6. That God hates the most of the race and has from eternity doomed
them to eternal woe.
And all this is the gospel of glad tidings!
Suppose we expose the delusion of eternal torments, what does man want
in its place? Does he need a smaller hell to taper off on, before
he can give up hell altogether? What does any one want in place of
infant damnation? And so also with witchcraft, polygamy, slavery,
and many other wrongs--must we have something to take their place? I
heard of a kid gloved dude, who put his finger into a bucket of water,
and after taking it out looked for the hole in the water. As well might
the poor fellow sick in the hospital ask the doctor, who promises to
cure him of the small pox, what he will give him in its stead. Does
he want the itch or measles in place of the small pox?
"How does the Freethinker come to know so much more than millions
of good and great men who for eighteen centuries have believed in
Christianity?"
(a) Here we have the old question of majorities.
Millions of good and great men once firmly believed in witchcraft.
Luther said: "I would have no compassion on these witches, I would
burn them all."