I don't know, do you?Ricker, Marilla M. (Marilla Marks)
Religion
I don't know, do you?
Ricker, Marilla M. (Marilla Marks)
Agnosticism; Free thought
Everything that man believes in that can not be found, that can not be
proved, that can not stand the test of commonsense: everything that
contradicts Nature, that is opposed to established facts, that is
contrary to the laws of the universe, must be given up.
We must have a new man: the man born of woman, not the man made by
God; the man who has been growing better ever since his advent on
earth, not the man who has been growing worse; the man who started
with nothing and has conquered the earth, the sea and the air; not
the man who began perfect and has not got halfway back; the man who
made the telescope, the steam-engine, the power-loom, the telephone and
the wireless telegraph; not the man who made the thumbscrew, the rack,
the ducking-stool and the stocks; the man who has carried the torch
of liberty to enlighten the world, not the man who has carried the
crucifix to enslave mankind.
* * * * *
It is quite common to be told what Moses said or what Jesus said. Now,
if all that these two Hebrew gentlemen (who in my opinion never lived)
said, is preserved in the Bible, I appeal from what they said to those
who know more. I assert that Moses said a lot of stuff that isn't so,
and a lot more that never was so, and that all that Jesus is said to
have said is practically worthless to the world today; that there is
not in all of his utterances a single word that will help man to get a
living, a single word that will aid man in his struggle for knowledge;
that there is not a statement of a single scientific fact, or a plea
for human liberty in all his language. He told his generation nothing
that was not already known, except a mess of superstitious nonsense
about angels and devils, heavens and hells. His so-called gospel of
salvation was to follow him, and he landed on a cross.
The truth is this: the world has outgrown Moses and Jesus. It does
not take commands from either. This age believes in work, not worship;
in deeds, not prayers; in men, not monks; in liberty, not in pious
obedience; in human rights, not in submission; in knowledge, not in
revelation.
For hundreds of years man was bound by a religious faith, and the
priest was his cruel master. He dared not doubt; he dared not rebel;
he dared not dream of freedom; but there came a time when religious
tyranny could no longer be borne. Then Mankind cried out to the Church:
Give back man's brain to man; restore to him the mind you have robbed
him of; take from his head and heart the paralyzing fear that makes him
a coward and a slave, and leave to him the liberty with which Nature
dowered him, that his mind may discover and preserve those mighty
thoughts which make man brave, honest, free and happy.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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