The longer we live the more are we convinced that no adult person would
accept the Bible as a divine work if he had not been taught the dogma of
the Bible’s divinity when a child. Let the matured mind come to the
perusal of the Bible without the religious prejudice in favor of its
divine character, and it would reject the book as unworthy the
consideration of the intelligent, educated man. Let the refined sense,
which all education in art, manners and social morals seeks to cultivate,
begin to read the Bible, without the religious prejudice in favor of its
sacred character, and before a dozen pages had been read, it would close
the volume with disgust and hide it out of sight, or burn it as soon as
possible.
The Bible’s divinity rests upon the mental and moral corruption of the
young. Were children not taught that this book was sacred, men and women
would look upon it as unholy. Do people realize what harm they are doing
to the mind of the child when they teach it to accept the Bible as God’s
word? They are telling the child that falsehood is sacred; that ignorance
is holy; that foul stories are pure; that vile words are clean, in the
mouth of God. Fathers and mothers would not tell their children what they,
and what priests and ministers, tell them God wrote or inspired man to
write.
What is needed to-day is to tell the truth about the Bible. Tell men and
women that ignorant, uncultured, unrefined men wrote it hundreds of years
ago, and that it is unfit in its present shape to put into the hands of a
child that a mother wishes to grow up honest, true and pure.
Liberals should not allow their children to touch the Bible. They should
keep it from them until they are old enough to know that no book was ever
written by a God, and then, if they read the Bible, they would see its
true character. We must guard the minds of our children from Christian
influences. We pity the child that is taught that the Bible is the word of
God, but we despise the man that teaches this falsehood.
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
Most men would kill the truth if truth would kill their religion.
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
The truths which God revealed have been overthrown by the truths which man
has discovered.
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
People used to think that to mix religion with business spoiled the
religion, now they think it spoils the business.