They are twin monsters inherited from intellectual pigmies.
Let me read you a little prayer based upon this idea of right. I heard
it offered as a thanksgiving tribute. "Oh, God, we do thank thee that
thou didst give thy only son to die for us! _We thank thee that the
innocent has suffered for the guilty_, and that through the suffering
and death of thy most holy son our sins are blotted out!"
Monstrous! How would that work in a court of justice? What would you
think of a person who coolly thanked a judge who had knowingly allowed
the wrong man to be hung? What do you think of a code of morals that
offers as one of its beautiful provisions the murder of the innocent
instead of the punishment of the guilty?
People ask what good I expect to come of an attack on Christianity. They
ask me if I think Christianity does any direct harm. Yes! _It makes
a man unjust to believe in unjust doctrines_. Any man who honestly
believes in the righteousness of a system of vicarious rewards and
punishments is ripe for any form of tyranny. And the more honestly he
believes in it the less will he be a good man from principle.
I want men and women to be good and true because it is right towards
each other, and not because they are afraid of Hell. Honor towards
people in this world, not fear of a fiend in the next--that is my
doctrine. That is the way to make men and women strong and brave and
noble. Stop telling them they can't be good themselves; teach them that
they must do right themselves. Make them self-dependent. Teach them to
stand alone. Honor towards others, kindness, and love--these are what
make a man a good husband, a noble father--king in his household.
Fear never made any man a gentleman. Fear never made any woman a true
wife or a good mother. Fear never covered the pitfalls of vice with
anything stronger than the gloss of hypocrisy.
When Reason's torch burned low, Faith led her victims by chains of
ignorance into the land of hopeless superstition, and built her temple
there.