UP to this time I had read nothing against our blessed religion except
what I had found in Burns, Byron and Shelley. By some accident I read
Volney, who shows that all religions are, and have been, established in
the same way--that all had their Christs, their apostles, miracles and
sacred books, and then asked how it is possible to decide which is the
true one. A question that is still waiting for an answer.
I read Gibbon, the greatest of historians, who marshaled his facts as
skillfully as Caesar did his legions, and I learned that Christianity
is only a name for Paganism--for the old religion, shorn of its
beauty--that some absurdities had been exchanged for others--that some
gods had been killed--a vast multitude of devils created, and that hell
had been enlarged.
And then I read the Age of Reason, by Thomas Paine. Let me tell you
something about this sublime and slandered man. He came to this country
just before the Revolution. He brought a letter of introduction from
Benjamin Franklin, at that time the greatest American.
In Philadelphia, Paine was employed to write for the _Pennsylvania
Magazine_. We know that he wrote at least five articles. The first was
against slavery, the second against duelling, the third on the treatment
of prisoners--showing that the object should be to reform, not to punish
and degrade--the fourth on the rights of woman, and the fifth in favor
of forming societies for the prevention of cruelty to children and
animals.
From this you see that he suggested the great reforms of our century.
The truth is that he labored all his life for the good of his
fellow-men, and did as much to found the Great Republic as any man who
ever stood beneath our flag.
He gave his thoughts about religion--about the blessed Scriptures, about
the superstitions of his time. He was perfectly sincere and what he said
was kind and fair.
The Age of Reason filled with hatred the hearts of those who loved their
enemies, and the occupant of every orthodox pulpit became, and still is,
a passionate maligner of Thomas Paine.
No one has answered--no one will answer, his argument against the dogma
of inspiration--his objections to the Bible.
He did not rise above all the superstitions of his day. While he hated
Jehovah, he praised the God of Nature, the creator and preserver of all.
In this he was wrong, because, as Watson said in his Reply to Paine, the
God of Nature is as heartless, as cruel as the God of the Bible.
But Paine was one of the pioneers--one of the Titans, one of the
heroes, who gladly gave his life, his every thought and act, to free and
civilize mankind.
I read Voltaire--Voltaire, the greatest man of his century, and who did
more for liberty of thought and speech than any other being, human or
"divine." Voltaire, who tore the mask from hypocrisy and found behind
the painted smile the fangs of hate. Voltaire, who attacked the savagery
of the law, the cruel decisions of venal courts, and rescued victims
from the wheel and rack. Voltaire, who waged war against the tyranny of
thrones, the greed and heartlessness of power. Voltaire, who filled the
flesh of priests with the barbed and poisoned arrows of his wit and made
the pious jugglers, who cursed him in public, laugh at themselves
in private. Voltaire, who sided with the oppressed, rescued the
unfortunate, championed the obscure and weak, civilized judges, repealed
laws and abolished torture in his native land.
In every direction this tireless man fought the absurd, the miraculous,
the supernatural, the idiotic, the unjust. He had no reverence for the
ancient. He was not awed by pageantry and pomp, by crowned Crime or
mitered Pretence. Beneath the crown he saw the criminal, under the
miter, the hypocrite.
To the bar of his conscience, his reason, he summoned the barbarism and
the barbarians of his time. He pronounced judgment against them all,
and that judgment has been affirmed by the intelligent world. Voltaire
lighted a torch and gave to others the sacred flame. The light still
shines and will as long as man loves liberty and seeks for truth.
I read Zeno, the man who said, centuries before our Christ was born,
that man could not own his fellow-man.
"No matter whether you claim a slave by purchase or capture, the title
is bad. They who claim to own their fellow-men, look down into the pit
and forget the justice that should rule the world."
I became acquainted with Epicurus, who taught the religion of
usefulness, of temperance, of courage and wisdom, and who said: "Why
should I fear death? If I am, death is not. If death is, I am not. Why
should I fear that which cannot exist when I do?"
I read about Socrates, who when on trial for his life, said, among other
things, to his judges, these wondrous words: "I have not sought during
my life to amass wealth and to adorn my body, but I have sought to adorn
my soul with the jewels of wisdom, patience, and above all with a love
of liberty."
So, I read about Diogenes, the philosopher who hated the
superfluous--the enemy of waste and greed, and who one day entered the
temple, reverently approached the altar, crushed a louse between the
nails of his thumbs, and solemnly said: "The sacrifice of Diogenes to
all the gods." This parodied the worship of the world--satirized all
creeds, and in one act put the essence of religion.
Diogenes must have know of this "inspired" passage--"Without the
shedding of blood there is no remission of sins."
I compared Zeno, Epicurus and Socrates, three heathen wretches who had
never heard of the Old Testament or the Ten Commandments, with Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob, three favorites of Jehovah, and I was depraved enough
to think that the Pagans were superior to the Patriarchs--and to Jehovah
himself.