Let us forget that we are Baptists, Methodists,
Catholics, Presbyterians, or Freethinkers, and remember only that we are
men and women. After all, man and woman are the highest possible titles.
All other names belittle us, and show that we have, to a certain extent,
given up our individuality, and have consented to wear the collar of
authority--that we are followers. Throwing away these names, let us
examine these questions not as partisans, but as human beings with hopes
and fears in common.
We know that our opinions depend, to a great degree, upon our
surroundings--upon race, country, and education. We are all the result
of numberless conditions, and inherit vices and virtues, truths and
prejudices. If we had been born in England, surrounded by wealth and
clothed with power, most of us would have been Episcopalians, and
believed in church and state. We should have insisted that the people
needed a religion, and that not having intellect enough to provide one
for themselves, it was our duty to make one for them, and then compel
them to support it. We should have believed it indecent to officiate in
a pulpit without wearing a gown, and that prayers should be read from
a book. Had we belonged to the lower classes, we might have been
dissenters and protested against the mummeries of the High Church.
Had we been born in Turkey, most of us would have been Mohammedans and
believed in the inspiration of the Koran. We should have believed that
Mohammed actually visited heaven and became acquainted with an angel by
the name of Gabriel, who was so broad between the eyes that it required
three hundred days for a very smart camel to travel the distance. If
some man had denied this story we should probably have denounced him as
a dangerous person, one who was endeavoring to undermine the foundations
of society, and to destroy all distinction between virtue and vice. We
should have said to him, "What do you propose to give us in place
of that angel? We cannot afford to give up an angel of that size for
nothing." We would have insisted that the best and wisest men
believed the Koran. We would have quoted from the works and letters of
philosophers, generals and sultans, to show that the Koran was the best
of books, and that Turkey was indebted to that book and to that alone
for its greatness and prosperity. We would have asked that man whether
he knew more than all the great minds of his country, whether he was so
much wiser than his fathers? We would have pointed out to him the fact
that thousands had been consoled in the hour of death by passages from
the Koran; that they had died with glazed eyes brightened by visions of
the heavenly harem, and gladly left this world of grief and tears.
We would have regarded Christians as the vilest of men, and on all
occasions would have repeated "There is but one God, and Mohammed is his
prophet!"
So, if we had been born in India, we should in all probability have
believed in the religion of that country. We should have regarded the
old records as true and sacred, and looked upon a wandering priest as
better than the men from whom he begged, and by whose labor he lived.
We should have believed in a god with three heads instead of three gods
with one head, as we do now.
Now and then some one says that the religion of his father and mother
is good enough for him, and wonders why anybody should desire a better.
Surely we are not bound to follow our parents in religion any more than
in politics, science or art. China has been petrified by the worship
of ancestors. If our parents had been satisfied with the religion of
theirs, we would be still less advanced than we are. If we are, in any
way, bound by the belief of our fathers, the doctrine will hold good
back to the first people who had a religion; and if this doctrine is
true, we ought now to be believers in that first religion. In other
words, we would all be barbarians. You cannot show real respect to your
parents by perpetuating their errors. Good fathers and mothers wish
their children to advance, to overcome obstacles which baffled them, and
to correct the errors of their education. If you wish to reflect credit
upon your parents, accomplish more than they did, solve problems that
they could not understand, and build better than they knew. To sacrifice
your manhood upon the grave of your father is an honor to neither. Why
should a son who has examined a subject, throw away his reason and adopt
the views of his mother? Is not such a course dishonorable to both?
We must remember that this "ancestor" argument is as old at least as
the second generation of men, that it has served no purpose except to
enslave mankind, and results mostly from the fact that acquiescence
is easier than investigation. This argument pushed to its logical
conclusion, would prevent the advance of all people whose parents were
not Freethinkers.
It is hard for many people to give up the religion in which they were
born; to admit that their fathers were utterly mistaken, and that the
sacred records of their country are but collections of myths and fables.
But when we look for a moment at the world, we find that each nation has
its "sacred records"--its religion, and its ideas of worship. Certainly
all cannot be right; and as it would require a life time to investigate
the claims of these various systems, it is hardly fair to damn a man
forever, simply because he happens to believe the wrong one. All these
religions were produced by barbarians. Civilized nations have contented
themselves with changing the religions of their barbaric ancestors, but
they have made none. Nearly all these religions are intensely selfish.
Each one was made by some contemptible little nation that regarded
itself as of almost infinite importance, and looked upon the other
nations as beneath the notice of their god. In all these countries it
was a crime to deny the sacred records, to laugh at the priests, to
speak disrespectfully of the gods, to fail to divide your substance
with the lazy hypocrites who managed your affairs in the next world upon
condition that you would support them in this. In the olden time
these theological people who quartered themselves upon the honest
and industrious, were called soothsayers, seers, charmers, prophets,
enchanters, sorcerers, wizards, astrologers, and impostors, but now,
they are known as clergymen.
