery.
Josephus, a Jew, is made to say: "Now, there was about this time
Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a
doer of wonderful works; a teacher of such men as receive the truth
with pleasure." Now, it is not likely that a Jew would show such a
respect towards Jesus, who was known among his own people as a
seditious person; and talk about his teaching "the truth." Further
on he is made to say: "He was the Christ, and when Pilate ... had
condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did
not forsake him , for he appeared to them alive again the third
day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand
other wonderful things concerning him." These are expressions, not
of a Jew, but of a Christian; and surely the writer could not have
remained a Jew another hour. Forgeries were easy in those days,
when all books were written on skins, to which fresh pieces could
easily be fastened. Neither Philo, nor the two Plinys, nor any
other writer of the age, mention the name of Jesus, much less the
"ten thousand other wonderful things" mentioned by the interpolator
of Josephus. Tacitus wrote a History, and made no mention of Jesus.
But a forged "Introduction," entitled "The Annals of Tacitus," was
found in a Benedictine monastery at Hirsehfelde, in Saxony, in 514.
These "Annals" were not found in any other copy of the History of
Tacitus, and not one writer from the time of Tacitus to the above
date had mentioned the existence of the work. Beatus Rhenanus first
called them "Annals" in 1533. It appears that in the time of
Wicliffe, when the existence of Christendom was seriously menaced
and the Inquisition was instituted, people were inquiring into the
origin of Christianity. Large sums of money were offered for the
discovery of ancient manuscripts, which would bear testimony to the
divine authority of the Church, in consequence of which the supply
was equal to the demand, as it generally is, and plenty of
manuscripts were forthcoming from needy monks. Among these were the
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THE RATIONALIST'S MANUAL.
"Annals" of Tacitus, composed by a late Papal secretary, Poggio
Bracciolini, at the price of 500 gold sequins, and re-written by a
monk at Hirschfelde, in imitation of a very old copy of the
"History" of Tacitus. In this Tacitus is represented as saying that
"one Christus was put to death under Pontius Pilate, and had left
behind him a sect called after him." The forged writings were sent
to his friend and employer, Niccoli, with a letter in which the
following occurs: "Everything is now complete with respect to the
little work, concerning which I will, on some future opportunity,
write to you; and, at the same time, send it to you to read in
order to get your opinion on it." After its discovery it was
deposited in the Library at Florence. Mr. W. Oxley says: "The
nefarious and mendacious writings of anonymous monkish authors have
been noticed and exposed even by Catholic historians, The late
Cardinal Newman, in his 'Grammar of Assent' (P. 289), says,
referring to the opinion of Father Hardouin: 'Most of our Latin
classics are forgeries of the monks of the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries.' Such a statement, coming from one of the
heads of the Church, is more than significant ... In Hardouin's
'Prolegomena' (1766) he says: 'The ecclesiastical history of the
first twelve centuries is absolutely fabulous. The series of Popes
is no more authentic than the series of Jewish high priests. The
agreement of the monastic chronicles for the year 1215 shows that
they were all the product of one monastic 'Scriptoria.' Not one was
written by a contemporary of the events described. Gregory 'the
great,' elected 1227, is the first of whom we have any historic
notice; which leaves a forged and fraudulent list of some 180 Popes
who never had an existence other than in the worse than imagination
of the compilers ... There are no tombs or sepulchers of any of the
Popes prior to this date, nor yet coins, but what are acknowledged
to be spurious." Hardouin (who was "a learned scholar and a writer
of high position in the Jesuit College in Paris" 1645-1728) exposes
the worthlessness and lying legends of the so-called "Patristic
Fathers." He dates the first design of the forgers in France from
1180-1229, which was continued 1245-1314; and the construction of
this class of literature went on to an immense extent during the
next 150 years.
EVENTS IN THE LIFE OF JESUS.
On examining the New Testament carefully, we find numerous
discrepancies and contradictions concerning the details of the life
of Jesus. His birth is said, in the "Matthew gospel," to have
occurred during the reign of Herod, who was made Governor of Judoea
(a province of Syria), B.C. 40, under the imperial Anthony, and
died at Jericho (B.C. 4) after a period of absence on account of
illness from Jerusalem. In Luke the birth is said to have taken
place when Quirinus (Cyrenius) was Governor of Judoea (5 C.E.), and
when Augustus was Emperor, nine years at least after the death of
Herod. He is said to have been born of a virgin. Doane says: "The
worship of 'the Virgin,' 'the Queen of Heaven,' 'the Great
Goddess,' 'the Mother of God,' etc., which has become one of the
grand features of the Christian religion (the Council of Ephesus
1431 C.E.] having declared Mary 'Mother of God,' her 'Assumption'
being declared in 813, and her 'Immaculate Conception' in 1851),
was almost universal for ages before the birth of Jesus." ["Bible
Myths" p. 326.] And Dr. Inman says: "The pure virginity of the
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THE RATIONALIST'S MANUAL.
celestial mother was a tenet of faith for 2,000 years before the
virgin now adored was born." ["Ancient Faiths" vol. 1, p. 159.] The
following were all worshipped as virgin goddesses: -- Maya, the
mother of Buddha; Devaki, the mother of Krishna ( = the black);
Isis, of Egypt and Italy, mother of Horus; Neith, the mother of
Osiris; Mylitta, of Babylon, and later of Greece, mother of Tammuz;
Nutria, of Etrusca and Italy; Myrrha, mother of Bacchus.; Cybele
(to whom Lady Day was formerly dedicated); Juno (represented, like
Isis and Mary, standing on the crescent moon); Diana (represented,
like Isis and Mary, with stars surrounding her head). "Upon the
altars of the Chinese temples were placed, behind a screen, an
image of Shin-moo, or the 'Holy Mother,' sitting with a child in
her arms, in an alcove, with rays of glory around her head, and
tapers constantly burning before her." [Gross, "Heathen Religions,"
p. 60.] The most ancient pictures and statues in Italy and other
parts of Europe, says Doane (p. 335), are black. The "Bambino" at
Rome, and the Virgin and Child at Loretto are black, as are other
similar images in Rome.
The death of Jesus is said, in three of the gospels, to have
taken place after the Passover feast; in one, before that feast,
The "Mark" gospel states that he was crucified at the third hour;
the "John" gospel, that he was under examination at the sixth hour;
the "Matthew" and "Mark" gospels, that it was dark from the sixth
to the ninth hour. In the number of women who came to the tomb
after the Resurrection, the "John" gospel gives one; "Mark," three,
and "Luke," a large number. The number of angels at the tomb is
given in the "Mark" gospel as "a young man clothed in white;" in
the "Luke," as three men in shining garments while in the "John" an
entirely different account appears. From the above it will be seen
that Herod, who spent the last two years of his life as an invalid
at the hot springs of Calirrhoe, dying on his way home to
Jerusalem, could not have had the alleged interview with the
Magicians on their arrival in Judaea; nor could he have slaughtered
the innocents. The Magicians, it must be remembered, after seeing
the new star, had to travel 1,500 miles across a desert from Persia
to Bethlehem, a journey which could not be accomplished under two
years by their method of travelling.
THE CRUCIFIXION.
The idea of redemption from sin by the sufferings and death of
a divine "incarnate Savior" was common among the ancients, and was
the crowning point of the idea entertained by primitive man, that
the gods demanded a sacrifice to atone for sin or avert calamity.
Among the Hindus the same idea was prevalent. The Rig Veda
represents the gods as sacrificing Purusha, the first male, and
supposed to be coeval with the Creator. Krishna came upon earth to
redeem man by his sufferings. He is represented hanging on a cross,
the tradition being that he was nailed thereto by an arrow.
[Guigniaut, "Religion de l'Antiquite."] Dr. Inman says: Krishna,
whose history so closely resembles our Lord's, was also like him in
his being crucified." ["Ancient Faiths," vol. 1, p. 411.] Hanging
on a tree was a common form of punishment. It was frequently called
"the accursed tree." "He that is hanged on a tree is accursed of
God" (Deut. xxi. 22 and Gal. iii. 13). If an artificial gibbet were
made, it was cruciform, but yet was called "a tree." [Higgins,
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"Anacalypsis" vol. 1.] Crucifixes displaying the god Indra are to
be seen at the corners of the roads in Tibet. In Some parts of
India the worship of the crucified god Bulli, an incarnation of
Vishnu, occurs. The "incarnate god" Buddha and "suffering Savior
expired at the foot of the tree." The expression is frequently used
in the Roman Missal. Osiris and Horus were also crucified as
saviours and redeemers. The sufferings, death, and resurrection of
Osiris formed the great mystery of the Egyptian religion. Attys was
"the only begotten son and savior" of the Phrygians, represented as
a man nailed or tied to a tree, at the foot of which was a lamb.
Tammuz or Adonis, the Syrian and Jewish Adonai, was another virgin
born god, who "suffered for mankind" as a "crucified savior."
Prometheus, of Greece, was with chains nailed to the rocks on Mount
Caucasus, "with arms extended," [Murray, "Manual of Mythology" p.
82] as a savior; and the tragedy of the crucifixion was acted in
Athens 500 years before the Christian era. [Doane, "Bible Myths,"
p. 192] Bacchus, the offspring of Jupiter and Semele, "the only
begotten son," the "sin-bearer," "redeemer," etc., Hercules, son of
Zeus; Apollo; Serapis; Mithras, of ancient Persia -- "The Logos;"
Zoroaster; and Hermes, were all "saviours" centuries before Jesus
was made one.
THE DARKNESS OF THE CRUCIFIXION.
WE are told by the "Luke" gospel that "there was darkness from
the sixth to the ninth hour;" by "Matthew," that "the earth quaked,
the rocks we're rent, and the graves were opened, and many bodies
of the saints, which slept, arose and came out of their graves and
went into the holy city and appeared to many." But if such
extraordinary events had really happened, surely some persons would
have been curious enough to have obtained from the resurrected
saints some account of their experiences in the other world. But
history records nothing, not even their names. Is it possible that
such unusual events could have occurred and no notice be taken of
them by the historians of the time? The star of Jesus, having shone
at the time of his birth, made it necessary, for his success as an
"Avatar" (Messiah) and "Savior," that something miraculous should
happen at his death, as had happened at the death of the others
whose stars had also shone; the myth would not have been complete
without it. Darkness, rending the veil of the temple, earthquakes,
etc., were prodigies that attended the death of nearly all ancient
heroes. An eclipse was out of the question to account for the
darkness, because the Passover moon was at the full, and an eclipse
would only last about six minutes. At the death of the Hindu
savior, Krishna, "a black circle surrounded the moon, and the sun
was darkened at noon-day; the sky rained fire and ashes; flames
burned dusky and livid; demons committed depredations on earth. At
sunrise and sunset thousands of figures were seen skirmishing in
the air; and spirits were to be seen on all sides." [Amberley's
"Analysis of Religious Belief."] At the conflict between Buddha,
the "Savior of the world," and the Prince of Evil, a thousand
appalling meteors fell; darkness prevailed; the earth quaked; the
ocean rose; rivers flowed back; peaks of lofty mountains rolled
down; a fierce storm howled around; and a host of headless spirits
filled the air. When Prometheus was crucified by chains on Mount
Caucasus, the whole frame of nature became convulsed -- the earth
quaked; thunder roared; lightning flashed; winds blew; and the sea
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rose. The ancient Greeks and Romans thought that the births and
deaths of great men were announced by celestial signs. On the death
of Romulus, founder of Rome, the sun was darkened for six hours.
When Julius Caesar was murdered, there was darkness for six hours.
When AEsculapius, "the savior," was put to death, the sun shone
dimly from the heavens, the birds were silent, the trees bowed
their heads in sorrow, etc. When Hercules died, darkness was on the
face of the earth, thunder crashed through the earth. Zeus, "the
god of gods," carried his son home, and the halls of Olympus were
opened to welcome him, where he now sits, clothed in a white robe,
with a crown upon his head. When Alexander the Great died, similar
events occurred. When Atreus, of Mycenae, murdered his nephews, the
sun, unable to endure a sight so horrible, turned his course
backwards and withdrew his light. When the Mexican crucified
savior, Quetzalcoatle, died, the sun was darkened.
Belief in the influence of the stars over life and death, and
in special portents at the death of great men, survived even to
recent times. Shakespeare says ("Hamlet," scene 1., act 1.): --
"When beggars die there are no comets seen
The heavens themselves blaze forth the death of princes."
THE DESCENT INTO HELL.
The apocryphal "gospel of Nicodemus" gives an account of the
descent of Jesus into hell, of his rising again on the third day,
and ascending, in company with numerous saints and Adam, into
heaven; and of the attempt of Satan and the Prince of Hell to close
the gates of hell against him; when, in voice of thunder,
accompanied by the rushing of winds, was heard: "Lift up ye gates
(of hell), O ye Princes, and be ye lifted up, O ye everlasting
gates, and the King of Glory shall come in." The story is
interesting as showing the ideas on the subject that were held in
the early days of Christianism.
"The reason why 'the Christ' Jesus has been made to descend
into hell," says Doane, "is because it is part of the universal
mythos, even the three days' duration. The saviours of mankind had
all done so; he must, therefore, do likewise." ["Bible Myths," p.
213.] The following gods "descended into hell, and remained there
for the space of three days and three nights, as the sun did at the
winter solstice, rising again on the third day, as did the sun
when, at midnight, on December 24th and 25th, he commenced his
annual ascension: -- Krishna, the Hindu savior; ["Asiatic
Researches," vol. 1 p. 237: Bonwick, "Egyptian Belief," p. 168.]
Zoroaster, the Persian savior; ["Monumental Christianity," p. 286.]
Osiris ["Dupuis, "Orgin of Religious Belief," p. 256; Bonwick, p.
125.] and Horus, [Doane, "Bible Myths," p. 213.] of Egypt; Adonis;
[Bell, "Pantheon," vol. 1, p. 12.] Bacchus; [Higgins,
"Anacalypsis," vol. 1. p. 322: Dupuis, p. 257.] Hercules; [Taylor,
"Mysteries," p. 40.] Mercury ["Pantheon," vol. 2, p. 72.] Baldur
and Quetzalcoatle, [Bonwick, p. 169; Mallet, p. 448.] etc.
The story of Jesus descending into hell had its origin in the
old pagan story of a war in heaven. This story, besides being given
in the Apocalypse or Revelation, is to be found in the Persian Zend
Avesta, and was known to the Assyrians, Egyptians, Greeks, ancient
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Mexicans, the natives of the Caroline Islands, the Hindus, etc. It
was told of the Infant Krishna, "whose life was threatened by the
tyrant Kansa, who had heard a prediction that Krishna (or Christna)
would one day slay him. The child escaped and grew up among rustic
cow-herds. Among the miracles he performed was the raising of a
widow's son from the dead. He slew Kansa, and descended into hell
to restore certain children to their sorrowing mothers." This is
strangely like the story we read of Jesus. In Egypt, Typhon was the
"god of evil;" and Anubis, the "jackal-headed genius of death,"
conducted souls to the land of shades. Osiris was "god of the
underworld and judge of the dead."
The "descent into hell" was not added to the Apostles' Creed
until after the sixth century. The Creed before that stood as
follows: -- "I believe in God the Father Almighty; and in Jesus
Christ, his only begotten son, our Lord; who was born of the Holy
Ghost and Virgin Mary; and was crucified under Pontius Pilate, and
was buried; and the third day rose again from the dead; ascended
into heaven; sitteth on the right hand of the Father; whence he
shall come to judge the quick and the dead; and in the Holy Ghost;
the Holy Church; the remission of sins; and the resurrection of the
flesh. -- Amen." It is not to be under stood that this Creed was
framed by the apostles, or that it existed as a creed in their
time. It was an invention of a much later period.
THE RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION.
The narrators, of the gospels differ considerably in their
accounts of the Resurrection, which can only be explained by the
fact that it was necessary for the later ones to correct, and
endeavor to reconcile with common sense, the mistakes, and
absurdities of the earlier ones. The "Matthew" and "John" gospels
do not even mention the Ascension. The "Mark" gospel says that
"Jesus was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of
God;" but the twelve verses in which the account appears are
admitted in the revised edition to be spurious. The "Luke" gospel,
is the only one that can be said to give the story, the writer
says: "He was carried up into heaven." The writer of the Acts says:
"He was taken up, and a cloud received him out of sight." No
evidence whatever is forthcoming to support the assertion. Krishna
"rose from the dead, and ascended bodily into heaven all men saw
him." Rama, an incarnation of Vishnu, "ascended into heaven." The
coverings of the body of Buddha, son of the Virgin (Queen) Maya,
"unrolled themselves, and the lid of his coffin was opened by
superhuman agency, when he ascended bodily into heaven." Lao-Kiun,
or Lao-Tse -- the virgin born -- "ascended bodily into heaven,"
since which he has been worshipped as a god, and splendid temples
erected to his memory. Zoroaster, the Persian savior, "ascended to
heaven." AEsculapius, "the son of god" -- the "savior," "rose from
the dead," after being put to death, which event (and this shows
how easy it is to fulfil prophecies when they are useful to further
a cause) was prophesied in Ovid's "Metamorphoses": --
"Then shalt thou die, but from the darkness above
Shalt rise victorious, and be twice a god."
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The "savior," Adonis, after being put to death, "rose from the
dead," and the Syrians celebrate the festival of the "Resurrection
of Adonis " in the early spring. The festival was observed in
Alexandria, the cradle of Christianism, in the time of Bishop Cyril
(412 C.E.); and at Antioch, the ancient capital of the Greek Kings
of Syria, where the followers of Jesus were first called
"Christians" in the Emperor Jillian's time (363 C.E.). The
celebration in honor of the Resurrection of Adonis came at last to
be known as a Christian festival, and the ceremonies held in
Catholic countries on Good Friday and Easter Sunday are nothing
more than the festival of the death and resurrection of Adonis.
This god is propitiated as "O Adonai" in one of the Greater
Antiphons of the Roman Catholic Church. Osiris, after being put to
death, "rose from the dead," and bore the title of the "Resurrected
One." "It is astonishing to find," says Mr. Bonwick, "that at
least 5,000 years ago men treated an Osiris as 'a risen savior,'
and confidently hoped to rise, as he arose, from the grave."
["Egyptian Belief."]
The Phrygian savior, Attys or Atyces, and the Persian savior
and "mediator between god and man," Mithra, were "put to death and
rose again." Tammuz, the Babylonian savior, son of the virgin
Mylitta; Bacchus, son of the virgin Semele; Hercules, son of Zeus;
Memnon, whose mother Eos wept tears at his death, like Mary is said
to have done for Jesus; Baldur, the Scandinavian lord and savior;
and the Greek Amphiarius, "all rose again after death."
So that we see that Mary and Jesus were nothing more than
representatives of Isis and Horus of Egypt, Devaki and Krishna of
Judaea, Ormuz and Mithra of Persia, and many other virgins and
virgin-born gods, who were the pagan prototypes of the modern black
virgin and child of Loretto, the "Bambino" or black child at Rome,
and the virgin and child of the Roman Missal and the English
prayer-book.
MIRACLES are imaginary deviations from the known laws of
nature by the supposed will and power of a deity, which laws have
been proved by experience to be firm and unalterable; no deviation
from them having ever yet been known. Belief in miracles is
generally the result either of ignorance, or of the confusion of
belief with knowledge; and their acceptance, without proper
verification, is responsible for the countless errors, delusions,
and superstitions which have gained possession of the human mind.
There was a disposition among the people who lived
contemporary with Jesus to believe in anything. It was a credulous
age. All leaders of religion had recommended themselves to the
public by working miracles and curing diseases. The expected
messiah, in order to stand any chance of success, must therefore
work miracles and heal from sickness. The Essenes, as we have seen,
pretended to effect miracles and extraordinary cures, and Jesus was
an Essene. The biographers of Jesus, therefore, not wishing their
master to be outdone, made him also a performer of miracles, of
which prodigies and wonders the legendary history of Jesus
contained in the New Testament is full. Without them Christianism
could not have prospered. "The Hindu sacred books represent
Krishna, their savior and redeemer, as in constant strife against
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the evil spirit, surmounting extraordinary dangers, strewing his
way with miracles, raising the dead, healing the sick, restoring
the maimed, the deaf, and the blind; everywhere supporting the weak
against the strong, the oppressed against the powerful. The people
crowded his way and adored him as a god, and these pretended
miracles were the evidences of his divinity for centuries before
the time of Jesus. [Doane -- "Bible Myths."] Buddha performed what
appeared to be "great miracles for the good of mankind, and the
legends concerning him are full of the most extravagant prodigies
and wonders." "It was by belief in these," says Burnouf, "that the
religion of Buddha was established." Innumerable are the miracles
ascribed to Buddhist saints. Their garments and staffs were
supposed to imbibe some mysterious power, and blessed were they who
were allowed to touch them. A Buddhist saint, who attained the
power called "perfection," was able to rise and float along through
the air, his body becoming imponderous. Buddhist annals give
accounts of miraculous suspensions in the air. We are also told
that in B.C. 217 nineteen Buddhist missionary priests entered China
to propagate their faith, and were imprisoned by the emperor; but
that an angel came and opened the prison door and liberated them.
The Hindu sage, Vasudeva (i.e., Krishna), was liberated from prison
in like manner. We may, therefore, easily see where the legends of
Peter and his release from prison (Acts v.), and the Ascension,
came from.
Zoroaster, the founder of the religion of the Persians,
opposed his persecutors by performing miracles in order to confirm
his divine mission. Bochia, of the Persians, also performed
miracles, the places where they occurred being consecrated, and
people flocked in crowds to visit them. Horus and Serapis, Egyptian
saviours, performed great miracles, among which was that of raising
the dead to life. Osiris and Isis also performed miracles, and
pilgrimages were made to the temples of Isis by the sick. Marduk,
the Assyrian god ("the Logos") -- "he who made heaven and earth" --
"the merciful one," "the life giver," etc., performed great
miracles and raised the dead to life. Bacchus, son of Zeus by the
virgin goddess Seniele, was a great performer of miracles, among
which may be mentioned his changing water into wine, as is recorded
of Jesus. AEsculapius, son of Apollo, the Creek god, was also a
great performer of miracles, and cured, the sick and raised the
dead. Apollonius, of Tyana, in Cappadocia, born about four years
before Jesus, among other miracles restored a dead maiden to life.
Simon Magus, the Samaritan, by his proficiency in performing
miracles was called "the Magician" and "Magus." He travelled about
and made many converts, professed to be "the Wisdom of God," "the
Word of God," "the Paraclete" or "Comforter," "the image of the
eternal father manifested in the flesh," and his followers claimed
that he was "the first born of the Supreme." All these were titles
in after years applied to Jesus. They also had a gospel called "The
Four Corners of the World," from which Irenaeus probably borrowed
his reason for the choice and number of the four gospels. Menander,
"the wonder-worker" of Samaria, was another great performer of
miracles. Eusebius says of him: "He revelled in still more arrogant
pretensions to miracles ... than his master (Simon Magus) ...
saying that he was in truth the Savior." ["Ecclesiastical History,"
lib. iii, 26.] Justin is quoted by Eusebius as having said of
Menander: "He deceived many by his magic arts ... and there are now
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some of his followers who can testify the same." Vespasian, a
contemporary of Jesus, performed wonderful miracles. Tacitus says
that "he cured a blind man in Alexandria by means of his spittle,
and a lame man by the mere touch of his foot."
