With the characteristic moral teaching of the Christian Bible, presented
in the preceding chapter and throughout this work, we see not how to
escape the conviction that the Bible has inflicted, and must necessarily
inflict, a demoralizing influence on society wherever it is read and
_believed_. It is morally impossible for _any person_ to read and
believe a book sanctioning, or appearing to sanction, so many species
of crime and immorality without sustaining more or less moral and mental
injury by it. For whatever views he may entertain with respect to the
numerous crimes therein reported as having been committed with the
approval, and often at the command, of a just God, it must naturally and
inevitably have the tendency to weaken his detestation of those crimes,
and also weaken his zeal and effort to extinguish them and other similar
crimes now existing in society. It must also lower his conception of the
moral attributes of Deity. However honest, and however naturally
opposed to such immoralities at the outset, it is impossible for him to
entertain the belief that they were once approved, or even connived at,
by a morally perfect being, without becoming unconsciously weakened in
his feelings of opposition to, and his hatred of, such deeds. It may be
alleged that these practices are at war with those precepts which enjoin
us to do unto others as we would have them do unto us; and that of
loving our neighbors as ourselves, &c. This is true; but reason and
experience both teach us, as an important lesson in moral and mental
philosophy, that, when a book which is accepted as a guide for the
conduct and moral actions of men contains contradictory precepts, the
people will seize on and reduce to practice those most consonant
with their natures, and most congenial to their natural feelings and
Inclinations. Hence it can easily be seen, that as the animal feelings
and propensities which lead to the commission of crime, when unduly
exercised, have always been stronger with the masses or the populace
than the moral feelings, they have consequently always been more
disposed to yield a compliance with those precepts which sanction,
or appear to sanction, the commission of crime, than those which
are condemnatory of crime. All persons in whose minds the animal
propensities are the strongest will seize with eagerness the least
authority, or appearance of authority, for committing those crimes which
they are naturally inclined to commit, and for which they are glad to
find a license or encouragement to commit. Under such circumstances they
will ignore the virtuous precepts, and yield a compliance with those
of an opposite character. Therefore Christian professors who expect the
Bible to exert a moral influence in reforming the world and freeing it
from crime, because it contains some beautiful and sound moral precepts,
will be disappointed; for those precepts will be neutralized, and their
effects destroyed, by those of an opposite character. A majority of the
people in all countries have always possessed a strong inclination
for committing those crimes which, we have shown, the Christian Bible
appears to sanction. Hence the Bible, with all its counteracting
precepts, will only add fuel to the fire, for the reason already pointed
out. Those who do not know this must be ignorant of the most important
principles of moral science, and the elements of human nature. Right
here is where Christians commit a serious mistake. They scatter their
Bibles among the heathen by the thousand, assuming that it will have the
effect to moralize and civilize them, while they can find a warrant in
it (as shown in the preceding chapter) for every species of crime they
have been in the habit of committing. This is a solemn error they have
been committing for ages. Hence their missionary labors, instead of
reforming the heathen, have only tended to demoralize them, where they
have not been counteracted by the more rational religion of science and
nature, as they have been in many cases. Many facts could be adduced to
prove this statement, some of which may be found in Chapter 50. ("Bible
a Moral Necessity"). Wherever the Bible has been introduced, without the
arts and sciences to counteract its influence (as in Abyssinia and the
Samoan Islands), crime has increased. History proves that wherever the
Bible has been circulated without any counteracting influences, both in
Christian and heathen nations, it has had the effect to weaken the moral
strength of the people, lower their natural appreciation of virtue and a
true moral life, and has had a tendency to popularize crime by making it
more respectable. It is therefore an _unsuitable book_ to circulate as a
guide for the moral conduct of man _in any country_.