The Wonders of Life: A Popular Study of Biological PhilosophyHaeckel, Ernst
Philosophy
The Wonders of Life: A Popular Study of Biological Philosophy
Haeckel, Ernst
Biology; Evolution (Biology); Life -- Origin
The second article of the Creed deals with the dogma of salvation
in the following words: "I believe in Jesus Christ, his only son,
our Lord, who was conceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin
Mary, suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, dead, and buried,
descended into hell, on the third day rose again from the dead,
ascended into heaven, sitteth at the right hand of God, the Father
Almighty, whence he will come to judge the living and the dead." As
these dogmas of the second article contain the chief points of the
redemption theory, and are still treasured by millions of educated
people, it is necessary to point out their flagrant opposition to pure
reason. The chief evil of such creeds is that children, who are yet
incapable of reflecting, are forced to learn them by heart. They then
remain unchallenged as revealed truths.
The myth of the conception and birth of Jesus Christ is mere fiction,
and is at the same stage of superstition as a hundred other myths of
other religions. Of the three persons who are mysteriously blended
in the triune God, the son Christ is supposed to be begotten by both
Father and Holy Ghost, parthenogenetically through the Virgin Mary. I
have dealt with the physiology of parthenogenesis in the seventeenth
chapter of the _Riddle_. The curious adventures of Christ after his
death, the descent into hell, resurrection, and ascension, are also
fantastic myths due to the narrow geocentric ideas of an uneducated
people. Troelslund has admirably explained the strong influence they
have had in his interesting book, _The Idea of Heaven and of the
World_.[6] The idea of the "last judgment," with Christ sitting on the
right hand of the Father, as many famous mediæval pictures represent
(notably Michael Angelo's in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican), is
another outcome of a thoroughly childish and anthropomorphic attitude.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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