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Some Mistakes Of Moses
Robert Green Ingersoll
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The Works of ROBERT G. INGERSOLL
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PREFACE
For many years I have regarded the Pentateuch simply as a
record of a barbarous people, in which are found a great number of
the ceremonies of savagery, many absurd and unjust laws, and
thousands of ideas inconsistent with known and demonstrated facts.
To me it seemed almost a crime to teach that this record was
written by inspired men; that slavery, polygamy, wars of conquest
and extermination were right, and that there was a time when men
could win the approbation of infinite Intelligence, Justice, and
Mercy, by violating maidens and by butchering babes. To me it
seemed more reasonable that savage men had made these laws; and I
endeavored in a lecture, entitled "Some Mistakes of Moses," to
point out some of the errors, contradictions, and impossibilities
contained in the Pentateuch. The lecture was never written and
consequently never delivered twice the same. On several occasions
it was reported and published without consent, and without
revision. All these publications were grossly and glaringly
incorrect. As published, they have been answered several hundred
times, and many of the clergy are still engaged in the great work.
To keep these reverend gentlemen from wasting their talents on the
mistakes of reporters and printers, I concluded to publish the
principal points in all my lectures on this subject. And here, it
may be proper for one to say, that arguments cannot be answered by
personal abuse; that there is no logic in slander, and that
falsehood, in the long run, defeats itself, People who love their
enemies should, at least, tell the truth about their friends.
Should it turn out that I am the worst man in the whole world, the
story of the flood will remain just as improbable as before, and
the contradictions of the Pentateuch will still demand an
explanation.
There was a time when a falsehood, fulminated from the pulpit,
smote like a sword; but, the supply having greatly exceeded the
demand, clerical misrepresentation has at last become almost an
innocent amusement. Remembering that only a few years ago men,
women, and even children, were imprisoned, tortured and burned, for
having expressed in an exceedingly mild and gentle way, the ideas
entertained by me, I congratulate myself that calumny is now the
pulpit's last resort. The old instruments of torture are kept only
to gratify curiosity; the chains are rusting away, and the
demolition of time has allowed even the dungeons of the Inquisition
to be visited by light. The church, impotent and malicious,
regrets, not the abuse, but the loss of her power, and seeks to
hold by falsehood what she gained by cruelty and force, by fire and
fear. Christianity cannot live in peace with any other form of
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
faith. If that religion be true, there is but one savior, one
inspired book, and but one little narrow grass-grown path that
leads to heaven. Such a religion is necessarily uncompromising,
unreasoning, aggressive and insolent. Christianity has held all
other creeds and forms in infinite contempt, divided the world into
enemies and friends, and verified the awful declaration of its
founder -- a declaration that wet with blood the sword he came to
bring, and made the horizon of a thousand years lurid with the
fagots' flames.
Too great praise challenges attention, and often brings to
light a thousand faults that otherwise the general eye would never
see. Were we allowed to read the Bible as we do all other books, we
would admire its beauties, treasure its worthy thoughts, and
account for all its absurd, grotesque and cruel things, by saying
that its authors lived in rude, barbaric times. But we are told
that it was written by inspired men; that it contains the will of
God; that it is perfect, pure, and true in all its parts; the
source and standard of all moral and religious truth; that it is
the star and anchor of all human hope; the only guide for man, the
only torch in Nature's night. These claims are so at variance with
every known recorded fact, so palpably absurd, that every free,
unbiased soul is forced to raise the standard of revolt.
We read the pagan sacred books with profit and delight. With
myth and fable we are ever charmed, and find a pleasure in the
endless repetition of the beautiful, poetic, and absurd. We find,
in all these records of the past, philosophies and dreams, and
efforts stained with tears, of great and tender souls who tried to
pierce the mystery of life and death, to answer the eternal
questions of the Whence and Whither, and vainly sought to make,
with bits of shattered glass, a mirror that would, in very truth,
reflect the face and form of Nature's perfect self.
These myths were born of hopes, and fears, and tears, and
smiles, and they were touched and colored by all there is of joy
and grief between the rosy dawn of birth, and death's sad night.
They clothed even the stars with passion, and gave to gods the
faults and frailties of the sons of men. In them, the winds and
waves were music, and all the lakes, and streams, and springs, --
the mountains. woods and perfumed dells were haunted by a thousand
fairy forms. They thrilled the veins of Spring with tremulous
desire; made tawny Summer's billowed breast the throne and home of
love; filled Autumn's arms with sun-kissed grapes, and gathered
sheaves; and pictured Winter as a weak old king who felt, like Lear
upon his withered face, Cordelia's tears. These myths, though
false, are beautiful, and have for many ages and in countless ways,
enriched the heart and kindled thought. But if the world were
taught that all these things are true and all inspired of God, and
that eternal punishment will be the lot of him who dares deny or
doubt, the sweetest myth of all the Fable World would lose its
beauty, and become a scorned and hateful thing to every brave and
thoughtful man.
Robert G. Ingersoll
Washington, D.C.,
Oct. 7th, 1879.
