Is The Bible Worth Reading And Other Essays Part 15

REVERENCE FOR MOTHERHOOD

An author of some note, in an article published in a Protestant journal, while admitting that the "holy Catholic church" had been about as unholy an inst.i.tution as could well exist, claimed that Romanism had its good points. Among them he instanced "its reverence for motherhood." For proof of his a.s.sertion he pointed to the homage paid to the image of Mary and her child by the average Roman Catholic.

We admit the homage, but deny the reverence. To begin with, where is the reverence for motherhood among the Roman Catholic priests? Why, these men have not respect enough for woman to elevate her to the dignity and honor of motherhood. These men are married to the church, to Christ and not to women. Their sacred office would be lowered by taking a wife.

The holy vows of these priests are not half as holy as the marriage vow. A priest never had half as pure a thought as is born in the heart of a father. He never performed a rite half as consecrating as dancing a laughing child on his knee. These holy old bachelors have done all their religion would allow them to dishonor motherhood.

The pretence that woman as woman, as mother, as wife, as sister, or daughter, is particularly respected by Roman Catholics is simply absurd.

To prove this we point to the homes of the Roman Catholics. We confess that the Romish church encourages motherhood, that Roman Catholics are urged to help increase the church members.h.i.+p, but we claim that nowhere is there less reverence of woman as woman, as mother, as wife, as sister, as daughter, than among the Roman Catholics.

Because a Catholic crosses himself before a wooden Madonna, or a plaster-paris image of the mother of Jesus, it is no proof of his reverence for motherhood. Not a bit. The Catholic reverences Mary as the mother of G.o.d; he pays her homage as a divine person; wors.h.i.+ps her, not as a mother, but as a superior being.

The man that has reverence for motherhood is the man who loves and tenderly cares for his own mother and the mother of his children, but the man who prostrates his mind before a carved figure of the "Virgin Mary"

and pounds his wife and kicks his daughter into the street has reverence for nothing.

Adam might have obeyed G.o.d, but he could not resist Eve.

It looks easy to break off a bad habit that somebody else has got.

THE G.o.d OF THE BIBLE

The blind, foolish faith in the Bible is the cause of intellectual dishonesty, moral hypocrisy, and religious tergiversations without number.

This faith makes the twentieth century kneel to a G.o.d that it would be ashamed to introduce among civilized beings.

We would no sooner go to Moses to learn about deity than we would go to Noah to learn how to build a steams.h.i.+p. We do not believe in getting divinity through a straw three thousand years long. If we must have a G.o.d, let us have one that has had the advantages of civilization. We might possibly give this Lord G.o.d of the Bible a quarter of mutton, as did Abel, or a peck of potatoes, as did Cain, if we were convinced that he was living anywhere in the universe, just to keep on the right side of him, but we would not care to be on an out-of-the-way road with him after dark unless we had a revolver with us. We know of no more villainous character in all literature; and for men and women, who pretend to love what is pure and good, who pretend to honor what is upright and just and who pretend to revere what is n.o.ble and true, to wors.h.i.+p this G.o.d of Christianity, this G.o.d of Moses, this G.o.d of the Bible, is a sad commentary on human intelligence and human integrity.

We know that all theological discussions have been wretchedly barren of results; we know that theology has made no contribution to actual knowledge; we know that no one knows anything about any such being as G.o.d, and we also know that every G.o.d wors.h.i.+pped to-day by men and women is only an imaginary person or thing. No one knows what G.o.d is or where he is, and yet ministers speak about him just as though they had been to his house and taken tea with him.

Theology has received attention out of proportion to its achievements. It has done the cackling while science has laid the egg.

We do not like to hear men say: "G.o.d did this" and "G.o.d said this," when he has never opened his lips to speak to man and never lifted his hand to help him. We call such language dishonest, and the time will come when the men who have made such use of the divine name will be condemned as impostors.

What this generation should do is to take the Lord G.o.d of the Israelites, that lies dead on the banks of time and bury him from human sight forever.

Not another human being born on this earth should be allowed to read of his cruel deeds, and if Christian ministers were honest, and had the courage of their honesty, they would tell the world that the being called G.o.d in the Bible was no G.o.d, only an idol of a rude and barbarous age.

A theologian is a person who uses the word "G.o.d" to hide his ignorance.

THE MEASURE OF SUFFERING

The little boy who asked his mother "if h.e.l.l was worse than the toothache?" imagined that the limits of suffering were reached in his agony. Many of us have doubtless experienced pain that we thought marked the utmost of endurance. In the Christian dream of future punishment man is represented as burning eternally. Fire probably inflicts the intensest pain that the human body has ever suffered. h.e.l.l is fitly represented by fire.

Suffering takes various shapes. Pain comes in a thousand forms. But there is a limit to the endurance of pain. Unconsciousness comes to the relief of the mind when agony can no longer be borne. h.e.l.l, such as has been taught by Christianity, is not a logical conclusion. All suffering that we know anything about ends itself. The victim is released by exhaustion.

h.e.l.l is impossible.

The finer suffering which is called remorse, which follows wrong-doing, gradually wears out. Its lash loses its sting. The sinner becomes callous to his act or finds a balm for his regret in the lapse of years. The finger of time erases the memory of every wrong, and soothes with its touch every pang. We can escape the fate of wrong-doing by doing better.

Reform opens the door of every h.e.l.l invented for man's punishment. The man who does right, wherever he is, will have the reward of right-doing, the fate of right-doing.

It is this fact which makes the idea of endless pain for man's deeds done on earth illogical. Man can turn around on the road of evil as well as on the road of good, and hence he can change his fate whenever he changes his life. The measure of human suffering makes it impossible for man to endure pain forever. He must either perish utterly as a sentient being or be driven by his punishment to better behavior.

No man ever yet tore down his altar and found a G.o.d behind it.

Trying to find G.o.d is a good deal like looking for money one has lost in a dream.

We could believe in G.o.d if he shortened the road for the lame, led the blind or fed the starving.

We are told that "all things are possible with G.o.d," and yet G.o.d cannot boil an egg in cold water.

NATURE

Some people are afraid of the word Nature. They cross themselves when they hear it p.r.o.nounced. It has a sound like "Old Nick" in their ears. To these pious souls the word Nature banishes G.o.d from the universe. This is looked upon by many as the highest offence of language. It has been the custom for several centuries to abuse Nature, to call it bad names, and a.s.sociate it with depravity and everything evil. Theology has condemned the word, and the pulpit has touched it only with the tips of its fingers. To speak of Nature as anything good is regarded as throwing dirt in the eyes of G.o.d.

Nothing clings to the world like a superst.i.tion. Start a fear in the human breast, and it will make every heart quake before it can be driven out.

Let a bad habit become fixed, and it will be as hard to dislodge it as it is to plant a good habit.

But men are getting over their fright somewhat. The natural is found to be the true, not the false; the right, not the wrong; the good, not the bad.

Nature has been slandered, lied about. It was once thought necessary to a.s.sa.s.sinate this word in order to preserve the Orthodox religion. The necessity still remains, but orthodoxy is dying.