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
Before the sun was created, the writer gives us to understand that the
dry land appeared--or to put it more definitely, God commanded saying,
"Let the dry land appear." But to whom was it to appear when there
was no eye yet created to look upon it, and if there had been, there
was no sunlight, and therefore if the world had been full of eyes
the land would not have appeared! This is a problem. Did the waters
lie on the mountain tops, and refuse to run down to the valleys,
until they were commanded?
For how was it possible for a writer who describes things as they
appear, to attempt to give us a glimpse of things which certainly
could not have appeared, only to a mind diseased? But not wishing to
appear captious we will let this pass, only however with the explicit
understanding that the writer, in this case certainly attempted to
describe things as they could not appear.
We find our perplexities increasing as we proceed. Especially when we
attempt to read the stone book of geology in company with the Hebrew
book of Genesis.
Whoever he may have been, and there can be no doubt of the sex of
the writer, as the book everywhere betrays the spirit of the "lord of
creation," man, he seems to think that the earth was created before
the sun, when the truth is the earth is the child of the sun. One
could as well speak of a son being older than his father as to talk
of the creation of the sun, after the earth had been created.
Thus, statement after statement of the story about creation falls
for lack of support--and like bubbles the airy word pictures burst
at the first touch of science.
What gross ignorance the writer betrays in speaking of the vast
universe. It is nothing; it needs no extended description, five
words are enough to describe the creation of an infinite universe,
and hence to the writer it was quite sufficient to merely say,
"He made the stars also." And two of these words are supplied by the
transcribers. As it seemed to this original cosmogonist the work of
getting up a universe was not a matter of very great importance.
We are not disposed to credit this story for the reason that, the
author makes it necessary for God to take five days to create the
solar system, but for the infinite universe beyond, he needed less
than one day. The Mosaic cosmogonist had no soul for astronomy or he
would have seen the necessity of more time in the creation of the
starry systems. We could have no patience with his description if
it were not for the fact of which we are so well assured by Smith's
Bible Dictionary, that he is not giving us matter of fact but is
"describing things as they appear rather than as they are."
But no sooner do we quit one difficulty than we are beset with
another. In looking over the leaves of the stone book of geology
we find fossils of animals which existed untold ages before man,
and as they had eyes there must therefore have been light, the sun
must have existed an indefinitely long period before man.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account