A Legacy to the Friends of Free Discussion Part 1

A LEGACY TO THE FRIENDS OF FREE DISCUSSION.

by Benjamin Offen.

PREFACE

IN the following pages the author has freely discussed the claims of the books called the Old and New Testaments, to be considered Divine revelations. He had a _right_ so to do; and in presenting the work to the public he gives the result of his exercise of such right.

The right of free discussion has been questioned. It would be well for humanity if this were all; but unhappily, the pages of history are replete with deeds of persecution and cruelty, committed by men, in the possession of power, on their less fortunate fellow-men, who have presumed to exercise the right of free investigation. Cupidity has drawn a line of demarcation; it has established boundaries for thought; and miserable has been the fate of the unhappy wretch who, rejoicing in the dignity of his nature, and anxious to discover the abode of Truth, has dared to pa.s.s the Rubicon.

What is Free Discussion? We answer, it is the exercise of the reasoning faculties. Without Free Discussion man cannot exist. His physical existence might indeed remain; but he could no longer be deemed a man; and would have to take a lower rank in the scale of creation.

Without investigation it is impossible to arrive at Truth; hence the utility of Free Discussion. This is never denied when science is the subject; and we have yet to learn why it should be restrained in any case; and also _how_ and _when_ any set of men became possessed of the right to restrain the exercise of the reasoning faculties of their fellow-men.

When men have not been impelled by cupidity to shackle the minds of their fellow beings, a spirit of uncharitableness has induced them to pursue the same line of conduct. Whoever has maintained an opinion contrary to theirs, has been considered as being actuated, not by mistaken, but, by dishonest motives; and has therefore been deemed a fit subject for punishment. As this work will probably be read by many professing Christians we will here give an extract from Dr. Blair's sermon on _Candor_, which will, probably, make a greater impression than any thing we could offer on that subject.

"It is one of the misfortunes of our present situation, that some of the good dispositions of human nature are apt to betray us into frailties and vices. Thus it often happens, that the laudable attachment which we contract to the country, or the church, to which we belong, or to some political denomination under which we cla.s.s ourselves, both confines our affections within too narrow a sphere, and gives rise to violent prejudices against such as come under an opposite description. Not contented with being in the right ourselves, we must find all others in the wrong. We claim an exclusive possession of goodness and wisdom: and from approving warmly of those who join us, we proceed to condemn, with much acrimony, not only the principles, but the _characters_, of those from whom we differ. Hence, persons of well disposed minds are too often, through the strength of partial good affection, involved in the crime of uncharitable judgment They rashly extend to every individual the severe opinion which they have unwarrantably conceived of a whole body. This man is of a party whose principles we reckon slavish; and therefore his whole sentiments are corrupted. That man belongs to a religious sect which we are accustomed to deem bigoted; and therefore he is incapable of any generous or liberal thought Another is connected with a sect which we have been taught to account relaxed; and therefore he can have no sanct.i.ty.-Are these the judgments of candor and charity?

Is true piety or virtue so very limited in its nature, as to be confined to such alone as see every thing with our eyes, and follow exactly the train of our ideas?"

The author disclaims any intention of wounding the feelings of those who hold opinions different to his own. For the religions hypocrite he has no bowels of compa.s.sion; but the sincere believer in Divine revelation, whose conduct is regulated by the universally acknowledged roles of morality, is to him an object of sincere respect and esteem.

Many things connected with what is called Divine revelation, have been very freely commented on by the author; and sometimes in a style which the Christian world will probably be disposed to condemn; but it should be remembered that what appears sacred to one, excites the ridicule of others. The Pagan venerates his manufactured G.o.d; the Christian views it with contempt and indignation.

The object of the author has been the promotion of Truth and Benevolence.

Should he fail to produce the effects he has contemplated, he will yet be able to console himself with the reflection, that he has been actuated by good intentions. The time has been when the a.s.sertion was frequently made that "h.e.l.l was paved with good intentions" had the work appeared at that time, the author would, doubtless, have been destined, so far as human agency could effect it, to become one of the paving stones of that remarkable edifice: but a brighter day has dawned upon the world; Reason is a.s.serting her right to empire; and the cheering spirit of benevolence is animating the nations of the earth.