Miracles were not uncommon among the Jews before and during
the time of Jesus. Casting out devils was an everyday occurrence,
and miracles were frequently wrought to confirm the sayings of the
Rabbis. One is said to have Cried out, when his opinions were
disputed: "May this tree prove that I am right!" and the tree is
said to have been torn up by the roots and hurled to a distance.
And when his opponents declared that a tree could prove nothing, he
said, "May this stream then witness for me," and at once it flowed
the opposite way. [Geikie, "Life of Christ."] "No one custom of
antiquity is so frequently mentioned by ancient historians as the
practice which was so common of making votive offerings to their
deities, and hanging them up in their temples -- images of metal,
stone, and clay; arms, legs, and other parts of the body, in
testimony of some divine cure effected," says Middleton. ["Letters
from Rome."] It was a popular adage among the Greeks -- "Miracles
for fools." The shrewder Romans said: "The common people like to be
deceived; deceived let them be." Celsus, in common with most
Greeks, looked upon Christianity as a "blind faith" that "shunned
the light of reason." In speaking of Christians, he says: "They are
forever repeating: 'Do not examine; only believe, and thy faith
will make thee blessed; wisdom is a bad thing in life, foolishness
is to be preferred."' [Origen, "Cont. Celsus," bk. 1, ch. 9.]
Jesus was accused of being a "necromancer, and a magician, and
a deceiver of the people," says Justin Martyr. He was said to have
been initiated in magical art in the heathen temples of Egypt. Both
Jesus, and Horus the Egyptian savior, are represented on monuments
with wands, in the received guise of necromancers, while raising
the dead to life. Dr. Middleton tells us that "there was just
reason to suspect that there was some fraud " in the actions of
these Yesuans, or primitive Christians, who travelled about from
city to city to convert the Pagans; and that "the strolling wonder-
workers, by a dexterity of jugglery, which art, not heaven, had
taught them, imposed on the credulity of the pious Fathers, whose
strong prejudices and ardent zeal for the interests of Christianity
would dispose them to embrace, without examination, whatever seemed
to promote so good a cause ... the pretended miracles of the
primitive Church were all mere fictions, which the pious and
zealous Fathers, partly from a weak credulity and partly from
reasons of policy, were induced to espouse and propagate for the
support of a righteous cause." The primitive Christians were
perpetually reproached for their credulity; and Julian says that
"the sum of all their wisdom was comprised in the single precept --
'believe.'" According to the very books which record the miracles
of Jesus, he never claimed to perform such deeds, and Paul declares
that the great reason why Israel did not believe Jesus to be the
Messiah was that "the Jews required a sign." "John," in the second
century, makes Jesus reproach his fellow-countrymen with "Unless
you see signs and wonders you do not believe." It is evident,
therefore, that, had he performed the miracles that his followers
said he did, the Jews would have accepted him as their Messiah; and
that, since he was not accepted by them, we may justly conclude
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that he performed no miracles. His miracles were evidently
concocted and recorded for him. When told that, if he wanted people
to believe in him, he must first prove his claim by a miracle, he
said: "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign, and no
sign shall be given it except the sign of the prophet Jonah." This
answer not satisfying the questioners, they came to him again, and
asked: "If the kingdom of God is, as you say, close at hand, show
us at least some one of the signs in the heavens which are to
precede the coming of the Messiah?" It was generally understood
then that the end of the present age was at hand, and was to be
heralded by signs from heaven. The light of the sun was to be put
out, the moon turned to blood, the stars robbed of their
brightness, etc. Historians of that period, curiously enough, have
recorded miracles and wonders alleged to have been performed by
other persons, but not a word is said by them about the miracles
claimed by Christians to have been performed by Jesus. Justus of
Tiberias, who was born about five years after the time assigned for
the crucifixion of Jesus, wrote a Jewish History, but it contained
no mention of the coming of Jesus, nor of the events concerning
him, nor of the prodigies he is supposed to have wrought. If they
could have been present at one of Messrs. Maskelyne and Cook's
entertainments, these credulous ancients would have certainly
wanted to worship these expert conjurers as gods; and the dentist
who could fit the vacant gums with a new set of teeth, or the
driver of a steam engine, would have been probably deified as
"creators." "Our increased knowledge of nature," says Dr. Oort,
"has gradually undermined the belief in the probability of
miracles, and the time is not far distant when, in the mind of
every man of any culture, all accounts of miracles will be banished
altogether to their proper region -- that of legend." What was said
to have been done in India was said by the writers of the gospels
to have been done in Palestine. The change of names and places,
with the mixing up of various sketches of Egyptian, Phoenician,
Greek, and Roman mythology, was all that was necessary. They had an
abundance of material, and with it they built. A long-continued
habit of imposing upon others would in time subdue the minds of the
impostors themselves, and cause them to become at length the dupes
of their own deception."
ORIGIN OF THE BIBLE.
We must not suppose that the Jews had their Bibles as
Christians now have. In the reign of Josiah, about 100 years before
the captivity, there was only one copy of the "Law of Moses" in the
whole of Judoea. It was neither read nor even consulted by them,
for when Hilkiah the priest accidentally found a copy in a "rubbish
heap of the Temple" [Julian, "Old and New Testament."] it was
announced as a wonderful discovery; but it was afterwards destroyed
by fire. All that the Jews knew about Moses and his religion they
learnt from hearsay, just as the Greeks and Romans knew about their
mythology. It was a system taught by their priests. Ezra says (2
Esdras xiv.) he was the only man who knew it by heart, and that
after the return from captivity in Babylon he retired to a field
for forty days, and wrote from memory the five books of Moses,
probably including Joshua and other historical books of the Old
Testament, aided by drinking a cup full of some strong liquor of
the substance of water and the color of fire! Moses and Joshua
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THE RATIONALIST'S MANUAL.
could not have been the authors of the books attributed to them,
for they describe their own deaths. Ezra must have been born in
captivity; and during the period of seventy years the Jews must
have lost a great many of their own traditions, and imbibed many of
the Babylonian, conforming, to a great extent to the custom of
these people, among whom they lived, and many were born.
The Old Testament was written in ancient Hebrew on rough
skins, in ink almost obliterated by age, and crossed in different
inks and languages. The writing consisted of capital letters only,
very badly formed, and with no vowels, stops, or division into
words by spaces; being, like modern Hebrew, written from right to
left. There were originally about 150 old writings of this
description, supposed to have been inspired by the "spirit of God."
Fifty-three were formerly considered by the Christian Church as
canonical; they included the "Pentateuch," or five books of Moses
but in 1380 fourteen were decided to be uncanonical, and were
classed as "apocryphal by Wicliffe -- the Reformer and Bible
translator. These fourteen books were omitted from the Protestant
Bibles, though they are said in the Articles of Religion of the
English State Church to be useful "for example of life and
instruction of manners." Many of the old writings are now lost,
The books of the New Testament were written on papyrus, some
in Greek and some in Latin; "Matthew" was written in Syro-Chaldaic;
"Mark," "Luke," "John," Acts, and Romans, in Greek. Twenty-seven
books are now considered to be canonical, but there were sixty-one
others now classed as apocryphal. "Twelve were excluded at first,
but afterwards received as canonical; among the apocryphal books
were 'the Gospel of the Egyptians,' one of the Essene Scriptures,
and one a Gospel which circulated among the Christians of the first
three centuries, containing the doctrine of a 'Trinity,' a doctrine
which was not established in the Christian Church till 327 C.E.,
but which was taught by a Buddhist sect in Alexandria. There were
forty-one, consisting of absurd fables, many of which are lost; and
twenty-eight writings mentioned or referred to in the various
canonical books, which also are lost." [H.J. Hardwicke, "Evolution
and Creation."]
"Out of 182 works accepted for centuries as the genuine
writings of Christians during the first 180 years of the present
era, only twelve are now contended by theologians to be genuine;
170 forged writings permitted by the alleged 'Guider into all
truth' to have existed for centuries, and believed in by poor,
feeble man." [Julian, "Old and New Testament Examined."] The
manufacture of some of these manuscripts probably took place at the
great monastery at Mount Athos, in Salonica, where about "60,000
monks were employed" [Investigator, "Origin of the Christ Church."]
in that occupation. The first that we know of the four Christian
gospels is in the time of Irenaeus, who, in the second century,
intimates that he has "received four gospels as authentic
scriptures." "This pious forger was probably the adapter of the
John Gospel." [Investigator, "Origin of the Christian Church."]
Three accounts are given of how the books which now appear in
the New Testament were chosen: (1) That by Popius, in his
"Synodicon" to the Council of Nicaea, says that 200 "versions of
the gospel were placed under a Communion table, and, while the
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Council prayed, the inspired books jumped on the slab, but the rest
remained under it." (2) That by Irenmus says "the Church selected
the four most popular of the gospels." (3) That by the Council of
Laodicea (366) says that "each book was decided by ballot. The
Gospel of Luke escaped by one vote, while the Acts of the Apostles
and the Apocalypse were rejected as forgeries."
PRAYER.
Prayer to deities is a very ancient superstition, As the
planetary gods were supposed to influence events, it was natural
that pleading should be resorted to by primitive man to satisfy his
daily wants. But prayer to an inscrutable power, of which we know
nothing beyond what has been revealed to us by science and
phenomena, would involve a belief in the personality of that power,
and its possession of human attributes, such as hearing, pitying,
etc.; and, as that power is inscrutable and infinite, we cannot
give to it, and it cannot receive from us, anything. "Anything that
we do, or fail to do, cannot in the slightest degree affect an
'infinite power;' consequently, no relations can exist between the
finite and the infinite." [R.G. Ingersoll.] The means of providing
for his daily wants have been discovered by man, and he has no
reason for expecting, and no right to conceive it possible, that
the immutable laws of nature will, or can, be upset in his favor,
to the possible detriment and inconvenience of others. All supposed
response to prayer can be traced to natural causes, if we only have
sufficient knowledge to enable us to trace it. Christians tell us
that "God knows the secrets of the heart" (Psalm xliv. 21); if this
is so, why pray to him? Also, that "all the inhabitants of the
earth are reputed as nothing, and that he (Yahuh -- ie, Jehovah)
doeth according to his will among them, and none can stay his hand"
(Daniel iv. 35); also, "For I the Lord change not" (Malach iii. 6).
Then what can possibly be the use of prayer? If Yahuh does 'just as
he likes, nothing can change him; and if he knows everything,
including our wants, what is the use of pestering his throne with
prayers?
Again, if prayer was of any use we should expect to see some
practical result from it. But do we? Those who are prayed for most
are those who are prayed for publicly; these are sovereigns and
other heads of States, the nobility, and the clergy. Can we say
fairly that these are any the better for all the prayers that go up
to the throne of Yahuh? Experience teaches us that the answer is
"No." Have our kings or queens enjoyed better health, become any
richer, or lived any longer for the prayer in the State Prayer
Book, that asks that it may be granted him or her "in health and
wealth long to live"? Are our nobility endowed with greater divine
"grace, wisdom, or understanding" for the prayers that go up to
this effect? Experience teaches us that the contrary is the case.
Are the clergy of the State Church, who are supposed to be called
to the ministry by the Holy Ghost, protected more than anyone else
against temptation, immorality, infectious diseases, sickness, or
the asphyxiating effects of gas or drowning? Missionaries are eaten
and digested by cannibals, just as any other person who has only
his own prayers to rely upon. Do we ever hear of cannibals
suffering in any way after eating "holy missionary"? Does prayer
protect us from calamitous floods? Is it not proverbial that
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prayers for rain, in seasons of drought, have no effect? Were the
lives of the Prince Consort, the Duke of Clarence, the Czar of
Russia, the German Emperor, or Presidents Lincoln or Garfield,
saved because of the national prayers that went up for them? No,
these all died because their physicians were unable to cure them.
When the Prince of Wales recovered from his fever, thanksgivings
went up all over the land to Yahuh's throne. But why should his
recovery be attributed to prayer, and not to the skill of the first
physicians of the day? If Yahuh could save the Prince of Wales, he
surely could have saved those above mentioned who died. We are told
he is not a respecter of persons. Then why should Yahuh show ill-
nature towards them, and display such favor to the Prince of Wales?
The answer is obvious: the Prince was cured by his physicians. Does
the history of earthquakes and other misfortunes, due to natural
phenomena, show that praying people are saved from danger, while
the non-praying ones suffer? When the earthquake of 1887, in the
south of France, occurred, were the churches (God's own houses)
saved, and the gaming-tables at Monte Carlo destroyed? No, just the
contrary. Why did the late successful preacher, Spurgeon (a
minister of God), go to Mentone, when he had the gout, leaving his
congregation behind to pray for him; notwithstanding which
collective praying, he died? Mr. Foote says: "As soon as the
Mediterranean air and sunshine have given him relief, he writes to
the Tabernacle: 'Beloved, the Lord has heard our prayers ... Not
only could God cure Spurgeon's gout in the south of London as
easily as in the south of France, but he might extend his divine
assistance to the myriad sufferers from disease in the back streets
and slums of the Metropolis, who do not earn a few thousands a year
by preaching the gospel, and are unable to take a month's holiday
at a fashionable watering-place." [Introduction to "Folly of
Prayer."] Perhaps his rushing off to Mentone made Yahuh think he
had not sufficient faith in the success of the combined prayers of
his faithful but credulous followers. Praying people have a happy
knack of making full use of mundane assistance at the same time, on
the principle of "God helps those who help themselves," in the
carrying out of which cunningly-devised clerical principle it is
difficult to see where "God's help" comes in. Prayer for recovery
from illness, when the bliss of paradise -- which is said to be so
delightful to 'believers' -- awaits them, is difficult to
comprehend."
WORSHIP AND SACRIFICE.
WORSHIP. -- Man is naturally filled with wonder and
admiration, if not reverence, when he beholds the magnificence of
the visible universe; when he contemplates the marvelous beauty and
harmony of nature, and her grand and immutable laws, his own
existence, and that of all other life by which he is surrounded.
This devotion to science is the truest and only worship that can be
offered to the unseen and unknown. "Worship is not a mere lip
homage, but a homage expressed in actions; not a mere respect, but
a respect proved by the sacrifice of time, thought, and labor." [H.
Spencer.] The infinite cannot require worship from the finite, for
the finite cannot assist the infinite. The idea of worship
naturally follows the idea of a man-like deity, given to anger and
jealousy; one deity among others, and jealous of the others. But
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when science teaches us that we have no grounds for conceiving the
unknown power and cause to be man-like, lip-worship disappears with
the disappearance of the human attributes, jealousy and
vindictiveness.
Sacrifice was the earliest form of worship. "When it was once
laid down," says Mr. Doane, "as a principle that the effusion of
blood appeased the anger of the gods; that their punishment was
turned aside from them to the victim, their object naturally was to
conciliate the gods and obtain their favor by so easy a method. It
is in the nature of violent desires and excessive fears to know no
bounds " -- as we have seen, in the year 1895, in the burning of a
wife by her husband, in Ireland, as a witch and when the blood of
animals was not deemed a price sufficient, they began to shed that
of human beings." Abram was ordered by Yahuh to offer up his son
Isaac, and a similar story is related by the Hindus of a certain
king, who had no son, and also promised the goddess Varuna that, if
he were granted the favor of a son, he would offer him up as a
sacrifice. The child Kohita was duly born, and, when the father
told him of the vow he had made and bade him prepare for sacrifice,
the boy ran away, and wandered in the forest, where he met a
starving Brahmin, whom he persuaded to sell one of his sons for 100
cows. This boy was brought to the king, and about to be sacrificed
as a substitute, when, on praying to the gods, he was released. The
Greeks had two versions of a similar fable; one, that Agamemnon had
a daughter whom he dearly loved, and whom he was ordered by the
deity to offer up as a sacrifice. When preparations were being
made, the goddess carried the girl away, and substituted a stag.
The other is of a Greek king, who had offended Diana, when the
sacrifice of his daughter was demanded; but she suddenly
disappeared just before the fatal blow. In time of war the captives
were chosen for sacrifice; but in time of peace they offered their
slaves. In great calamities or famines the king was, on the least
pretext, sacrificed, as being the highest price with which they
could purchase the divine favor. Kings also offered their children.
"The altar of Moloch reeked with blood." Fair virgins and children
were sacrificed by being thrown into a furnace shaped like a bull,
"while trumpets and flutes drowned their screams, and the mothers
looked on, and were bound to restrain their tears." Carthage was a
notable place for these sacrifices. The offering of human
sacrifices to the sun in Mexico and Peru was extensively practiced.
The ancient Egyptians annually celebrated the resurrection of their
god and savior Osiris, and at the same time commemorated his death
by eating the consecrated wafer which had become "veritable flesh
of his flesh " -- the body of Osiris -- thus eating their god, as
the Christians do. Bread and wine were brought to the temples as
offerings. The Essenes, or Therapeuts, worshippers of Mithra, the
Persian Sun-god, the second person of the Trinity, no doubt
introduced the Eucharist idea, along with baptism, and other Pagan
rites, among the early Christians. When it was introduced into Rome
by the Persian magicians, the eucharistic mysteries were celebrated
in a cave. The ancient Greeks had their "Mysteries," wherein they
"celebrated the sacrament of the Lord's supper," called also
"Eleusinian mysteries." These were offered every fifth year by the
Pagan Athenians in honor of "Ceres," the goddess of corn. She was
supposed to have given "her flesh to eat," and Bacchus, the god of
wine, "his blood to drink." "Many of the forms of expression in the
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Christian solemnity are precisely the same as those that
appertained to the Pagan rite." [Rev. R. Taylor.] The Pagan priest
dismissed his congregation with "The Lord be with you" -- an
expression retained to this day in the English Protestant Church,
and in the Catholic Church as "Dominus vobiscum."
The Jews offered up human sacrifices to their gods Moloch,
Baal, Chemosh, Apis -- the bull-god of the Egyptians, and Yahuh
(Exodus xiii. 2; xxii. 29; xxxii. 27; Judges xi. 31; Joshua vi. 17;
1 Samuel xv. 32; 2 Samuel xxi. 6; 1 Kings xviii. 40; 2 Kings x. 24;
Jeremiah vii. 30). Yahuh commands that "none devoted (consecrated)
of men shall be redeemed, but shall surely be put to death"
(Leviticus xxvii. 28). the story of Jesus and his disciples being
at supper, and his breaking bread, may be true; but the
expressions, "Do this in remembrance of me," "This is my Body," and
"This is my blood," are undoubtedly of Essene origin, inserted to
give to the new mystic ceremony some authority which, it has been
stated, was never intended.
BAPTISM, by immersion, or sprinkling, for the remission of
sin, is to be found in countries the most widely separated on the
face of the earth, and was a Pagan rite adopted by Christians. With
both Pagans and Christians, the ordinance gave full expiation from
original sin, restoring instantly to original purity. Infant
baptism was practiced by Buddhists. In Mongolia and Tibet candles
burn, incense is offered, and the child is dipped three times in
water, accompanied by prayers, and named. Adult baptism was
practiced by the Brahmans, the Zoroastrians and Mithraists of
Persia -- the latter mark the sign of the cross on the forehead; by
the Egyptians, the Essenes (ascetics, of Buddhist origin), and by
the Greeks and Romans. The goddess Nundina took her name from the
ninth day, on which all male children were sprinkled with holy
water (as females were on the eighth), named, and a certificate
given of "regeneration." Adults, initiated in the sacred rites of
Bacchus, were regenerated by baptism. Fire was used in many
instances as well as water, the Romans using both; and baptism by
fire is still practiced. This is what is alluded to in Matthew iii.
11, which makes John say: "I baptize you with water; but he shall
baptize you with the Holy Ghost (breath) and with fire."
HEAVEN, HELL, GHOSTS, AND BOGIES.
Heaven and hell, as residences of gods, angels, and devils,
are very ancient myths. The idea arose among the ancients, by the
fact of the sun going down into apparent darkness. "Heaven," says
Doane, "was born of the sky, and nurtured by cunning priests, who
made man a coward and a slave. Hell was built by priests, and
nurtured by the fears and servile fancies of man during the ages
when dungeons of torture were a recognized part of every
Government, and when the deity was supposed to be an infinite
tyrant, with infinite resources of vengeance ... the devil is an
imaginary being, invented by primitive man to account for the
existence of evil, and relieve the deity of his responsibility. The
famous Hindu 'Rakshasas,' of our Aryan ancestors -- the dark and
evil clouds personified -- are the originals of all devils. The
cloudy shape has assumed a thousand different forms, horrible or
grotesque and ludicrous, to suit the changing fancies of the ages."
["Bible Myths."] Heaven, or Paradise, was by some placed in the
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clouds, by others in the moon, by others in the far-off isles.
Everything there was lovely and beautiful, and all was enjoyment,
with music, dancing, and singing. The Mohammedan Paradise had the
additional luxury of all women existing there for men's pleasure.
Angels were "divinely-chosen messengers," "vicars of God," and
"Messiahs." The virgin-born Krishna, or Christna, and Buddha were
incarnations of Vishnu, called "Angel-Messiahs" "Avatars," or
"Christs." The ideas of heaven and hell varied with each country,
according to the likes and dislikes of each. As all nations have
made a god, and that god has resembled the persons who made it, so
have all nations made a heaven, and that heaven corresponds to the
fancies of the people who created it.
Primitive (savage) man, seeing his shadow, and that it moved
about with him, and hearing the echo of his voice, thought that it
was his "second self." Cases of suspended animation swooning,
fainting, and comatose conditions from injuries -- would be
considered to be death, and when animation was restored the second-
self, who had left the body for a short period, had returned. In
expectation of this reanimation, it became customary to supply the
actual dead with the necessaries of life -- food, drink, clothing,
etc. -- and murders, self-immolations, and destructions of live-
stock took place, with the idea that they should accompany the
departed soul. Men had their cattle, horses, dogs, wives, slaves,
and, money buried with them; women, their domestic appliances; and
children, their toys. Every dead person became a "ghost," and added
one more to the others gone before, "haunting the old home,
lingering near the place of burial, and wandering about in the
adjacent bush." [H. Spencer, "Principles of Society."] Thus an
invisible world of ghosts, spirits, etc., arose in the primitive
mind. The spirits of the wicked dead, the offspring of fallen
angels, etc., became "demons," and were the cause of all their
troubles. The simple state of the dead was called "sheol," which,
when it acquired a more definite meaning of a miserable place,
became "Hades," afterwards developing into a place of torture or
diabolical government having gradations, "Gehenna." As the place of
burial became gradually more distant -- even to the top of high
mountains -- so did the idea of resurrection. The other life, which
at first repeated this exactly, became more and more unlike it, and
from an adjacent spot passed to the distant place of the future.
