{
  "schema": "tga.work.v1",
  "identifier": "dresden:vol-2:myth-and-miracle",
  "slug": "myth-and-miracle",
  "title": "Myth and Miracle",
  "subtitle": "Happiness is the true end and aim of life.",
  "excerpt": "On the natural origin of the supernatural — how every miracle is a confession of ignorance and every god a record of what its makers did not yet understand.",
  "year": 1885,
  "volume": 2,
  "category": "Lecture",
  "author": {
    "name": "Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "wikidata": "Q360326",
    "viaf": "44331023"
  },
  "isPartOf": {
    "title": "The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll",
    "edition": "Dresden Edition",
    "publisher": "C. P. Farrell",
    "year": 1900
  },
  "license": "https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/",
  "url": "https://thegreatagnostic.com/works/myth-and-miracle/",
  "wordCount": 11199,
  "body": "HAPPINESS is the true end and aim of life. It is the task of\nintelligence to ascertain the conditions of happiness, and when found\nthe truly wise will live in accordance with them. By happiness is meant\nnot simply the joy of eating and drinking—the gratification of the\nappetite—but good, wellbeing, in the highest and noblest forms. The joy\nthat springs from obligation discharged, from duty done, from generous\nacts, from being true to the ideal, from a perception of the beautiful\nin nature, art and conduct. The happiness that is born of and gives\nbirth to poetry and music, that follows the gratification of the highest\nwants.\n\nHappiness is the result of all that is really right and sane.\n\nBut there are many people who regard the desire to be happy as a very\nlow and degrading ambition. These people call themselves spiritual. They\npretend to care nothing for the pleasures of \"sense.\" They hold this\nworld, this life, in contempt. They do not want happiness in this\nworld—but in another. Here, happiness degrades—there, it purifies and\nennobles.\n\nThese spiritual people have been known as prophets, apostles, augurs,\nhermits, monks, priests, popes, bishops and parsons. They are devout and\nuseless. They do not cultivate the soil. They produce nothing. They\nlive on the labor of others. They are pious and parasitic. They pray\nfor others, if the others will work for them. They claim to have been\nselected by the Infinite to instruct and govern mankind. They are \"meek\"\nand arrogant, \"long-suffering\" and revengeful.\n\nThey ever have been, now are, and always will be the enemies of liberty,\nof investigation and science. They are believers in the supernatural,\nthe miraculous and the absurd. They have filled the world with hatred,\nbigotry and fear. In defence of their creeds they have committed every\ncrime and practiced every cruelty.\n\nThey denounce as worldly and sensual those who are gross enough to love\nwives and children, to build homes, to fell the forests, to navigate the\nseas, to cultivate the earth, to chisel statues, to paint pictures and\nfill the world with love and art.\n\nThey have denounced and maligned the thinkers, the poets, the\ndramatists, the composers, the actors, the orators, the workers—those\nwho have conquered the world for man.\n\nAccording to them this world is only the vestibule of the next, a kind\nof school, an ordeal, a place of probation. They have always insisted\nthat this life should be spent in preparing for the next; that those\nwho supported and obeyed the \"spiritual guides\"—the shepherds, would\nbe rewarded with an eternity of joy, and that all others would suffer\neternal pain.\n\nThese spiritual people have always hated labor. They have added nothing\nto the wealth of the world. They have always lived on alms—on the labor\nof others. They have always been the enemies of innocent pleasure, and\nof human love.\n\nThese spiritual people have produced a literature. The books they have\nwritten are called sacred. Our sacred books are called the Bible.\nThe Hindoos have the Vedas and many others, the Persians the Zend\nAvesta—the Egyptians had the Book of the Dead—the Aztecs the Popol\nVuh, and the Mohammedans have the Koran.\n\nThese books, for the most part, treat of the unknowable. They describe\ngods and winged phantoms of the air. They give accounts of the origin\nof the universe, the creation of man and the worlds beyond this. They\ncontain nothing of value. Millions and millions of people have wasted\ntheir lives studying these absurd and ignorant books.\n\nThe \"spiritual people\" in each country claimed that their books had been\nwritten by inspired men—that God was the real author, and that all men\nand women who denied this would be, after death, tormented forever.\n\nAnd yet, the worldly people, the uninspired, the wicked, have produced a\nfar greater literature than the spiritual and the inspired.\n\nNot all the sacred books of the world equal Shakespeare's \"volume of\nthe brain.\" A purer philosophy, grander, nobler, fell from the lips of\nShakespeare's clowns than the Old Testament, or the New, contains.\n\nThe Declaration of Independence is nobler far than all the utterances\nfrom Sinai's cloud and flame. \"A Man's a Man for a' That,\" by Robert\nBurns, is better than anything the sacred books contain. For my part, I\nwould rather hear Beethoven's Sixth Symphony than to read the five books\nof Moses. Give me the Sixth Symphony—this sound-wrought picture of\nthe fields and woods, of flowering hedge and happy home, where thrushes\nbuild and swallows fly, and mothers sing to babes; this echo of the\nbabbled lullaby of brooks that, dallying, wind and fall where meadows\nbare their daisied bosoms to the sun; this joyous mimicry of summer\nrain, the laugh of children, and the rhythmic rustle of the whispering\nleaves; this strophe of peasant life; this perfect poem of content and\nlove.\n\nI would rather listen to Tristan and Isolde—that Mississippi of\nmelody—where the great notes, winged like eagles, lift the soul above\nthe cares and griefs of this weary world—than to all the orthodox\nsermons ever preached. I would rather look at the Venus de Milo than to\nread the Presbyterian creed.\n\nThe spiritual have endeavored to civilize the world through fear and\nfaith—by the promise of reward and the threat of pain in other worlds.\nThey taught men to hate and persecute their fellow-men. In all ages they\nhave appealed to force. During all the years they have practiced fraud.\nThey have pretended to have influence with the gods—that their prayers\ngave rain, sunshine and harvest—that their curses brought pestilence\nand famine, and that their blessings filled the world with plenty. They\nhave subsisted on the fears their falsehoods created. Like poisonous\nvines, they have lived on the oak of labor. They have praised charity,\nbut they never gave. They have denounced revenge, but they never\nforgave.\n\nWhenever the spiritual have had power, art has died, learning has\nlanguished, science has been despised, liberty destroyed, the thinkers\nhave been imprisoned, the intelligent and honest have been outcasts, and\nthe brave have been murdered.\n\nThe \"spiritual\" have been, are, and always will be the enemies of the\nhuman race.\n\nFor all the blessings that we now enjoy—for progress in every form, for\nscience and art—for all that has lengthened life, that has conquered\ndisease, that has lessened pain, for raiment, roof and food, for music\nin its highest forms—for the poetry that has ennobled and enriched our\nlives—for the marvellous machines now working for the world—for all\nthis we are indebted to the worldly—to those who turned their attention\nto the affairs of this life. They have been the only benefactors of our\nrace.\n\nII.\n\nAND yet all of these religions—these \"sacred books,\" these priests,\nhave been naturally produced. From the dens and caves of savagery to\nthe palaces of civilization men have traveled by the necessary paths and\nroads. Back of every step has been the efficient cause. In the history\nof the world there has been no chance, no interference from without,\nnothing miraculous. Everything in accordance with and produced by the\nfacts in nature.\n\nWe need not blame the hypocritical and cruel. They thought and acted as\nthey were compelled to think and act.\n\nIn all ages man has tried to account for himself and his surroundings.