More and more, as men become civilized and enlightened, the egoistic
principles of religionists give way to the altruistic principle
of Rationalists. "Live for others" is the sublime teaching of the
Positivist Comte. In obeying this noble precept we are not sacrificing,
but augmenting our own happiness. "To do good is my religion,"
said Thomas Paine. The rewards and punishments of this religion,
which is here but another name for morality, are happily expressed
by Abraham Lincoln: "When I do good I feel good, and when I do bad I
feel bad." The husband and wife who labor for each other's happiness,
regardless of their own; the father and mother who deprive themselves
to make their children happy; men, like Sir Moses Montefiore and
Baron Hirsch, and women, like Florence Nightingale and Clara Barton,
who devote their time and wealth to aid in removing the poverty and
alleviating the sufferings of humanity--these, by increasing the
happiness of others, increase their own.
When the true principles of morality are universally understood and
accepted, divine revelations will be cast aside and supernatural
religions will die; the zealot's visions of a celestial paradise
will vanish, and the philanthropist's dream of a heaven on earth will
be realized.
Bible Codes.
The Ten Commandments in the Old Testament and the Sermon on the Mount,
including the Golden Rule, in the New, are supposed to comprise
the best moral teachings of the Bible. They are declared to be so
far superior to all other moral codes as to preclude the idea of
human origin.
The Decalogue is a very imperfect moral code; not at all superior to
the religious and legislative codes of other ancient peoples. The last
six of these commandments, while not above criticism, are in the main
just, and were recognized alike by Jew and Gentile. They are a crude
attempt to formulate the crystallized experiences of mankind. The
first four (first three according to Catholic and Lutheran versions)
possess no moral value whatever. They are simply religious emanations
from the corrupt and disordered brain of priestcraft. They only serve
to obscure the principles of true morality and produce an artificial
system which bears the same relation to natural morality that a
measure of chaff and grain does to a measure of winnowed grain.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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