These beings, to whom was ascribed the power of making themselves
at one time visible and at another invisible, became gradually
omnipresent. "With the development of the doctrine of ghosts grew
up an easy solution of all those changes which the heavens and
earth are hourly exhibiting. Clouds that gather and vanish,
shooting stars, sudden darkening of the water's surface by a
breeze, storms, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, etc., were
attributed to departed souls, probably acting as officials for an
angered deity. Thus arose ancestor worship, prayer, deities, etc.
The Bogie of the modern nursery is identical with the slavonic
Bog, Bag-a-boo, or Bug-bear; and the Buga of the cuneiform
inscriptions -- names of the supreme power. The "Rock of Behistan"
-- "the sculptured chronicle of the glories of Darius, King of
Persia" -- situated on the western frontier of Media, on the high
road from Babylon to the eastward, was used as a "Holy of Holies."
It was named Bagistane -- the place of the Baga, referring to
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Ormuzd, chief or the Bagas -- the old Aryan Bhaga of the Rig Veda
(Buddhist scriptures), "the Lord of Life," "the Giver of Bread,"
and "the Bringer of Happiness." "Thus the same name which, to the
Vedic poet, to the Persian of the time of Xerxes, and to the modern
Russian, suggests the supreme majesty of deity, is in English
associated with an ugly and ludicrous Fiend." [Bible Myths.]
FUTURE LIFE.
Belief in re-animation implies a belief in a future life, a
doctrine which would be also suggested by the appearance of the
dead in dreams. The belief in a future life for man was almost
universal among nations of antiquity, The Egyptians and Hindus
believed that man had an invisible body, ghost, or shade -- i.e.,
a soul -- within the material body. Among the former, the dead were
spoken of as "Osiriana" -- i.e., gone to Osiris. On a monument,
which dates ages before Abram is said to have lived, is found the
epitaph, "May thy soul attain to the creator of all mankind."
Sculptures and paintings in the tombs of the dead represent the
deceased ushered into the world of spirits by funeral deities who
announce "a soul arrived in Amenti." At death the soul went to
enjoy Paradise (the Elysian Fields) for a season; some to suffer in
hell (Tartarus and Valhalla of the Teutonic nations), till its sins
were expiated; and others to an intermediate place where they were
purified by wind, water, or fire. This belief is handed down to our
day in the Catholic doctrine of Purgatory. The souls were weighed
in a balance, the good spirits entering Elysium, where they judged
men after death as gods. The Persian Zend-Avesta says that Ahriman
threw the universe into disorder by raising an army against Ormuzd,
and, after fighting against him for ninety days, was at length
vanquished by Hanover, the Divine Word. The account of the war in
heaven is similar to that held by nearly every nation. The
Christian account is given in Revelation (xi. 7), and in the
apocryphal book of Nicodemus; it is to be found in the Talmud and
in the Hindu "Aitareya-brahmana," written seven or eight centuries
B.C. The Egyptians' legend told of a revolt against the God Ra. But
accounts of these will be found in another place. It is a curious
circumstance that, though so many people who had been dead were
said to have "risen from their graves" and been seen "walking
about" after the death of Jesus, no information or statement of any
kind appears to have been left with regard to the spiritual world
they had visited. Surely, if such an event had taken place,
everyone "would have been greedy to hear the news, which could have
been so easily obtained. But all is silence.
CHRISTIAN SYMBOLS.
The chief of these may be said to be the cross. We should
naturally suppose that what in modern days is called the Christian
symbol -- the cross -- would be found upon every tomb in the
catacombs of Rome -- the cemetery of the early Christians, as it is
now seen in Catholic cemeteries. But nothing of the sort. The only
approach to such a symbol to be found in the catacombs is the
Buddhist sacred Swastica, also seen in the old Buddhist zodiacs,
and in the Asoka inscriptions. No cross of present-day shape is to
be found; and for a very good reason. The cross was not the symbol
of early Christianity. Jesus, after his acceptance as a Christ, was
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worshipped under the form of a lamb -- "the Lamb of God." It was
not till the Council of Constantinople (707) that symbols of a
cross with a man nailed to it were ordered to be used in place of
the lamb, or ram, which was formerly used to denote the victorious
sun as he passed through the sign Aries, giving new life to the
world, when he was worshipped as "the Lamb of God." The lamb gave
place later to the Phallus. From the decree just alluded to the
identity of the worship of the astronomical "Aries," the ram or
lamb, and the Christian "Savior," is certified beyond the
possibility of a doubt; and the mode by which the ancient
superstitions were propagated is satisfactorily shown. The cross
was, like all the other emblems of Christianity, adopted from
Paganism. The Pagan cross was a later development of the older
"Crux Ansata," or combined phallic emblems, the two portions of
which represented the male and female procreative powers of nature
-- the oval or upper portion the "vulva," or "yoni" of the Hindus;
and also the lower portion or "Tau" -- the "Phallus," Ashera,
Priapus of the Jews, Linga of the Hindus, or membrum virile -- the
common symbol of the "Life-giver," which is sometimes also
represented by a lighted torch, a tree, a fish, or a scepter. It
was particularly sacred with the Egyptians, the Babylonians, the
Buddhists, and the Hindus. A cross was the symbol of the Hindu god,
Agni -- the "Light of the World." It was worn as a charm by
Egyptian women, and was later adopted by Christian women, Osiris
was represented with a scepter and a crazier, and stretched on a
crux ansata. The Egyptian savior, Horus, is represented sitting on
the lap of Isis, his virgin mother; a large cross being carved on
the back of the seat. On the breast of an Egyptian mummy (London
University Museum) is to be seen a cross upon a "calvary." The
Egyptian images generally hold a cross in their hands. In the cave
of Elephanta a figure is represented as destroying a crowd of
infants, with a "crux ansata," a "mitre," and a "crazier." The
Egyptian priest wore the "crux ansata" as a "Pallium," the head
passing through the vestment at the oval or "yoni;" just as the
priests of the Catholic Church wear their mass vestment. By the
side of one of the inscriptions in the Temple, on the Island of
Philas, are seen a "crux ansata" and a maltese cross; and,
curiously enough, the same are to be seen in a Christian church in
the desert to the east of the Nile. The cross is also to be found,
in some form, in the hands of Siva, Brahma, Vishnu, Krishna,
Svasti, and Jama, on the figures of ancient monuments. The god,
Saturn, was represented by a cross with a ram's horn; Venus, by a
circle with a cross -- the goddess of love. Krishna was also
represented suspended on a cross. On a Phoenician medal, found in
the ruins of Citium, are inscribed the cross with a rosary
attached, and a lamb -- this last being the early symbol of the
followers of Jesus. The priests of "Jupiter Ammon" carried in
procession a cross, and a box containing a compass or magnet called
"the ark of the covenant of God." "There is reason to believe that
the Chinese knew something about the polaric property of the
loadstone more than 2,000 years before the Christian era."
["Popular Encyclopedia"] We thus see that the cross was used as a
religious emblem many centuries before "Yesuism," or early
Christianity, by nearly every nation of the earth; and to reproduce
the various forms of crosses and emblems held by the ancients as
sacred would be considered indecent, and would shock modern ideas
of propriety. The Latin cross, rising out of a heart, like the
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Catholic emblem, the "crux in corde," was also used by the
Egyptians; it represented goodness. Under the foundations of the
Temple of Serapis, at Alexandria, were discovered a cross and
phallic emblems, which caused the shocking murder of Hypatia by
Saint (?) Cyril's monks. The Egyptians put a cross upon their
sacred cakes -- whence arose the idea of "hot cross buns." Many
Egyptian sepulchers are cruciform in shape. Anu, the chief deity
among the Babylonians, and the sun-god Bel, or Bal, had the cross
for their sign. A cross hangs on the breast of Tiglath Pileser, in
the colossal tablet from Nimrod in the British Museum; another
king, from the ruins of Nineveh, wears a maltese cross on his
breast. The "St. Andrew's cross" originated in the four-spoked
wheel, on which Ixion, the god "Sol," was bound to, when crucified
in the heavens; two spokes confined the arms (or, of the dove, the
wings), and two the legs. Criminals were extended on this form of
cross. The ensigns and banners of the Persians were cruciform. "Few
cases," says the Rev. G.W. Cox, "have been more powerful in
producing mistakes in ancient history than the idea, hastily taken
by Christians, that every monument of antiquity, marked with a
cross, or with any of those symbols which they conceived to be
monograms of their god, was of Christian origin." ["Aryan
Mythology."] Neither the Yesuism, which was old enough to develop
conflicting sects, nor early Christianism, had any knowledge of a
cross, except as a symbol attached to a 'faith which they were
gradually leaving behind -- viz., the old paganism. The cross, too,
adopted by the Christian at the Council of Constantinople was not
the cross as it is known now among Christians, but quite a
different thing, being that of the Imperial murderer, Constantine,
which was nothing more than the monogram of the Egyptian "savior"
Osiris, and of Jupiter Ammon; it consisted of the letters X and P,
which in old Samaritan, as found on coins, stood for 400 and 200.
It was also found on the coins of the Ptolemies and Herod the
Great, forty years before our era. The insignia on the walls of the
Temple of Bacchus in Rome was a Roman cross and I H S -- the three
mystical letters to this day retained in Christian churches, and
falsely supposed to stand for "Jesus hominum salvator." Christian
ladies who work altar cloths for their churches little think that
they are working a pagan sign, the identical monogram of the
heathen sun-god Bacchus; but, after all, they are not far astray,
for Bacchus in Hebrew was "Yahoshua," or Joshua, which in
Phoenician is Ies, and in Greek Iesous, pronounced Yeasoos, from
which Jesus is derived; but, by doing so, they unwittingly admit
the pagan origin of their god. The monogram really represented
Phallic vigor.
As with the cross and the "labarum," so likewise with many
other so-called Christian symbols; they are borrowed from paganism.
There is a medal at Rome of Constantius, Constantine's predecessor,
with this inscription on it: "In hoc signo victor eris" -- which
shows that Constantine borrowed the idea conceived by him in his
dream.
The triangle, trefoil, and tripod were all pagan symbols of
their different trinities. The triangle is conspicuous as a sacred
emblem in Hindu and Buddhist temples, sometimes with the mystical
letters AUM on it, one letter at each angle = Brahma, Vishnu, and
Siva -- the Hindu trinity. It is also seen in the obelisk and
pyramids of Egypt. The trefoil adorned the head of Osiris, and was
used among the ancient Druids.
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THE FISH AND THE LAMB. -- Dagon, the fish-god of the
Babylonians, Assyrians, and Phoenicians, was sacred to Venus; and,
curiously enough, Catholics now eat fish on the day which was
dedicated to Venus -- Dies Veneris, or Friday -- "fish-day" as it
is called. The dag or fish, was the most ancient symbol of the
productive power, and was the emblem of fecundity. Vishnu, the
Hindu "Matsaya," or Messiah, "Preserver," "Mediator," and "Savior,"
was identical with the Babylonian "Dagon," or fish-god. He became
a fish to save the "seventh Manu," the progenitor of the human
race, from the universal deluge. The earliest emblems of the
Christian Savior were "the good shepherd," "the lamb" (or ram), and
"the fish" -- the lamb and fish both being of zodiacal origin
("Aries" and "Pisces").
Jesus is represented in the catacombs as two fishes crossed,
not unlike "the sacred monogram." Dagon is mentioned in 1 Sam v. 2.
The dove was the symbol of the "spirit" among all the nations of
antiquity, as it is now with Christians. The Samaritans had a
"brazen fiery dove," instead of a "brazen fiery serpent;" both
referred to fire -- the symbol of the "Holy Ghost." Buddha is
represented, like Jesus, with a dove hovering over his head. The
goddess Juno is often represented with a dove on her head. It is
also seen on the heads of the images of Astarte, Cybele, and Isis.
The Virgin Mary ascending upon the crescent moon, so frequently
seen in pictures, is the modern adaptation of Isis rising
heavenward. The dove was sacred to Venus, and was intended as a
symbol of the "Holy Spirit;" it signified incubation, by which was
figuratively expressed the fructification of inert matter, caused
by the vital spirit or breath (ruach in Hebrew, and pneuma in
Greek). Fasting, scourging, shaving of heads ("tonsure"), rosary
beads, white surplices, mitres, craziers, etc., were customs and
symbols of the ancient Egyptians, and some, also, of the
Babylonians.
ANCIENT FESTIVALS, SABBATHS, ETC.5
We have seen that Christmas day -- the birthday of Jesus --
was the birthday of the sun and of all the sun-gods. As regards the
real birthday, the date and place of the birth of the man Jesus are
shrouded in mystery and uncertainty. Among the early Christians a
great divergence of opinion existed; some maintaining that it was
in May, others that it was in April, and others again that it was
in January. The festival of the nativity was celebrated at all
these times, at different periods of the world's history. At last
the Roman Christians gained the ascendancy, and fixed December
25th, as that was the day when nearly all the nations of the earth
celebrated the accouchement of the various "Queens of Heaven," of
the "Celestial Virgin" of the Sphere, the first stars of Virgo.
appearing at night above the horizon, and the birth of the new sun
-- the god Sol, The Christians thus stole a birth-day, for Jesus
"stepped into dead gods' shoes." Not only this, they continued the
pagan custom of decking their houses with evergreens and mistletoe.
Tertullian, a father of the Church, writing (200 C.E.) to his
brethren, accuses them of "rank idolatry for decking their doors
with garlands and flowers on festival days according to the custom
of the heathen." "Foliage, such as laurel, myrtle, ivy, oak, and
all evergreens, were 'Dionysiac' plants -- i.e., symbols of the
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generative power, signifying perpetuity and vigor." The festival is
kept in India and China. Buddha, the son of the Virgin Maya, on
whom, according to Chinese tradition, the Divine Power, or Holy
Ghost, had descended, was said to have been born on this day. It
was also the birthday of the Persian sun-god and savior, Mithra.
The ancient Egyptians, centuries before Jesus lived, kept this day
as the birthday of their sun-gods. Isis, their Queen of Heaven and
Virgin Mother, was delivered on this day of a son and savior,
Horus. His birth was one of the greatest mysteries of their
religion. Pictures of it decorated the walls of their temples;
images of the virgin and child, and effigies of the son lying in a
manger, were common. At Christmas the image of Horus was brought
out of the sanctuary with great ceremony, as the image of the
Infant Bambino, or black child, is still brought out and exhibited
in Rome. Among the Greeks, the births of Hercules, Bacchus, and
Adonis were celebrated on this day. In Rome the festival was
observed as "Natalis Solis Invicti," "the birthday of Sol the
Invincible" -- the unconquered sun; on which day they held their
"Saturnalia," whence comes the Christmas "Lord of Misrule." A few
days before the winter solstice the Calabrian shepherds came into
Rome to play on the pipes. Here we see the origin of our "Waits."
The ancient Germans celebrated their "Yule Feast" centuries before
Christianity. "Yule" was the old German name for Christmas, as
"Noel" was the French, and signified the "revolution of the year."
The word was derived from the Hebrew -- Chaldee "Nule." On this
festival the gods were consulted as to the future, sacrifices were
offered to them, and jovial festivities took place.
EASTER. -- This festival in ancient times spread from China --
where it was called "the Festival of Gratitude to Tien" -- to the
whole of Pagan Europe. The festival began with a week's indulgence
in all kinds of sports -- the "Carne vale" ( = to flesh farewell),
or the taking a farewell to animal food, from which the modern word
Carnival is derived, being followed by a fast of forty days in
honor of the Saxon goddess Ostris, or Eostre of the Germans, whence
our Easter. The ancient Persians, at the festival of the solar new
year (March 21st, when the sun crosses the equator), presented each
other with colored eggs. Dyed eggs were sacred Easter offerings in
Egypt. The Jews used eggs at the Passover. The early Christians did
not celebrate the resurrection of their "Lord," but made the Jewish
Passover their chief festival. "A new tradition gained currency
among the Roman Christians that Jesus had not eaten the Passover
before he died, but had substituted himself for the 'paschal lamb.'
The resurrection then became the great Christian festival, and was
celebrated on the first pagan holiday -- the Dies Solis -- after
the Passover."
THE PURIFICATION of the Virgin originated with the worship of
the Egyptian goddess Neith ( = starry sky), the virgin mother of
the sun-god Ra. The worship of this goddess was accompanied by a
profusion of burning candles. Her feast was called "the Feast of
the Purification."
The idea of a SABBATH originated with the Akkadians, who
occupied a tract of land in the historic valley of the Tigris and
Euphrates about five thousand years before the "Christ" Jesus,
where the civilization of the world commenced. These Akkadians, who
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were eventually conquered by the Assyrians, and from the ruins of
whose empire subsequently arose the monarchies of Nineveh and
Babylon, were the inventors of cuneiform writing, which consisted
of figures of various kinds of animals, limbs, etc., traced with a
style upon clay cylinders or tablets. Many of these have been found
under the ruins of the buried cities; twelve were found in
Babylonia in 1876 (see p. 23), others at Tel-el-Amarna in Egypt in
1887, and among the ruins of Lachish in Southern Palestine. These
are now decipherable. The religion of the Akkadians (Shamanism,
from the Semitic Shamas = sun) was astronomical and phallic. They
had their "Trinity" -- a celestial father and mother, and their
off-spring, the sun-god; also stories of an infant Sargon being
placed by his mother in a reed basket, and left on the bank of a
river, being subsequently found, and eventually becoming king of
Babylon (about B.C. 3750); of a creation; a tree of life; and a
deluge. The name Adam is derived from the Assyrian Adami -- man.
They also had their "holy water," "penitential psalms," table of
"shew-bread," and "ark" containing the images of their gods. They
dedicated special days to the sun, moon, and five planets -- Mars,
Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn -- each cycle of which became
a week of seven days. "The number seven thus became sacred to
them," as did the number twelve, which represented the twelve signs
of the zodiac, and from which the idea of the twelve apostles was
derived. "They had a special deity who received honor, as patron of
the number seven; and destructive tempests and winds were believed
to be directed by the will of seven wicked spirits." [F.J. Gould,
"A Concise History of Religion."] The seven heavenly bodies were
represented in the seven platforms, by which the astronomer priests
ascended to the summit of their temple, the so-called "Tower of
Babel." "The 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th days of each month were
called 'Sabbaths,' or 'Rest days,' and so rigorously was this day
kept that not even the king was permitted to eat cooked food,
change his clothes, drive his chariot, sit in the judgment-seat,
review his troops, or even take medicine on any of those days." [
Ibid.]
The Sabbatical idea, with many other religious customs and
observances, spread from the Akkadians to their Semitic conquerors,
the inhabitants of the neighboring countries of Phoenicia, Phrygia,
Canaan, and Syria; and from these to the Jews during their seventy
years' captivity. The Jews do not appear to have understood the
true astronomical origin of their Sabbath, for they give two
contradictory reasons for its institution; one in Exodus (xxii. and
xxxi. 17), where it is given as "because the Almighty rested on the
seventh day;" the other in Deuteronomy (v. 15), where it is given
as because "the Lord God brought them out from bondage in Egypt,"
which event is computed to have occurred about 2,500 years later
than "the Creation."
The Puritans in the sixteenth century, a bigoted and narrow
sect of Christians, attempted, with great fanaticism, to revive the
ceremonial obligations of the Jewish Sabbath; but altering the day
of the week from the seventh to the first, which secured for them
the name of "Sabbatarians." And the idea has been kept up in this
country by the retention in the Prayer Book of the State Church, of
the Hebrew Decalogue, with a prayer following each command, that
the deity will "incline their hearts to keep that law,"
notwithstanding the new Hexalogue that Jesus is said to have
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delivered to his disciples (Matthew xix. 18). Sabbatarians bring
forward as reasons for their superstition that on the first day of
the week "Paul preached" -- but he also preached on the Jewish
Sabbath three times (Acts xvi. 13; xvii; xviii. 4); the disciples
"assembled for the breaking of bread" -- but we are told they went
about breaking bread every day from house to house (Acts ii. 46);
and that "they were all with one accord in one place" -- these
commentators seem to forget that it was "on the feast of
Pentecost," which fell on the first day of the week, and that it
was on account of the feast, not the day of the week, that they
were gathered together; the last Jewish feast that Paul was anxious
to keep (i Corinthians xvi. 8). Sabbatarians, to be consistent,
ought not to permit fires to be lighted in their houses, even in
winter, for "ye shall kindle no fire throughout your habitations
upon the Sabbath day" (Exodus xxxv. 3); nor ought they to permit
the painting of pictures, the carving of sculpture, etc. Jesus is
shown, in the New Testament, to have abolished the Sabbath; for he
tells his hearers that both he and his father worked on the
Sabbath; and, when rebuked by the Pharisees for breaking the
Sabbath, replied that the Sabbath was made for man, not man for the
Sabbath; and he is said to have performed most of his miracles on
that day. The Yezuans, or Jesusites, and the Christians of a later
day kept no Sabbath, and discountenanced the keeping of holy days.
Not until the time of the Imperial Murder Constantine (321 C.E.)
was the idea of a Christian Sabbath conceived. The first day of the
week -- Sunday -- Dies Solis Venerabuis, was the great weekly
festival with the Pagans -- worshippers of the sun -- "sol", the
invincible." An edict was issued by Constantine to compel all
except laborers "to rest from all work on the venerable day of the
sun." Pagan idols were transformed into Christian saints, and Pagan
temples into Christian churches. But this edict, which was much
disliked by Christians, was repealed by the Emperor Leo in the
ninth century. Eusebius says: "They [the first Christians] did not
observe the Sabbath, nor do we; neither do we regard other
injunctions which Moses delivered to be types and symbols, because
such things as these do not belong to Christians." ["Ecclesiastical
History," book 1, ch. 4.]
ANCIENT GODS, TRINITIES, AND SCRIPTURES.
GODS. -- Ancestral spirits (the basis of Vedic religion and
the origin of religion in general), relics, stones, animals, the
generative powers of nature (phallic), plants, trees, fire and
lightning, water, thunder, planets, etc., have all been objects of
worship by man. "Primitive man regarded as supernatural whatever he
could not comprehend; and feared whatever was strange in appearance
and behavior; 'It was a spirit.'" [Herbert Spencer, "Sociology."]
Men of extraordinary talent were spirits, and it was a very short
step from the idea of a spirit to that of a god. But we have seen
that nearly every country has looked up to the sun with special
veneration, and most of the chief gods have been sun-gods; and very
naturally too, for all benefits received by man from nature were
seen to be derived from the rays of the sun-light, heat, fruit,
crops, and life itself; and much that was detrimental was
attributed to the absence of sunshine.
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The EASTERN SEMITES of Accadia, Babylonia, Assyria, etc., the
originators of the Chaldean religion, were astrologers and
astronomers, and they mapped out the ancient zodiac. It was in this
district that civilization may be said to have commenced; a library
of clay tablets was formed by King Sargon I., about 4,000 B.C., at
Nineveh, which gave stories of the Creation, Flood, and of a
conflict between the Sun-God and the demon Tiamat, and the descent
of Ishtar into Hades, etc. Their gods were Ana (lord of the sky);
Ea (of air and water); Darki (earth); Marduk, or Merodack, and Bel
(the sun), son of Ea; Bilit, or Mylitta (Bel's wife), to whom every
Babylonian woman had to offer her virginity; Sin (the moon); Ishtar
(evening star) -- for Ishtar's sake men made themselves eunuchs,
and women yielded to prostitution; Dagon (the fish-god) was of
Chaldean origin.