The shades of life's evening admonish the author that his sojourn in the world will very shortly be brought to a close. He is anxious, therefore, before his departure, to cast in his mite for the eradication of human suffering, and the promotion of human felicity; and then, in wrapping himself in the mantle of universal benevolence, to retire from the transitory scene, in charity with all men.

GENERAL INTRODUCTION

THE main object of this book is to show that Jehovah, the G.o.d of the Jews, is not the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe, but a fict.i.tious being, having no real existence whatever. If the above position be correct, it follows, that the Bible, including the Old and New Testaments, is not a Divine Revelation. But that the reader may see, more clearly, upon what uncertain ground divine revelation rests, the plan pursued in the following chapters will be a review of the _facts_ and _personages_ as recorded in the Old and New Testaments. But the limits of this work will only admit of a mere scantling of what might be written on the subject.

In most Christian countries (America excepted,) this work would be answered by either fine or imprisonment, or probably both. But fortunately for the cause of truth and free discussion, theological power here is so happily balanced, that persecution for religious opinions is impracticable. The period therefore has arrived, in this country in particular, when reason is free from the former obstacles that every where crossed its path. Now, then, is the time for us to examine the religion of our forefathers, and explore the regions of human credulity. A mixture of pain and pleasure will be the result:-_pain_, in considering what suffering has befallen the human family, when the laudable indulgence of imagining and reasoning was considered rebellion against G.o.d; and _pleasure_, to us who, having escaped those dreadful evils which in former ages spread terror throughout the world, can lessen the evils that surround us, and augment to an almost unlimited degree our happiness.

To those who may have the moral courage to read the following pages, I would say, I have neither a desire to shock their feelings, nor any wish to change their sentiments in order to gratify my vanity; for had Christianity been productive of "peace on earth and good will towards men," I should have been the last to have opposed it. But on the contrary, the page of religious history is blotted with human gore. The intolerant spirit that pervades the Old and New Testaments, has so inoculated its followers of every sect, that while they profess to love each other for Christ's sake, one sect (the strongest) has put to death a weaker sect for G.o.d's sake. Nothing short of convincing men that the Bible is not a divine revelation, can or will guarantee posterity against a recurrence of those scenes of horror, at the very thought of which, the heart sickens.

From the pulpit, and in religious works, nothing is more common than to exclaim with horror at the unblus.h.i.+ng Infidel. Unblus.h.i.+ng Infidel! What cause have Infidels to blush? The blush, if any, ought to be on the face of the Christians of every sect. They have never failed to persecute when in power: they have been guilty of cruelties, at which the savage cannibal would weep, and this will ever be the case so long as the Bible is considered as coming from G.o.d; because, till all consequence is taken away from faith, and transferred to moral rect.i.tude, persecution is the effect of believing that _faith_ is the sure pa.s.sport to glory, while _unbelief_ is the broad road to perdition. Men cease to be Christians when they lose this spirit of intolerance, and become Infidels.

Sects are not alike intolerant; but all are in some degree. The Calvinists will not permit the Unitarians to preach in their churches.

The Unitarians, or Universalists, will not permit an Infidel lecturer to speak in their churches,-no, not even on moral subjects. Christians, then, will always be more or less of a persecuting disposition, and nothing but giving up the Bible, as a Divine revelation, will destroy that spirit. To show how a profession of Christianity, unfits men to do justice to those who differ from them in religion, I will refer to the treatment of Thomas Paine, author of "Common Sense." His services in the glorious struggle that "tried men's souls" have been shamefully forgotten. Yes! the friend of the immortal Was.h.i.+ngton, who shared in the toils and dangers with the father of this great republic,-how have Americans generally treated his name and efforts to erect one of the most n.o.ble monuments of human wisdom-the _independent republic of North America?_ For all his faithful devotedness to the independence of America, how is his name and memory spoken of at the present time? From the pulpit, every kind of falsehood and detraction is poured forth concerning him.