\nHe did the best he could. He wondered why the water ran, why the trees\ngrew, why the clouds floated, why the stars shone, why the sun and moon\njourneyed through the heavens. He was troubled about life and death,\nabout darkness and dreams. The seas, the volcanoes, the lightning and\nthunder, the earthquake and cyclone, filled him with fear. Behind all\nlife and growth and motion, and even inanimate things, he placed\na spirit—an intelligent being—a fetich, a person, something like\nhimself—a god, controlled by love and hate. To him causes and effects\nbecame gods—supernatural beings. The Dawn was a maiden, wondrously\nfair, the Sun, a warrior and lover; the Night, a serpent, a wolf—the\nWind, a musician; Winter, a wild beast; Autumn, Proserpine gathering\nflowers.\n\nPoets were the makers of these myths. They were the first to account for\nwhat they saw and felt. The great multitude mistook these fancies\nfor facts. Myths strangely alike, were produced by most nations, and\ngradually took possession of the world.\n\nThe Sleeping Beauty, a myth of the year, has been found among most\npeoples. In this myth, the Earth was a maiden—the Sun was her lover,\nShe had fallen asleep in winter. Her blood was still and her breath had\ngone. In the Spring the lover came, clasped her in his arms, covered her\nlips and cheeks with kisses. She was thrilled, her heart began to beat,\nshe breathed, her blood flowed, and she awoke to love and joy. This myth\nhas made the circuit of the globe.\n\nSo, Red Riding-Hood is the history of a day. Little Red Riding-Hood—the\nmorning, touched with red, goes to visit her kindred, a day that is\npast. She is attacked by the wolf of night and is rescued by the hunter,\nApollo, who pierces the heart of the beast with an arrow of light.\n\nThe beautiful myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is the story of the year.\nEurydice has been captured and carried to the infernal world. Orpheus,\nplaying upon his harp, goes after her. Such is the effect of his music\nwhen he reaches the realm of Pluto, the laughterless, that Tantalus\nceases his efforts to slake his thirst. He listens and forgets his\nwithered lips, the daughters of the Danaides cease their vain efforts\nto fill the sieve with water, Sisyphus sits down on the stone that he\nso often had heaved against the mountain's misty side, Ixion pauses\nupon his wheel of fire, even Pluto smiles, and for the first time in the\nhistory of hell the cheeks of the Furies are wet with tears.\n\n\"Give me back Eurydice,\" cried Orpheus, and Pluto said: \"Take her, but\nlook not back.\" Orpheus led the way and Eurydice followed. Just as he\nreached the upper world, he missed her footsteps, turned, looked, and\nshe vanished.\n\nAnd thus the summer comes, is lost, and comes again through all the\nyears.\n\nSo, our ancestors believed in the Garden of Eden, in the Golden Age, in\nthe blessed time when all were good and pure—when nature satisfied the\nwants of all. The race, like the old man, has golden dreams of youth.\nThe morning was filled with light and life and joy, and the evening is\nalways sad. When the old man was young, girls were beautiful and men\nwere honest. He remembers his Eden. And so the whole world has had its\nage of gold.\n\nOur fathers were believers in the Elysian Fields. They were in the far,\nfar West. They saw them at the setting of the sun. They saw the floating\nisles of gold in sapphire seas; the templed mist with spires and domes\nof emerald and amethyst; the magic caverns of the clouds, resplendent\nwith the rays of every gem. And as they looked, they thought the curtain\nhad been drawn aside and that their eyes had for a moment feasted on the\nglories of another world.\n\nThe myth of the Flood has also been universal. Finding shells of the\nseas on plain and mountain, and everywhere some traces of the waves,\nthey thought the world had been submerged—that God in wrath had drowned\nthe race, except a few his mercy saved.\n\nThe Hindus say that Menu, a holy man, dipped from the Ganges some water,\nand in the basin saw a little fish. The fish begged him to throw him\nback into the river, and Menu, having pity, cast him back. The fish then\ntold Menu that there was to be a flood—told him to build an ark, to\ntake on board, people, animals and food, and that when the flood came,\nhe, the fish, would save him. The saint did as he was told, the flood\ncame, the fish returned. By that time he had grown to be a whale with\na horn in his head. About this horn Menu fastened a rope, attached the\nother end to the ark, and the fish towed the boat across the raging\nwaves to a mountain's top, where it rested until the waters subsided.\nThe name of this wonderful fish was Matsaya.\n\nMany other nations told similar stories of floods and arks and the\nsending forth of doves.\n\nIn all these myths and legends of the past we find philosophies and\ndreams and efforts, stained with tears, of great and tender souls who\ntried to pierce the mysteries of life and death, to answer the questions\nof the whence and whither, and who vainly sought with bits of shattered\nglass to make a mirror that would in very truth reflect the face and\nform of Nature's perfect self. These myths were born of hopes and fears,\nof tears and smiles, and they were touched and colored by all there is\nof joy and grief between the rosy dawn of birth and death's sad night.\nThey clothed even the stars with passion, and gave to gods the faults\nand frailties of the sons of men. In them the winds and waves were\nmusic, and all the springs, the mountains, woods and perfumed dells were\nhaunted by a thousand fairy forms. They thrilled the veins of Spring\nwith tremulous desire, made tawny Summer's billowy breast the throne and\nhome of love, filled Autumn's arms with sun-kissed grapes and gathered\nsheaves, and pictured Winter as a weak old king, who felt, like Lear,\nupon his withered face, Cordelia's tears.\n\nThese myths, though false in fact, are beautiful and true in thought,\nand have for many ages and in countless ways enriched the heart and\nkindled thought.\n\nIii\n\nIN all probability the first religion was Sun-worship. Nothing could\nhave been more natural. Light was life and warmth and love. The sun\nwas the fireside of the world. The sun was the \"all-seeing\"—the \"Sky\nFather.\" Darkness was grief and death, and in the shadows crawled the\nserpents of despair and fear.\n\nThe sun was a great warrior, fighting the hosts of Night. Apollo was\nthe sun, and he fought and conquered the serpent of Night. Agni, the\ngenerous, who loved the lowliest and visited the humblest, was the sun.\nHe was the god of fire, and the crossed sticks that by friction leaped\ninto flame were his emblem. It was said that, in spite of his goodness,\nhe devoured his father and mother, the two pieces of wood being his\nparents. Baldur was the sun. He was in love with the Dawn—a maiden—he\ndeserted her and traveled through the heavens alone. At the twilight\nthey met, were reconciled, and the drops of dew were the tears of joy\nthey shed.\n\nChrishna was the sun. At his birth the Ganges thrilled from its source\nto the sea. All the trees, the dead as well as the living, burst into\nleaf and bud and flower.\n\nHercules was a sun-god.\n\nJonah the same, rescued from the fiends of Night and carried by the fish\nthrough the under world. Samson was a sun-god. His strength was in\nhis hair—in his beams. He was shorn of his strength by Delilah, the\nshadow—the darkness. So, Osiris, Bacchus, Mithra, Hermes, Buddha,\nQuelzalcoatle, Prometheus, Zoroaster, Perseus, Codom Lao-tsze Fo-hi,\nHorus and Rameses were all sun-gods.\n\nAll these gods had gods for fathers and all their mothers were virgins.\n\nThe births of nearly all were announced by stars.\n\nWhen they were born there was celestial music—voices declared that a\nblessing had come upon the earth.\n\nWhen Buddha was born, the celestial choir sang: \"This day is born\nfor the good of men Buddha, and to dispel the darkness of their\nignorance—to give joy and peace to the world.\"\n\nChrishna was born in a cave, and protected by shepherds. Bacchus,\nApollo, Mithra and Hermes were all born in caves. Buddha was born in an\ninn—according to some, under a tree.