THE WESTERN SEMITES, Of Canaan, Syria, Phoenicia, Phrygia, and
Asia Minor, retained many of the traditions and ideas of the
Easterns. Bel was by them transformed into Baal; Ishtar into
Ashtoreth and Astarte; Moloch into Ashera (Priapus, the phallic
god). They had also the legend of the dying sun-god, and of a
flood. Many of the stories of Jesus may be traced to these ancient
legends. They had also their Sabbath, like the Easterns.
Philistines had Derketo (half woman, half fish); and Dagon.
Moabites adored Chemosh.
Hebrew Tribes -- Yahuh (Jehovah) or Yeho -- the provider of
sexual pleasure, Adonai, Baal, and El-Shaddai.
India -- Brahma (the "savior" and androgynous creator),
Vishnu, and Siva; Vasudeva, Devaki, and Krishna (mother and child).
Gautama Buddha (god, man, and savior). Krishna and Osiris were
dark-skinned; Typhon was red; and Horus, white. The dark-skinned is
supposed to have represented the hidden sun at night. "Buddhism is
a sun myth. Emerging from the womb of the virgin dawn, the hero
ascends the sky to meet and conquer the storm spirit, after which
the fires of sunset redden over his funeral pile." Brahmanism grew
out of the old Vedic faith, and Buddhism out of Brahmanism -- now
Hinduism.
Persia -- Mazda, or Ormuzd ("creator," "god of light, purity,
and truth "); Ahriman (the outcast, bad spirit); Zoroaster
(mediator between Ormuzd and Ahriman); Haoma, Tistrya (Dog Star);
Anahita (goddess of fruitfulness); Sraosha (god of prayer and
sacrifice); Devas (the shining ones, the children of Dyaus -- the
sky -- Dyaus Pitar, in Sanskrit, meaning heaven and father, in
Greek Zeu pater (Zeus), in Latin Jupiter and Deus); Prithivi (the
earth mother) represented the powers of nature. Indra was the god
of rain; Surya, the sun-god and Agni, the god of fire and
lightening -- a trinity. There were also the gods of day, dawn,
wind, etc. Zoroaster, the prophet of Mazda, founded Zoroastrianism,
an offshoot of Mazdaism, as was also Mithraism. Mithra was a sun-
god, and "Incarnate Word," "Lord of Light." Mithra, Zoroaster,
Krishna, Zeus of the Greeks, and Jesus were all said to be born in
caves. A figure of the sun-god Mithra is, says Mr. Gould, to be
seen in the British Museum. "The god is plunging a knife into a
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bull, and, while the bull is attacked from below by a scorpion, a
dog laps the blood which flows from the wound." The allusion is to
the sun entering into the zodiacal sign "Taurus" at the vernal
equinox, and the fate which compels its return to wintry depths
through the autumnal sign "Scorpio." The first day of the week was
dedicated to Mithra, whose devotees were baptized and marked on the
forehead with a holy sign, and solemnly partook of a round cake and
water.
China -- Shang-Ti (B.C. 2,200), Kung Futse (Confucius -- B.C.
550), Lao-Tse, and Buddha.
Japan Ceylon, Tibet, Corea, Siam, Burma -- Buddha; and remains
of phallic worship in some.
Egypt -- Osiris (Father), the sun-god, after its disappearance
in the west, where he was slain by the envious night, and yet
destined to rise again the next morning; he was represented as a
mummy, wearing a maitre, and holding a scepter and crazier, and in
his hand a "crux ansata;" Osiris, Isis (virgin mother), and Horus
(the infant) formed a trinity; Amen-Ra ("the maker of all that
is"); Nut and Chonsu at Abydos; Typhon (god of evil); Khem (the
phallic god of reproduction) Ptah (the god of Memphis) -- said to
have produced the egg of the sun and moon. Ra was the sun god in
his splendor; Neith was his virgin mother. Pharaoh is derived from
Ptah and "Ra." Anubis was the jackal-headed genius of death and
Serapis, introduced from Asia.
Africa -- Baal, Ammon, Isis, Horus, and Serapis.
Greece -- Zeus, Apollo, Athene ("the Immaculate Virgin"),
Aphrodite, Herakles, Dionysus; later, Isis and Serapis. The Stoics,
Platonists, and Epicureans were philosophers, and occupied a
position similar to that of the Rationalists and Agnostics of the
present day.
Italy and Rome -- Isis was a favourite goddess; Horus, Osiris,
Jupiter, Juno, Minerva. The Isis cult recognized magic, fortune-
telling by stars, palmistry, dreams, and consultations with the
dead.
TRINITIES:
Vedic -- Indra, Surya, and Agni.
India -- Brahma, Vishnu, and Siva; later Vasudeva,
Devaki, and Krishna.
Egypt -- (In Abydos) Osiris, Isis, and Horus; (in Thebes)
Amen-Ra, Nut (Mut or Neith), and Chonsu.
Greece -- Zeus, Athene, and Apollo.
Rome -- Jupiter, Juno, and Minerva.
Chaldea -- Ana, Ea, and Bel.
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Christian Countries -- Yahuh, Holy Ghost (Ruach), and
Jesus.
SCRIPTURES, or sacred writings:
Egyptians -- The Book of the Dead and the Maxims of Ptah
Hotep, eighteen in number (the most ancient book in the world);
written on papyrus B.C. 3,400.
Aryans of Asia -- The Vedas.
(1) Brahminism -- The Rig Veda; the Law Book of Manu.
(2) Buddhism -- The Tripitaka, or Three Baskets.
(3) Hinduism -- The Puranas, the Ramyana, and the Mahabharata,
an epic Poem B.C. 500, in which is the Bhagavadgita.
Parseeism -- The Zend Avesta.
Confucianism -- The Five Classics (King), and Four Shu.
Taoism -- The Tau-teh-king.
Judaism -- The Pentateuch and the Talmud, or Book of the Law.
Christianism -- The Old and New Testaments.
Islamism -- The Koran.
ORIGIN OF "RELIGION" (THEOLOGY).
Religions may be said to have had their origin in astronomical
and phallic worship.
Primitive Astronomy. -- The Akkadians may be considered the
fathers of astronomy, but the Indians, Egyptians, Persians, Ancient
Greeks, and Romans each had their zodiacs, which differed very
little from one another. The astronomer-priests were also
astrologers, and supposed the heavenly bodies to possess a ruling
influence over human and mundane affairs. Individual temperaments
were ascribed to the planet under which a particular birth took
place, as "saturnine" from Saturn, "jovial" from Jupiter,
"mercurial" from Mercury; and the virtues of herbs, gems, and
medicines were believed to be due to their ruling planets. The idea
of ruling is to be found in the story of Creation in Genesis, where
the sun is said to "rule the day," and the stars to "rule the
night."
The modern zodiac is a fixed one, but with the ancients the
zodiac was a changing one, this being due to the fact of the
precession of the equinoxes, the sun failing to reach the
equinoxial point at the same time each year. The different signs of
the ancient zodiac in this way moved forward one degree in 71 or 72
years, and one whole sign (30 degrees) in 2,152 years; so that,
between the years 4340 and 2188 B.C., the Bull was the first,
chief, or vernal equinoxial sign; and, from 2188 to 36 B.C., the
Ram or Lamb took its place, "at which time, the sun having ascended
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from its lowest point of declination, at Christmas (December 21st
to 25th), arrives at that portion of its annual course when the
equator and the ecliptic cross each other," and the days become
longer than the nights.
It must be borne in mind that, when the sun was in any
particular sign, the sign opposite to it in the zodiac, and the
constellations of that portion of the heavens, were visible from
our earth at night. When the Bull was the vernal equinoxial sign,
the sun was said to be "in Taurus;" and, when the Ram was the
vernal equinoxial sign, the sun was said to be "in Aries." They
divided each of the twelve signs into thirty degrees, and three
deacons of ten degrees each. As the sun passed from decan to decan,
and from sign to sign, the astrologer-priests publicly proclaimed
the exact moment of its entry into each. The first decan they
called the "Upper Room," the second the "Middle Room," and the
third the "Lower Room."
The various signs of the zodiac, as well as the sun, moon, and
five planets, were considered by them as gods; and each was
associated with romantic stories of struggles, victories, and
defeats; and, according to their position in the zodiac, were
accounted powerful and victorious at one time, and weak and dying
at another. The sun passing through the twelve signs of the zodiac
was represented in the story of the twelve labors of Hercules, the
twelve patriarchs, the twelve tribes, etc.
The six summer signs were considered specially bountiful and
holy, while the six winter signs were accounted less holy, but
quite as powerful for evil as the others were for good. When the
Bull was the vernal equinoxial point, the sun in Taurus was supreme
God; and, when the Ram or Lamb, the sun in Aries was supreme God.
"Although it was only in March that the sun was at the vernal
equinoxial point, yet the Bull-god, for 2.000 years prior to 2188
B.C., was always supreme; and the Ram-god (in Egypt), or Lamb-god
(in Persia), after that date." [H.J. Hardwick, "Evolution and
Creation."] We have already seen that the different gods -- virgin-
born, crucified, and resurrected saviours -- were not real
personages, but merely personifications of the powers of nature,
and principally those of the sun. "One of the earliest objects that
would strike and stir the mind of man, and for which a sign or name
would soon be wanted, is surely the sun." In the Vedas the sun has
twenty different names, not pure equivalents, but each term
descriptive of the sun in one of its aspects when brilliant, Surya;
the friend, Mitra or Mithra; generous, Aryaman; beneficent, Bhaga;
nourishing, Pushna; creator, Tvashtar; master of the sky,
Divaspati; and so on." [S. Baring-Gould, "Origin of Religious
Belief."] Men "could not fail to note the change of days and years,
of growth and decay, of calm and storm; but the objects which so
changed were to them living things, and the rising and setting of
the sun, the return of winter and summer, became a drama in which
the actors were their enemies or friends. These gods and heroes,
and the incidents of their mythical career, would receive each a
local habitation and name, and these would remain as genuine
history, when the origin and meaning of the words had been either
wholly or part forgotten." [Doane, "Bible Myths."]
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"The history of the Savior can be followed, step by step, in
the Vedic hymns; the development which changes the sun from a mere
luminary into a 'Creator,' 'Preserver,' 'Ruler,' 'Rewarder of the
World,' and, in fact, into a 'Divine or Supreme Being.' The first
step is the light which meets us on waking in the morning, and
which seems to give new life to man and nature. He is now called
'the Giver of Daily Life.' Then, by a bolder step, he becomes the
'Giver of Light and Life' in general. He who brings light and life
to-day is the same who brought light and life on the first of days.
And so he becomes a 'Creator' and, if a Creator, soon a 'Ruler of
the World.' Then he is conceived as a 'Defender' and 'Kind
Protector' of all living things, by driving away the dreaded
darkness of the night, and as fertilizing the earth. Then, as a
'Vigilant Eye,' seeing everything -- the works of the evil doer,
and that which no human eye can see." [Doane, "Bible Myths."]
The history of Jesus, the Christian Savior, is simply the
history of the sun -- the real savior of mankind; and this can be
demonstrated beyond a doubt. I quote chiefly from Doane's "Bible
Myths": --
1. The sun's birthday, at the commencement of its annual
revolution round the earth, the first moment after midnight of
December 24th, is the birthday of Jesus, Buddha, Mithras, Osiris,
Horus, Hercules, Bacchus, Adonis, and other sun-gods. On this day
was celebrated by all nations of the earth the accouchement of the
"Queen of Heaven," of the "celestial origin of the sphere," and the
birth of the god "Sol." On that day, the sun having fully entered
the winter solstice, the sign of the virgin was rising on the
eastern horizon, and the Persian magicians drew the horoscope of
the new year; the woman's symbol of which was represented, first,
by ears of corn, second, with a new-born male child in her arms,
"The division of the first decan of the virgin represents a
beautiful virgin with flowing hair, sitting on a chair, with two
ears of corn in her hand, and suckling an infant called Iaesus by
some nations, and Christ in Greek." [Volney, "Ruins."]
2. The sun alone is born of an immaculate virgin, who
conceived him without carnal intercourse, and who still remains a
virgin -- either the beautiful Dawn, or the dark earth or night.
The Roman Catholics represent the Virgin with the child in one
hand, and the lotus or lily in the other, but sometimes with ears
of corn. In the Vedic hymns the Dawn is called the "Mother of the
Gods," and is said to have given birth to the sun. The sun and all
the solar deities rise from the east, which originated the custom
of praying towards the east; and this practice is still to be seen
in the English Church, but has been dropped by the Roman Church
since the Reformation.
3. The bright morning star rises immediately before the sign
of "the virgin" is entered. This is the star which informs the
magicians and the shepherds who watched their flocks by night that
the Savior of mankind was about to be born.
4. All nature smiles at the birth of the Heavenly Being. In
the "Vishnu Purana," at the birth of Christna, we find: "The
quarters of the horizon are irradiate with joy, as if moonlight was
diffused over the whole earth," and "the spirits and nymphs of
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heaven dance and sing." At the birth of Buddha "caressing breezes
blow, and a marvelous light is produced." In the Fo-Sen-King of
China: "For the Lord and Savior is born to give joy and peace to
men and Devas, to shed light in dark places, and to give sight to
the blind." In the Prayer Book and New Testament: "To him all
angels cry aloud, the heavens, and all the powers therein." "Glory
to God in the highest, and on earth peace, goodwill towards men."
5. At early dawn, on December 25th, the astrologers of the
Arabs, Chaldeans, and other oriental nations, greeted the infant
savior with gold, frankincense, and myrrh. "They started to salute
their god long before the rising of the sun; and, having ascended
a high mountain, waited anxiously for the birth, facing the east,
and there hailed his first rays with incense and prayer." [Dupuis,
"Origin of Religious Belief."] He was acclaimed with: "Hail, Orient
Conqueror of gloomy night!" and "Will the powers of darkness be
conquered by the god of light?" by the shepherds. Jesus is said to
have been visited by the Magician sun-worshippers.
6. All sun-gods and saviours were born in caves, so was Jesus.
"This was the darkest abode from which the wandering sun starts in
the morning. As the dawn springs fully armed from the forehead of
the cloven sky, so the eye first discerns the blue of heaven, as
the first faint arch of light is seen in the east. This arch is the
cave in which the infant is nourished until he reaches his full
strength -- in other words, until the day is fully come ... At
length the child is born, and a halo of serene light encircles his
cradle, just as the sun appears at early dawn in all his splendor."
7. "All the sun gods are fated to bring ruin upon their
parents or the reigning monarch. For this reason they attempt to
prevent his birth; and, failing this, seek to destroy him when
born." Herod is the counterpart of Kansa, the dark and wicked
night; but he loses his power when the young prince of glory, the
Invincible, is born. The sun scatters darkness, and so it was said
the child was to be the destroyer of the reigning monarch, or his
parent, night; and the magicians warned the latter of the doom
which would overtake him. The newly-born babe is therefore ordered
to be put to death by the sword, or exposed on the hill-side, as
the sun seems to rest on the earth (Ida) at its rising. In oriental
mythology the destroying principle is generally represented as a
serpent or dragon; and "the position of the sphere on Christmas Day
shows the serpent all but touching, and certainly aiming at, the
woman" -- i.e., the figure of the constellation Virgo. Here we have
the origin of the story of the snake sent to kill Hercules, and of
Typhon, who sought the life of the infant Horus; and of Orion, who
besets the virgin mother Astrea; and of Latona, the mother of
Apollo, when pursued by the monster and, lastly, of the Virgin
Mary, with her babe beset by Herod. "But, like Hercules, Horus,
Gilgames, Apollo, Theseus, Romulus, Cyrus, and other solar heroes,
Jesus has a long course before him. Like them, be grows up wise and
strong, and the 'old serpent' is discomfited by him, just as the
sphinx and the dragon are put to flight by others."
8. "The temptation by, and victory over, the evil one, whether
Mara or Satan, is the victory of the sun over the clouds of storm
and darkness. In his struggle with darkness the sun remains the
conqueror, and the army of Mara or Satan broken or scattered; the
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Apearas, daughters of the demon, the last light vapours which float
in the heaven, try in vain to clasp and retain the vanquisher; he
disengages himself from their embraces, repulses them they writhe,
lose their form, and vanish." Free from every obstacle and
adversary, the sun journeys across space, having defeated the
attempts of his eternal foe; and, appearing in all his glory and
sovereign splendor, the god has attained the summit of his course,
It is the moment of triumph.
9. "The sun has now reached his extreme southern limit, his
career is ended, and he is at last overcome by his enemies, the
powers of darkness and of winter. The bright sun of summer is
finally slain, crucified in the heavens. Before he dies he sees all
his disciples -- his retinue of light; and the twelve hours of the
day, or the twelve months of the year, disappear in the sanguinary
melee of the clouds of the evening ... Throughout the tale the sun-
god was but fulfilling his doom. These things must be."
10. "And many women were there beholding from afar. In the
tender mother and the fair maidens we have the dawn who bore him,
and the fair and beautiful lights which flash the Eastern sky as
the sun sinks or dies in the west (these lights can only be
understood by those who have seen them; there is nothing like them
in this country). Their tears are the tears of dew, such as Eos
weeps at the death of her child. All the sun-gods forsake their
homes and virgin mothers, and wander through different countries
doing marvelous things. Finally, at the end of their career, the
mother from whom they were parted is by their side to cheer them in
their last hours." They were to be found at the last scene in the
life of Buddha, OEdipus (another sun), Hercules, Apollo,
Prometheus, etc.
11. "There was darkness over the land." This is the sun
sinking slowly down, with the ghastly hues of death upon his face,
while none are nigh to cheer him, save the ever-faithful women.
After a long struggle against the dark clouds who are arrayed
against him, he is finally overcome, and dies. Blacker and blacker
grow the evening shades, and finally "there is darkness on the face
of the earth, and the din of its thunder crashes through the air."
12. "He descended into hell." This is the sun's descent into
the lower regions. It enters the sign Capricorns, or the Goat, and
the astronomical winter begins. The days have reached their
shortest span, and the sun has reached his extreme southern limit.
For three days and three nights he remains in hell -- the lower
regions, Jesus is here like the other sun-gods.
13. "At the winter solstice the ancients wept and mourned for
Tammuz, the fair Adonis, and other sun-gods, done to death by the
boar, or crucified -- slain by the thorn of winter -- and on the
third day they rejoiced at the resurrection of their Lord of Light.
The Church endeavored to give a Christian significance to the
rites, which they borrowed from heathenism, and in this case the
mourning for Tammuz, the fair Adonis, became the mourning for
Jesus; and joy at the rising of the natural sun became joy at the
rising of the 'Sun of Righteousness ' -- at the resurrection of
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Jesus from the grave. The festival of the resurrection was held by
the ancients on the 25th of March, when spring results from the
return of the sun from the lower or far-off regions, the equator
crossing the ecliptic, The sun rises in Aries."
14. It was not god the father who was supposed by the ancients
to have been the creator of the world, but god the son, the
redeemer and savior of mankind. Now, this redeemer was, as we have
seen, the sun, which in Vedic mythology was looked upon as the
ruler, the establisher, and creator of the world. Jesus is,
therefore, creator of all things.
15. Who is better able than the sun to be the judge of men's
deeds, seeing as he does from his throne in heaven all that is done
on earth? The Vedas speaks of Surya -- the pervading irresistible
luminary -- as seeing and hearing all things, noting the good and
evil deeds of men. Jesus is therefore judge of the quick and the
dead.
16. "The second coming of Vishnu (Krishna), Jesus, and other
sun-gods is also an astronomical allegory. The white horse, which
figures so conspicuously in legend, was the universal symbol of the
sun among oriental nations."
"Jesus, then, is the toiling sun, with a career of brilliant
conquest, checked with intervals of storm, and declining to a death
clouded with sorrow and derision. He is in constant company with
his twelve apostles, the twelve signs of the zodiac ... when the
leaves fell and withered on the approach of winter, he would be
considered dying or dead, as no other power than that of the sun
can recall vegetation to life ... He is the child of the dawn,
whose soft violet hues tint the clouds of early morn; his father
being She sky, the heavenly father."
"The sacred legends abound with such expressions as can have
no possible application to any other than to the 'god of day.' He
is the 'light to lighten the Gentiles, and to be the glory (or
brightness) of his people.' He is come 'a light into the world,
that whosoever believeth in him should not abide in darkness.' He
is 'the light of the world and 'is light, and in him no darkness
is.' Lighten our darkness, O Adonai, and by thy great mercy defend
us from all perils and dangers of this night.' 'God of god, light
of light, very god of very god' (Creed). 'Merciful Adonai, we
beseech thee to cast thy right beams of light upon thy church'
(Catholic Collect St. John). 'To thee all angels cry aloud, the
heavens, and all the powers therein. Heaven and earth are full of
the majesty of thy glory (or brightness). The glorious company of
the (twelve months or) apostles praise thee. Thou art the king of
glory (brightness), O Christ! When thou tookest upon thee to
deliver man thou passest through the constellation or zodiacal sign
-- the virgin. When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of winter,
thou didst open the kingdom of heaven (i.e., bring on the reign of
the summer months), to all believers."
"We see, then, that Christ Jesus, like Christ Buddha,
Christna, Mithra, Osiris, Horus, Apollo, Hercules, and others, is
none other than a personification of the sun, and that the
Christians, like their predecessors, the Pagans, are really sun-
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worshippers. It must not be inferred, however, that no such person
as Jesus of Nazareth ever lived in the flesh. The man Jesus is
evidently an historical personage, just as Sakaya, Prince Buddha,
Cyrus, King of Persia, and Alexander, King of Macedonia, are
historical personages; but the Christ Jesus, the Christ Buddha, the
mythical Cyrus, and the mythical Alexander, never lived in the
flesh. The sun myth has been added to the histories of these
personages in a greater or less degree, just as it has been added
to the history of many other real personages. After the Jews had
been taken captives to Babylon, around the history of their King
Solomon accumulated the fables which were related of Persian heroes
... When the fame of Cyrus and Alexander became known over the
known world, the popular sun-myth was interwoven with their true
history ... That the biography of Jesus, as recorded in the books
of the New Testament, contain some few grains of actual history, is
all that the historian or philosopher can rationally venture to
urge. But the very process which has stripped these legends of the
birth, life, and death of the sun, of all value as a chronicle of
actual events, has invested them with a new interest. They present
to us a form of society and a condition of thought through which
all mankind had to pass before the dawn of history. Yet that state
of things was as real as the time in which we live. 'They who spoke
the language of these early tales were men and women with joys and
sorrows not unlike our own." [Doane, "Bible Myths."]
