All Bibles, and nearly every religious nation known to history, have
taught that God often gets angry at the creatures of his own
creation. But, in the light of modern science, nothing could be more
transcendently absurd, or more absolutely impossible, than that a being
possessing all knowledge--a being infinite in power, infinite in wisdom,
and filling all space throughout the boundless universe--should be a
victim to the weakness and ungovernable impulse of passion. The very
idea is revolting and blasphemous, and presents to every reflecting and
unbiased mind a self-evident impossibility. The emotion of anger
can only be the weakness of finite and imperfect beings. It is
self-evidently impossible for a being possessing infinite perfection,
and consequently infinite self-government, to cherish the feeling of
anger for a moment, as the following consideration will show:--
1. The modern study of mental philosophy has demonstrated anger to be a
species of moral weakness; and hence it could not, for a single moment,
occupy a mind possessing infinite perfection. A being, therefore, who
is assumed to possess such a weakness is self-evidently not a God, but
merely an imaginary being, fit only to be worshiped by ignorant slaves.
2. The practical experience of every person demonstrates anger to be a
species of unhappiness, and often of absolute misery; and the indulgence
of this passion not only makes the possessor unhappy, but destroys the
happiness of every one around him. If, therefore, God were an angry
being, instead of heaven being a place or state of happiness, it would
be the most miserable place imaginable; for God is represented by the
Christian Bible as getting angry every day (see Ps. vii. 11), and so
angry that the "fury comes up in his face." As a Yankee would say, "He
gets mad all over." I frankly confess I don't want to live in such a
heaven, or with such a God. Indeed, it would be no heaven at all for
anybody; for heaven is a state of happiness.
3. In the third place, the modern study of the science of philosophy
has discovered that anger is a species of disease, which may result in
mental and even physical suicide if carried far enough. It produces
a congested state of the blood-vessels of the brain, which, if not
arrested in its progress, will produce death. Dr. Gunn, in his work on
domestic medicine, reports several cases in which an inquest was held
over a dead body by a coroner's jury, and the verdict rendered, "Came
to his death in a fit of anger." However irreverent, the thought forces
itself upon us, that such a verdict might be given over the dead body
of Jehovah if we were compelled to believe all we read of his getting
angry; for it is a scientific deduction that can not be resisted, that,
if anger can produce death in one being, it may in all beings subject to
its influence.
4. Again: as the result of the study of mental philosophy, anger is now
known to be a species of insanity. It deranges, more or less, all the
faculties of the mind, and often disqualifies the possessor for doing
any thing right, or acting rationally, while under its influence. It
often causes him to act without reason or judgment, and is liable to
drive him to the commission of crime. As well think of entering the cage
of a tiger as to take up our abode in a heaven ruled by such a God,--a
heaven controlled by a God bereft of reason by the ungovernable action
of his own passions. We could not be happy in such a heaven: we should
be constantly under the influence of fear and apprehension, lest he
should become enraged, and his vengeance fall upon us. Where there is
fear there is no heaven or happiness. If, as the Bible tells us, he is
liable to repent, he might experience this mental perturbation at any
time, and repent for having admitted us into the heavenly kingdom, and
consequently expel us. Under such circumstances our motives would be
very much weakened for laboring to reach such a heaven, not knowing
that we should be permitted to remain there a single hour. How supremely
ridiculous, when logically analyzed, is the conception of an angry God!
It is entirely behind the age, and adapted only to the lowest stages
of barbarism; and yet thousands of Christian clergymen preach this
demoralizing doctrine from the pulpit every sabbath day. It is
demoralizing, because no person can believe in an angry, sin-punishing
God, without cherishing such feelings in his own bosom. It is impossible
for him to avoid it. Indeed, he has no motives for trying to avoid it;
but, on the contrary, he possesses the strongest motives for cultivating
such feelings. For Archbishop Whately says, "Religious people always
try to be like the God they worship." They consider it not only their
privilege, but their duty, to imitate him. Hence, if they believe he
gets mad occasionally, and pours out his vengeance upon his offending
children (his disobedient subjects), they will naturally feel like
following his example, and be cruel and revengeful to those who excite
their anger. This preaching the doctrine of an angry God has a tendency
to foster vengeful and vindictive feelings amongst the people; when, if
the clergy would preach only a God of infinite love, infinite goodness,
infinite perfection in all his attributes, we should soon see a marked
change in society. Kindness, love, and good-will would be manifested
between man and man; and cruel, vengeful, and vindictive feelings would
gradually die out, and be numbered amongst the things which have been
and are not. Then would the kingdom of peace be established on earth,
and the millennium be ushered in. But we can not expect the priests
to be better than their God, nor the people to be better than their
priests. "Like God like priest, and like priest like people." The priest
deals out damnation upon the people to be like his God; and the people
follow in his foot steps, and exercise cruel and revengeful feelings
toward each other. It seems astonishing that such an immoral and
blasphemous doctrine should have been so long and so extensively
tolerated in professedly enlightened countries, as it is evident it
must have had a bad effect; and past experience proves it has had
a demoralizing effect upon the people where the doctrine has been
preached. It furnishes an illustration of the omnipotent power of
custom.