\n\nTyrants sought to kill all of these gods when they were babes.\n\nWhen Chrishna was born, a tyrant killed the babes of the neighborhood.\n\nBuddha was the child of Maya, a virgin, in the kingdom of Madura. The\nking arrested Maya before the child was born, imprisoned her in a tower.\nDuring the night when the child was born, a great wind wrecked the\ntower, and carried mother and child to a place of safety. The next\nmorning the king sent his soldiers to kill the babes, and when they came\nto Buddha and his mother, the babe appeared to be about twelve years of\nage, and the soldiers passed on.\n\nSo Typhon sought in many ways to destroy the babe Horus. The king\npursued the infant Zoroaster. Cadmus tried to kill the infant Bacchus.\n\nAll of these gods were born on the 25th of December.\n\nNearly all were worshiped by \"wise men.\"\n\nAll of them fasted for forty days.\n\nAll met with a violent death.\n\nAll rose from the dead.\n\nThe history of these gods is the history of our Christ. He had a god for\na father, a virgin for a mother. He was born in a manger, or a cave—on\nthe 2 5th of December. His birth was announced by angels. He was\nworshiped by wise men, guided by a star. Herod, seeking his life, caused\nthe death of many babes. Christ fasted for forty days. So, it rained for\nforty days before the flood—Moses was on Mt. Sinai for forty days. The\ntemple had forty pillars and the Jews wandered in the wilderness for\nforty years. Christ met with a violent death, and rose from the dead.\n\nThese things are not accidents—not coincidences. Christ was a sun-god.\nAll religions have been born of sun-worship. To-day, when priests\npray, they shut their eyes. This is a survival of sun-worship. When men\nworshiped the sun, they had to shut their eyes. Afterwards, to flatter\nidols, they pretended that the glory of their faces was more than the\neyes could bear.\n\nIn the religion of our day there is nothing original. All of its\ndoctrines, its symbols and ceremonies are but the survivals of creeds\nthat perished long ago. Baptism is far older than Christianity—than\nJudaism. The Hindus, the Egyptians, the Greeks and Romans had holy\nwater. The eucharist was borrowed from the Pagans. Ceres was the goddess\nof the fields, Bacchus the god of the vine. At the harvest festival they\nmade cakes of wheat and said: \"These are the flesh of the goddess.\" They\ndrank wine and cried: \"This is the blood of our god.\"\n\nThe cross has been a symbol for many thousands of years. It was a symbol\nof immortality—of life, of the god Agni, the form of the grave of a\nman. An ancient people of Italy, who lived long before the Romans, long\nbefore the Etruscans, so long that not one word of their language is\nknown, used the cross, and beneath that emblem, carved on stone, their\ndead still rest. In the forests of Central America, ruined temples have\nbeen found, and on the walls the cross with the bleeding victim. On\nBabylonian cylinders is the impression of the cross. The Trinity came\nfrom Egypt. Osiris, Isis and Horus were worshiped thousands of years\nbefore our Father, Son and Holy Ghost were thought of. So the Tree of\nLife grew in India, China and among the Aztecs long before the Garden\nof Eden was planted. Long before our Bible was known, other nations\nhad their sacred books, temples and altars, sacrifices, ceremonies and\npriests. The \"Fall of Man\" is far older than our religion, and so are\nthe \"Atonement\" and the Scheme of Redemption.\n\nIn our blessed religion there is nothing new, nothing original.\n\nAmong the Egyptians the cross was a symbol of the life to come. And\nyet the first religion was, and all religions growing out of that, were\nnaturally produced. Every brain was a field in which Nature sowed the\nseeds of thought. The rise and set of sun, the birth and death of day,\nthe dawns of silver and the dusks of gold, the wonders of the rain and\nsnow, the shroud of Winter and the many colored robe of Spring, the\nlonely moon with nightly loss or gain, the serpent lightning and the\nthunder's voice, the tempest's fury and the zephyr's sigh, the threat\nof storm and promise of the bow, cathedral clouds with dome and spire,\nearthquake and strange eclipse, frost and fire, the snow-crowned\nmountains with their tongues of flame, the fields of space sown thick\nwith stars, the wandering comets hurrying past the fixed and sleepless\nsentinels of night, the marvels of the earth and air, the perfumed\nflower, the painted wing, the waveless pool that held within its magic\nbreast the image of the startled face, the mimic echo that made a record\nin the viewless air, the pathless forests and the boundless seas,\nthe ebb and flow of tides—the slow, deep breathing of some vague and\nmonstrous life—the miracle of birth, the mystery of dream and death,\nand over all the silent and immeasurable dome. These were the warp and\nwoof, and at the loom sat Love and Fancy, Hope and Fear, and wove the\nwondrous tapestries whereon we find pictures of gods and fairy lands\nand all the legends that were told when Nature rocked the cradle of the\ninfant world.\n\nIV.\n\nWE must remember that there is a great difference. Myth is the\nidealization of a fact. A miracle is the counterfeit of a fact. There is\nthe same difference between a myth and a miracle that there is between\nfiction and falsehood—between poetry and perjury. Miracles belong to\nthe far past and the far future. The little line of sand, called the\npresent, between the seas, belongs to common sense, to the natural.\n\nIf you should tell a man that the dead were raised two thousand years\nago, he would probably say: \"Yes, I know that.\" If you should say that\na hundred thousand years from now all the dead will be raised, he might\nsay: \"Probably they will.\" But if you should tell him that you saw a\ndead man raised and given life that day, he would likely ask the name of\nthe insane asylum from which you had escaped.\n\nOur Bible is filled with accounts of miracles and yet they always fail\nto convince.\n\nJehovah, according to the Scriptures, wrought hundreds of miracles for\nthe benefit of the Jews. With many miracles he rescued them from\nslavery, guided them on their journey with a miraculous cloud by day and\na miraculous pillar of fire by night—divided the sea that they might\nescape from the Egyptians, fed them with miraculous manna and\nsupernatural quails, raised up hornets to attack their enemies, caused\nwater to follow them wherever they wandered and in countless ways\nmanifested his power, and yet the Jews cared nothing for these wonders.\nNot one of them seems to have been convinced that Jehovah had done\nanything for the people.\n\nIn spite of all these miracles, the Jews had more confidence in a golden\ncalf, made by themselves, than in Jehovah. The reason of this is, that\nthe miracles were never performed, and never invented until hundreds of\nyears after those, who had wandered over the desert of Sinai, were dust.\n\nThe miracles attributed to Christ had no effect. No human being seems to\nhave been convinced by them. Those whom he raised from the dead, cured\nof leprosy, or blindness, failed to become his followers. Not one of\nthem appeared at his trial. Not one offered to bear witness of his\nmiraculous power.\n\nTo this there is but one explanation: The miracles were never performed.\nThese stories were the growth of centuries. The casting out of devils,\nthe changing of water into wine, feeding the multitude with a few loaves\nand fishes, resisting the devil, using a fish for a pocketbook, curing\nthe blind with clay and saliva, stilling the tempest, walking on the\nwater, the resurrection and ascension, happened and only happened, in\nthe imaginations of men, who were not born until several generations\nafter Christ was dead.\n\nIn those days the world was filled with ignorance and fear. Miracles\nhappened every day. The supernatural was expected. Gods were continually\ninterfering with the affairs of this world. Everything was told\nexcept the truth, everything believed except the facts. History was a\ncircumstantial account of occurrences that never occurred. Devils and\ngoblins and ghosts were as plentiful as saints. The bones of the dead\nwere used to cure the living. Cemeteries were hospitals and corpses were\nphysicians. The saints practiced magic, the pious communed with God in\ndreams, and the course of events was changed by prayer. The credulous\ndemanded the marvelous, the miraculous, and the priests supplied the\ndemand. The sky was full of signs, omens of death and disaster, and the\ndarkness thick with devils endeavoring to mislead and enslave the souls\nof men.