Time was when Jesus was looked upon as God, or the Son of God. No one had
any doubt of his divinity or divine character; or if he had, he wisely
deferred to the superstitious majority and kept his mouth shut and so kept
his head on his shoulders. This idea that Jesus was God has been steadily
declining for several hundred years. Intelligence has pretty much given it
up, except where it is paid a big salary for preaching it. There is no
rational defence that can be made of the dogma of the divinity of Jesus.
It is one of many theological absurdities that was born when gods were
popular.
A large number believe that Jesus was a man and nothing more; a good man,
but still human. They look upon him as a product of human nature. He is
allowed a human father and mother, although the gospels, in which is found
the story of his life, hardly warrant so much earthly parentage. He is
regarded as a part of humanity, and his extraordinary deeds merely as
exaggerated performances of heart and hand of man. The people that look
upon Jesus as a man have a superstitious reverence for his humanity. He is
called “the one perfect man,” the “pattern of the race,” etc. Though a
man, they will have him every inch a man.
Yet others see nothing remarkable in the career of Jesus; nothing which
marks him for universal emulation; nothing which compels praise and
admiration. They think he was a sort of mild lunatic, possessed of the
idea that he was the Messiah of his people, and that in endeavoring to
further his scheme he antagonized the existing authority and met the just
punishment of his ambition.
But it is neither as God nor as a man that Jesus must be regarded, but as
a myth. No such person ever lived either as a human or divine existence.
He is simply a creature of fancy, the fruit of the imagination. He is a
character of the brain, the creation of religious genius.
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There is no justifiable Christianity in this age.
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A dogma is the hand of the dead on the throat of the living.
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The progress of the world depends upon freedom of thought and freedom of
utterance.
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If you can forgive the man who wronged you, the neighbor who slandered you
and help the poor about you, you need not be particular about making any
professions of righteousness.