A handbook of Freethought : $b containing in condensed and systematized form a vast amount of evidence against the superstitious doctrines of Christianity
Religion
A handbook of Freethought : $b containing in condensed and systematized form a vast amount of evidence against the superstitious doctrines of Christianity
Christianity -- Controversial literature; Free thought
"In 1847, the American Bible Society appointed a committee of its
members to prepare a standard edition of King James's version,
free from typographical errors. They prepared such an edition,
correcting, as they stated, twenty-four thousand errors; but alarmed
at the attacks made upon it, it was withdrawn; and the American Bible
Society continues to this day to circulate for the word of God a
book having in it twenty-four thousand acknowledged errors." ("Common
Sense Thoughts on the Bible," Wm. Denton.)
2. The Bible sanctions cruelties. The wars of extermination waged by
the Jews upon surrounding nations afford ample proof.
3. The Bible indorses immorality. It indorses war, slavery, polygamy,
intemperance, and superstition.
4. The writers of the gospels do not claim to be inspired.
5. We do not know when, where, or by whom, either the gospels or the
books supposed to be written by Moses, were composed.
6. Paul says: "All scripture is given by inspiration of God; but there
is (1.) no definite meaning attached to the word inspiration. (2.) He
does not refer to the gospels for they had no existence when he wrote.
7. Inspiration is not a success. There are a thousand different sects
quarreling about the meaning of the "inspired scriptures."
8. Inspiration should be pure. The Bible abounds in obscenity.
9. The Bible undergoes revisions, improvements, etc. An infallible
book cannot be improved.
10. The Bible has no plan or system, and hence has no definite
object. Millions upon millions of Christians have differed regarding
its teachings.
11. The Bible is a fetich. Millions of people have a slavish regard
for the Holy Bible who have little or no respect for Humanity, Truth,
or Justice.
God's Ways are Not Our Ways.
"Now this God either did or he did not believe in and command murder
and rapine in the days when he used to sit around evenings and chat
with Abraham and Moses and the rest of them. His especial plans and
desires were 'revealed' or they were not. The ideas of justice and
right were higher in those days than they are now, or else we are
wiser and better than God, or else the Bible is not his revealed
will. You can take your choice. My choice is to keep my respect for
divine justice and honor, and let the Bible bear the burden of its
own mistakes.
"If religion is a revelation, then it is not a growth, and it would
have been most perfect in design and plan when it was nearest its
birth. Now accepting the Bible theory of Jehovah, we find that when the
communications of God were immediate and personal there could have been
no mistake as to his will. To deal with it as a growth or evolution
toward better things is to abandon the whole tenet of a revealed law
of God. But to deal with it as a revelation is to make God a being
too repulsive and brutal to contemplate for one moment with respect.
"He either did or did not tell those men those things. Which will
you accept?" (Helen Gardener's "Men, Women, and Gods.")
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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