If he had been, a member of a church, the same fanatical priesthood would have lauded him to the skies. Such is the nature of religious bigotry, that the friends.h.i.+p of the ever to be venerated Was.h.i.+ngton-even that, cannot s.h.i.+eld his name from pulpit calumny. "Bigotry, she has no head, and cannot think; she has no heart, and cannot feel."

But the name and services of Thomas Paine, are not, and never will be, forgotten. Thanks to the Liberals throughout the Union, his birthday is yearly celebrated in most of the cities and towns in the different States. A handsome and durable monument has been erected to his memory at New Roch.e.l.le, New York State. The thanks of-the Liberals are due to Mr. G. Vale, Editor of the _Beacon_, published in New York, for his untiring perseverance in urging on the completion of a monument will, in time, command the respect of posterity. Why are the name and services of Thomas Paine be cautiously omitted by our orators and statesmen, when speaking of the patriotism of a Was.h.i.+ngton, Jefferson, Adams, Hanc.o.c.k, and others? It would offend the church and priesthood, as well as the whole of the Christian community; because-"_He that believeth not shall be d.a.m.ned._" This is the brightest gem in the Christian's crown of glory. If he nurse this intolerant spirit against Infidels, the Christian considers his "_calling and election sure._"

Sincere believers in Divine revelation are not aware what monsters the Bible makes of them; but for which they would be humane, compared to what they are under its influence. I am surprised that they are (the majority of them) so just, humane, and charitable, when I take into consideration the doctrines contained (or believed to be) in what is called the Word of G.o.d. In addition to their own evil habits and disregard for virtue in the common concerns of life, they have a Devil to tempt them by a thousand ways in which they are ignorant. Again, they have a Saviour who shed his blood to save them from the just punishment of their deserts; so that with their own evil deeds, and being urged on by the Devil, they become monsters in crime. They then go, as the phrase is, to Christ, be sorry, or profess to be, for what they have done, and are pardoned, and in the sight of Heaven are considered _superior_ to the unconverted whom they have injured. Can you, my readers, wonder at the crimes of G.o.d's people? According to this doctrine, a man may steal a horse and cart, by the use of which, another man earned support for his family; the thief sells it, and spends the amount, in connexion with wretches like himself. He then goes to Jesus, repents, is forgiven; and, to follow the plan throughout-if the man who lost his horse and cart is an unbeliever, he goes to h.e.l.l, while the rogue sits singing and laughing in Glory!

This book is sent into society from the best of motives; hoping it will induce Christians to practise moderation, and somewhat abate that raging, fanatical fever, that has been so fatal to human happiness. If you take from us the Bible, says the Christian, what will you give in its stead? We answer, man requires nothing but what G.o.d, or Nature, has given him. All men in common, have reason to consult, by which man will learn the duty he owes to himself, and also to his fellow beings. The error lies in being taught, that reason, when in full exercise, will lead him into error. This has been his misfortune; and his punishment has followed as a consequence. The Bible contains many good moral precepts; but these are, by Christians, thought little of, compared with its doctrines. Faith is all important. By faith, barbarous Calvin caused Servetus to be burnt by a slow fire; and through faith, St. Austin, that drunken debauchee, obtained a good report.

The Bible is at war with man's reasoning powers; and, like a land pirate, has held up false lights, which instead of conducting man to the haven of happiness and safety, has caused him to make s.h.i.+pwreck on the rocks and shoals of religious dogmas. Man is lost in no other sense than that, the loss of his reason. To recover _that_, and bring it into full exercise, is all the Saviour he needs. His moral path is as clear as light. G.o.d, or Nature, has made it a law of man's existence that he must love happiness, ease, and enjoyment; and also, that he must hate pain and trouble in every stage and form. This law is forced upon him independent of his choice. It is ever present to his senses, till he ceases to exist, or to be rational. This is man's stock of moral material furnished by G.o.d, or Nature. How clear, then, is his duty! He has but to follow out this law, by the aid of his reasoning, judging, and comparing powers. It will never lead him wrong. He requires no Bible, no Saviour; he is never lost; he has no incomprehensible doctrines to support or defend. Unlike the sectarian, he feels no disposition to persecute others who differ from him in matters of faith; he has no angry G.o.d to propel him on to fight for his glory; he can balance up every night his moral account of the day; and if he has followed out the law of his nature, by augmenting his own, and also the happiness of his fellow beings, and lightened the load of human ills around him, he in truth is the good man, be his faith little or much.