\n\nOur fathers thought that everything had been made for man, and that\ndemons and gods gave their entire attention to this world. The people\nbelieved that they were the sport and prey, the favorites or victims, of\nthese phantoms. And they also believed that the Creator, the God, could\nbe influenced by sacrifice, by prayers and ceremonies.\n\nThis has been the mistake of the world. All the temples have been\nreared, all the altars erected, all the sacrifices offered, all the\nprayers uttered in vain. No god has interfered, no prayer has been\nanswered, no help received from heaven. Nothing was created, nothing has\nhappened for, or with reference to man. If not a human being lived,—if\nall Were in' their graves, the sun would continue to shine, the wheeling\nworld would still pursue its flight, violets would spread their velvet\nbosoms to the day, the spendthrift roses give their perfume to the air,\nthe climbing vines would hide with leaf and flower the fallen and the\ndead, the changing seasons would come-and go,-time would repeat the poem\nof the year, storms would wreck and whispering rains repair, Spring\nwith deft and unseen hands would weave her robes of green, life with\ncountless lips would seek fair Summer's swelling breasts, Autumn would\nreap the wealth of leaf and fruit and seed, Winter, the artist, would\netch in frost the pines and ferns, while Wind and Wave and Fire, old\narchitects, with ceaseless toil would still destroy and build, still\nwreck and change, and from the dust of death produce again the throb and\nbreath of life.\n\nV.\n\nA FEW years ago a few men began to think, to investigate, to reason.\nThey began to doubt the legends of the church, the miracles of the past.\nThey began to notice what happened. They found that eclipses came at\ncertain intervals and that their coming could be foretold. They became\nsatisfied that the conduct of men had nothing to do with eclipses—and\nthat the stars moved in their orbits unconscious of the sons of men.\nGalileo, Copernicus, and Kepler' destroyed the astronomy of the Bible,\nand demonstrated that the \"inspired\" story of creation could not be\ntrue, and that the church was as ignorant as the priests were dishonest.\n\nThey found that the myth-makers were mistaken, that the sun and stars\ndid not revolve about the earth, that the firmament was not solid,\nthat the earth was not flat, and that the so-called philosophy of the\ntheologians was absurd and idiotic.\n\nThe stars became witnesses against the creeds of superstition.\n\nWith the telescope the heavens were explored. The New Jerusalem could\nnot be found.\n\nIt had faded away.\n\nThe church persecuted the astronomers and denied the facts. In\nFebruary, in the year of grace sixteen hundred, the Catholic Church, the\n\"Triumphant Beast,\" having in her hands, her paws, the keys of heaven\nand hell, accused Giordano Bruno of having declared that there were\nother worlds than this. He was tried, convicted, imprisoned in a dungeon\nfor seven years. He was offered his liberty if he would recant. Bruno,\nthe atheist, the philosopher, refused to stain his soul by denying what\nhe believed to be true. He was taken from his cell by the priests, by\nthose who loved their enemies, led to the place of execution. He was\nclad in a robe on which representations of devils had been painted—the\ndevils that were soon to claim his soul. He was chained to a stake and\nabout his body the wood was piled. Then priests, followers of Christ,\nlighted the fagots and flames consumed the greatest, the most perfect\nmartyr, that ever suffered death.\n\nAnd yet the Italian agent of God, the infallible Leo XIII., only a few\nyears ago, denounced Bruno, the \"bravest of the brave,\" as a coward.\n\nThe church murdered him, and the pope maligned his memory. Fagot and\nfalsehood—two weapons of the church.\n\nA little while ago a few men began to examine rocks and soils,\nmountains, islands, reefs and seas. They noticed the valleys and deltas\nthat had been formed by rivers, the many strata of lava that had been\nchanged to soil, the vast deposits of metals and coal, the immense reefs\nthat the coral had formed, the work of glaciers in the far past, the\nproduction of soil by the disintegration of rock, by the growth and\ndecay of vegetation and the countless evidences of the countless ages\nthrough which the Earth has passed. The geologists read the history\nof the world written by wave and flame, attested by fossils, by the\nformation of rocks, by mountain ranges, by volcanoes, by rivers,\nislands, continents and seas.\n\nThe geology of the Bible—of the \"divinely inspired\" church, of the\n\"infallible\" pope, was found to be utterly false and foolish.\n\nThe Earth became a witness against the creeds of superstition.\n\nThen came Watt and Galvani with the miracles of steam and electricity,\nwhile countless inventors created the wonderful machines that do the\nwork of the world. Investigation took the place of credulity. Men became\ndissatisfied with huts and rags, with crusts and creeds. They longed for\nthe comforts, the luxuries of life. The intellectual horizon enlarged,\nnew truths were discovered, old ideas were thrown aside, the brain was\ndeveloped, the heart civilized and science was born. Humboldt, Laplace\nand hundreds of others explained the phenomena of nature, called\nattention to the ancient and venerable mistakes of sanctified ignorance\nand added to the sum of knowledge. Darwin and Haeckel gave their\nconclusions to the world. Men began to really think, the myths began\nto fade, the miracles to grow mean and small, and the great structure,\nknown as theology, fell with a crash.\n\nScience denies the truth of myth and miracle, denies that human\ntestimony can substantiate the miraculous, denies the existence of the\nsupernatural. Science asserts the absolute, the unvarying uniformity\nof nature. Science insists that the present is the child of all the\npast,—that no power can change the past, and that nature is forever the\nsame.\n\nThe chemist has found that just so many atoms of one kind unite with\njust so many of another—no more, no less, always the same. No caprice\nin chemistry; no interference from without.\n\nThe astronomers know that the planets remain in their orbits—that their\nforces are constant. They know that light is forever the same,\nalways obeying the angle of incidence, traveling with the same\nrapidity,—casting the same shadow, under the same circumstances in\nall worlds. They know that the eclipses will occur at the times\nforetold—neither hastening nor delaying. They know that the attraction\nof gravitation is always the same, always in perfect proportion to mass\nand distance, neither weaker nor stronger, unvarying forever. They know\nthat the facts in nature cannot be changed or destroyed, and that the\nqualities of all things are eternal.\n\nThe men of science know that the atomic integrity of the metals is\nalways the same, that each metal is true to its nature and that the\nparticles cling to each other with the same tenacity,—the same force.\nThey have demonstrated the persistence of force, that it is forever\nactive, forever the same, and that it cannot be destroyed.\n\nThese great truths have revolutionized the thought of the world.\n\nEvery art, every employment, all study, all experiment, the value of\nexperience, of judgment, of hope, all rest on a belief in the uniformity\nof nature, on the eternal persistence and indestructibility of force.\n\nBreak one link in the infinite chain of cause and effect, and the Master\nof Nature appears. The broken link would become the throne of a god.\n\nThe uniformity of Nature denies the supernatural and demonstrates that\nthere is no interference from without. There is no place, no office left\nfor gods. Ghosts fade from the brain and the shrivelled deities fall\npalsied from their thrones.