There is little doubt that the faith of the early Christians was what
might be classed under the head of rainbow religion. We learn from the New
Testament that it was taught that those who accepted the faith held by
John and Jesus and Paul were in some peculiar manner to be protected from
the common ills of life, and were to be especial favorites of their
“Father in heaven.” How sincerely this faith was held we cannot now
determine, nor to what extent it was put into practice, but that it
possessed the mind in a considerable degree there is no room whatever to
doubt. But this is not the question that we want settled, but rather the
value of this faith.
It is pleasant and comforting to believe that one is watched over by a
superior power which at any moment of peril or temptation is ready to
stretch forth its hand and rescue from danger and death, and it is on
account of the wonderful seductiveness of this faith that it has lasted so
long and has been so hard to overcome. But what we are interested in is,
whether or not such a belief has any foundation in fact or in human
experience. When Jesus bid his followers to cease giving thought to what
they should eat and drink and wear, telling them that their “heavenly
Father” fed the fowls of the air, and that they were better than such
fowls, thus implying that their heavenly Father would take proportionately
better care of them, was there any ground for any such teaching, and is
there any ground for this faith today? We claim that the “heavenly Father”
referred to by Jesus never fed anything, neither fowl nor man; and that no
human being was ever taken care of by any superior power or snatched by it
from danger or death. Such a faith is the veriest delusion, and it could
lodge and take root only in the childish mind. Jesus also taught that the
“Father which is in heaven” would “give good things to them that ask him.”
Is there any ground for this rainbow religion? Is there any evidence that
there is a “Father in heaven” who has good things to give to those who ask
for them?
We presume that this faith led men to give up work and to trust to begging
for a living. But the question is, which got the most good things,—those
who studied the laws of Nature and of life and worked in harmony with
them, or those who prayed for good things? How is it to-day? What good
things can be had by praying? Who has any good thing that he received by
asking his “Father in heaven” for it? The asking business has been carried
on for hundreds of years, and all that has been asked of God has had to be
given by man or has not been given at all.
Has it ever been true that Christians had any immunity from danger that
others did not have, or that they could live in defiance of the laws of
Nature? Jesus told his followers that in his name they shall cast out
devils, they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing it
shall not hurt them and they shall have the power to cure the sick by
laying their hands upon them. Have men, who professed to follow Jesus,
ever done the things which he said they shall do? Is there any man to-day
who can do these things? Is there any evidence that Christians are treated
by any power of the universe differently from what others are treated? And
is there any evidence that they possess any gift that is not shared by
others? As far as we can see Christians are subject to the same laws of
Nature that all others must obey, and they cannot either defy those laws
or act independently of them. If they fool with deadly serpents they will
get bitten and probably die—just the same as would an infidel; if they
drink a cup of poison, they will suffer and perhaps die just the same as
an unbeliever; if they have any sickness, they do not trust to the
laying-on of hands by a fellow-Christian, but send for a doctor the same
as a freethinker. The fact is, the world has learned better than to put
faith in these teachings of Jesus.
The Christian faith belonged to the childhood of the race, and ought no
longer to be preached to man. No one attempts to put this faith into
practice, to carry into life the teachings of Jesus. And why not? Simply
because _it is known to be false_. Christianity is a rainbow religion, a
representation of things for which there is no warrant in Nature; a
picture painted in false colors; a view of life copied from a diseased
imagination; a falsehood fed by priests upon which they live.
There is not an intelligent man or woman living to-day who has any faith
in the rainbow religion taught by Jesus; not an intelligent man or woman
who believes that a heavenly Father or a God will provide food or drink or
clothes for a human being; nor an intelligent man or woman who has faith
that he or she can get good things by asking a "Father in heaven" for them
and not an intelligent man or woman who cares or dares to put the
declaration of Jesus to the test; that those who have faith in him can
play with serpents without danger, and drink deadly poison with no more
harm than attends quaffing a glass of water.
We are then to conclude that Christianity is held only by the ignorant.
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There is greater argument in one fact than in all the creeds.
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It is easier to believe that a man is honest who says the Bible is the
word of God than to believe that he is bright.