Is The Bible Worth Reading And Other Essays Part 2

There is little doubt that the faith of the early Christians was what might be cla.s.sed under the head of rainbow religion. We learn from the New Testament that it was taught that those who accepted the faith held by John and Jesus and Paul were in some peculiar manner to be protected from the common ills of life, and were to be especial favorites of their "Father in heaven." How sincerely this faith was held we cannot now determine, nor to what extent it was put into practice, but that it possessed the mind in a considerable degree there is no room whatever to doubt. But this is not the question that we want settled, but rather the value of this faith.

It is pleasant and comforting to believe that one is watched over by a superior power which at any moment of peril or temptation is ready to stretch forth its hand and rescue from danger and death, and it is on account of the wonderful seductiveness of this faith that it has lasted so long and has been so hard to overcome. But what we are interested in is, whether or not such a belief has any foundation in fact or in human experience. When Jesus bid his followers to cease giving thought to what they should eat and drink and wear, telling them that their "heavenly Father" fed the fowls of the air, and that they were better than such fowls, thus implying that their heavenly Father would take proportionately better care of them, was there any ground for any such teaching, and is there any ground for this faith today? We claim that the "heavenly Father"

referred to by Jesus never fed anything, neither fowl nor man; and that no human being was ever taken care of by any superior power or s.n.a.t.c.hed by it from danger or death. Such a faith is the veriest delusion, and it could lodge and take root only in the childish mind. Jesus also taught that the "Father which is in heaven" would "give good things to them that ask him."

Is there any ground for this rainbow religion? Is there any evidence that there is a "Father in heaven" who has good things to give to those who ask for them?

We presume that this faith led men to give up work and to trust to begging for a living. But the question is, which got the most good things,-those who studied the laws of Nature and of life and worked in harmony with them, or those who prayed for good things? How is it to-day? What good things can be had by praying? Who has any good thing that he received by asking his "Father in heaven" for it? The asking business has been carried on for hundreds of years, and all that has been asked of G.o.d has had to be given by man or has not been given at all.

Has it ever been true that Christians had any immunity from danger that others did not have, or that they could live in defiance of the laws of Nature? Jesus told his followers that in his name they shall cast out devils, they shall take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt them and they shall have the power to cure the sick by laying their hands upon them. Have men, who professed to follow Jesus, ever done the things which he said they shall do? Is there any man to-day who can do these things? Is there any evidence that Christians are treated by any power of the universe differently from what others are treated? And is there any evidence that they possess any gift that is not shared by others? As far as we can see Christians are subject to the same laws of Nature that all others must obey, and they cannot either defy those laws or act independently of them. If they fool with deadly serpents they will get bitten and probably die-just the same as would an infidel; if they drink a cup of poison, they will suffer and perhaps die just the same as an unbeliever; if they have any sickness, they do not trust to the laying-on of hands by a fellow-Christian, but send for a doctor the same as a freethinker. The fact is, the world has learned better than to put faith in these teachings of Jesus.

The Christian faith belonged to the childhood of the race, and ought no longer to be preached to man. No one attempts to put this faith into practice, to carry into life the teachings of Jesus. And why not? Simply because _it is known to be false_. Christianity is a rainbow religion, a representation of things for which there is no warrant in Nature; a picture painted in false colors; a view of life copied from a diseased imagination; a falsehood fed by priests upon which they live.

There is not an intelligent man or woman living to-day who has any faith in the rainbow religion taught by Jesus; not an intelligent man or woman who believes that a heavenly Father or a G.o.d will provide food or drink or clothes for a human being; nor an intelligent man or woman who has faith that he or she can get good things by asking a "Father in heaven" for them and not an intelligent man or woman who cares or dares to put the declaration of Jesus to the test; that those who have faith in him can play with serpents without danger, and drink deadly poison with no more harm than attends quaffing a gla.s.s of water.

We are then to conclude that Christianity is held only by the ignorant.

There is greater argument in one fact than in all the creeds.

It is easier to believe that a man is honest who says the Bible is the word of G.o.d than to believe that he is bright.

A CRUEL G.o.d

There may be some other religion in the world that sings of a G.o.d more cruel than the G.o.d of Christianity, but we do not know of any. At any rate, we believe it is safe to say that no religion of a civilized people has a G.o.d who is more vindictive. We have always wondered how men and women could set such infernal ideas to music as we find in Christian hymns. It is really too bad that human beings are compelled to sing such lies as we find in the pious song-books of the church. The sentiments contained in them are not fit for savages. It can only brutalize the heart to sing of blood, and nothing but blood, no matter whose blood it is. The "precious blood of Jesus" is just as suggestive of cruelty as the blood on the executioner's knife. Men become what they read, what they think, what they sing, what they believe. Religions have made men wicked, cruel, hard, unkind. It is impossible to have faith in a G.o.d of wrath and vindictiveness without in time developing these qualities. Men grow into the likeness of their belief. As a man believes, so is he, to a certain extent.