\n\nThe uniformity of Nature renders a belief in \"special providence\"\nimpossible. Prayer becomes a useless agitation of the air, and religious\nceremonies are but motions, pantomimes, mindless and meaningless.\n\nThe naked savage, worshiping a wooden god, is the religious equal of the\nrobed pope kneeling before an image of the Virgin. The poor African who\ncarries roots and bark to protect himself from evil spirits is on the\nsame intellectual plane of one who sprinkles his body with \"holy water.\"\n\nAll the creeds of Christendom, all the religions of the heathen world\nare equally absurd. The cathedral, the mosque and the joss house have\nthe same foundation. Their builders do not believe in the uniformity\nof Nature, and the business of all priests is to induce a so-called\ninfinite being to change the order of events, to make causes barren of\neffects and to produce effects without, and in spite of, natural causes.\nThey all believe in the unthinkable and pray for the impossible.\n\nScience teaches us that there was no creation and that there can be no\ndestruction. The infinite denies creation and defies destruction. An\ninfinite person, an \"infinite being\" is an infinite impossibility.\nTo conceive of such a being is beyond the power of the mind. Yet all\nreligions rest upon the supposed existence of the unthinkable, the\ninconceivable. And the priests of these religions pretend to be\nperfectly familiar with the designs, will, and wishes of this\nunthinkable, this inconceivable.\n\nScience teaches that that which really is has always been, that behind\nevery effect is the efficient and necessary cause, that there is in the\nuniverse neither chance nor interference, and that energy is eternal.\nDay by day the authority of the theologian grows weaker and weaker. As\nthe people become intelligent they care less for preachers and more for\nteachers. Their confidence in knowledge, in thought and investigation\nincreases. They are eager to know the discoveries, the useful truths,\nthe important facts made, ascertained and demonstrated by the explorers\nin the domain of the natural. They are no longer satisfied with the\nplatitudes of the pulpit, and the assertions of theologians. They are\nlosing confidence in the \"sacred Scriptures\" and in the protecting power\nand goodness of the supernatural. They are satisfied that credulity is\nnot a virtue and that investigation is not a crime.\n\nScience is the providence of man, the worker of true miracles, of\nreal wonders. Science has \"read a little in Nature's infinite book of\nsecrecy.\" Science knows the circuits of the winds, the courses of the\nstars. Fire is his servant, and lightning his messenger. Science freed\nthe slaves and gave liberty to their masters. Science taught man to\nenchain, not his fellows, but the forces of nature, forces that have no\nbacks to be scarred, no limbs for chains to chill and eat, forces that\nhave no hearts to break, forces that never know fatigue, forces that\nshed no tears. Science is the great physician. His touch has given\nsight. He has made the lame to leap, the deaf to hear, the dumb to\nspeak, and in the pallid face his hand has set the rose of health.\nScience has given his beloved sleep and wrapped in happy dreams the\nthrobbing nerves of pain. Science is the destroyer of disease, builder\nof happy homes, the preserver of life and love. Science is the teacher\nof every virtue, the enemy of every vice. Science has given the true\nbasis of morals, the origin and office of conscience, revealed the\nnature of obligation, of duty, of virtue in its highest, noblest forms,\nand has demonstrated that true happiness is the only possible good.\nScience has slain the monsters of superstition, and destroyed the\nauthority of inspired books. Science has read the records of the rocks,\nrecords that priestcraft cannot change, and on his wondrous scales has\nweighed the atom and the star.\n\nScience has founded the only true religion. Science is the only Savior\nof this world.\n\nVI.\n\nFOR many ages religion has been tried. For countless centuries man\nhas sought for help from heaven. To soften the heart of God, mothers\nsacrificed their babes! but the God did not hear, did not see, and did\nnot help. Naked savages were devoured by beasts, bitten by serpents,\nkilled by flood and frost. They prayed for help, but their God was\ndeaf. They built temples and altars, employed priests and gave of their\nsubstance, but the volcano destroyed and the famine came. For the sake\nof God millions murdered their fellow-men, but the God was silent.\nMillions of martyrs died for the honor of God, but the God was blind. He\ndid not see the flames, the scaffolds. He did not hear the prayers,\nthe groans. Thousands of priests in the name of God tortured their\nfellow-men, stretched them on racks, crushed their feet in iron boots,\ntore out their tongues, extinguished their eyes. The victims implored\nthe protection of God, but their god did not hear, did not see. He\nwas deaf and blind. He was willing that his enemies should torture his\nfriends.\n\nNations tried to destroy each other for the sake of God, and the banner\nof the cross dripping with blood floated over a thousand fields—but the\ngod was silent. He neither knew nor cared. Pestilence covered the earth\nwith dead, the priests prayed, the altars were heaped with sacrifices,\nbut the god did not see, did not hear. The miseries of the world did\nnot lessen the joys of heaven. The clouds gave no rain, the famine came,\nwithered babes with pallid lips sought the breasts of dead mothers,\nwhile starving fathers knelt and prayed, but the god did not hear.\nThrough many centuries millions were enslaved, babes were sold from\nmothers, husbands from wives, backs were scarred with the lash. The\npoor wretches lifted their clasped hands toward heaven and prayed for\njustice, for liberty—but their god did not hear. He cared nothing for\nthe sufferings of slaves, nothing for the tears of wives and mothers,\nnothing for the agony of men. He answered no prayers. He broke no\nchains. He freed no slaves.\n\nThe miserable wretches appealed to the priests of God, but they were on\nthe other side. They defended the masters. The slaves had nothing to\ngive.\n\nDuring all these years it was claimed by the theologians that their\nGod was governing the world, that he was infinitely powerful, wise and\ngood—and that the \"powers\" of the earth were \"ordained\" by him. During\nall these years the church was the enemy of progress. It hated all\nphysicians and told the people to rely on prayer, amulets and relics.\nIt persecuted the astronomers and geologists, denounced them as infidels\nand atheists, as enemies of the human race. It poisoned the fountains of\nlearning and insisted that teachers should distort the facts in nature\nto the end that they might harmonize with the \"inspired\" book. During\nall these years the church misdirected the energies of man, and when it\nreached the zenith of its power, darkness fell upon the world.\n\nIn all nations and in all ages, religion has failed. The gods have never\ninterfered. Nature has produced and destroyed without mercy and without\nhatred. She has cared no more for man than for the leaves of the forest,\nno more for nations than for hills of ants, nothing for right or wrong,\nfor life or death, for pain or joy.\n\nMan through his intelligence must protect himself. He gets no help from\nany other world. The church has always claimed and still claims that\nit is the only reforming power, that it makes men honest, virtuous\nand merciful, that it prevents violence and war, and that without its\ninfluence the race would return to barbarism.\n\nNothing can exceed the absurdity of these claims.\n\nIf we wish to improve the condition of mankind—if we wish for nobler\nmen and women we must develop the brain, we must encourage thought\nand investigation. We must convince the world that credulity is\na vice,—that there is no virtue in believing without, or against\nevidence, and that the really honest man is true to himself. We must\nfill the world with intellectual light. We must applaud mental courage.\nWe must educate the children, rescue them from ignorance and crime.\nSchool-houses are the real temples, and teachers are the true priests.\nWe must supply the wants of the mind, satisfy the hunger of the brain.