Ludicrous Aspects Of Christianity: A Response To The Challenge Of The Bishop Of ManchesterHolyoake, Austin
Religion
Ludicrous Aspects Of Christianity: A Response To The Challenge Of The Bishop Of Manchester
Holyoake, Austin
Free thought; Philosophy and religion
He ultimately met the death of a malefactor, and in the last moments of
agony his fanaticism was strong upon him, for he promised to the thief
who flattered him that he would meet him that day in paradise, though he
did not go there himself till about six weeks afterwards.
After his death he was brought to life again, thus defying all the laws
of physiology. When but just out of the grave, his powers of preaching
were as strong as ever, and his appetite as vigorous as though he had
returned from a long journey; and after partaking of a singular repast,
and before he had had time to digest it, he ascended into the clouds
without the aid of a balloon, and was seen no more.
All this, with much more of the same incredible nature, is taught as
infallible truth by some of the best educated men the Universities can
produce, and belief in the whole of it is necessary to "respectability"
in this life, and to salvation in a life after death. How educated men
can believe it, is a mystery which we trust the School Boards of the
future will be able to unravel; at present we find it as insoluble as
all the other sublime mysteries of Christianity, for we cannot believe
that a University training necessarily makes men hypocrites, and we are
loth to believe that on one most important subject it necessarily makes
them imbecile.
There would be fewer believers if there were more inquirers. The
advocates of Bible reading in Elementary Schools must feel that there
is danger to the faith lurking in the future if that "precious book"
is read and not "expounded." Dogmatic teaching is the stronghold of
the religion of Christendom. The "plain, unvarnished tale" of the
Four Gospels would carry with it its own condemnation, for the best
refutation of Christianity is a true knowledge of Christ.
Printed and Published by
C. Watts, 17, Johnson's Court, Fleet St, London, E.C.
PRICE TWOPENCE
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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