"Next to selfishness, religion has been the greatest drawback towards
progress the Apeman has had to contend with in all ages," continued
Arletta.
"Religion is the outgrowth of ignorance and the Apeman, just starting up
the ladder of human knowledge, adopted it as an explanation of things of
which he knew nothing. All religions were created by the Apeman; and
wherein lies the difference between the god built of stone or from the
imagination? In constructing the numberless religions, the Apeman
invariably made them to suit his own habits and customs. He built his
gods to please his own fancy and gave his own ideas as those of his
deities. His own knowledge is likewise the extent of the wisdom
contained by his gods, whom lie manufactured to be twisted and turned in
any direction and made to answer any purpose he might see fit. No one
religion is any worse than all the rest. They are all founded on
ignorance, superstition and selfishness. To believe in any of these
petty religions is to cast insults upon the real Creator of the
universe, for a god created by the Apeman must naturally be a very
inferior being. Each devout worshiper can point out the errors and
absurdities of every other religion excepting his own. He is capable of
utilizing his reasoning powers until directed against himself, and
narrowed down to a few words he feels that he is all right but everybody
else is all wrong. Of the several hundred religions now extant, would it
not be more reasonable to suppose that they were all wrong than to
believe they were all right? Take your own religion for instance; you
are worshiping a most unnatural god. In fact your Bible puts him in the
position of a vain-glorious tyrant. According to the Bible an Apeman can
be no worse than his god no matter how bad he may be. The main reason
why. the Apeman believes in religion is because he is an inveterate
coward and fears some dire punishment if he investigates the matter. But
believe me, if the Creator gave you the power to reason, he certainly
will not condemn you for making use of your reasoning faculties in not
accepting opinions which appear untenable. So let us look into this
matter from an impartial point of view. In the first place the offer of
rewards for doing good, which is the foundation of all religions is
wrong, for it carries selfishness right to the very gates of the
imaginary heavens. Goodness is very shallow indeed if it cannot exist
without rewards being offered for it. I shall enumerate a few things
your god was supposed to have said or allowed, according to the Bible,
which would make no Apeman living, any worse in his moral conduct.
"Enmity.--'And I will put enmity between thee and the woman.' Gen. iii,
15.
"Unkindness.--'Unto the woman He said, I will greatly multiply thy
sorrow.' Gen. iii, 16.
"Flesh Eaters.--'Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you.'
Gen. ix, 3.
"Revenge.--'Whoso sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed.'
Gen. ix, 6.
"Drunkenness.--'And he drank of the wine, and was drunken.' Gen. ix, 21.
"Partiality.--'God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the
tents of Shem and Canaan shall be his servant.' Gen. ix, 27.
"Hunting--'He was a mighty hunter before the Lord.' Gen. x, 9.
"A curser.--'And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that
curseth thee.' Gen. xii, 3.
"Fraud.--'By fraud, Jacob received the blessing intended for Esau and
then God blessed him and made him prosperous forever afterward. Gen.
xxvii to xxix.
"Fornication.--'And Bilhah, Rachel's maid, conceived again and bare
Jacob a second son.' Gen. xxx, 7.
"Anger.--'And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses.' Exodus
iv, 14.
"Thievery.--'Speak now into the ears of the people and let every man
borrow of his neighbor and every woman of her neighbor jewels of silver
and jewels of gold.' Exodus xi, 2.
"Carnage.--'For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night and
will smite all the first born in the land of Egypt, both man and beast;
and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment; I am the
Lord.' Exodus xii, 12.
"Jealousy.--'For I the Lord thy God am jealous God.' Exodus xx, 5.
"Slavery.--'Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall
also bring him to the door, or unto the doorpost, and his master shall
bore his ear through with an awl; and he shall serve him forever.'
Exodus xxi, 6.
"Witchcraft.--'Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live.' Exodus xxii, 18.
"Murder.--'And my wrath shall wax hot, and I will kill you with my sword
and your wives shall be widows and your children fatherless.' Exodus
xxii, 24.
"Changeability.--'And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Phinehas, the
son of Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, hath turned my wrath away
from the children of Israel, while he was zealous for my sake among
them, that I consumed not the children of Israel in my jealousy.'
Numbers xxv, 10, 11.
"Brutality.--'And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Bring forth him
that hath cursed without the camp; and let all that heard him lay their
hands upon his head, and let all the congregation stone him.' Leviticus
xxiv, 13, 14.
"Savage Cruelty.--'And if the burnt sacrifice for his offering to the
Lord be of fowls, then he shall bring his offering of turtle doves, or
of young pigeons. And the priest shall bring it unto the altar, and
wring off its head, and burn it on the altar; and the blood thereof
shall be wrung out at the ides of the altar.' Leviticus i, 14, 15.
"An Ass.--'And the Lord opened the mouth of the ass and she said unto
Balaam, What have I done unto thee that thou hast smitten me these three
times?' Numbers xxii, 28.
"I have brought a few of these absurd writings to your attention," said
Arletta, "hoping that later on you will go over them carefully and give
them the same rational consideration you bestow upon other subjects.
There is one commendable feature about your Bible however, and that is,
it shows that once there existed among your species a noble mortal who
devoted his life trying to teach the Apeman human kindness in somewhat
the same manner our men used to do, with the exception of the
supernatural dogmas. I refer to Jesus Christ. The fact that the same
lessons he expounded were taught thousands of years before he was born,
or that he failed to grasp nature's beautiful ideas without confounding
them with supernatural fancies, does not detract in any way from his
nobility of purpose and his name should be mentioned in the future
history of the world as one of the great benefactors of the human race.
It seems a pity that his over-zealous followers have tried to place him
in the light of a deity, for in time to come, when your species begin to
reason, they might possibly regard him as an impostor. This should not
be the case however, for although Christ no doubt really believed in a
religious god, it is unjust to believe that he ever pretended to be
anything more than a mere human being himself, or that he knew anything
about the wonderful miracles it was subsequently claimed he had
performed.
"Any earthly being," said Arletta, as her face fairly beamed with
intelligence, "whether it be a man, an Apeman or a monkey, who claims to
be related to the Creator of the universe, or to be His prophet, or His
specially appointed spokesman, or in any way tries to lead others to
believe that he possesses supernatural powers, is either an impostor or
an idiot.
"When all earthly beings make use of the reasoning faculties nature
endows them with, all religions will perish through the agency of their
own untruths."