PHALLIC WORSHIP, -- "Throughout all animal life there is no
physical impulse so overbearing as the generative, unless we except
that for food. Food gives satisfaction. Rest to tired nature gives
pleasure. But the power of reproduction is the acme of physical
bliss, How natural, then, that this last-named impulse should,
early in human development, give direction and consequence to
religious fancies." 'This the reproductive power did in India,
Egypt, among the Buddhists, Babylonians, Phoenicians, Assyrians,
and ancient Hebrews. As they personified the sun and planets, air,
water, fire, etc., so they personified the sexual power; and the
worship, not of the actual organs, but of the fertilizing
principle, became a recognized custom, so much so that the ancients
used to swear by their generative organs, as Christians do now by
their Bible, as being the most sacred thing on earth, and
representing the divine energy in a state of procreative activity.
Thus we find in Psalm lxxxix. 49 (literally): "O my Adonis, where
are thy endearments of old, which thou swearedst for the sake of
love, by the phallus, O Ammon?" This had reference to the violent
death of Adonis, who, at the autumnal equinox, was attacked by a
wild boar, which tore away the membrum virile, and rendered him
impotent, until he was born again, when he acquired fresh powers,
and grew in beauty and stature, ready to reunite with Venus at the
vernal equinox.
As we have before seen, the two sexual powers of nature were
symbolized respectively by an upright and an oval (and sometimes a
crescent or circle) emblem -- T and O; the Phallus, Ashera, Priapus
of the Jews (the Hebrew letter for which was a cross), or Linga (of
the Hindus); and the Hindu Yoni or Unit, the Vulvz or
Pudendumfeminy, sometimes represented as the mountain of Venus
(mons veneris). The former was a representation of the sun-god in
his majesty and glory, the restorer of the powers of nature after
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the long sleep or death of winter; and the latter, a representation
of the earth, who yields her fruit under the fertilizing power and
warmth of the sun, and when placed upon the Tau, T, or Phallus,
formed the "Crux Ansata," or conjunction of the sun and earth, male
and female. The Phallus placed erect as a tree, cross, or pole,
above a crescent or on a mons veneris, set forth "the marriage of
heaven and earth;" and, in the form of a serpent, represented "life
and healing," and was so worshipped by the Egyptians and Jews. The
two emblems of the cross and serpent (the quiescent and energizing
Phallus) are united in the brazen serpent of "the Pentateuch" The
conjunction of the two sexual emblems was represented in the Temple
by the circular altar of Baal-Peor, on which stood the "Ashera,"
and for which the Jewish women wove hangings; and under whose
protective influence Jacob, on his journey to Laban, slept. It is
innocently reproduced in our modern " May-pole," around which
maidens dance, as maidens did of yore. The Catholic priest little
dreams that he wears a Phallic vestment at Mass, for upon his
vestment is the Crux Ansala (ansalus = handle), his head passing
through the oval or yoni; the Tau, or cross, falling from the chest
in front. The surplice, a figment of woman's dress, was used as a
Phallic or Yonijic vestment.
The word Ashera (erroneously rendered, as we have seen, in the
translation of the Authorized Version, and so admitted in the
Revised Version), literally rendered, is pole, or stem of tree,
Phallus, The Jewish women made silver and golden Phalli (Ezekiel
xvi. 17). 'The "tree of the knowledge of good and evil," in
Genesis, is the "tree of life," or "Phallic pole," denoting the
knowledge which dawns on the mind with the first consciousness of
the difference in the sexes. The symbol of life, in cuneiform
writing, was the conjoined emblem -- the "Crux Ansata." Many of the
Egyptian gods are represented with this cross hanging from the
hand, which is passed through the oval. This is wrongly called a
hey by Mr. Sharpe in his " Egyptian Mythology" (p. 54). It was
customary to set up a stone, or "Hermes" (Hermes, or Mercury, was
an ancient heathen deity, the symbol of Phallus), on the road-side,
and each traveller as he passed paid his homage to the deity by
either throwing a stone on the heap, or by anointing the upright
stone with oil. Jacob "rose up early in the morning, and took the
stone that he had for a pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and
poured oil upon the top of it." And there is scarcely a nation of
antiquity which did not set up these stones, as emblems of the
reproductive power of nature, and worship them. The custom is found
among the ancient Druids of Britain. The Greek historian,
Pausanias, says: "The Hermiac statue, which they Venerate in
Cyllene above other symbols, is an erect Phallus on a pedestal."
In connection with Phallic worship arose the idea of offering
the virginity of maidens to certain gods or goddesses. The
Babylonian women were compelled to offer themselves once in their
lifetime to the goddess Astarte, or Mylitta (the Assyrian for
Venus). Sitting in the Temple, they waited till some passer-by of
the opposite sex threw money into their laps, when they prostituted
themselves "for the sake of Mylitta." No man was ever refused. Many
women, not so inviting in appearance as others, would thus remain
waiting for years their turn. A similar state of things, only
worse, was reproduced among the Yezuans, or primitive Christians,
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at their "Agapai," or Love Feasts; the immoralities of which are
supposed to have been the real cause of the so-called persecutions
by the Roman emperors, under whom great freedom of religious
opinion was permitted and enjoyed. The unnatural actions practised
at these assemblies are mentioned by Eusebius (book vii., chap.
xi.).
ORIGIN OF THE WORD "CHRISTIAN."
The word "Christian" means a follower of a "Christ," which
word is derived from the Greek Christos, an anointed one, or
Messiah; but as many Christs -- Buddha, Krishna, and other
Messiahs, or Avatars -- had existed for thousands of years before
Jesus was declared a Christ, the name, as distinctive of followers
of jesus -- Jesusites or Yezuans -- was, and is, misleading. The
Yezuans, though looking to Jesus as their Master, were a
conglomeration of conflicting sects, whose angry disputes are facts
of history. They were chiefly Therapeut monks, having a knowledge
of Egyptian Osirianism, Persian Mithraism, Buddhism, and the
eclectic philosophy of Philo. They were not called Christians until
the middle of the first century of our era, when the name was first
applied to the new sect at Antioch, after which some attempt at
organization was made. What we now know as Christianism, or
Christianity, was gradually developed, through many centuries, as
a result of the numerous disputes that arose among the many
contentious sects that had already arisen, and through the cunning
adaptation by the monks of the old Pagan doctrines and legends to
the new circumstances, making Jesus (Yahoshua more correctly) the
leading personage.
THE FRUITS OF CHRISTIANISM.
To do no injustice to Christianism, it shall be judged by its
own law, and on its own principles. The Bible says (Matt. xii, 17):
"Every good tree bringeth forth good fruit, but a corrupt tree
bringeth forth evil fruit ... Wherefore by their fruits ye shall
know them." Now, let us see what has been the fruit of
Christianism. This system of religious belief may be said to have
had its birth in Alexandria, in Egypt. How did it establish itself
there? By the so-much-preached-about virtues of love and charity?
No, but by the carrying out of another Christian principle to be
found in Matt. x. 34, and again in Luke xii. 51: "Not peace, but a
sword ... father against son, and son against father;" by the
destruction of the magnificent library collected by the Ptolemies,
and containing over 600,000 volumes, by Theophilus, Christian
bishop of that place; also by the cruel and inhuman murder of
Hypatia, the popular lecturer, at Alexandria, in the next bishop's
(Saint Cyril's) time. "Each day, before her academy, stood a long
train of chariots; her lecture-room was crowded with the wealth and
fashion of Alexandria. They came to listen to her discourses on
those questions which man in all ages has asked, but which never
yet have been answered: 'What am I? Where am I? What can I know?
... As Hypatia repaired to her academy, she was assaulted by
Cyril's mob, a mob of many monks; stripped naked in the streets,
she was dragged into a church, and there killed by the club of
Peter 'the Reader.' The corpse was cut to pieces, the flesh was
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scraped from the bones with shells, and the remnants cast into a
fire. For this frightful crime Cyril was never called to account.
It seemed to be admitted that the end sanctified the means." [Dr.
Draper, "Conflict between Religion and Science."]
We now come to a later date -- the "Dark Ages" -- when the
Christian Inquisition flourished, but a great deal of the details
of which are little known, for so much secrecy was observed; but it
may give some idea of the horrors of this institution if we state
that, when the French took the city of Arragon, the Inquisition was
broken into, and "no fewer than 400 prisoners were set at liberty,
among whom were 60 young girls, who composed the Seraglio of the
three principal Inquisitors." [Saladin, "Women," vol. II]
The account of how a young girl, to whom one of the
Inquisitors had taken a fancy, was taken from her home in the dead
of the night and handed over to the Inquisitors' officers by the
terror-stricken father, is also graphically given in the same book.
"Let us look for a moment at the number of victims sacrificed
on the altars of the Christian Moloch: -- 1,000,000 perished during
the early Arian schism; 1,000,000 during the Carthaginian struggle;
7,000,000 during the Saracen slaughters. In Spain 5,000,000
perished during the eight Crusades; 2,000,000 of Saxons and
Scandinavians lost their lives in opposing the introduction of the
blessings of Christianity. 1,000,000 were destroyed in the Holy(?)
Wars against the Netherlands, Albigenses, Waldenses, and Huguenots.
30,000,000 Mexicans and Peruvians were slaughtered ere they could
be convinced of the beauties(?) of the Christian creed. 9,000,000
were burned for witchcraft. Total, 56,000,000.
"Or let us look at the matter in another light. Let us
contemplate how the 'Holy Inquisition' treated their victims Men
and women burned alive under the rule of the 45 Inquisitor-
Generals, 35,534; burned in effigy, 18,637; condemned to other
punishments, 293,533. Total sacrificed to maintain the blessings of
Christianity, 347,704. In other words, these worthy followers of
'the Lamb,' the zealous imitators of him who 'came not to send
peace, but a sword;' to 'send fire on the earth' and 'not peace,
but rather division,' burned no less than 35,534 men and women ...
Rapidly the Christian priesthood converted the convents into
brothels; and, not content with debauching the 'brides of Christ,'
they converted into harlots the wives of men; and, by means of the
machinery of the confessional, they destroyed the chastity of the
wives of the laity, and rendered all marriage simply poly-androus
... The priests had harlots, concubines, and mistresses in every
town; and the Church, recognizing these illicit connections,
allowed the bishops to extract money from the priests in the shape
of a tax on their concubines." [H. Middleton.] Even the mild
Erasmus declared that the licentiousness of the "clergy has
debauched and turned into poor profligates 100,000 women in England
... Yet who is he, though he be never so much aggrieved, who dare
lay to their charge, by any action at law, even the leading astray
of a wife or a daughter? ... If he do, he is by-and-bye accused of
heresy." [Saladin's citation of Erasmus in "The Confessional."]
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During this period also occurred the crusades against the
Albigenses for heresy, wherein some hundreds of thousands were
killed on both sides; the crusades against the Waldenses for
rejecting the Papal claims and denouncing the ignorance and
corruption of the clergy, wherein an enormous number were tortured
and massacred; the eight wars against the Huguenots, and the well-
known massacre of St. Bartholomew's Day, in which 30,000 were
slaughtered -- a 'Te Deum' being afterwards sung at St. Peter's,
Rome, and a year of jubilee proclaimed in honor of it. This period
of history, when the Church of Jesus was enjoying its triumphant
ascendancy, has been described by a writer as being "one of the
most terrible periods in human history ... and the soil of Europe
was sodden with human gore, and that chiefly by the Western or
Roman Catholic Church. [W. Oxley.]
To come to a later period. Under the Catholic Mary Tudor, 277
persons were burned as heretics, among whom were five bishops,
twenty-one clergymen, eight lay gentlemen, eighty-four tradesmen,
one hundred husbandmen, servants, and laborers; fifty-five women,
and four children; besides many who were punished by imprisonment,
fines, and confiscations. Under Protestant Elizabeth -- the "bright
and occidental star" of the translators of King James's Bible [Vide
"Dedicatory Epistle."] -- more than 200 persons were destroyed,
either by burning or hanging, drawing (disembowelling), and
quartering; and a great number suffered from the penal laws against
Catholics in this and the following reigns.
All this slaughter for the "greater glory of God"! Here, then,
we have a record of the fruits of Christianism! Under the influence
of this religion, through nineteen centuries, do we find that man
is more honest and straight towards his fellow man; that truth is
preferred to falsehood; that men love one another, and act
unselfishly in their lives? Or do we find that they are hypocrites,
adulterators of food, scampers of work and deceivers, worshippers
of imaginary deities, instead of lovers of each other; preachers,
but not doers?
Part II.
RATIONALISM: ITS PHILOSOPHY AND RULE OF LIFE.
____ ____
RATIONALISM.
RATIONALISM is a general term applied to a system of opinions
deduced from reason as distinct from supernatural revelation, and
is so wide in its meaning as to embrace various schools of thought,
such as Agnosticism, Freethinking, Secularism, Ethicalism, etc. The
word "agnostic" (derived from the Greek agnostos, unknown, or not
knowing) was coined by the late Professor T.H. Huxley, as being
descriptive of his own feelings and opinions upon the religious
questions of the day, in contradistinction to the "Gnosticism" of
theologians, who pretend to a certain knowledge of that which is
unknown to, and unknowable by, human faculties. He said: "There are
many topics about which I know nothing, and which ... are out of
the reach of my faculties;" he therefore called himself an
Agnostic. Again: "Agnosticism is not a creed, but a method, having
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a single principle of great antiquity. It simply means that a man
shall not say that he knows or believes that which he has no
scientific grounds for professing to know or believe ...
Agnosticism says that we know nothing of what may be beyond
phenomena."
As every man should be able to give a reason for the faith
that is in him, which, as Huxley says, "is a fundamental axiom of
modern science, as well as a maxim of great antiquity," some form
of words, expressing concisely what man may have sufficient grounds
for saying that he knows (as distinctive from a creed or belief),
is necessary for the education of the young, and for inquiring
adults; a form of words demonstrating those universal truths,
discoveries of science, which may be held and taught as being in
accordance with reason, and capable of demonstration; the mind
being still free, open to conviction, and to further developments
of science. As the Agnostic method or principle would limit us, if
strictly adhered to, to absolute knowledge, the term Rationalism is
preferred as being broader, and as admitting relative and deductive
knowledge, and some freedom of belief; for there are many things
which, although we may not be able to say that we know, yet that we
might have good grounds for saying that we believed, and so
convincing as to be accepted as deducible facts. These "will vary,"
said Huxley, "according to individual knowledge and capacity, and
according to the general condition of science, for that which is
unproven to-day may be proven to-morrow." Agnosticism may be said
to be the method or principle upon which Rationalism works.
The aim of Rationalism is knowledge and truth -- discarding
all supernatural revelation as superstition; morality -- as being
necessary for the organization of social life, not for the sake of
a reward hereafter; and universal happiness and prosperity -- not
misery, wretchedness, and poverty to please an imaginary deity, the
extent of whose pleasure is measured by the depth of misery into
which the object of his supposed creation is thrown. Its guiding
stars are love and sympathy. The Rationalist, having nothing to
fear from the vengeance of a vindictive and jealous deity, can have
no desire to be held in the esteem of his fellows as "god-fearing
"or" religious," aspiring only to goodness and truth between man
and man; knowing that happiness is the only good, that it is to be
obtained now, in this world, and not sought for in an imaginary
future, of which he has absolutely no knowledge. The term
"religious" is a vague one, and with many is held as being
synonymous with goodness. What is considered "religious" by one may
be "irreligious" to another; the degree of religiousness being
measured by the amount of outward support given to some particular
form of theology; so that, to the adherents of a particular creed,
one whose opinions would lead him to believe that all theological
theories and systems are erroneous and misleading would be
considered irreligious."
FIRST PRINCIPLES.
1. "Positively, in matters of the intellect, follow your
reason as far as it will take you, without regard to any other
consideration.
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2. "Negatively, in matters of the intellect, do not pretend
that conclusions are certain which are not demonstrated or
demonstrable.
3. "The only negative fixed points are those negations which
follow from the demonstrable limitations of our faculties,
4. "The only obligation accepted is to have the mind always
open to conviction."
TRUTHS.
1. Nothing can rightly be accepted as fact or knowledge that
cannot be verified by reason and evidence.
2. As the knowable is that which lies within, so the
unknowable is that which lies without, the range of human reason
and conception.
3. All knowledge is derived from phenomena; is relative,
subordinate, and finite.
4. All phenomena are manifested in accordance with a uniform
law of nature called "evolution," to which all progress and
development in the universe (including religious feeling and moral
ideas) are due.
5. The two principles which underlie all the evolutionary
processes are the "persistence of force" and the "conservation of
energy."
6. The universe is made up of matter and motion in a fixed
quantity; anything outside or beyond the universe is not only
unknown and unknowable, but inconceivable.
7. We have no knowledge of the "creation" of matter out of
nothing, or of any law by which it would be possible for such to
occur. All has been evolved from something existing before.
8. All phenomena are manifestations of, and caused by, a power
or cause, in and part of the universe, unknown and unknowable to
man.
9. As there can be no effect without a cause, no phenomenon
without power to produce it, we know that the cause exists.
10. The cause we know (by inference and deduction) to be
uncaused, the only cause, the first cause, absolute, supreme, and
infinite.
11. The nature and substance of the cause being unknown and
unknowable, we have no knowledge of the cause as a person, and
possessed of human attributes.
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THE SUPREME CAUSE.
"A pow'r there is, unseen, though real,
No faculty of man can sense;
Supreme, omnipotent, immense,
That none can know, but all must feel.
"In all we see around, behold!
What order, beauty, form, and law;
The glorious sun, the wind-toss'd straw,
The wonders of this pow'r unfold.
"From humble zoophyte to man,
Range through the mighty cosmic scale;
Not in the meanest link there fail
Traces of its imperial plan.
"Stupendous pow'r! majestic scheme!
Lips feebly lisp thy worthy praise;
The awe-struck mind thy marvels daze;
Thou art! -- yet what man cannot dream." [Jenner G. Hillier.]
SOME DEFINITIONS.
PHILOSOPHY (philos, loving; sophia, wisdom) treats of nature,
science, and ethics. The unification, or completion, of facts to
form a whole is called a "synthesis."
RELiGION (re, back or together; ligo, to bind) is subjective,
and is the feeling which has been evolved in man, as he acquired a
knowledge of right and wrong, but has not necessarily any
connection with the conception of a deity. It is the principle of,
or motive for, morality. It is this feeling which prompts man to
interest himself in the mysteries of phenomena and life, and by
which many are led, instead of into the paths of science, into the
realms of the supernatural, and into the hands of the theologian
with his "inspired revelations."
THEOLOGY (theos, god; logos, discourse) is objective, and
relates to ideas and conceptions which man entertains respecting
the deity he has conceived in his mind, generally a manlike
(anthropomorphic) being; and the system of dogmas built up around
them, the adherence to which constitutes the sum of duty. The fear
of, and reverence for, the deity thus acts as the principle of, or
motive for, morality, in place of the pure and natural motive of
social fellowship and co-operation -- human love and sympathy.
ECCLESIASTES or CLERICALISM is "the championship of a foregone
conclusion as to the truth of a particular form of theology," [T.H.
Huxley.] the non-acceptance of which -- notwithstanding the
negative results of a strict scientific investigation of the
evidence in its favor -- is believed to be morally wrong; thus
forcing a despotic adherence to certain dogmatic principles and
observances upon all.
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KNOWLEDGE, BELIEF, FAITH, ETC.
Knowledge is a decision formed by the consciousness of actual
fact or phenomenon. It may be absolute and subjective, for we do
not know absolutely that anything outside of ourselves exists; or
inferential and objective. The latter is generally understood as
knowledge, for when confirmed by experience it becomes as certain
as the former. Knowledge is always relative, for we infer or assume
that certain states of our consciousness are caused by something
external to self, which supposed something we call matter; of it we
can know nothing, except as it affects our state of consciousness.
Our knowledge is thus seen to be limited and variable in extent;
and it is this that gives rise to what we call "chance."
An inference is a truth or proposition drawn from another
which is admitted to be true; this is done by deduction (literally
a taking from another), an act or method of drawing inferences from
premises, a premise being a proposition laid down as the base of an
argument. Chance exists only subjectively, for it is a word which
expresses a state of our mind. When occurrences take place not
anticipated by us, we attribute them to chance; but, had our
knowledge been more extensive, they would have been certainties.
What may appear chance to one may be a certainty to another whose
knowledge is more advanced. There is no chance in nature, any more
than there is chaos, Every occurrence that takes place is a
certainty. It may appear to us a chance whether in the tossing of
a coin it "turns up heads or tails;" but, had the movement of the
coin been so slow that the eye could have followed every turn, we
should have said "the turn up" was a certainty. But the change in
our decision is a subjective one, and is due to the change that has
taken place in our minds from ignorance to knowledge; not an
objective one, due to any change in the coin. All nature acts in an
invariable order and by an uniformity, which, in the order of cause
and effect exhibited in a certain way under certain circumstances,
will invariably manifest itself in the same way, so long as the
conditions remain the same.
Luck and ill-luck, good and bad fortune, are events which are
due to accidental circumstances, over which man has no control.
Accident took the late Colonel North to a part of the world where
existed nitrate fields; accident also rendered those nitrates at
that time valuable; with the result that, seizing his opportunity,
he developed them, and amassed a large fortune. Had accident taken
him to a part of the world where there were no nitrate fields, the
probability is he would not have amassed such a large fortune.
These very accidents, however, are subject to natural law.
Belief is a decision formed on the support of some amount of
evidence, though not sufficiently conclusive to constitute
knowledge.
Faith is an assent of the mind to what is declared by another,
supported on no evidence, or evidence so weak as to be unreliable.
Faith in religion is not justified. The late T.H. Huxley said:
"Skepticism is the highest of duties, and blind faith the one
unpardonable sin." To reject the truths acquired by scientific
research, proved by reason and experience to be true, is to be
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guilty of wilful ignorance. But there is no obligation on any one
to believe anything on the mere word of another, without sufficient
evidence forthcoming to support it; and to accept any statement,
whether concerning religion or anything else, on blind faith is to
be guilty of credulity. The confusion of the meaning of such words
as knowledge, belief, and faith has led to very disastrous results;
not only in social and domestic life, where serious injuries have
been inflicted on individuals and their reputations, but in public
life, where wholesale cruelty and persecution have taken place, and
generally under the name of "religion." Dogmas concerning the
unknowable have been forced upon people as truths, which were only
pious beliefs. It is a universal law, and an Agnostic first
principle, that we should accept no statement as true on the simple
word of another, and without verification.
THE CAUSE OF ALL.
The unknown and unknowable power, existing in, and forming
part of, the universe, manifested as phenomena in matter and motion
(force and energy), is revealed to man by study of phenomena, and
by the application of certain scientific laws known by experience
and proved by experiment to be immutable and unvarying; as being
the first cause of the effects manifested, the only cause, the
uncaused cause -- infinite, absolute, and supreme. "The power which
the universe manifests to us is utterly inscrutable." [Herbert
Spencer.] As the supreme cause is unknowable, nothing is or can be
known respecting its nature or substance, and, a' fortiori, sex;
and what we know or can know respecting the relations of the
inscrutable cause to man, and such other mysteries as birth, life,
and death, are explained by the known or knowable natural laws of
science and evolution. "For the same reason, nothing is or can be
known of the supreme cause as a deity or god; for to conceive the
idea would involve a conception of the inconceivable; and as every
conception involves relation, likeness, and difference, whatever
does not present each of these is unknowable." [A. Simmons.]
