Scaliger says: "They distrusted the success of Christ's kingdom
without the aid of lying."
That these admissions are true, that primitive Christianity
was propagated chiefly by falsehood, is tacitly admitted by all
Christians. They characterize as forgeries, or unworthy of credit,
three-fourths of the early Christian writings.
The thirty-second chapter of the Twelfth Book of Eusebius's
"Evangelical Preparation" bears this significant title: "How far it
may be proper to use falsehood as a medicine, and for the benefit of
those who require to be deceived."
Bishop Heliodorus affirms that a "falsehood is a good thing when it
aids the speaker and does no harm to the hearers."
Synesius, another early Christian bishop, writes: "The people are
desirous of being deceived; we cannot act otherwise with them."
That is what most modern theologians think. With Dr. Thomas Burnett,
they believe that "Too much light is hurtful to weak eyes."
That the methods employed in establishing the church are still used in
perpetuating its power, a glance at the so-called Christian literature
of the day will suffice to show. Read the works of our sectarian
publishers, examine the volumes that compose our Sunday-school
libraries, peruse our religious papers and periodicals, and you will
see that age has but confirmed this habit formed in infancy.
Every church dogma is a lie; and based upon lies, the church depends
upon fraud for its support. The work of its ministers is not to
discover and promulgate truths, but to invent and disseminate
falsehoods. In the words of Isaiah, they well might say: "We have
made lies our refuge, and under falsehood have we hid ourselves."
The church offers a premium on falsehood and imposes a punishment
for truthfulness. With a bribe in one hand and a club in the other,
she has sought to prolong her sway. The allurements of the one and
the fear of the other have filled the world with hypocrisy. In our
halls of Congress, in the editorial sanctum, in the professor's chair,
behind the counter, in the workshop, at the fireside, everywhere, we
find men professing to believe what they know to be false, or wearing
the seal of silence on their lips, while rank imposture stalks abroad
and truth is trampled in the mire before them.
Every truth seeker is taunted and ridiculed; every truth teller
persecuted and defamed; the scientist and philosopher are discouraged
and opposed; the heretic and Infidel calumniated and maligned. In proof
of this, witness the abuse heaped upon the Darwins and Huxleys, see
the countless calumnies circulated against the Paines and Ingersolls.
It is said that Paulus Jovius kept a bank of lies. To those who paid
him liberally he gave noble pedigrees and reputations; those who
did not he slandered and maligned. Paulus is dead, but the church,
guided by Bible morality, continues his business.
Cheating.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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