I contend that the Bible does not present an infallible moral
standard, and I have given many valid reasons why it does not. I
expect the defenders of this book to complete the task that I have here
essayed. They will claim that the Bible is opposed to crime. They will,
no doubt, cite numerous passages in confirmation of this claim. Let
them do this. Then place the results of our labors side by side. This
will show that the Bible abounds with teachings that conflict. This
fact established, the dogma of its divinity must fall. And this is what
I am endeavoring to do--to tear this dogma from the human brain. Not
until this is done can we have a pure morality. So long as men's
minds are confused and corrupted by these conflicting and demoralizing
teachings, so long will immorality prevail. You cannot make men moral
while they accept as their moral guide a book which sanctions every
crime and presents as the best models of human excellence the most
notorious villains. You cannot make them moral by teaching them that a
lie is better for being called inspired, that a vice becomes a virtue
with age, that a dead rogue should be canonized and a live one killed.
Not until this dogma is destroyed can you appreciate what is
meritorious in the Bible. There are in it some noble precepts. It
contains along with the false much that is true; along with the bad
much that is good; but while you are compelled to accept all--the
true and the false, the good and the bad, as alike infallible, as
alike divine--it can be of no value to you.
You may contend that I mistake the meaning of what I have quoted from
this book. But the language is too plain to be mistaken. Do not tell
me that it states one thing and means another. This is, you affirm,
the word of your God. Is your God wanting in candor?
So far as the Bible is concerned, the criminal has as much to
support the justness of his crime as the Christian has to sustain
the truthfulness of his creed. The various doctrines of the church
are not upheld by stronger Scripture proofs than have been cited in
justification of the crimes that I have named.
Bible apologists tell us that it is only in this book that wrongdoers
confess and record their sins, and that this is evidence of its
divinity. Were this true we might say that the Bible is the only book
whose authors are so devoid of shame as to parade their sins. But this
claim is not true. It was not the sinners who wrote these accounts
of their sins any more than it is the criminals to-day who write and
publish the accounts of their crimes.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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