LIFE.
Life is the force or power of motion existing in a body, and
is the animating principle which pervades all matter. It is a
product of evolution, and consists in the continuous adjustment of
internal relations to external relations. When the latter begin to
be numerous, complex, and remote in space and time, intelligence
shows itself." [H. Spencer.] Living matter differs from non-living
matter in possessing the power to initiate motion from within. In
the latter, all motion must be initiated from without. The whole
earth on which we live, and all the particles of matter comprising
it, are in continuous motion. Life is inter-changeable, and capable
of conversion into active organic structure; ever changing the face
of nature, and yet in itself unchangeable. It may be active, as in
animate organisms, or passive, quiescent, or latent, as in material
formations. The former differs from the latter in being possessed
of intelligence, "which enables it to adopt means to certain
desirable ends, thus manifesting a struggle for existence." Life in
animal organisms differs from that in vegetal organisms, in being
possessed of consciousness; conscious intelligence being the
distinguishing feature of animal life. Intelligence becomes
conscious in and with progressive evolution of structure arising
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from the constant struggle for existence, whereby the fittest
survive. "Though the operations and faculties of the mind may be
known and studied, the thinking power itself cannot be
comprehended. We may symbolize the mind as a substance, but a
symbol is not the thing itself. To know the mind we must be able to
class it; but, being unique and unlike all other phenomena, it
cannot be classed. In ourselves (subject) and in the external
universe (object) we encounter a mystery which we can only, in dumb
wonder, refer to the unknowable absolute." [Spencer, summarized by
F.J. Gould.]
ORIGIN OF LIFE.
The essentials of life are heat and moisture. Life on our
earth was due, in the first instance, to energy radiated under the
form of light and heat from the sun, acting upon a minute atom of
protoplasm under water, in combination with chlorophyll, which has
the power of building up substances by producing respiration --
i.e., by decomposing air and water, and taking up the oxygen
contained in both, thus forming hydrocarbons. The green color in
plants is produced by the action of chlorophyll, without which
there is no life. The structural starting-point of all life was the
primitive moneron, or minute particle of albuminoid matter called
protoplasm. This gradually assumed the cellular form, with central
nucleus, the chief center of activity, becoming an ameba. All
living matter is made up of one or many cells, multiplication
taking place by division; the cell becoming constricted in its
middle, the two ends gradually separate, thus forming two
independent cells. The single cell, the lowest member (amteba) of
the Protozoa group, being of astounding minuteness in size, does
everything appertaining to life -- feeling, moving, feeding, and
multiplying. The many-celled organisms (Afelazoa group), as they
were gradually evolved from the single cell, divided their various
functions among their component cells, each one adapting itself for
its own special work, division of labor causing difference of
structure -- root, stem, leaf, sap, and seed in the plant; bone,
muscle, nerve, tissue, blood, and eggs in the animal. Life precedes
the appearance and development of organized structures.
"The sun's heat is the source of the social forces; social
forces are resolvable into mental forces, mental forces into vital
forces, vital forces into physical forces, and physical forces into
solar radiation. Without the sun's light and heat, neither an
animal nor a vegetal could exist for a single moment. The power of
the sun is responsible, not only for the growth of a plant and the
temperature of a climate; not only for the fluctuations in the
price of flower, and the ravages of a famine; but also for the rise
of a new literature and the fall of an old dynasty. To the force of
the sun we trace alike the force displayed by a running fox or by
a rippling rivulet, the force which vibrates in a musical note, or
in a yawning earthquake, and the force which moans in the wind or
which crashes in the cataract." [A. Simmons, "First Principles."]
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EVOLUTION.
Evolution is defined as being "an integration [elements
forming a whole] of matter, and a concomitant dissipation of
motion, during which matter passes from an indefinite, incoherent
homogeneity [of like elements] to a definite, coherent
heterogeneity [of unlike elements]; and during which the retained
motion undergoes a parallel transformation." [H. Spencer.] The
factors in the process constituting evolution are: (1) The
instability of the homogeneous, or unstable equilibrium, which is
apparent throughout the range of phenomena, in the evolution of
mechanics as in the evolution of the species; each species being an
assemblage of organisms, which does not remain uniform, but is ever
becoming multiform. (2) The multiplication of effects, or
production of many consequences by a single cause; the
heterogeneous producing, by the action of all parts on one another,
an immense variety of results. (3) Segregation or "gathering of
like units into groups, is constituted by that clustering of
similar things into aggregates which goes on simultaneously with
the grouping of the other aggregates or dissimilar things;" and it
is by this that we get that individuality or definiteness which all
objects manifest, and which takes place throughout all phenomena.
(4) Equilibration "is the goal to which the instability of the
homogeneous, the multiplication of effects and segregations,
inevitably tend; it is that universal balancing of active and re-
active forces which necessitates the rhythm of motion and the
harmony of nature ... It is the limit beyond which evolution cannot
proceed ... the redistribution of matter which we observe around us
must be arrested by the dissipation of the motions affecting them.
Different motions are resisted by opposing forces, and are,
therefore, continually suffering from deductions; and these
unceasing losses end in the cessation of motion."
"This law of organic progress [evolution] is the law of all
progress. Whether it be in the development of the earth, in the
development of life upon its surface, in the development of
society, of government, of manufactures, of commerce, of language,
literature, science, art, this same evolution of the simple into
the complex, through a process of continuous differentiation, holds
throughout." [H. Spencer.]
"The principle which underlies all the evolutionary processes
is the 'persistence of force.' It is by this that there is a
tendency in every organism to maintain a balanced condition. To it
may be traced the capacity possessed in a slight degree by
individuals, and in a greater degree by species, of becoming
adapted to new Circumstances. And not less does it afford a basis
for the inference that there is a gradual advance towards harmony
between man's mental nature and the conditions of his existence.
After finding that from it are deducible the various
characteristics of evolution, we finally draw from it a warrant for
the belief that evolution can end only in the establishment of the
greatest perfection and the most complete happiness." [A. Simmons.]
Nature knows nothing of annihilation, and nothing of creation; all
is evolution. "To some persons the foregoing formula will appear
startling, if not utterly bewildering. The vulgar notion, that
evolution is the passage of the quadruped into the biped -- that
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evolution begins with a monkey and ends with a man -- seems beneath
notice, beneath contempt. Yet this notion is vaguely held by a
considerable majority of the general public. That evolution is
concerned with the development of the human race, whether from some
lower tribe of mammalia or from forms lower still, is quite true.
But this is an infinitesimal part of the great work of evolution."
[A. Simmons.]
EVOLUTION OF THE INDIVIDUAL, -- "Every living thing is evolved
from a particle or germ of matter, in which no trace of the
distinctive characters of the adult form is discernible." And this
takes place by epigenesis, which consists in the differentiation of
the relatively homogeneous rudiment or germ into the parts and
structure which are characteristic of the adult. "In all animals
and plants above the lowest the germ is a nucleated cell, and the
first step in the process of evolution is the division of this cell
into two or more portions; the process of division is repeated
until the body, from being uni-cellular, becomes multi-cellular.
The single cell becomes a cell aggregate; and it is to the growth
and metamorphosis of the cells of the cell aggregate thus produced
that cell organs and tissues of the adult owe their origin. The
cells from the cell aggregate or morula diverge from one another in
such a manner as to give rise to a central space, around which they
dispose themselves as a coat or envelope, and thus the morula
becomes a vesicle filled with a fluid -- the planula. The wall of
the planula is next pushed in on one side (invaginated), whereby it
is converted into a double-walled sac with an opening, which leads
into the cavity lined by the inner wall. This cavity is the
primitive alimentary cavity. The inner, or invaginated, layer is
the hypoblast; the outer, the epiblast; and the embryo in this
stage is termed a gastrula. In all the higher animals a layer of
cells makes its appearance between the hypoblast and the epiblast,
and is termed the mesoblast. In the further development the
epiblast becomes the ectoderm, or epidermic layer of the body (or
skin); the hypoblast becomes the epithelium of the middle portion
of the alimentary canal; and the mesoblast gives rise to all the
other tissues except the central nervous system, which originates
from an ingrowth of the epiblast. With regard to procreation, the
female germ or ovum in all the higher animals and plants is a body
which possesses the structure of a nucleated cell; impregnation
consists in the fusion of the nucleus of the male cell or germ with
the ovum; the structural components of the body of the embryo being
derived by a process of division from the coalesced male and female
germs; and it is probable that every part of the adult contains
molecules both from the male and from the female parent." [T.H.
Huxley, "Evolution in Biology."]
EVOLUTION OF SPECIES. -- The "Darwinian" theory, now
universally accepted, is that "all organisms produce offspring, on
the whole, like themselves, but exhibiting new and individual
features. As the result of the severe struggle for existence, only
a small percentage survive to become reproductive adults. The
survivors are those whose variations enable them to gain some
advantage over their fellows in the struggle for food, mates, and
other conditions of well-being. A fit variation not only secures
the survival of its possessors, but is transmitted from parents to
offspring, and is intensified from generation to generation. By
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this process of 'natural selection' of advantageous variations,
continued for generations, the modification of species has been
effected." [J.A. Thomson, "Zoology."] The variations in species
have assumed their present definite characters through long periods
of time. Domesticated animals, having all the essential characters
of new races, afford us good examples. These variations or changes
may arise from sustained environment -- i.e., external influences
and surroundings; from persistent change of function, as the result
of use and disuse; or from various protoplasmic causes. The
development of a new species is also intensified by sexual
selection, in which choice exercises an improving influence in
reproduction, thus tending to transmit certain qualities; and, by
sustained isolation, preventing by geographical separation,
intercrossing. It may thus be easily seen how man, by cultivating
his good faculties, and restraining and subduing his bad ones, can
improve the mental and moral qualities of his children; and, if
these qualities are perpetuated through subsequent generations,
improvement is effected in the race.
During the PLUTONIC period of the earth's history no life
could exist. but during the following period -- the LAURENTIAN --
when the earth had become sufficiently cooled to sustain life, a
tiny atom of protoplasm was evolved; later was developed, as we
have seen, a central nucleus (aytivla); then masses of these
nucleated cells (synamaebae); then the cells became ciliated,
forming ciliae; then, a number of these cells assuming a horse-shoe
shape, a rudimentary mouth was formed; then an alimentary canal was
developed in the same manner, evolving a low form of worm. In the
next period -- the SILURIAN -- we find rudimentary spinal cords and
vertebra, developing; then heads, hearts, and single nasal
cavities. In the next -- the DEVONIAN period -- we find double
nostrils developed, also fins and jaws, gills and lungs. Hitherto
all life has been "aquatic." Now we come to the period of "air-
breathers," the first of which were double-breathers, in both water
and air -- mud fishes. In the next -- the CARBONIFEROUS -- we find
tails and legs, and reptiles evolved, and from the latter complete
"air-breathers" -- birds. Then the enormous class of mammals. In
the next two periods -- the TRIASSIC and JURASSIC -- we find a
further development of mammals with marsupial bones. In the next --
the EOCENE -- brain convolutions and placentals evolved; hoofed
animals, beasts of proy, water and air quadrupeds with claws, etc.
In the next -- the MIOCENE -- we find the order of Primates being
evolved, from which lemurs, New World monkeys, Old World apes, and
man have been evolved; all being of common mammalian descent.
Man, representing the highest development of animal life, was
in Tertiary times a tree-dweller; later, a cave-dweller; and, later
still, a lake-dweller. Apes of the Old World came next, being the
highest of their class, and the nearest approach to man and, from
their many resemblances to the latter, called "Anthropoids." They
include gibbons, orangs, chimpanzees, and gorillas; all being
without tails and cheek pouches, and having teeth and catarhine
nostrils, like man. Man and the anthropoid ape are similar in
structure, bodily life, gesture, and expression, and both are
subject to the same diseases, form distinct societies, and combine
for protection; combination favoring the development of emotional
and intellectual strength. Where man differs from the ape is in the
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fact that he has a heavier brain and a broader forehead, and
possesses the power of building up ideas; he is more erect, and has
a more perfectly-developed vocal mechanism, a better heel, and a
shorter arm. His prolonged infancy helped to evolve gentleness, as
the habit of using sticks and stones, and of building shelters,
evolved intelligence. Man and the anthropoid, therefore, branched
off in different directions, from a common ancestor, through many
centuries of evolution and development; the gap between civilized
and savage man being greater than that between the savage and the
anthropoid ape.
We must bear in mind that between the various periods just
mentioned, thousands and perhaps millions of years elapsed, so that
the evolution of the different species was a very gradual process,
and did not take place in the rapid manner in which man has, by
artificial selection and isolation, evolved the carrier-pigeon, the
race-horse, and the various kinds of dogs; many thousands of years
doubtless elapsing before mammals were evolved from previously
existing animals, and placentals from them. But "it does not follow
that evolution and civilization are always on the move, or that
their movements are always progressive on the contrary, history
teaches that they may remain stationary for long periods," [E.B.
Taylor, "Anthropology."] devolution or falling back sometimes
occurring. Examples of the degeneration of species are the modern
Portuguese of the East Indies, the Digger Indians of the Rocky
Mountains, and the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, and Chaldeans,
whose monuments and inscriptions show how ancient and how high was
their civilization. And all countries do not progress in the same
ratio of civilization. It is related that Captain Cook, on visiting
the South Sea Islanders, found them using only stone hatchets and
knives, showing that they had not progressed beyond the stone age.
POLARITY.
This is a theory propounded by Mr. S. Laing, but is not yet
universally accepted as a truth. He says: "Polarity, part of the
original impress, is the great underlying law of all knowable
phenomena, conscience, morals, free will, and determination, The
material universe is built up by the cause out of atoms and
energies by means of a polarity which makes them combine, and pass
from the simple and homogeneous into the complex and heterogeneous,
in a course of constant change and evolution; we know not how nor
why."
THE ASCENT OF MAN.
The development of man from the tiny ovule of the human ovary
is simply a recapitulation of his evolution from the structureless
atom of protoplasm from which all organic life originally sprang.
"Exactly in those respects in which developing man differs from the
dog, he resembles the ape ... It is only in the later stages of
development that the young human being presents marked differences
from the young ape, while the latter departs as much from the dog
in its development as the man does, Startling as this may appear,
it is demonstrably true, and it alone is sufficient to place beyond
all doubt the structural unity of man with the rest of the animal
world, and more particularly and closely with the apes. Thus
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identical in the physical processes by which he originates;
identical in the early stages of his formation; identical, in the
mode of his nutrition before and after birth, with the animals
which lie immediately below him in the scale; man, if his adult and
perfect structure be compared with theirs, exhibits a marvelous
likeness of organization. He resembles them as they resemble one
another; he differs from them as they differ from one another."
[T.H. Huxley, "Man's Place in Nature."] There is an "all-pervading
similitude of structure" [Professor Owen.] between man and the
anthropoid apes.
We have seen man gradually emerging from the primitive
condition of Tertiary times as tree-dweller, cave-dweller, and
lake-dweller; using stone implements with which to protect himself
and obtain food in the old Stone Age (the Paleolithic), and flint
implements in the new Stone Age (the Neolithic); and we have seen
his evolution from the man-like ape to the ape-like man (the Alali
of Haeckel), and from ape-like man to savage man (Homo ferox); from
savage man to semi-civilized man (Homo semi-ferox) of the Neolithic
period; and to civilized man (Homo cultus) of the Bronze Age;
reaching, eventually, by his higher development of brain, to the
highest position of animal (Homo sapiens), of the Iron Age. When in
his hybrid condition, he possessed a long head (dolichocephalic),
small, ill-developed brain, prognathous jaws, and prominent orbital
ridges; was of medium stature, and had great thickness of bones,
denoting great muscular strength. From this condition he gradually
acquired a round (mesocephalic) head, well developed brain, a less
protrusive chin and mouth, and arms shorter than legs. He has a
bigger forehead, smaller cheek-bones, and supra-orbital ridges, a
true chin, and more uniform teeth, with less conspicuous canines
than apes. Man alone, after his infancy is past, walks thoroughly
upright. Though his head is weighted by a heavy brain, it does not
droop forward, and it is probably to this fact that his perfect
development of vocal mechanism is due. The ape is subject, as we
have seen, to similar diseases as man various traits of gesture,
expression, etc., are similar in both and both are liable to
reversions and monstrosities. But, man being so far superior in
many ways to any species below him in animal life, probably due to
his higher development of vocal power, the idea would naturally
suggest itself to him in his early state of civilization that he
was too perfect a piece of mechanism to have been evolved from a
lower species; and he would, consequently, build up stories of his
instantaneous creation, which resulted in the Genesis fable, and
which have been perpetuated by the subsequent theologies. But we
must not imagine that man is a later development of the ape, for it
is clearly demonstrated that man could not have been evolved from
any known anthropoid ape; but it is probable that he arose from an
ancestral stock common to both (Alali) of the order of Primates,
when the anthropoid apes were known to have existed as a distinct
race, which takes us back to the Miocene age. In the struggle of
primitive man intelligence was of more use than strength. "When the
habits of using sticks and stones, of building shelters, and of
living in families began -- and they have already began among apes
-- it is likely that wits would grow rapidly. The prolonged infancy
characteristic of the human offspring would help to evolve
gentleness. But even more important is the fact that among apes
there are distinct societies. Families combine for protection --
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the combination favors the development of emotional and
intellectual strength." [J.A. Thomson, "Zoology."] Man did not make
society, society made man. All repugnance to the doctrine of
descent, as applied to man, should disappear when we clearly
realize the great axiom of evolution, that "there is nothing in the
end which was not also in the beginning."
Primitive man is believed to have been evolved in the
submerged continent of Lemuria, which was supposed to have existed
where the Indian Ocean now is, and to have joined Africa and the
island of Madagascar to the continent of Arabia and Hindostan. The
heads of the early ape-like men were of the same character as those
of the chimpanzee and gorilla -- dolichocephalic and prognathous,
and they were, like apes, cave-dwellers (troglodytes). In the
limestone caverns of France have been discovered the fossil remains
of men who inhabited caves and belonged to the Paleolithic or
Pleistocene period. [J.A. Thompson, "Zoology."] Rough, unpolished
stone implements and weapons were found with them. In the strata of
a later period have been found stone implements of a lighter make
and better finish; also spear-points made of horn, probably for
killing game, and skin-scrapers, probably for preparing skins for
clothing; for, with the development and civilization of man as a
cave-dweller, a finer and less heavy skin would naturally be
gradually developed, thus necessitating clothing in the case of
those who had wandered away from tropical regions into colder ones.
In the strata of a still later period than the paleolithic,
admirably proportioned lancer-shaped implements of flint have been
found, suitable for arrows, javelins, and lances. And, later still,
arrows, darts of deer's horn, and bone appear; also stone and flint
tools, evidently used for making the above, But not one polished
implement or fragment of pottery has been found within that period.
"The mammoth still tenanted the valleys, and the reindeer was the
common article of food; they (paleolithic man) were hunters and
possessors of the rudest modes of existence, and with but little of
what is now called civilization." [S. Laing, "Human Origans."]
In Kent's cavern, near Torquay, in England, has been found the
fossil of a human jaw buried in stalagmite, containing four teeth.
This was found lying in the strata of the paleolithic age, below
remains of extinct animals; while below all were bone and stone
(unpolished) implements of human workmanship. In the cave of Engis,
in the valley of the Meuse, has been found part of a skull of a man
of low degree of civilization, and of limited intellectual
faculties. And in the cave of Neanderthal, in Belgium, a skeleton
was found which has attracted much attention by its singularly
brutal appearance; and appears to be the nearest approach yet found
to the missing link between man and the anthropoid ape. The cranium
is human, but the super-orbital ridges are thick, prominent, and
ape-like. A human skull has also been found beneath four different
layers of forest-growth, dating at least 50,000 years ago.
In the neolithic or new stone age the implements and weapons
of man which have been discovered are polished; pottery has been
found, and evidences of the use of fire, showing that man was
gradually adopting some form of social life. In this age are found
lake dwellings, which would lead us to infer that his intellect was
not sufficiently developed to enable him to protect himself from
the invasion of wild animals in a simpler manner.
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It is not surprising that so few specimens of primeval human
remains have been discovered, when we consider the enormous lapse
of time through which the evolution of man has proceeded, and the
natural tendency to the extinction of the various grades of life
between them, by the irresistible pressure of civilized man. The
Caribs of Tasmania have, for instance, become extinct; while
Australians, New Zealanders, aboriginal Americans, Eskimos, and
others, are also becoming extinct. A far greater physical and
mental interval is found to exist between a Hottentot -- whose
language consists of a series of clicks -- or a hairy Ainu of
Yesso, who are described as being "hardly above wild beasts," and
a cultivated European, than exists between the Hottentot or the
Ainu and the anthropoid ape.
Man is now classed in the sub-class Anthropoidea, of the order
of mammalia, which consists of New World platyrhines (monkeys), Old
World catarhines (apes and baboons), and man. Primitive man
separated into two families: 1. The woolly-haired, all
dolichocephalic, migrated west and south, and evolved the Papuans
of New Guinea and Tasmania; (1) the Hottentots of South Africa, who
even now differ but little from the anthropoid apes, having dark
yellow hairy skins, long thin arms, short ill-developed legs, and
largely-developed buttocks; are semi-erect, and have inarticulate,
clicking speech (2) the negro of higher development than the
Hottentot; and (3) the Caffre of higher development again than the
negro, but having imperfect speech. All are savages. II. The
straight-haired; migrated south and east, and evolved; (i) the
Australians, dolicliocephalic and prognathous with smooth dark
brown skins, but articulate speech. These gradually separated into
(2) Mongolian or Turanian, and (3) Caucasian or Iranian. The
Mongolians occupied the North and East of Asia, Polynesia, and
America; were brachycephalic (broad-headed) and prognathous. These
subdivided into Mongols of China, Japan, Lapland, Finland, Hungary,
and the Malays or Dyaks of Borneo, with smooth, brownish yellow
skins, and the Mongols of America, with smooth red skins -- both
classes remained brachycephalic, but lost the prognathous
character. The Caucasian occupied Western Asia and most of Europe,
were mesocephalic (medium length of skull), prognathous, and cave-
dwellers, becoming subsequently agriculturalists with smooth dark
skins. These subdivided into the Senates of Arabia and Syria, and
the Aryan or Indo-European, both being mesocephalic, but not
prognathous.
DISSOLUTION AND DEATH.