The influence of cruel sentiments on the mind is greater with the young than with adults. Some hymns sung in Christian churches are positively brutal in tone. Think of _human_ beings singing the following verse:-

"But vengeance and d.a.m.nation lie On rebels who refuse His grace; Who G.o.d's eternal Son despise, The _hottest h.e.l.l shall be their place_."

Christians seem to delight in pictures of h.e.l.l. G.o.d would hardly be G.o.d to them if he did not d.a.m.n somebody. In painting the divine idea vengeance and d.a.m.nation are laid on thick.

Here is the Christian notion of father and son:-

"How justice frowned and vengeance stood To drive me down to endless pain!

But the great Son propos'd his blood, And _heavenly wrath grew mild again_."

Think of the religion based on such an idea of G.o.d! And think on the terrible effect on men and women which such religion must have!

The following description of the Christian G.o.d was probably written by one of his adorers:-

"Adore and tremble for our G.o.d Is a consuming fire!

His jealous eyes with wrath inflame, And raise His vengeance higher.

"Almighty vengeance, how it burns, How bright His fury glows!

Vast magazines of plagues and storms Lie treasured for His foes.

"Those heaps of wrath, by slow degrees, Are force into a flame: But kindled, Oh! how fierce they blaze!

And rend all nature's frame.

"At His approach the mountains flee, And seek a watery grave; The frighted sea makes haste away, And shrinks up every wave.

"Through the wide air the weighty rocks Are swift as hailstones hurled; Who dares engage His fiery rage, That shakes the solid world?

"Thy hand shall on rebellious kings A fiery tempest pour, While we, beneath Thy sheltering wings, Thy _just_ revenge adore."

And we are asked to love this G.o.d! We should just as soon think of loving a tiger, a cyclone, a deluge, a fiend. Love goes out to what is lovely. We can love what is good, what is beautiful, what is n.o.ble; a great-hearted man, a pitying woman we cannot help loving, but if we should say that we love such a G.o.d as is pictured in the words of that hymn we should lie.

Man cannot love hate, vengeance, wrath-even in a G.o.d.

The Christian church, down through the ages, has been like the G.o.d it wors.h.i.+pped-full of hate, malice and cruelty. The world has grown kind and humane just in proportion as it has given up wors.h.i.+p of this divine monster. We judge G.o.ds as we judge men, and we can respect and love only what is worthy of respect and love from a human point of view. If there is such a G.o.d as is painted in Christian literature he deserves, not to be wors.h.i.+pped, but to be shot.

The Bible upon which Christianity is founded does not say what Christianity is, what a Christian is, nor what we must do in order to be a Christian.

WHAT IS JESUS

Time was when Jesus was looked upon as G.o.d, or the Son of G.o.d. No one had any doubt of his divinity or divine character; or if he had, he wisely deferred to the superst.i.tious majority and kept his mouth shut and so kept his head on his shoulders. This idea that Jesus was G.o.d has been steadily declining for several hundred years. Intelligence has pretty much given it up, except where it is paid a big salary for preaching it. There is no rational defence that can be made of the dogma of the divinity of Jesus.

It is one of many theological absurdities that was born when G.o.ds were popular.

A large number believe that Jesus was a man and nothing more; a good man, but still human. They look upon him as a product of human nature. He is allowed a human father and mother, although the gospels, in which is found the story of his life, hardly warrant so much earthly parentage. He is regarded as a part of humanity, and his extraordinary deeds merely as exaggerated performances of heart and hand of man. The people that look upon Jesus as a man have a superst.i.tious reverence for his humanity. He is called "the one perfect man," the "pattern of the race," etc. Though a man, they will have him every inch a man.

Yet others see nothing remarkable in the career of Jesus; nothing which marks him for universal emulation; nothing which compels praise and admiration. They think he was a sort of mild lunatic, possessed of the idea that he was the Messiah of his people, and that in endeavoring to further his scheme he antagonized the existing authority and met the just punishment of his ambition.

But it is neither as G.o.d nor as a man that Jesus must be regarded, but as a myth. No such person ever lived either as a human or divine existence.

He is simply a creature of fancy, the fruit of the imagination. He is a character of the brain, the creation of religious genius.

There is no justifiable Christianity in this age.