\nThe people should be familiar with the great poets, with the tragedies\nof AEschylus, the dramas of Shakespeare, with the poetry of Homer and\nVirgil. Shakespeare should be taught in every school, found in every\nhouse.\n\nThrough photography the whole world may become acquainted with the great\nstatues, the great paintings, the victories of art. In this way the mind\nis enlarged, the sympathies quickened, the appreciation of the beautiful\nintensified, the taste refined and the character ennobled.\n\nThe great novels should be read by all. All should be acquainted with\nthe men and women of fiction, with the ideal world. The imagination\nshould be developed, trained and strengthened. Superstition has degraded\nart and literature. It gave us winged monsters, scenes from heaven and\nhell, representations of gods and devils, sculptured the absurd and\npainted the impossible in the name of Art. It gave us the dreams of the\ninsane, the lives of fanatical saints, accounts of miracles and wonders,\nof cures wrought by the bones of the dead, descriptions of Paradise,\npurgatory and the eternal dungeon, discourses on baptism, on changing\nwine and wafers into the the blood and flesh of God, on the\nforgiveness of sins by priests, on fore-ordination and accountability,\npredestination and free will, on devils, ghosts and goblins, the\nministrations of guardian angels, the virtue of belief and the\nwickedness of doubt. And this was called \"sacred literature.\"\n\nThe church taught that those who believed, counted beads, mumbled\nprayers, and gave their time or property for the support of the gospel\nwere the good and that all others were traveling the \"broad road\" to\neternal pain. According to the theologians, the best people, the\nsaints, were dead, and real beauty was to be found only in heaven. They\ndenounced the joys of life as husks and filthy rags, declared that the\nworld had been cursed, and that it brought forth thistles and thorns\nbecause of the sins of man. They regarded the earth as a kind of dock,\nrunning out into the sea of eternity,—on which the pious waited for the\nship on which they were to be transported to another world.\n\nBut the real poets and the real artists clung to this world, to this\nlife. They described and represented things that exist. They expressed\nthoughts of the brain, emotions of the heart, the griefs and joys, the\nhope and despair of men and women. They found strength and beauty\non every hand. They found their angels here. They were true to human\nexperience and they touched the brain and heart of the world. In\nthe tragedies and comedies of life, in the smiles and tears, in the\necstasies of love, in the darkness of death, in the dawn of hope, they\nfound their materials for statue and song, for poem and painting. Poetry\nand art are the children of this world, born and nourished here. They\nare human. They have left the winged monsters of heaven, the malicious\ndeformities of hell, and have turned their attention to men and women,\nto the things of this life.\n\nThere is a poem called \"The Skylark,\" by Shelley, graceful as the\nmotions of flames. Another by Robert Burns, called \"The Daisy,\"\nexquisite, perfect as the pearl of virtue in the beautiful breast of a\nloving girl. Between this lark and this daisy, neither above nor below,\nyou will find all the poetry of the world. Eloquence, sublimity, poetry\nand art must have the foundation of fact, of reality. Imaginary worlds\nand beings are nothing to us.\n\nAt last the old creeds are becoming cruel and vulgar. We now have\nimagination enough to put ourselves in the place of others. Believers\nin hell, in eternal pain, like murderers, lack imagination. The murderer\nhas not imagination enough to see his victim dead. He does not see the\nsightless and pathetic eyes. He does not see the widow's arms about the\ncorpse, her lips upon the dead. He does not hear the sobs of children.\nHe does not see the funeral. He does not hear the clods as they fall on\nthe coffin. He does not feel the hand of arrest, the scene of the trial\nis not before him. He does not hear the awful verdict, the sentence of\nthe court, the last words. He does not see the scaffold, nor feel about\nhis throat the deadly noose.\n\nLet us develop the brain, civilize the heart, and give wings to the\nimagination.\n\nVii\n\nIF we abandon myth and miracle, if we discard the supernatural and the\nscheme of redemption, how are we to civilize the world?\n\nIs falsehood a reforming power? Is credulity the mother of virtue? Is\nthere any saving grace in the impossible and absurd? Did wisdom perish\nwith the dead? Must the civilized accept the religion of savages?\n\nIf we wish to reform the world we must rely on truth, on fact, on\nreason. We must teach men that they are good or bad for themselves, that\nothers cannot be good or bad for them, that they cannot be charged with\nthe crimes, or credited with the virtues of others. We must discard the\ndoctrine of the atonement, because it is absurd and immoral. We are not\naccountable for the sins of \"Adam\" and the virtues of Christ cannot be\ntransferred to us. There can be no vicarious virtue, no vicarious vice.\nWhy should the sufferings of the innocent atone for the crimes of the\nguilty. According to the doctrine of the atonement right and wrong do\nnot exist in the nature of things, but in the arbitrary will of the\nInfinite. This is a subversion of all ideas of justice and mercy.\n\nAn act is good, bad, or indifferent, according to its consequences. No\npower can step between an act and its natural consequences. A governor\nmay pardon the criminal, but the natural consequences of the crime\nremain untouched. A god may forgive, but the consequences of the\nact forgiven, are still the same. We must teach the world that the\nconsequences of a bad action cannot be avoided, that they are the\ninvisible police, the unseen avengers, that accept no gifts, that hear\nno prayers, that no cunning can deceive.\n\nWe do not need the forgiveness of gods, but of ourselves and the ones\nwe injure. Restitution without repentance is far better than repentance\nwithout restitution.\n\nWe know nothing of any god who rewards, punishes or forgives.\n\nWe must teach our fellow-men that honor comes from within, not from\nwithout, that honor must be earned, that it is not alms, that even an\ninfinite God could not enrich the beggar's palm with the gem of honor.\n\nTeach them also that happiness is the bud, the blossom and the fruit of\ngood and noble actions, that it is not the gift of any god; that it must\nbe earned by man—must be deserved.\n\nIn this world of ours there is no magic, no sleight-of-hand, by which\nconsequences can be made to punish the good and reward the bad.\n\nTeach men not to sacrifice this world for some other, but to turn their\nattention to the natural, to the affairs of this life. Teach them that\ntheology has no known foundation, that it was born of ignorance and\nfear, that it has hardened the heart, polluted the imagination and made\nfiends of men.\n\nTheology is not for this world. It is no part of real religion. It has\nnothing to do with goodness or virtue. Religion does not consist in\nworshiping gods, but in adding to the well-being, the happiness of man.\nNo human being knows whether any god exists or not, and all that has\nbeen said and written about \"our god,\" or the gods of other people, has\nno known fact for a foundation. Words without thoughts, clouds without\nrain.\n\nLet us put theology out of religion.\n\nChurch and state should be absolutely divorced. Priests pretend that\nthey have been selected by, and that they get their power from God.\nKings occupy their thrones in accordance with the will of God. The pope\ndeclares that he is the agent, the deputy of God and that by right\nhe should rule the world. All these pretentions and assertions are\nperfectly absurd and yet they are acknowledged and believed by millions.