For a definition of dissolution we cannot do better than quote
Mr. Spencer. It is "the absorption of motion and the concomitant
disintegration" (or separation of particles) "of matter ... the
change from the heterogeneous to the homogeneous. Precisely where
evolution ends dissolution begins, and their point of impact" (or
collision) "is equilibration." When the animating principle, or
vital force, leaves the body, and life ceases to exist in its
active and corporate form, death is said to take place; it is the
final equilibration which precedes dissolution, the bringing to a
close of all those conspicuous integrated motions that arose during
evolution. The conspicuous effects of the changes that occur at
death are: "First, the impulsions of the body from place to place
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cease; then, the limbs cannot be stirred; later, the respiratory
actions stop; finally, the heart becomes stationary, and, with it,
the circulating fluids." [H. Spencer.] The body, by a process of
decomposition and disintegration, breaks up into molecules and
atoms, which disperse themselves as gases in and to the ethereal
medium, and a residue as ashes to the earth, whence they
originated, in all probability becoming eventually constituents in
other bodies. All life preys and feeds upon each other; and all
matter is indestructible and eternal. Death is thus seen to be
simply a change of form. "The transformation of molecular motion
into the motion of masses comes to an end; and each of the motions
of masses in a body, as it ends, disappears into molecular motions
... The process of decay involves an increase of insensible
movements; since these are far greater in the gases generated by
decomposition than they are in the fluid-solid matters out of which
the gases arise. Each of the complex chemical units composing an
organic body possesses a rhythmic motion in which its many
component units jointly partake. When decomposition breaks up these
complex molecules, and their constituents assume gaseous forms,
there is, besides that increase of motion implied by the diffusion,
a resolution of such motions as the aggregate molecules possessed
into motions of their constituent molecules." Of one thing we may
be certain -- viz., that no conduct on our part can in any way
affect the future of the breath or life which leaves us. Whatever
rewards or punishments may be ours, they are of this world. "In
view of, the termination of our present form of organic existence,
we can calmly resign ourselves to the inevitable lot of all organic
nature, feeling that we have done what we could in our brief
consciousness, and that, even as the rivers return to the Ocean
whence they came, so we return to the bosom of universal nature,
safe in her eternal embrace." [J. Badcock.]
MORALITY.
Morality is the practice of a certain mode of conduct in our
principles and actions in social life, the result of social
intercourse. Man, when he forsook his primitive and solitary life,
and by the desire for companionship -- the outcome of love and
sympathy -- adapted himself to a community life, by which
cooperation with his fellows became necessary, gradually acquired
a knowledge of right and wrong. Experience taught him that what was
for the good of the community was right, and that what was not for
the good of the community was wrong. Social life without some
system of morality could not exist; for without it there could be
no confidence, and without confidence no happiness. This knowledge
of right and wrong has become of universal obligation, and the
standard by which morality is estimated.
Morality has been patronized by theology to such an extent,
adopted by it as its own offspring, and imposed upon the public as
such, that people have come to think that morality cannot exist
without theology, and are unable to understand any severance
between them taking place, without the annihilation of the former.
This is a mistaken notion, fostered by theological exponents for
their own interests. Morality is not dependent upon theology in any
of its many forms for its existence, and probably existed for
centuries before the idea of a personal God took possession of the
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mind of man -- in fact, when community life first commenced.
Theology is a comparatively modern abnormal excrescence upon
morality, and has substituted an evil motive for a good one, a
selfish one for an unselfish one -- the fear of displeasing an
arbitrary, capricious, and despotic deity, with the accompanying
loss of the promised reward -- instead of the good of our fellows
and of the community at large; virtue consisting in being ready to
do violence to feelings and reason with child-like submission, to
please the deity and satisfy his mere will; vice being estimated by
the extent of the opposition to the will of the deity, and of the
anger aroused in him; proportionate punishment in a future world
acting as a restraint to human conduct, instead of the punishments
of this world.
Now, true morality -- i.e., the morality the outcome of human
love and sympathy, which are the bases of co-operation -- will be
seen to be of a much higher and purer form, for it is the product
of unselfishness and the feeling of "goodwill towards others,"
"doing as you would be done by," with the only reward of
reciprocated love and regard of our fellows in this world; doing
right because it is right, and avoiding evil because it is evil.
Virtue is not limited to merely abstaining from the healthy
exercise of those natural functions of the body which the various
theologies appear to lay so much stress upon, the desire to satisfy
which is inherent in, and part of, the nature of all animal and
vegetal life; and the repression of which in human life, to satisfy
the arbitrary will of an imaginary deity, is both physically and
morally injurious, and productive of disease -- but is general
moral goodness. The good feeling in man, together with State
legislation, are quite sufficient to restrain and control human
conduct and actions, and to act as a protection to marital and
other rights.
The regard for goodness is increased and intensified by
practice and education -- not mere book education, but the
acquisition of general knowledge; for it is by this and the
exercise of reason and moral judgment that we know right from
wrong; that we know that "what a man sows, that will he reap: if he
sows good, he will reap pleasure; and if he sows evil, he will reap
pain." By intensifying the habit of choosing the one and avoiding
the other, man ennobles himself and his human nature; the knowledge
of having faithfully accomplished which, in life, enables him to
satisfy his conscience, that, when his time arrives, he may be able
to meet death with that fearless composure and fortitude which is
the inheritance of all who through life have lived truly and loved
their fellow men.
THE UNIVERSE,
By the universe (Greek, kosmos) we understand to be meant that
portion of the heavens which is visible from our earth, containing
the sun, moons, planets, stars, etc. The universe is a huge
manifestation of phenomena, and is crowded with life and activity.
It is made up of matter and motion, in space and time.
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MATTER, the ultimate nature of which is unknown, comprises all
substances that occupy space and affect the senses, is a fixed
quantity, indestructible and eternal. It is manifest in three
states -- solid, liquid, and gaseous. The smallest and indivisible
particles of matter are called atoms or chemical units; these, in
combination and forming the smallest compound bodies, are called
molecules or mechanical units. Matter may be visible and ponderable
like the stars and other bodies distributed throughout space, or
invisible and imponderable as the ether which fills the intervals
between the particles and the space in which the bodies are
distributed.
MOTION is matter in the act of changing place through space
and time; it is produced or destroyed, quickened or retarded,
increased or lessened, by two indestructible powers of opposite
nature -- Force and Energy, both derived from the sun's heat.
FORCE, the attracting power, is inherent in, and can never be
taken from, the ponderable matter, every atom possessing the
tendency to attract other atoms, or resist any separating power.
When it attracts atoms it is called chemical affinity, when
molecules -- cohesion, and when masses -- gravitation. Force is
constant, and its several qualities are grouped under one doctrine
called "the Persistence of Force."
ENERGY, the repelling, separating, or pushing power, is also
a fixed quantity, but is not bound up with matter, but can be
transferred from atom to atom, or from mass to mass, and stored up.
It may be Passive or potential, like that existing in gunpowder
when quiescent; or active or kinetic, like that existing in the
same during the act of explosion. The qualities of convertibility
and indestructibility constitute the doctrine of "Conservation of
Energy."
"We think in relations ... relation is the universal form of
thought ... Relations are of two orders -- those of sequence and
those of coexistence ... The abstract of all sequences is time, and
that of all co-existences is space. Time is inseparable from
sequence, and space from co-existence." [H. Spencer.]
SPACE is the interval between objects. "We know space as an
ability to contain bodies." It is extension considered in its own
nature, without regard to anything it may contain, or that may be
external to it. It always remains the same, is infinite, and is
incapable of resistance or motion.
TIME is the measure of duration, and the general idea of
successive existence. It may be absolute or relative. Absolute time
is considered without any relation to bodies or their motions.
Relative time is the sensible measure of any portion of duration,
often marked by particular phenomena. Time is measured by equable
motion. We judge those times to be equal which pass while a moving
body, proceeding with a uniform motion, passes over equal spaces.
As matter is indestructible and eternal, so nothing is
created; everything has been evolved from something else existing
before. The universe is supposed to have been evolved from a cosmic
nebulous matter or dust, of tremendous extent, within the atoms of
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which existed the power to evolve all that now is -- sun, moons,
planets, etc., our earth, and all that is thereon -- seas,
mountains, animal and vegetal life, and eventually man, although
millions of years passed before man was evolved from the lowest
form of animal life. The force inherent in each atom of this dust
combined the atoms into molecules, by cohesive power united
molecules into masses; and by gravitation these masses revolved
round their several centers of gravity, and thus formed suns and
various other planetary bodies. As the atoms rushed together,
rotatory and orbital motion was produced, and a vibratory motion,
which became converted into the radiant energy of heat and light.
As contraction went on, portions of our sun became detached from
the bulging equator, and, flying off into space, gradually, by the
attraction of force, formed compact bodies, becoming independent
planets, one of which is our earth. The moon is supposed to have
been detached from our earth in a similar manner. It is estimated
that it is a hundred million years since the earth sufficiently
solidified and cooled to support vegetable and animal life. Sir W.
Herschell has discovered, by the telescope, worlds and systems in
the course of present formation, as described above.
THE EARTH.
The earth, which was imagined by the ancients to be flat, and
surrounded by water, "Oceans," is nearly spherical in shape, being
slightly flattened at the poles, and bulged towards the equator. It
consists of a core, at an intense heat within a rocky covering or
crust, three-fourths of which is covered by water, and the whole is
surrounded by an atmosphere reaching in height to from forty to
fifty miles. The entire mass -- solid, liquid, and gaseous -- spins
on its own axis or polar diameter, making an entire revolution in
23 hours, 56 minutes, and revolves through space along a certain
undeviating course called the plane of the ecliptic round the sun
at the rate of 1,000 miles a minute, making the complete revolution
in 165 days and 6 hours. The space through which the earth revolves
consists of ether. The earth is not upright while travelling along
its annual journey, but inclines always in one direction at an
angle of 23 degrees; in summer with its north pole towards the sun,
and in winter with the north pole away from the sun, which has the
effect of producing the seasons. The annual passage of the earth
round the sun describes, not a circle, but an ellipse. When the
portion of the earth which we inhabit is turned towards the sun we
call it day, it being night in the other portion which is turned
away from the sun. The inequality of day and night during different
periods of the year is due to the inclination of the axis of the
earth, as explained above.
THE ATMOSPHERE in which we live is composed chiefly of the
uncombined elements of oxygen and nitrogen water being composed of
oxygen and hydrogen in combination. It is supposed to reach to from
forty-five to fifty miles, the exact distance being uncertain. It
is difficult to conceive, with the above knowledge, where Jesus
could have ascended to, what planet he visited, or how he could
have resisted the law of gravitation; it is for Christians to
explain these matters.
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THE CRUST OF THE EARTH consists of rock -- hard granite, loose
sand, ore veined with metal, and mud -- unstratified and
stratified. The unstratified, igneous, or plutonic rocks are those
which are nearest the center of the earth, and which have been
fused together by heat, or erupted from the interior by means of
volcanic agency. The stratified, aqueous, or neptunic rocks are
those which have been deposited as sediment by the action of water
or atmosphere; or which are due to the growth and decay of plants
and animals. The various strata of these have been divided, for
convenience, into epochs, periods, ages, etc., each having its
typical remains associated with it; and it is from the discoveries
of these that the age and origin of man have been estimated. Where
these stratified rocks are found to have become changed into a
crystallized state by the action of heat and pressure, resulting in
the efficenient of their original character, and in the destruction
of traces of any organic (plant or animal) remains in them, they
are called metamorphic. Occasional volcanic outbursts and
earthquakes show us that the original store of energy which the
earth acquired during the aggregation of the particles of which it
is built up, in their passage from a diffused nebulous (cloudy)
state to one of increasing density, under the action of the force
of gravitation, is not yet lost; and the escape of that energy,
through the crust of the ethereal medium, is continued, and its
final dissipation into space is, therefore, only a question of
time.
GEOLOGICAL EPOCHS, PERIODS, etc., during which the
stratified rocks were deposited: --
The Primary Epoch: --
Plutonic period ... Conflict of inorganic forces. No life.
Laurentian period ... Monerae, then Amoebae.
Cambrian period ... Sponges, shell fish.
Silurian period ... Fishes, sea worms.
Devonian period ... Insect feeders and air breathers.
Carborliferous period ... Frogs, crocodiles, beetles.
Permian period ... Reptiles.
The Secondary Epoch : --
Triassic period ... Pouched mammals.
Jurassic period ... Huge reptiles of sea, land, air, and
birds.
Cretaceous period ... Bony skeletoned fishes; Ammonites.
The Tertiary Epoch: --
Eocene period ... Huge placental mammals, and probably man.
Miocene period ... Hoofed quadrupeds, anthropoid apes.
Pliocene period ... Bears, hyenas.
The Quaternary Epoch: --
Glacial period, or Ice Age ... Positive age of (hybrid) man.
Paleolithic period ... Stone Age Savage man.
Neolithic period ... Stone Age Semi-civilized man.
Recent Bronze Age ... Civilized man.
Recent Iron Age ... Civilized man.
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The Present Epoch (Historic Era): --
Superstitious period or Theological Age.
Scientific period.
The Tertiary epoch is dated at not less than 5,000,000 years
ago, and the Quaternary at not less than 1,000,000 years ago.
THE SOLAR SYSTEM.
The solar system consists of the sun and the following large
planets revolving round it, in the order of distance from the sun:
-- Mercury, 35 million miles distant; Venus, 66 million; the Earth,
91 million; Mars, 139 million; Jupiter, 476 million; Saturn, 872
million; Uranus, 1,754 million; and Neptune, 2,746 million miles
from the sun. Also ninety-seven smaller or minor planets revolving
round the sun between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, called
asteroids. Also meteors, shooting stars, comets, and moons or
satellites to some of the larger planets, Jupiter having five,
Saturn eight, Uranus four, Neptune one, and our Earth one. These
constituents of the Solar System float at various velocities in an
ethereal medium called "The Heavens,"
THE SUN consists of a nucleus of burning gaseous matter,
surrounded by envelopes called the Photosphere and the
Chromosphere, outside which is the mysterious corona "whose
delicate silver radiance forms the glorious nimbus of a total
eclipse." Being the nearest star to the earth, it radiates light,
heat, and energy to our planet. It revolves on its own axis in
space, which inclines towards the point of the zodiac occupied by
the earth in, September. It does not occupy the center of the
ellipse described by the earth, but one of the foci, being nearer
to the earth in winter than in summer. Its diameter is estimated as
being one hundred times larger than the earth, though it is by no
means the largest of the stars, and its distance from our earth is
estimated at 91 million miles.
THE PLANETS are more or less burnt-out bodies revolving round
the sun in nearly circular orbits. Some, like our Earth and Mars,
have cooled down sufficiently to be covered by a hard crust and to
be fit abodes for living creatures. others, like Jupiter, are still
in a more or less heated and partly self-luminous condition. But
the majority of the planets are cold and non-luminous, like our
airless, silent, barren moon; and what light they give is
reflected.
THE MOONS have no atmospheres, and accompany their several
planets in their revolutions round the sun. Our moon or satellite
makes one half of its journey round the earth, above the plane of
the ecliptic and the other below, the whole occupying 29 1/2 days.
Its distance from us is estimated at about 240 thousand miles.
THE STARS are white hot, luminous bodies; the nearest one is
more than 19 thousand million miles away, and the more distant ones
so far off that light, which travels at the rate of 186 thousand
miles in a second of time, requires 50 thousand years to dart from
the stars to the eyes of man.
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THE SEASONS. -- During that part of the elliptical journey of
the earth round the sun when the axis of the earth inclines away
from the sun, winter commences (the solstice or standing still);
when its axis inclines towards the sun, at the other end of the
journey, summer commences; when the earth arrives (roughly) half-
way between these two points, on either side, spring and autumn
(the equinoxes, equal day and night) commence respectively, these
being the nearest distances, in the plane of the ecliptic between
the earth and the sun. Spring commences at the vernal equinox (the
commencement of the annual cycle of the ancient zodiac), when the
sun appears to enter that constellation of the zodiac called
"Aries" (March 21st). Summer commences at the summer solstice, when
the sun appears to enter "Cancer," the longest day, June 21St.
Autumn commences at the autumnal equinox, when the sun appears to
enter "Libra" (September 23rd). Winter commences at the winter
solstice, when the sun appears to enter "Capricorns," the shortest
day, December 21St.
THE ANCIENT ZODIAC.
The names of the ancient signs of the zodiac in Latin are: --
The Ram, the Bull, the Heavenly Twins,
And next the Crab the Lion shines,
The Virgin and the Scales,
The Scorpion, Archer, and He-goat,
The Man that bears the watering-pot,
And Fish with glittering tails.
The equinoxial points (Aries and Libra) moved fifty degrees
westward every year; thus the signs became separated from their
corresponding constellations, the vernal equinoxial sign being the
first in the time of Hipparchus (2nd century B.C.). In 25,868 years
all the signs would have made a complete circuit. The groups of
stars in the different signs or constellations were named after
some fancied resemblance to animals or other objects of nature. And
the sun, in his supposed annual passage through the twelve signs,
was worshipped in his different forms. The Lion represented the sun
when at his fierce summer strength; the Balance, when the days and
nights are equal; the Water-pourer, the commencement of the
Monsoon, or period of torrential rain; and so on. The ancient
zodiac was arranged on the theory that the earth was flat and
immovable, and that the sun made an annual circuit round it.
ETHICS AND CUSTOMS OF SOCIAL LIFE.
DUTY AND FAULT.
The science of ethics treats of moral duty and obligation.
Primitive man, from a solitary and selfish tree-dweller, through
long ages of time gradually became more social by companionizing
and cooperating with his fellows, by which were gradually evolved
sympathy, love, and generosity. Through further ages of time, as
civilization and refinement increased, the requirements of life
increased, and the dependence upon each other became more marked.
Man thus, by cooperation, took upon himself a duty which he had not
exercised in his primitive condition. Cooperation necessitated
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protection to life and property, which again necessitated the
formulation of laws for the binding of each other to the observance
of certain rules of conduct, and for the good government of
communities. And, however much these may vary in detail in
different countries and in different ages, there is a general code
universally admitted and received which always exists, which has
been found by experience to be necessary for the protection of
cooperation, and, therefore, for the preservation of free social
intercourse. From cooperation, then, springs the whole duty of man
and wherever there is duty there may be neglect of duty.
Duty may be civil and compulsory, or moral and voluntary. The
former is an obligation to comply with the statutory law of the
country, the failure to comply with which is more or less penal.
The latter is the outcome of a natural desire to do right, because
it is right, and to comply with the usages of society (in its broad
and general sense) and the conventionalities of life. The moral
duty of the theologian or religionist differs both in motive and in
scope from the rewardless duty of free men -- i.e., men free from
the trammels of theology, as above described. The extra duties
which the theologian recognizes, by virtue of his creed, are
prescribed by the dogmas of theology, and supposed to be related to
a deity or deities; the violation of these duties being called
"sin." The motive is one of fear, lest he should arouse, by his
neglect of duty, the anger of his deity, and so feel the force of
his vengeance after death in the fires of hell; or hope, if he
pleases his deity, of gaining the reward of heaven. The free man
has no fear of future punishment, nor hope of any reward, to act as
a stimulus to good conduct, beyond that of this world -- viz., a
good conscience. His morality is, therefore, of purer order. He
knows that, as he sows, so will be reap; that, by living his life
here on earth in sympathy with his fellows, doing his duty to the
best of his knowledge and ability, and producing happiness for
those around him, he is ennobling that body with which his life is
bound up, and is thus perfecting his human nature.
Faults, misconduct, or wrong-doing may be of omission (neglect
of duty) or commission (actions), and may be (1) against the
written laws of the State, consisting of various legal distinctions
and technical terms, such as "misdemeanor," "felony," "larceny"
(theft), "crime," etc., being more or less penal, i.e., punishable
by the State; and (2) against the unwritten law of social life
which concerns conduct, manners, customs, etc., which are found by
experience to be necessary and good. The latter are voluntary, and
are dependent upon man's conscience or knowledge of right and
wrong, and may consist of faults against society (in its broad
sense) -- i.e., his fellow men, and faults against himself.
We must bear in mind that, though many faults against society
are not penal -- i.e., punishable by any recognized system or code
-- yet there are punishments which during life follow wrong-doing;
for if we sow evil we shall sooner or later reap evil, and if we
sow good we shall reap good. The consciousness of having done
wrong, and the remorse which follows it, will haunt the mind in its
quiet moments. Good men and women aspire after good, some with
better results than others. Knowing the frailty of our natures,
never let it be said that the stronger and more resolute, and,
therefore, the more successful in avoiding evil, has cast a stone,
as it were, at the weaker.
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MAN'S MORAL CODE.
MAXIMS.
1. In our moral conduct, to act towards others as we wish
others to act towards us.
2. To love our fellow-creatures.
3. To practice truth in word and deed.
4. To practice temperance in appetite or desire.
5. To practice thrift and economy.
6. To give offence to no one.
7. To encourage our good and restrain our evil impulses.
8. To obey the just laws of our country.
Maxim 2 induces us: To bear no malice, and forgive injuries;
to be kind to children and dumb animals, and prevent cruelty to
them; to sympathize with those in trouble; to comfort the sick and
afflicted; to discourage slavery; while being kind to the poor and
deserving, to discourage idleness and mendacity; to avoid
attributing unjust or bad motives to the actions of others; to
exercise as much care for the reputation of others as for our own;
to be peacemakers, and discourage quarrels and dissensions, though
everyone is justified in defending himself and his country; to
respect the lives, property, and opinions of others; to show
respect for the dead; to practice civility and courtesy to all,
hospitality to strangers, and consideration to foreigners; to
encourage industry and education, and work for the support of
ourselves, our families, and those lawfully dependent upon us; to
produce happiness to all.
Maxim 3 induces us: To avoid all pretence in life, deceptions
in business, and adulteration of food and drink.
Maxim 5 induces us: To practice reasonable economy of
resources, by avoiding excess or undue expenditure of goods,
substance, or vital force; to be cleanly in habits and person.
Maxim 7 induces us: To exercise, and so strengthen, the
faculties in man that are social and sympathetic: and to leave
unexercised, and so weaken, those faculties the functions of which
are adverse to social life.
Maxim 8 induces us: To help in the enforcement of the just
laws of our country, which are necessary for the protection of
rights, and for the proper conduct and well-being of the community;
to assist in obtaining the repeal of partial and unjust laws,
instituted in the interests of faction or party, and against civil
and religious liberty.
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MAXIMS FOR PARENTS.
1. To love and be true to each other; to exercise that mutual
forbearance without which two people cannot live their lives
together in that happy union which alone can sustain domestic
happiness and command the respect of their children.
2. To maintain and encourage filial obedience and respect from
children to their parents; and to discourage excessive parental
indulgence.
3. To feed, clothe, and educate their children.
MAXIMS FOR CHILDREN.
1. Love and obey your parents, teachers, and elders.
2. Always speak the truth.
3. Do not quarrel.
4. Do not take what is not your own, for that is stealing.
5. Be diligent at your lessons.
6. Do as you would be done by. "Do naught to others which, if
done to thee, would cause thee pain; this is the sum of duty."
[From the "Maha-bharata," an Indian epic poem, written six
centuries B.C.]
VERSES FOR CHILDREN.
I.
Little drops of water,
Little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean
And the pleasant land.
Thus the little moments,
Humble though they be,
Make the mighty ocean
Of eternity.
Thus our little errors
Make a mighty sin:
Drop by drop the evil
Floods the heart within.