That the following work may forward moral improvement, and encourage moderation and universal good will among the human family, is the sincere wish of

THE AUTHOR

A LEGACY TO THE FRIENDS OF FREE DISCUSSION

G.o.d'S CHOSEN PEOPLE

BEFORE reviewing the facts and personages, as recorded in the Old and New Testaments, it will be in order to notice the Jews, as Jehovah's _chosen race_. The subject will not admit of demonstration; it must be approached and examined in the same manner as the Alkoran of Mahomet.

In order to get at the truth, so as to arrive at something like certainty, and as Infinite Wisdom makes the choice, we must inquire-For what end were they chosen? and did they answer the end of such choice?

If they were really chosen by the Sovereign Ruler of the Universe, they must, however strange they acted as a nation, have fulfilled the purpose of their choice; because, whatever they did, was known to Jehovah before the choice was made. How, then, can we reconcile expressions of regret and disappointment by Jehovah after he had selected them as his own peculiar people-such as, "_I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me?"_ And again-"_He hated his own inheritance,_"-and also his stirring up and supporting heathen kings to subjugate them as slaves. Is this not the language of disappointment and regret? In fact, no learned divine can get over this striking truth that the Bible fully holds out in the plainest manner, that Jehovah was disappointed in his choice of the Jews as his favorite people. Were they, then, chosen to raise up and support the religion given to them by G.o.d himself? No, impossible! they continually rebelled against Jehovah and wors.h.i.+pped strange G.o.ds; and even Solomon himself built temples for idolatry, contrary to express command. Jehovah says of the Jewish nation-that he did not choose them because they were better than others, for they were always a stiff-necked people; but because he loved their fathers. Poor, miserable reasoning, indeed; to choose one of the most contemptible races of men, because their ancestors, some hundreds of years before, had superior qualities to their degenerate race.

Again, another reason given why Jehovah continued to protect them, is, that the promises before made to Abram, Isaac, and Jacob, bound him in honor so to do. Did not Infinite Wisdom foresee that the seed of Abram would not follow in the faithful footsteps of their great progenitor? If this was not foreseen, then we can discover clearly the reason why Jehovah complains of their rebellious conduct. It will be a vain attempt in ministers of the gospel, to reconcile those complaints, if Jehovah had foresight of what the seed of Abram would do. If "_G.o.d is the same yesterday, to-day, and forever,_" how did it happen that he appeared so regardless of the fate of mankind, as to allow some hundreds of years to pa.s.s away from the time of the confusion of tongues at the tower of Babel, till his visit to the tent of Abram, during which time, according to Bible history, Jehovah had no wors.h.i.+ppers on earth? The whole of mankind were left to make the best of their deserted situation; to wors.h.i.+p the G.o.ds of their imagination; and they founded mighty empires, and became powerful on the earth.

Before the Lord called on Abram and Sarah in their tent, something like the following mode of reasoning probably took place in the mind of the Jewish G.o.d:-

"I have made a world and peopled it with inhabitants; Adam and Eve rebelled against me; their descendants followed in the footsteps of their progenitors; I have destroyed them all (eight only excepted,) from whom I expected better things. But, alas! they have also sinned against me; and to such a height of wickedness did they arrive, that they began to build a tower to reach my holy habitation. I have sent them off in confusion: and now I have no church, no wors.h.i.+ppers,-not even a song of praise to my name. I possess universal empire, without even one single subject to obey me. What is to be done? A thought has struck me:-I will call on honest old Abram."