\nGet theology out of government and kings will descend from their\nthrones. All will admit that governments get their powers from the\nconsent of the governed, and that all persons in office are the servants\nof the people. Get theology out of government and chaplains will be\ndismissed from Legislatures, from Congress, from the army and navy. Get\ntheology out of government and people will be allowed to express their\nhonest thoughts about \"inspired books\" and superstitious creeds. Get\ntheology out of government and priests will no longer steal a seventh of\nour time. Get theology out of government and the clergy will soon\ntake their places with augurs and soothsayers, with necromancers and\nmedicine-men.\n\nGet theology out of education. Nothing should be taught in a school that\nsomebody does not know.\n\nThere are plenty of things to be learned about this world, about this\nlife. Every child should be taught to think, and that it is dangerous\nnot to think. Children should not be taught the absurdities, the\ncruelties and imbecilities of superstition. No church should be allowed\nto control the common school, and public money should not be divided\nbetween the hateful and warring sects. The public school should be\nsecular, and only the useful should be taught. Many of our colleges\nare under the control of churches. Presidents and professors are mostly\nministers of the gospel and the result is that all facts inconsistent\nwith the creeds are either suppressed or denied. Only those professors\nwho are naturally stupid or mentally dishonest can retain their places.\nThose who tell the truth, who teach the facts, are discharged.\n\nIn every college truth should be a welcome guest. Every professor\nshould be a finder, and every student a learner, of facts. Theology and\nintellectual dishonesty go together. The teacher of children should be\nintelligent and perfectly sincere.\n\nLet us get theology out of education.\n\nThe pious denounce the secular schools as godless. They should be. The\nsciences are all secular, all godless. Theology bears the same relation\nto science that the black art does to chemistry, that magic does to\nmathematics. It is something that cannot be taught, because it cannot\nbe known. It has no foundation in fact. It neither produces, nor accords\nwith, any image in the mind. It is not only unknowable but unthinkable.\nThrough hundreds and thousands of generations men have been discussing,\nwrangling and fighting about theology. No advance has been made. The\nrobed priest has only reached the point from which the savage tried to\nstart.\n\nWe know that theology always has and always will make enemies. It sows\nthe seeds of hatred in families and nations. It is selfish, cruel,\nrevengeful and malicious. It has heaven for the few and perdition\nfor the many. We now know that credulity is not a virtue and that\nintellectual courage is. We must stop rewarding hypocrisy and bigotry.\nWe must stop persecuting the thinkers, the investigators, the creators\nof light, the civilizers of the world.\n\nViii\n\nWILL the unknown, the mysteries of life and itiations of the mind,\nforever furnish food for superstition? Will the gods and ghosts perish\nor simply retreat before the advancing hosts of science, and continue to\ncrouch and lurk just beyond the horizon of the known? Will darkness\nforever be the womb and mother of the supernatural?\n\nA little while ago priests told peasants that the New Jerusalem, the\ncelestial city was just above the clouds. They said that its walls\nand domes and spires were just beyond the reach of human sight. The\ntelescope was invented and those who looked at the wilderness of stars,\nsaw no city, no throne. They said to the priests: \"Where is your New\nJerusalem?\" The priests cheerfully and confidently replied. \"It is just\nbeyond where you see.\"\n\nAt one time it was believed that a race of men existed \"with their heads\nbeneath their shoulders.\" Returning travelers from distant lands were\nasked about these wonderful people and all replied that they had not\nseen them. \"Oh,\" said the believers in the monsters, \"the men with heads\nbeneath their shoulders live in a country that you did not visit.\" And\nso the monsters lived and flourished until all the world was known. We\ncannot know the universe. We cannot travel infinite distances, and so,\nsomewhere in shoreless space there will always be room for gods and\nghosts, for heavens and hells. And so it may be that superstition will\nlive and linger until the world becomes intelligent enough to build upon\nthe foundation of the known, to keep the imagination within the domain\nof the probable, and to believe in the natural—_until the supernatural\nshall have been demonstrated_.\n\nSavages knew all about gods, about heavens and hells before they knew\nanything about the world in which they lived. They were perfectly\nfamiliar with evil spirits, with the invisible phantoms of the air, long\nbefore they had any true conception of themselves. So, they knew all\nabout the origin and destiny of the human race. They were absolutely\ncertain about the problems, the solution of which, philosophers know, is\nbeyond the limitations of the mind. They understood astrology, but not\nastronomy, knew something of magic, but nothing about chemistry. They\nwere wise only as to those things about which nothing can be known.\n\nThe poor Indian believed in the \"Great Spirit\" and saw \"design\" on every\nhand.—Trees were made that he might have bows and arrows, wood for his\nfire and bark for his wigwam—rivers and lakes to give him fish, wild\nbeasts and corn that he might have food, and the animals had skins that\nhe might have clothes.\n\nPrimitive peoples all reasoned in the same way, and modern Christians\nfollow their example. They knew but little of the world and thought that\nit had been made expressly for the use of man. They did not know that it\nwas mostly water, that vast regions were locked in eternal ice and that\nin most countries the conditions were unfavorable to human life. They\nknew nothing of the countless enemies of man that live unseen in water,\nfood and air. Back of the little good they knew they put gods and back\nof the evil, devils. They thought it of the greatest importance to gain\nthe good will of the gods, who alone could protect them from the devils.\nThose who worshiped these gods, offered sacrifices, and obeyed priests,\nwere considered loyal members of the tribe or community, and those who\nrefused to worship were regarded as enemies and traitors. The believers,\nin order to protect themselves from the anger of the gods, exiled or\ndestroyed the infidels.\n\nBelieving as they did, the course they pursued was natural. They\nnot only wished to protect themselves from disease and death, from\npestilence and famine in this world but the souls of their children from\neternal pain in the next. Their gods were savages who demanded flattery\nand worship not only, but the acceptance of a certain creed. As long\nas Christians believe in eternal punishment they will be the enemies of\nthose who investigate and contend for the authority of reason, of those\nwho demand evidence, who care nothing for the unsupported assertions of\nthe dead or the illogical inferences of the living.\n\nScience always has been, is, and always will be modest, thoughtful,\ntruthful. It has but one object: The ascertainment of truth. It has no\nprejudice, no hatred. It is in the realm of the intellect and cannot\nbe swayed or changed by passion. It does not try to please God, to gain\nheaven or avoid hell. It is for this world, for the use of man. It is\nperfectly candid. It does not try to conceal, but to reveal. It is the\nenemy of mystery, of pretence and canc. It does not ask people to be\nsolemn, but sensible. It calls for and insists on the use of all the\nsenses, of all the faculties of the mind. It does not pretend to be\n\"holy\" or \"inspired.\" It courts investigation, criticism and even\ndenial. It asks for the application of every test, for trial by every\nstandard. It knows nothing of blasphemy and does not ask for the\nimprisonment of those who ignorantly or knowingly deny the truth. The\ngood that springs from a knowledge of the truth is the only reward it\noffers, and the evil resulting from ignorance is the only punishment it\nthreatens. Its effort is to reform the world through intelligence.\n\nOn the other hand theology is, always has been, and always will be,\nignorant, arrogant, puerile and cruel. When the church had power,\nhypocrisy was crowned and honesty imprisoned. Fraud wore the tiara and\ntruth was a convict, Liberty was in chains, Theology has always sent the\nworst to heaven, the best to hell.