China, north of Hindostan and east of the deluged territory, was flourishing 2700 B.C. It was not touched by the flood. It had its own floods, separate and distinct from Noah's. In 2347 B.C., one year after the flood, Noah made wine from grapes. Babylon was founded by Belus 2245 B.C. Astronomical observations were made 2234 B.C. Bricks were made 2247 B.C. Babylon was built 2247 B.C. All this region was in a state of civilization one hundred years later, when all men had been destroyed, and the region had been under water twenty-six feet three inches for one hundred and fifty days. One hundred years seems a long time, and a great deal can be done, that's true. In those days civilization was exceedingly slow. People did not progress so rapidly as we do in this New World. There are regions where hardly any progress has been made. They are at a standstill, as it is termed. The people live, feed, and die. The inconsistency, the untruth, of the story of the deluge will be palpable to everyone, if he or she will take the trouble to examine the geographical, physical, and historical facts. I especially call the attention of hysterical, fanatical theologians, supernaturalists, and the whole priestly class, to the declaration that God had nothing to do with this deluge; that the God in whom they believe must be an ass to think that he can drown out the whole terrestrial globe with forty days and nights' rain, with a rise of water of twenty-six feet three inches. It is impossible to enter into every detail in this brief statement. There is, however, ample proof that a general deluge never occurred, and that all animals, whether men or beasts, were never destroyed. How much honor it would reflect for a convention of clergymen, or a gathering of archbishops in saintly conclave assembled, to solemnly declare the whole beginning of Genesis a fabrication, a fiction, a fable--that God had nothing to do with any such performance; that God could not do anything so foolish; that God never did anything contrary to the laws of nature; that neither God nor man could, if they wished, do anything contrary to the laws of nature. And that "We, the archbishops, bishops, and clergy in general, further declare and aver, that we, the sacred representatives of the ignorant masses, no longer believe that God, the so-called father almighty, created either heaven or earth, or beast or man, or anything; that we repudiate, deny, and reject all of the statements made in the book called the Bible; that we do not believe in any supernatural interference; that we have erred and have misinstructed and misguided the masses; that the whole story is false, frivolous, and incredible; that neither the creation, as recited, nor the deluge, or any part thereof, as described, is true." CHAPTER VIII. THE SCRIPTURAL GOD--THE CREATION.