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
We have discovered that the Jewish Sabbath was not incorporated into
the early Christian church. We have seen also that Jesus repudiated
the Jewish Sabbath. That Paul, the founder of the church, also rejects
the Sabbath; and that the early fathers did not observe it. That
the great men of the middle ages repudiated it. It was left for the
Puritans and Scotch Presbyterians to bewilder the undeveloped mind
and poison the susceptible hearts of the people, by teaching the
gloomy doctrines of Puritanism and Presbyterianism. Puritanism and
Presbyterianism die hard. They still live. Their spirit is hostile to
freedom. Talk to them of liberty and you will readily wake the remark,
"Oh yes, we believe in liberty, but not in license." Now what does
license mean with such people? Why it means that you shall conform
to their religious notions and practices.
Especially must you remember the Sabbath to keep it holy; that is,
you are at liberty to do just as you please, if you please to do as
pleases them.
Protestants all agree upon the right of free conscience, the right
to believe as one chooses (which however he never can do, because he
must believe according to evidence).
It is the great boast of Protestantism that the individual has a free
will (another error), and that he must search the scriptures, and
decide for himself. They say every man has an open Bible put before
him, and he must make up his own mind on the "truth of God." When he
has made up his mind, and seeks to enter a church which is full of
liberty, what do the officers of the church say to him? Do they tell
him that his conscience is free and the Bible is an open book for him
to read and interpret as he can? Oh, no! There is no free conscience,
or open Bible business when one is getting into a church. On such
occasions the candidate is taken by the proper officers into an ante
room, and placed upon a Procrustean bed usually called a creed, and
if he is the proper length, all right, but if not he must either be
stretched or sawed off to the proper dimensions. And these are the
people who have such a holy horror of license.
A friend of mine went once to buy a pup. The price was five dollars;
but as there were three pups in the basket my friend said he would
give five dollars for one if he could have his choice. "Oh yes, you
can have your choice," said the owner, "if ye'll choose this pup"
[pointing to the most inferior one in the basket]. So it is with
the church; you can have all the liberty in the world to believe,
if you believe the doctrines of this or that sect. You can have your
own choice, if you choose to obey the priesthood. You can have all
the liberty to think as freely as you can on all subjects, if you
will never mention your thoughts. Here is what M. Guizot, an eminent
Christian writer has to say about the liberty granted by the church:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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