The blind, foolish faith in the Bible is the cause of intellectual
dishonesty, moral hypocrisy, and religious tergiversations without number.
This faith makes the twentieth century kneel to a God that it would be
ashamed to introduce among civilized beings.
We would no sooner go to Moses to learn about deity than we would go to
Noah to learn how to build a steamship. We do not believe in getting
divinity through a straw three thousand years long. If we must have a God,
let us have one that has had the advantages of civilization. We might
possibly give this Lord God of the Bible a quarter of mutton, as did Abel,
or a peck of potatoes, as did Cain, if we were convinced that he was
living anywhere in the universe, just to keep on the right side of him,
but we would not care to be on an out-of-the-way road with him after dark
unless we had a revolver with us. We know of no more villainous character
in all literature; and for men and women, who pretend to love what is pure
and good, who pretend to honor what is upright and just and who pretend to
revere what is noble and true, to worship this God of Christianity, this
God of Moses, this God of the Bible, is a sad commentary on human
intelligence and human integrity.
We know that all theological discussions have been wretchedly barren of
results; we know that theology has made no contribution to actual
knowledge; we know that no one knows anything about any such being as God,
and we also know that every God worshipped to-day by men and women is only
an imaginary person or thing. No one knows what God is or where he is, and
yet ministers speak about him just as though they had been to his house
and taken tea with him.
Theology has received attention out of proportion to its achievements. It
has done the cackling while science has laid the egg.
We do not like to hear men say: “God did this” and “God said this,” when
he has never opened his lips to speak to man and never lifted his hand to
help him. We call such language dishonest, and the time will come when the
men who have made such use of the divine name will be condemned as
impostors.
What this generation should do is to take the Lord God of the Israelites,
that lies dead on the banks of time and bury him from human sight forever.
Not another human being born on this earth should be allowed to read of
his cruel deeds, and if Christian ministers were honest, and had the
courage of their honesty, they would tell the world that the being called
God in the Bible was no God, only an idol of a rude and barbarous age.
‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐‐
A theologian is a person who uses the word “God” to hide his ignorance.