We are no exception to the general rule, and consequently have our
sacred books as well as the rest. Of course, it is claimed by many of
our people that our books are the only true ones, the only ones that the
real God ever wrote, or had anything whatever to do with. They insist
that all other sacred books were written by hypocrites and impostors;
that the Jews were the only people that God ever had any personal
intercourse with, and that all other prophets and seers were inspired
only by impudence and mendacity. True, it seems somewhat strange that
God should have chosen a barbarous and unknown people who had little or
nothing to do with the other nations of the earth, as his messengers to
the rest of mankind.
It is not easy to account for an infinite God making people so low in
the scale of intellect as to require a revelation. Neither is it easy to
perceive why, if a revelation was necessary for all, it was made only
to a few. Of course, I know that it is extremely wicked to suggest these
thoughts, and that ignorance is the only armor that can effectually
protect you from the wrath of God. I am aware that investigators with
all their genius, never find the road to heaven; that those who look
where they are going are sure to miss it, and that only those who
voluntarily put out their eyes and implicitly depend upon blindness can
surely keep the narrow path.
Whoever reads our sacred book is compelled to believe it or suffer
forever the torments of the lost. We are told that we have the privilege
of examining it for ourselves; but this privilege is only extended to
us on the condition that we believe it whether it appears reasonable or
not. We may disagree with others as much as we please upon the meaning
of all passages in the Bible, but we must not deny the truth of a single
word. We must believe that the book is inspired. If we obey its every
precept without believing in its inspiration we will be damned just as
certainly as though we disobeyed its every word. We have no right to
weigh it in the scales of reason--to test it by the laws of nature, or
the facts of observation and experience. To do this, we are told, is to
put ourselves above the word of God, and sit in judgment on the works of
our creator.
For my part, I cannot admit that belief is a voluntary thing. It seems
to me that evidence, even in spite of ourselves, will have its weight,
and that whatever our wish may be, we are compelled to stand with
fairness by the scales, and give the exact result. It will not do to say
that we reject the Bible because we are wicked. Our wickedness must be
ascertained not from our belief but from our acts.
I am told by the clergy that I ought not to attack the Bible; that I am
leading thousands to perdition and rendering certain the damnation of my
own soul. They have had the kindness to advise me that, if my object is
to make converts, I am pursuing the wrong course. They tell me to use
gentler expressions, and more cunning words. Do they really wish me
to make more converts? If their advice is honest, they are traitors to
their trust. If their advice is not honest, then they are unfair with
me. Certainly they should wish me to pursue the course that will make
the fewest converts, and yet they pretend to tell me how my influence
could be increased. It may be, that upon this principle John Bright
advises America to adopt free trade, so that our country can become a
successful rival of Great Britain. Sometimes I think that even ministers
are not entirely candid.
Notwithstanding the advice of the clergy, I have concluded to pursue my
own course, to tell my honest thoughts, and to have my freedom in this
world whatever my fate may be in the next.
The real oppressor, enslaver and corrupter of the people is the Bible.
That book is the chain that binds, the dungeon that holds the clergy.
That book spreads the pall of superstition over the colleges and
schools. That book puts out the eyes of science, and makes honest
investigation a crime. That book unmans the politician and degrades the
people. That book fills the world with bigotry, hypocrisy and fear.
It plays the same part in our country that has been played by "sacred
records" in all the nations of the world.
A little while ago I saw one of the Bibles of the Middle Ages. It was
about two feet in length, and one and a half in width. It had immense
oaken covers, with hasps, and clasps, and hinges large enough almost
for the doors of a penitentiary. It was covered with pictures of winged
angels and aureoled saints. In my imagination I saw this book carried
to the cathedral altar in solemn pomp--heard the chant of robed and
kneeling priests, felt the strange tremor of the organ's peal; saw the
colored light streaming through windows stained and touched by blood
and flame--the swinging censer with its perfumed incense rising to the
mighty roof, dim with height and rich with legend carved in stone, while
on the walls was hung, written in light, and shade, and all the colors
that can tell of joy and tears, the pictured history of the martyred
Christ. The people fell upon their knees. The book was opened, and the
priest read the messages from God to man. To the multitude, the book
itself was evidence enough that it was not the work of human hands. How
could those little marks and lines and dots contain, like tombs, the
thoughts of men, and how could they, touched by a ray of light from
human eyes, give up their dead? How could these characters span the vast
chasm dividing the present from the past, and make it possible for the
living still to hear the voices of the dead?