\n\nLet me give you a scene from the day of judgment. Christ is upon\nhis throne, his secretary by his side. A soul appears. This is what\nhappens—\n\n\"What is your name?\"\n\nTorquemada.\n\n\"Were you a Christian?\"\n\nI was.\n\n\"Did you endeavor to convert your fellow-men?\"\n\nI did. I tried to convert them by persuasion, by preaching and praying\nand even by force.\n\n\"What did you do?\"\n\nI put the heretics in prison, in chains. I tore out their tongues, put\nout their eyes, crushed their bones, stretched them upon racks, roasted\ntheir feet, and if they remained obdurate I flayed them alive or burned\nthem at the stake.\n\n\"And did you do all this for my glory?\"\n\nYes, all for you. I wanted to save some, I wanted to protect the young\nand the weak minded.\n\n\"Did you believe the Bible, the miracles—that I was God, that I was\nborn of a virgin and kept money in the mouth of a fish?\"\n\nYes, I believed it all. My reason was the slave of faith.\n\n\"Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joys of thy\nLord. I was hungry and you gave me meat, naked and you clothed me..\"\nAnother soul arises.\n\n\"What is your name?\"\n\nGiordano Bruno.\n\n\"Were you a Christian?\"\n\nAt one time I was, but for many years I was a philosopher, a seeker\nafter truth.\n\n\"Did you seek to convert your fellow-men?\"\n\nNot to Christianity, but to the religion of reason. I tried to\ndevelop their minds, to free them from the slavery of ignorance and\nsuperstition. In my day the church taught the holiness of credulity—the\nvirtue of unquestioning obedience, and in your name tortured and\ndestroyed the intelligent and courageous. I did what I could to civilize\nthe world, to make men tolerant and merciful, to soften the hearts\nof priests, and banish torture from the world. I expressed my honest\nthoughts and walked in the light of reason.\n\n\"Did you believe the Bible, the miracles? Did you believe that I was\nGod, that I was born of a virgin and that I suffered myself to be killed\nby the Jews to appease the wrath of God—that is, of myself—so that God\ncould save the souls of a few?\"\n\n\"No, I did not. I did not believe that God was ever born into my world,\nor that God learned the trade of a carpenter, or that he 'increased\nin knowledge,' or that he cast devils out of men, or that his garments\ncould cure diseases, or that he allowed himself to be murdered, and in\nthe hour of death \"forsook\" himself. These things I did not and could\nnot believe. But I did all the good I could. I enlightened the ignorant,\ncomforted the afflicted, defended the innocent, divided even my poverty\nwith the poor, and did the best I could to increase the happiness of my\nfellow-men. I was a soldier in the army of progress.—I was arrested,\nimprisoned, tried and convicted by the church—by the 'Triumphant\nBeast.' I was burned at the stake by ignorant and heartless priests and\nmy ashes given to the winds.\"\n\nThen Christ, his face growing dark, his brows contracted with wrath,\nwith uplifted hands, with half averted face, cries or rather shrieks:\n\"Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the devil\nand his angels.\"\n\nThis is the justice of God—the mercy of the compassionate Christ.\nThis is the belief, the dream and hope of the orthodox theologian—\"the\nconsummation devoutly to be wished.\"\n\nTheology makes God a monster, a tyrant, a savage; makes man a servant,\na serf, a slave; promises heaven to the obedient, the meek, the\nfrightened, and threatens the self-reliant with the tortures of hell.\n\nIt denounces reason and appeals to the passions—to hope and fear.\nIt does not answer the arguments of those who attack, but resorts to\nsophistry, falsehood and slander. It is incapable of advancement. It\nkeeps its back to the sunrise, lives on myth and miracle, and guards\nwith a misers care the \"sacred\" superstitions of the past.\n\nIn the great struggle between the supernatural and the natural, between\ngods and men, we have passed midnight. All the forces of civilization,\nall the facts that have been found, all the truths that have been\ndiscovered are the allies of science—the enemies of the supernatural.\n\nWe need no myths, no miracles, no gods, no devils.\n\nIX.\n\nFOR thousands of generations the myths have been taught and the miracles\nbelieved. Every mother was a missionary and told with loving care the\nfalsehoods of \"faith\" to her babe. The poison of superstition was in the\nmother's milk. She was honest and affectionate and her character, her\ngoodness, her smiles and kisses, entered into, mingled with, and became\na part of the superstition that she taught. Fathers, friends and priests\nunited with the mothers, and the children thus taught, became the\nteachers of their children and so the creeds were kept alive.\n\nChildhood loves the romantic, the mysterious, the monstrous. It lives in\na world where cause has nothing to do with effect, where the fairy waves\nher hand and the prince appears. Where wish creates the thing desired\nand facts become the slaves of amulet and charm. The individual lives\nthe life of the race, and the child is charmed with what the race in its\ninfancy produced.\n\nThere seems to be the same difference between mistakes and facts\nthat there is between weeds and corn. Mistakes seem to take care of\nthemselves, while the facts have to be guarded with all possible care.\nFalsehoods like weeds flourish without care. Weeds care nothing for soil\nor rain. They not only ask no help but they almost defy destruction. In\nthe minds of children, superstitions, legends, myths and miracles find a\nnatural, and in most instances a lasting home. Thrown aside in manhood,\nforgotten or denied, in old age they oft return and linger to the end.\n\nThis in part accounts for the longevity of religious lies. Ministers\nwith clasped hands and uplifted eyes ask the man who is thinking for\nhimself how he can be wicked and heartless enough to attack the religion\nof his mother. This question is regarded by the clergy as unanswerable.\nOf course it is not to be asked by the missionaries, of the Hindus and\nthe Chinese. The heathen are expected to desert the religion of their\nmothers as Christ and his apostles deserted the religion of their\nmothers. It is right for Jews and heathen, but not for thinkers and\nphilosophers.\n\nA cannibal was about to kill a missionary for food.\n\nThe missionary objected and asked the cannibal how he could be so cruel\nand wicked.\n\nThe cannibal replied that he followed the example of his mother. \"My\nmother,\" said he, \"was good enough for me. Her religion is my religion.\nThe last time I saw her she was sitting, propped up against a tree,\neating cold missionary.\"\n\nBut now the mother argument has mostly lost its force, and men of mind\nare satisfied with nothing less than truth.\n\nThe phenomena of nature have been investigated and the supernatural has\nnot been found. The myths have faded from the imagination, and of them\nnothing remains but the poetic. The miraculous has become the absurd,\nthe impossible. Gods and phantoms have been driven from the earth and\nsky. We are living in a natural world.\n\nOur fathers, some of them, demanded the freedom of religion. We have\ntaken another step. We demand the Religion of Freedom.\n\nO Liberty, thou art the god of my idolatry! Thou art the only deity\nthat hateth bended knees. In thy vast and unwalled temple, beneath the\nroofless dome, star-gemmed and luminous with suns, thy worshipers stand\nerect! They do not cringe, or crawl, or bend their foreheads to the\nearth. The dust has never borne the impress of their lips. Upon thy\naltars mothers do not sacrifice their babes, nor men their rights. Thou\naskest naught from man except the things that good men hate—the whip,\nthe chain, the dungeon key. Thou hast no popes, no priests, who stand\nbetween their fellow-men and thee. Thou carest not for foolish forms,\nor selfish prayers. At thy sacred shrine hypocrisy does not bow, virtue\ndoes not tremble, superstition's feeble tapers do not burn, but Reason\nholds aloft her inextinguishable torch whose holy light will one day\nflood the world.\n"
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