And here let me remind the reader, that the Bible clearly represents the Jewish G.o.d as being as changeable in his disposition and mode of acting as mortals. Like man, he is sometimes in a state of inaction, towards the fate of his offspring: at other times, he arouses from this torpor, and is the most sensitive and active. Sometimes he appears to repent of some failure in the calculations he has made concerning his creatures; attempts to rectify the error, and again blunders. He at one time says: "_fury is not in me,_" then again he is all fury. No truth is more striking than this,-that the Jehovah of the Bible is not, cannot be, the universal governor of the universe, but merely a creature of the imagination, whose power is confined, having no existence without the covers of the Bible.

But to return to Abram:-Jehovah either goes to him, or sends to him delegates, to acquaint him of the choice he is about to make of "_Abram and his seed forever._" This is but the beginning of a new experiment on the human race. And here does it not plainly appear, that Jehovah's mode of acting, in this case, is unworthy of the governor of the world? Does it not prove his total disregard for the welfare of the rest of mankind?

Good heavens! the believers, one and all, of such absurdities, have ever been, and are still insane.

These heavenly visiters find Abram and Sarah living comfortably in their tent, watching flocks and herds. They (the angels) are treated with the hospitality common in pastoral life. They have their feet washed; they are invited to dine on the best; the calf is immediately killed; and Sarah, was not slow on her part, in the cooking department, from which, one might be induced to think, that over the door of the tent was written: "Dinners Dressed at the Shortest Notice."-Soon after being seated, the messengers make known their errand; Abram was much pleased; Sarah laughed outright. The promise was now ratified that had before been made to Abram, that _his seed should be as the sand of the sea in number,_ for that Sarah should have _a son in her old age_. This, to say the least of it, was good pay for a good dinner.

Here, then, the reader will please to notice, was the final settlement as it regards the Jews being the chosen people of G.o.d. And here the following ceremony took place:-Three men, angels, or messengers, came from Heaven; they had their feet washed, agreeably to eastern custom; they sat down and did eat, and we may suppose did also drink with Abram and Sarah; one of the three was called the Lord.

I have here strictly adhered to the Bible history of this surprising account; and if it be not literally true, the choice of the Jews, and also the whole of the Jewish and Christian theology, falls prostrate.

The account winds up with the departure of the angels to Sodom; where, after having dined with Abram, they took supper with Lot. The day following, Sodom was burnt by fire from Heaven; Lot's wife (by way of making the most of her) was turned into a _pillar of salt_, because she looked back on her old habitation. What became of the angels, Heaven only knows!

But to return to the Jews, as a nation. For what purpose were they chosen? It could not be to establish and support the only true religion on earth, whereby they became the constant and obedient servants of the Most High, because they continued to rebel against Jehovah; and in spite of all his commands to the contrary, to wors.h.i.+p other G.o.ds, which conduct provoked the Lord to anger, and the most dreadful punishment followed for their disobedience. They were not chosen to convert other nations to the faith and wors.h.i.+p of the G.o.d of Israel, because they were ordered to take the property and destroy the inhabitants of towns and cities, with whom they had not the most distant quarrel. Once more,-Were they chosen for the purpose that Jehovah should be their G.o.d, and that they should be his people? No, because they, time after time, rejected his authority as their G.o.d, and wors.h.i.+pped strange G.o.ds, unknown to their fathers; for which He sent "prophets and holy men" to remonstrate with them. But they killed the prophets; and, as a nation, never were for any length of time converted to, nor obeyed, the _G.o.d of Israel._

It was promised to Abram, "_In thee and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed." When and how_ have the nations ever been blessed? As for the poor Jews, no curse ever fell so heavy on mortals as fell on them, in consequence of their considering themselves G.o.d's chosen people, and other nations treating them as such. For eighteen hundred years, Christians have plundered and murdered them, because they have faithfully wors.h.i.+pped (since He cast them off) the G.o.d of their fathers, against whom (when under his protection) they continued to rebel.