The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 01Brann, William Cowper
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The Complete Works of Brann, the Iconoclast — Volume 01
Brann, William Cowper
Brann, William Cowper, 1855-1898; Essays; Reformers
imagines that in pointing out a number of evident errors and
inconsistencies in "revealed religion" he has hit Theism in
its stronghold; but he hasn't. He has but torn and trampled
the ragged vestments of religion, struck at non-essentials,
called attention to the clumsy manner in which finite man
has bodied forth his idea of Infinity--has made the unskillful
laugh and the judicious grieve. In an ignorant age the
supernatural appeals most powerfully to the people; hence
it is not strange that revealed religion, so-called, should
have been grounded upon the miraculous; but the passage
of the Red Sea, the raising of Lazarus and kindred wonders
are not readily accepted in an enlightened era, and are
utilized by scoffers to bring all religion into contempt. We
can scarce conceive of God being reduced to the necessity
of violating his own laws to demonstrate his presence and
power. While it were presumption to ask any church to
abate one jot or tittle of its dogma, it seems to me that all
would gain by relying less upon the "evidential value of the
miracles"; that a broader, nobler basis can be found for
religious faith, one more in accord with the wisdom and
dignity of the great All-Father than tradition of signs and
wonders in a foreign land in the long ago. Had God
desired to personally manifest himself unto man, to deliver
a code of laws, to establish a particular form of worship, it
is reasonable to suppose that he would have done so in a
manner that would have left no doubt in the mind of any
man, of any age or clime, anent either his divinity or his
desires. That he has not done this, argues that all
"revealed religions" are but the voices of the godlike within
man, rather than direct revelations from without. All
religions are fundamentally the same, and each is the
highest spiritual concept of its devotees. Whence came the
gods of the ancient Greek and Egyptian, of the Mede and
Persian? If they were made known by direct revelation,
how came they to be false gods? If they were the result of
a spirit of worship inherent in all men, who implanted that
spirit? If God, he must have done so for a purpose, and
what purpose other than to enable man to work out his own
salvation? Would we not expect him to operate through
this spirit for universal guidance, rather than leave the world
in darkness while he retired to an obscure corner thereof
and practiced legerdemain for the edification of a few half-
civilized people? If we adopt the internal instead of the
external view of the origin of Judaism and Christianity, all
the other Sacred Books range themselves about the Bible
and with it bear witness that man is the creature of Design
and not a freak of Chance. We bring to confirm the
teachings of Moses and Christ and the wise Zoroaster, the
loving Gautama, the patient Mahomet, the priests and
prophets of every clime, the altars of every age, the
countless millions, who, since man's advent on the earth,
have worshiped the All-in-All.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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