Men, Women, and Gods; and Other LecturesGardener, Helen H. (Helen Hamilton)
Religion
Men, Women, and Gods; and Other Lectures
Gardener, Helen H. (Helen Hamilton)
Free thought
Let them give way to men who, claiming no right to divine authority or
superhuman wisdom, speak in the interest of all humanity the best they
know (always acknowledged to be subject to revision for the better); who
are not bound back and retarded by the outgrown toggery of the Jewish
civilization of David and his time or the Christian dictatorship of
Paul.* Acknowledging themselves as false and oppressive interpreters
of divine law for centuries past is but a poor recommendation of their
ability or integrity for the future.
* See Appendix Q.
Whichever horn of the dilemma they accept, there is but one honorable
course for the clergy to pursue, and that is to resign in favor of those
who have all along been on the right track, without a pretence of divine
guidance; who in despite of faith and fagot have made progress possible.
MORALS.*
* See Appendices T and V.
After my lecture on Men, Women, and Gods, in Chicago, I was asked how it
would be possible to train children to be good without a belief in the
divinity of the Bible; how they could be made to know it is wrong to be
and steal and kill.
The belief that the Bible is the originator of these and like moral
ideas, or that Christ was their first teacher, is far from the truth;
and it is only another evidence of the duplicity or ignorance of
the Church that such a belief obtains or that such a falsehood is
systematically taught.
It is too easily forgotten that morals are universal, that Christianity
is local. Practical moral ideas grow up very early, and develop with the
development of a race. They are the response to the needs of a
people, and when formulated have in several cases taken the shape of
"commandments" from some unseen power. These necessary practical laws
are by degrees attached to those of imaginary value, and all alike
are held in esteem as of equal moral worth. By this means a ficticious
standard of right and wrong becomes established, and a weakening of
confidence in the valueless part results in damage to that portion which
was originally the result of wise and necessary legislation.*
When children (of whatever age) do this or that "because God said so,"
the precepts taught on this basis, even though they are good, will have
no hold upon the man who discovers that their origin was purely human.
It is a dangerous experiment, and depends wholly upon ignorance for
its success. A firm basis of reason in this world is the only solid
foundation of moral training.
My Chicago questioner proceeded upon the hypothesis that what of
valuable morals are contained in the Bible were a "revelation" to one
people, and that their value was dependent upon this origin. For the
benefit of those who have been similarly** imposed upon, I will cite a
few facts in as short space as possible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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