Nothing is more gratifying than to see ideas that were received with
scorn, flourishing in the sunshine of approval. Only a few weeks ago I
stated that the Bible was not inspired; that Moses was mistaken, that
the "flood" was a foolish myth; that the Tower of Babel existed only in
credulity; that God did not create the universe from nothing, that He
did not start the first woman with a rib; that He never upheld slavery;
that He was not a polygamist; that He did not kill people for making
hair-oil, that He did not order His Generals to kill the dimpled
babes; that He did not allow the roses of love and the violets of
modesty to be trodden under the brutal feet of lust; that the Hebrew
language was written without vowels; that the Bible was composed of
many books written by unknown men; that all translations differed from
each other, and that this book had filled the world with agony and
crime.
At that time I had not the remotest idea that the most learned
clergymen in Chicago would substantially agree with me--in public. I
have read the replies of the Rev. Robert Collyer, Dr. Thomas, Rabbi
Kohler, Rev. Brooke Herford, Prof. Swing, and Dr. Ryder, and will now
ask them a few questions, answering them in their own words.
First, REV. ROBERT COLLYER:
Question. What is your opinion of the Bible? Answer. "It is a
splendid book. It makes the noblest type of Catholics and the meanest
bigots. Through this book men give their hearts for good to God, or
for evil to the Devil. The best argument for the intrinsic greatness
of the book is that it can touch such wide extremes, and seem to
maintain us in the most unparalleled cruelty, as well as the most
tender mercy; that it can inspire purity like that of the great saints
and afford arguments in favor of polygamy. The Bible is the text book
of ironclad Calvinism and sunny Universalism. It makes the Quaker
quiet and the Millerite crazy. It inspired the Union soldier to live
and grandly die for the right, and Stonewall Jackson to live nobly and
die grandly for the wrong."
Q. But, Mr. Collyer, do you really think that a book with as many
passages in favor of wrong as right, is inspired? A. I look upon the
Old Testament as a rotting tree. When it falls it will fertilize a
bank of violets.
Q. Do you believe that God upheld slavery and polygamy? Do you
believe that He ordered the killing of babes and the violation of
maidens? A. "There is three-fold inspiration in the Bible, the first
peerless and perfect, the Word of God to man;--the second simply and
purely human, and then below this again, there is an inspiration born
of an evil heart, ruthless and savage there and then as anything well
can be. A three-fold inspiration, of Heaven first, then of the Earth,
and then of Hell, all in the same book, all sometimes in the same
chapter, and then, besides, a great many things that need no
inspiration."
Q. Then, after all, you do not pretend that the Scriptures are really
inspired? A. "The Scriptures make no such claim for themselves as the
Church make's for them. They leave me free to say this is false, or
this is true. The truth even within the Bible dies and lives, makes on
this side and loses on that."
Q. What do you say to the last verse in the Bible, where a curse is
threatened to any man who takes from or adds to the book? A. "I have
but one answer to this question, and it is: Let who will have written
this, I can not for an instant believe that it was written by a divine
inspiration. Such dogmas and threats as these are not of God, but of
man, and not of any man of a free spirit and heart eager for the truth,
but a narrow man who would cripple and confine the human soul in its
quest after the whole truth of God, and back those who have done the
shameful things in the name of the Most High."
Q. Do you not regard such talk as slang?
(Supposed) Answer. If an infidel had said that the writer of
Revelations was narrow and bigoted, I might have denounced his
discourse as "slang," but I think that Unitarian ministers can do so
with the greatest propriety.
Q. Do you believe in the stories of the Bible, about Jael, and the sun
standing still, and the walls falling at the blowing of horns? A.
"They may be legends, myths, poems, or what they will, but they are not
the Word of God. So I say again, it was not the God and Father of us
all who inspired the woman to drive that nail crashing through the
king's temple after she had given him that bowl of milk and bid him
sleep in safety, but a very mean Devil of hatred and revenge that I
should hardly expect to find in a squaw on the plains. It was not the
ram's horns and the shouting before which the walls fell flat. If they
went down at all, it was through good solid pounding. And not for an
instant did the steady sun stand still or let his planet stand still
while barbarian fought barbarian. He kept just the time then he keeps
now. They might believe it who made the record. I do not. And since
the whole Christian world might believe it, still we do not who gather
in this church. A free and reasonable mind stands right in our way.
Newton might believe it as a Christian and disbelieve it as a
philosopher. We stand then with the philosopher against the Christian,
for we must believe what is true to us in the last test, and these
things are not true."