Little drops of kindness,
Little words of love,
Make the earth an Eden
Like a heaven of love.
E.C. Brewer.
**** ****
Ne'er suffer thine eyes to close
Before thy mind hath run
O'er every act and thought and word,
From dawn to set of sun.
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For wrong take shame, but grateful feel
If just thy course hath been;
Such efforts made each day by day
Will ward thyself from sin.
Adopted from Pythagoras.
**** ****
May duty be my guide to-day,
May love and truth illume the way,
May nothing warp or stain the soul,
May noble aims the will control.
Gustav Spiller.
IV.
Wound not another, though by him provoked;
Do no one injury by thought or deed;
Utter no word to pain thy fellow creatures.
Treat no one with disdain; with patience bear
Reviling language; with an angry man
Be never angry; blessings give for curses.
E'en as a driver checks his restive steeds,
Do thou, if thou art wise, restrain thy passions,
Which, running wild, will hurry thee away.
By an Indian writer, Manu, six centuries B.C.
**** ****
GRACE is a short prayer used by Christians before and after
meals. The word is derived from the Latin "gratis," favor. All
foods, as well as other necessaries of life, are supposed by them
(but really believed by few) to be provided by favor of the deity.
But had not human hands or brains been brought to bear upon the
Christian meal, we may accept it as a moral certainty that no meal
would have been provided. The Rationalist, knowing full well that
his meals and everything he possesses depend either upon his own
exertions or upon other mundane circumstances, sees no necessity to
thank anyone, especially some invisible entity of which he knows
nothing, for what he has himself provided. It is customary,
however, at public dinners to offer some congratulation to those
present before enjoying the meal. The Rationalist may find the
following useful, in the event of a grace being called for: --
"May good digestion wait on appetite, and health on both."
If a clergyman be present, it is an act of courtesy to offer him an
opportunity of saying a "grace," on the principle that everyone has
the right of his opinion; and it by no means follows that all
present are in agreement with those opinions. By thus respecting
the opinion of others, we are carrying out the true spirit of
freedom of thought. The clergyman of a State Church generally takes
precedence of those of the free denominations, but only as an act
of courtesy, he being an official in the ecclesiastical department
of the State. A Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church usually takes
precedence over all other clergy. {Why???}
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SOCIETIES OF INTEREST TO RATIONALISTS.
THE UNION OF ETHICAL SOCIETIES (Hon. Sec., Miss Zona Vallance,
The Deanery, Stratford, Essex.) -- These consist of the following:
Ethical Societies. Place of Afeering.
THE NORTH LONDON
THE SOUTH LONDON Surrey Masonic Hall,
Camberwell New
Road, S.E.
THE EAST LONDON ... 78, Libra Road,
Roman Road, E.
THE WEST LONDON ...Town Hall, High
Street, Kensington.
Leighton House, 9,
Leighton Crescent, N.W.
THE PROVINCIAL COR- Mr. F. J. Gould,
RESPONDENCE COM- 12, Meynell Road,
MITTEE Hackney Common, N.E.
The general aims of the Ethical Movement, as represented by
this federation, are: --
(1) By purely natural and human means to assist individual and
social efforts after right living.
(2) To free the current ideal of what is right from all that
is merely traditional or self-contradictory, and thus to widen and
perfect it.
(3) To assist in constructing a theory or science of Right,
which, starting with the reality and validity of moral
distinctions, shall explain their mental and social origin, and
connect them in a logical system of thought.
The special objects of the federation are: --
(1) To bring into closer connection the federated Societies.
(2) To provide for the special training of Ethical teachers
and lecturers.
(3) To start, take over, and to control Ethical classes for
children, with or without the assistance of local committees.
(4) To provide for the payment of teachers and lecturers.
(5) To choose and dismiss teachers and lecturers, whether paid
or voluntary.
(6) To publish and spread suitable literature.
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(7) And to further such other objects as may commend
themselves from time to time to the Union.
THE NATIONAL SECULAR SOCIETY, whose motto is "We Seek for
Truth," has its offices at 376 and 377, Strand, W. President, Mr.
G.W. Foote; Hon. Sec., Mr. R. Forder.
THE RATIONALIST PRESS COMMITTEE has its headquarters at 17,
Johnson's Court, Fleet Street, London, E.C. Its objects are: (1) To
issue, or assist in the issue of Rationalist publications.
(2) To carry on a systematic distribution of Rationalist
literature. Chairman, Mr. G.J. Holyoake; Secretary and Treasurer,
Charles A. Watts, from whom all information may be obtained.
THE NATIONAL SUNDAY LEAGUE is a society for the promotion of
recreation and amusement on Sundays, and for the removal of
restrictions to the opening of public museums, picture galleries,
etc., on Sundays. Secretary, Mr. H. Mills, 34, Red Lion Square,
Holborn, W.C.
PUBLIC HOLIDAYS AND THEIR ORIGIN.
SUNDAY, the first day of the week, commemorates the weekly
festival of the sun, the planet whose glorious rays give us life,
health, delight, and happiness.
EASTER commemorates the vernal equinox, when the sun crosses
the equator, and the days become longer than the nights, and daily
increase in length; also the return of verdure, and the bursting
forth of the seed. It is, by arrangement, the first Sunday after
the full moon, which happens upon, or next after, March 21st; and
if the moon is at full on a Sunday, Easter day is the Sunday after.
MAYDAY commemorates nature's profusion of flowers and blossom,
which has from early times found expression in dance and song, and
which instinctively excites feelings of gladness and delight. In
Rome the goddess Flora was specially venerated at this season,
which custom has its modern representation in "the May Queen."
WHIT MONDAY. -- The Monday after Pentecost, which is seven
weeks after Easter, So-called from the white garments worn by the
newly-baptized Catechumens in the Christian Church, which rite took
place on the vigil of Pentecost. The holiday has outlived the
religious association out of which it originated. Pentecost was a
Jewish feast, held on the fiftieth day after the Passover, in
celebration of their "Ingathering," and in thanksgiving for their
harvest. The Christian Church adopted it from the Jews, and
celebrated the supposed descent of the "Holy Ghost," one of the
gods of the Trinity, on the Yezuan apostles.
MIDSUMMER DAY (June 24th) commemorates the event of the sun
having attained his highest point in the heavens, and our northern
hemisphere being under the influence of the greatest effulgence of
his rays.
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LAMMAS MONDAY, or HARVEST FESTIVAL, is the first Monday after
"Lammas Day" (August 1st), and is kept as a holiday or "festival of
the ingathering." It derives its name of Lammas from a
superstitious offering in early times of the first fruits of the
harvest to the various deities.
CHRISTMAS DAY commemorates the birthday of the new sun -- when
the sun, after descending to its lowest point in the heavens, and
after our northern hemisphere has been travelling away from the sun
and getting less of his rays daily, commences his return journey,
and daily rises higher in the heavens. It is also the birthday of
all the messiahs of the various revealed religions.
BANK HOLIDAYS -- ENGLAND AND WALES: Good Friday, Whitsun
Monday, Lammas Monday, Christmas Day, and the day following; or, if
that day be Sunday, then Monday. The Stock Exchange have, in
addition to the above, May Day and November 1st. SCOTLAND: New
Year's Day, Good Friday, the first Mondays in May and August, and
Christmas; Day.
THE NAMING AND REGISTRATION OF CHILDREN.
When a birth takes place, personal information of it must be
given, free of charge, within six weeks, to the Registrar; by (1)
the father or mother; if they fail (2) the occupier of the house in
which the birth happened; (3) a person present at the birth; or (4)
the person having charge of the child: The penalty for not
registering within the time specified is 2 pounds. A written
request may be sent to the Registrar to come to the house and
register the child, for which he receives a fee of 1s. After three
months, a birth cannot be registered except in the presence of the
Superintendent Registrar, and on payment of fees to him and to the
Registrar. After one year, a birth can be registered only on the
Registrar General's express authority, and on the payment of
further fees. It is important to persons of all classes to be able
to prove their age and place of birth, the only legal proof of
which is by the civil register. Baptism, or christening, being a
superstition, is not necessary for the naming of children. The
child may be simply named by the parents at any time, without the
use of any religious or theological formulary.
MARRIAGE.
Marriage is a civil contract provided by the State for the
legal union of man and woman, and for the purpose of binding both
to certain reciprocal obligations. Marriage ceremonies, as
religious or ecclesiastical functions, are simply superstitions.
Among the ancient Hebrews and others the husband, was generally the
owner of so many slave concubines, and women were bought and sold
like cattle. In Mohammedan countries polygamy is permitted, but a
man is limited to four wives, the number of concubines being
unlimited. In this country, where the sexes have equal rights,
monogamy is the custom, and both are limited to one co-partner. The
marriage contract gives a joint proprietorship in children, and
there is, consequently, a filial claim upon both parents for
protection; and, as the wife is obviously unable to act as mother
and provider at the same time, the latter duty devolves by law upon
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the husband and putative father, and he is compelled to provide for
wife and children. The benefit to the wife by the provision of
marriage must be obvious, for without such a tie the mother of a
family, having probably lost the charms of youth and beauty, might
be forsaken, and have to bring up her children single-handed, which
would be unjust to her and disastrous to the children, The marriage
contract is therefore provided, not only in the interests of
morality -- to check promiscuous intercourse -- but in the
interests of the wife and the offspring of the union.
It is the duty of parents to exercise every precaution in
their power against increasing their families beyond what the means
at their disposal justify. Parents living in a civilized society
are not justified in recklessly giving birth to children whom they
have no adequate means of nourishing, clothing, and educating, and
who must either starve or be reared by the kindness and charity of
others. Such a state of things is demoralizing to the parents as
well as to the offspring. The over-population of the future is a
terrible thing to contemplate, but come it must if Christianism is
to continue to teach people that it is a blessed thing for a man to
"have his quiver full," which, taken literally, might have been
true; but, when misapplied, is about as wise as the recommendation
to neglect provision, and neither "toil nor spin," like the "lilies
of the field." Vegetable life is subject to the check of animal
life; the latter, more or less, preying upon the former. Man, by
his intellectual superiority, adopts artificial means to keep the
lower animal life down and prevent over-production; but he himself
has only his own carefulness to rely upon. Disease, famine, and war
have acted in former days as exterminators, and so kept population
down; but, as knowledge increases, disease is reduced or prevented,
famine is guarded against, and wars are avoided by the skill and
prudence of statesmen, a greater number live to struggle for
existence. The question of over-population is, therefore, of
importance; it concerns every parent, and its consideration is
becoming more pressing every year. "Population, when unchecked,
doubles itself every twenty-five years but the food to support the
increase will by no means be obtained with the same facility."
[T.R. Malthus.] At this rate, in a few thousand years, there will
literally not be standing-room for man's progeny." [Charles
Darwin.] In the United States the population has increased four
times in the two first periods of twenty-five years of this
century.
It is also the duty of those contemplating marriage to make
their choice from families only of a high type, physical, mental,
and moral; and to avoid matrimonial alliance with those families
whose members manifest a strumous (consumptive, rickety) or
cancerous tendency. By the exercise of care in this matter greater
happiness is promoted in the family circle, and the human species
has a better chance of improvement and higher development.
Early marriage should be encouraged to prevent prostitution,
and to afford opportunity to all, at a suitable age, of complying
with the demands of nature, which are more or less imperative all
through life, from the lowest form of organization to the highest.
Celibacy opposes itself directly to these natural laws, and the
boasted self-restraint of the celibate is frequently only surface-
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deep, the solitude of the religious recluse fostering secret and
unnatural vices; and where it is deeper and real, it is so
generally at the expense of health and constitution. Young men,
with few exceptions, have a craving for female society, which is
part of their human nature; and many might be able to support a
wife in comparative comfort, and thus enjoy the companionship which
is their right, though, perhaps, not in a position to endure the
expenses necessarily attending the acquisition of such a family as
is the general result of a careless and thoughtless married life.
Through want of knowledge as to how to comply with the requirements
of the matrimonial state and practice thrift and economy, they are
compelled either to forego marriage altogether, or defer it till
their youth and vigor are gone. They are thus turned, as it were,
into the streets, in their hours of recreation, to seek that
pleasure which might be happily found in the companionship of a
wife and the comforts of a home. Advice in these matters ought to
be sought from a physician of the Rationalist school, free from
theological superstition.
LAWS RELATING TO MARRIAGE
(AT A REGISTRAR'S OFFICE.)
Table of consanguinity and affinity, within the degrees of
which, in this country, marriages are made absolutely void by an
Act of William IV. A man may not marry his --
Grandmother Sister
Grandfather's wife Wife's sister
Wife's grandmother Brother's wife
Father's sister Son's daughter
Mother's sister Daughter's daughter
Father's brother's wife Son's son's wife
Mother's brother's wife Daughter's son's wife
Wife's father's sister Wife's; son's daughter
Wife's mother's sister Wife's daughter's daughter
Mother Brother's daughter
Stepmother Sister's daughter
Wife's mother Brother's son's wife
Daughter Sister's son's wife
Wife's daughter Wife's brother's daughter
Son's wife Wife's sister's daughter
In the case of a woman, the sexes must be reversed.
Marriage by Certificate. -- If both parties have resided in
the same district during the preceding seven days, a written notice
(on a special form, declaring there is no lawful hindrance as to
ages, residence, and consent of parents, if a minor) must be signed
by one of them before the Registrar, and given to the
Superintendent Registrar of the district. If they reside in
different Registrars' districts, a similar notice must be sent to
each Superintendent Registrar. The marriage may be contracted
within three calendar months of the notice; but not till twenty-one
days have elapsed, when the Superintendent Registrar will issue his
certificate to marry. Fee 9s. 7d.
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Marriage by License. -- It is necessary for only one of the
parties to give notice to the Superintendent Registrar of the
district in which he or she has resided for the preceding fifteen
days. After the expiration of one day, next after the day of entry
of notice, the Superintendent Registrar issues his certificate and
license to marry. The marriage may be contracted at any time within
three calendar months after the date of entry of notice. Fees; 2
pounds 17s. 1d.
The Marriage Ceremony. -- Marriages are contracted before the
Superintendent Registrar and the Registrar of the district," and in
the presence of two witnesses, between 8 a.m. and 3 P.m. Each party
declares as follows: "I do solemnly declare that I know not of any
lawful impediment why I, A B, may not be joined in matrimony to C
D; and each shall say to the other: "I call upon these Persons here
present to witness that I, A B (or C D), do take thee, C D, (.or A
B), to be my lawful wedded wife (or husband.)" A wedding-ring is
usually required.
It is hardly necessary to remark that "the solemnization of
marriages" in churches, or as "sacraments" of religion, is
superstitious, being a relic of days of ignorance, credulity, and
priestcraft.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR BURIAL.
Those desirous of being buried without religious ceremony or
interference by the clergyman of the parish should sign a
testamentary document to that effect (which may be obtained from
the National Secular Society [377, Strand, London, W.C.] for 2d. in
stamps), and notify the fact to the National Secular Society of
their having done so.
For those intending to be buried in a CEMETERY, in
unconsecrated ground, a service may be held and an address given,
but for those whom circumstances may necessitate being buried in a
CHURCHYARD it is necessary that the Burial Law Amendment Act, 1880,
should be complied with, the chief regulations of which are as
follows: --
1. Any responsible person having charge of the burial may do
all that is required without the above testamentary document; but
it is better to have it.
2. Forty-eight hours' notice in writing must be given to the
clergyman of the parish, or any person appointed to receive such
notice (sometimes the clerk or sexton), on a special form (supplied
with the form of Will above).
3. The burial must be between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m., from April
1st to October 1st; and between 10 a.m. and 3 P.m., from October
1st to April 1st.
4. In the case of a pauper buried by the parish, a copy of the
above notice must also be sent to the master of the workhouse.
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5. If the day and hour be inconvenient to the clergyman, or in
conflict with any burial bye-law, or because the day is Sunday,
Good Friday, or Christmas Day, the clergyman may, on stating his
reasons, by twenty-four hours' notice in writing, postpone the
burial till the following day.
6. The clergyman is entitled to be paid the fees he would have
received if the service had been performed.
7. Everyone has free access to the funeral, but it must be
conducted in silence; and any riotous, violent, or indecent
behavior, or any offensive conduct towards the Christian religion,
is punishable by law. The address, if any, must therefore be given
at the home.
8. The person responsible for the burial must sign a
certificate (special form obtainable from the National Secular
Society), and deliver it to the clergyman in charge of the
churchyard, at the time of the funeral or next day, for entry in
the parish register.
9. The Act applies to England and Wales and the Channel
Islands only.
FREEDOM OF THOUGHT.
As the people are the source of all authority, so is liberty
of opinion the right of every human being; and as everyone has a
right to pursue his own good in his own way, so long as he does not
attempt to deprive others of theirs, or impede their efforts to
obtain it, so everyone has an absolute right to independence, and
is sovereign over himself, his own body and mind; and no one is
accountable to others for his opinions -- religious or otherwise.
Our opinions may be right or they may be wrong; but so may those of
others be. We ought, as individuals, just as society as represented
by the Legislature ought, always to be ready to hear with patience
the opinions of others. Neither the Legislature nor society has the
right to suppress the expression of opinion -- when within the
bounds of reasonable controversy; neither have we, as individuals,
the right to deny a hearing to the opinion of others because we in
our own judgment have condemned them. "If all mankind," says Mr.
J.S. Mill, "minus one were of one opinion, and only one person were
of the contrary opinion, mankind would be no more justified in
silencing that one person than he, if he had the power, would be
justified in silencing mankind ... The peculiar evil of silencing
the expression of opinion is that it is robbing the human race. If
the opinion is right, they are deprived of the opportunity of
exchanging error for truth; if wrong, they lose what is almost as
great a benefit -- the clearer perception and livelier impression
of the truth, produced by its collision with error." ["On
Liberty."] Again he says: "Mankind are greater gainers by suffering
each other to live as seems good to themselves than by compelling
each to live as seems good to the rest." Inducements may be offered
to us to hold certain opinions which we believe to be false,
because they may be useful; but no belief which is contrary to
truth can really be useful.
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Liberty of thought and opinion, however, is not liberty of
speech. Liberty of speech is only justifiable under certain
restrictions, for there is no absolute freedom of speech in
civilized society; each individual must be limited in his speech as
in his conduct. All have a right to talk freely concerning public
matters, so long as they do not violate the moral law by menacing
the rights or welfare of others, by mischief-making, by exciting
the mob by inflammatory language or placards, or by instigating in
any other way to any mischievous acts.
Under the old English law, the penalty for heresy, blasphemy,
and schism was death by burning, after trial by the ecclesiastical
courts. This death penalty was abolished in 1677, and the
ecclesiastical courts subsequently lost their jurisdiction over any
but the clergy of the Established Church. As heresy dropped out of
sight, attention was fixed on blasphemy, the law of blasphemous
libel still remaining on the Statute Book. "An Act for the more
effectual suppression of blasphemy and profaneness" was passed in
the reign of William III. (9 and 10, c. 32), which declares that
"any person or persons having been educated in, or at any time
having made profession of, the Christian religion within this realm
who shall, by writing, printing, teaching, or advised speaking,
deny any one of the persons in the Holy Trinity to be God, or shall
assert or maintain that there are more gods than one, or shall deny
the Christian doctrine to be true, or the Holy Scriptures of the
Old and New Testament to be of divine authority, shall upon
conviction be disabled from holding any ecclesiastical, civil, or
military employment, and on a second conviction be imprisoned for
three years, and deprived for ever of all civil rights." So much of
it as affected the Unitarians was ostensibly repealed by the 53
George III., c. 160. But it still disgraces the Statute Book. In
1883 Messrs. Foote, Ramsey, and Kemp were successfully, and the
late Mr. Bradlaugh unsuccessfully, prosecuted under this Act. It
was alleged against them that they "wickedly and profanely
attempted to bring the Holy Scriptures and the Christian religion
into disbelief and contempt," not only "against the peace of our
lady the Queen," but also "to the great displeasure of Almighty
God." Here is a distinct attempt by the Legislature, not only to
suppress the opinions of individuals, but to force opinions upon
them which have never been proved to be right, but have actually
been proved to be wrong; and the confidence with which the
displeasure of the deity, in which its majority at the time of the
passing of the Act, believed, is declared, is a simple begging of
a very important and extensive question -- a claiming of
infallibility, and a presuming to a knowledge of the unknowable.
The "Lord's Day Observance Act" of Charles I. prohibits public
crying and the exposure of goods for sale on Sundays. The amended
Act of 1871 requires the consent of the chief officer of the
district, two justices, or that of a stipendiary magistrate.
Upholders of freedom of thought ought not to rest till these
partial and bigoted laws are repealed. For this purpose the late
Mr. Bradlaugh brought in a Bill in the House of Commons, and,
notwithstanding strong opposition, was successful in obtaining
forty-seven votes. The expression of opinion by Freethinkers is,
according to these laws, illegal; their corporate meetings are
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
96
THE RATIONALIST'S MANUAL.
illegal, and they cannot hold property, receive legacies, in any
corporate capacity, or open any room for entertainment and
amusement on Sundays.
OATHS, AFFIRMATIONS, AND LAST WILL.
Any person required to take an oath is entitled, under the
Oaths Act, 1888, to swear with uplifted hand in the Scotch manner
(though it is not necessary that the Scotch form of words should be
used), or to affirm. Rationalists usually claim to affirm. The
witness (or, if a juryman, the juror) should say, "I object to be
sworn, on the ground that I have no religious belief." The official
administering the oath is then bound, without further question from
anyone, to permit witness to affirm.
IF A JUROR, and he is told to "leave the box," he should at
once leave the Court; but if he is told to "leave the box, but not
the Court," he should say: "My Lord (if a judge of the High Court;
if a County Court judge or Coroner." Your Honorer;" if a Police
Magistrate or Mayor -- "Your Worship, I am ready and willing now to
perform my duty as juryman in the case in which my name has been
called, -- but if your Lordship dispenses with my services as
juror, I respectfully deny your jurisdiction to detain me in
Court."
IF A WITNESS, and any question be put by the judge, he should
say: "My Lord, I Respectfully submit that, having made my objection
in the exact words of the statute, I am now entitled to affirm
without any question, and that I am not bound to answer any
question." If the judge persists in questioning witness as to his
opinion, he should be met by a respectful but distinct refusal to
answer.
IF A CORONER OR MAGISTRATE should refuse to take his evidence,
witness should ask: "On what ground do you decline to take my
evidence?" and the answer be carefully written down, and sent to
the Secretary of the Rationalist Press Committee (17, Jobnson's
Court, Fleet Street, E.C.), or to the Secretary of the National
Secular Society (377, Strand, W.C.).
The Acts are repealed which required the judge to be satisfied
of the sincerity of the objection when made on religious grounds.
FORM OF AFFIRMATION. -- "I, A B, do solemnly, sincerely, and
truly declare and affirm that I will tell the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth."
FORM OF AFFIRMATION IN WRITING (instead of the ordinary
"affidavit" A B, of ____, do solemnly and sincerely affirm that.
Affirmed at ______, this day of ___, 18__. Before me, etc."
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