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
1879
HE WHO ENDEAVORS TO CONTROL THE MIND BY FORCE
IS A TYRANT, HE WHO SUBMITS IS A SLAVE.
I
I want to do what little I can to make my country truly free,
to broaden the intellectual horizon of our people, to destroy the
prejudices born of ignorance and fear, to do away with the blind
worship of the ignoble past, with the idea that all the great and
good are dead, that the living are totally depraved, that all
pleasures are sins, that sighs and groans are alone pleasing to
God, that thought is dangerous, that intellectual courage is a
crime, that cowardice is a virtue, that a certain belief is
necessary to secure salvation, that to carry a cross in this world
will give us a palm in the next, and that we must allow some priest
to be the pilot of our souls.
Until every soul is freely permitted to investigate every
book, and creed, and dogma for itself, the world cannot be free.
Mankind will be enslaved until there is mental grandeur enough to
allow each man to have his thought and say. This earth will be a
paradise when men can, upon all these questions differ, and yet
grasp each other's hands as friends. It is amazing to me that a
difference of opinion upon subjects that we know nothing with
certainty about, should make us hate, persecute, and despise each
other. Why a difference of opinion upon predestination, or the
Trinity, should make people imprison and burn each other seems
beyond the comprehension of man; and yet in all countries where
Christians have existed, they have destroyed each other to the
exact extent of their power. Why should a believer in God hate an
atheist? Surely the atheist has not injured God, and surely he is
human, capable of joy and pain, and entitled to all the rights of
man. Would it not be far better to treat this atheist, at least, as
well as he treats us?
Christians tell me that they love their enemies, and yet all
I ask is -- not that they love their enemies, not that they love
their friends even, but that they treat those who differ from them,
with simple fairness. We do not wish to be forgiven, but we wish
Christians to so act that we will not have to forgive them.
If all will admit that all have an equal right to think, then
the question is forever solved; but as long as organized and
powerful churches, pretending to hold the keys of heaven and hell,
denounce every person as an outcast and criminal who thinks for
himself and denies their authority, the world will be filled with
hatred and suffering. To hate man and worship God seems to be the
sum of all the creeds.
That which has happened in most countries has happened in
ours. When a religion is founded, the educated, the powerful --
that is to say, the priests and nobles, tell the ignorant and
superstitious -- that is to say, the people, that the religion of
their country was given to their fathers by God himself; that it is
the only true religion; that all others were conceived in falsehood
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
and brought forth in fraud, and that all who believe in the true
religion will be happy forever, while all others will burn in hell.
For the purpose of governing the people, that is to say, for the
purpose of being supported by the people, the priests and nobles
declare this religion to be sacred, and that whoever adds to, or
takes away from it, will be burned here by man, and hereafter by
God. The result of this is, that the priests and nobles will not
allow the people to change; and when, after a time, the priests,
having intellectually advanced, wish to take a step in the
direction of progress, the people will not allow them to change. At
first, the rabble are enslaved by the priests, and afterwards the
rabble become the masters.
One of the first things I wish to do, is to free the orthodox
clergy. I am a great friend of theirs, and in spite of all they may
say against me, I am going to do them a great and lasting service.
Upon their necks are visible the marks of the collar, and upon
their backs those of the lash. They are not allowed to read and
think for themselves. They are taught like parrots, and the best
are those who repeat, with the fewest mistakes, the sentences they
have been taught. They sit like owls upon some dead limb of the
tree of knowledge, and hoot the same old hoots that have been
hooted for eighteen hundred years. Their congregations are not
grand enough, nor sufficiently civilized, to be willing that the
poor preachers shall think for themselves. They are not employed
for that purpose. Investigation is regarded as a dangerous
experiment, and the ministers are warned that none of that kind of
work will be tolerated. They are notified to stand by the old
creed, and to avoid all original thought, as a moral pestilence.
Every minister is employed like an attorney -- either for plaintiff
or defendant, -- and he is expected to be true to his client. If he
changes his mind, he is regarded as a deserter, and denounced,
hated, and slandered accordingly. Every orthodox clergyman agrees
not to change. He contracts not to find new facts, and makes a
bargain that he will deny them if he does. Such is the position of
a Protestant minister in this nineteenth century. His condition
excites my pity; and to better it, I am going to do what little I
can.
Some of the clergy have the independence to break away, and
the intellect to maintain themselves as free men, but the most are
compelled to submit to the dictation of the orthodox, and the dead.
They are not employed to give their thoughts, but simply to repeat
the ideas of others. They are not expected to give even the doubts
that may suggest themselves, but are required to walk in the
narrow, verdureless path trodden by the ignorance of the past. The
forests and fields on either side are nothing to them. They must
not even look at the purple hills, nor pause to hear the babble of
the brooks. They must remain in the dusty road where the guide-
boards are. They must confine themselves to the "fall of man," "the
expulsion from the garden," the "scheme of salvation," the "second
birth," the atonement, the happiness of the redeemed, and the
misery of the lost. They must be careful not to express any new
ideas upon these great questions. It is much safer for them to
quote from the works of the dead. The more vividly they describe
the sufferings of the unregenerate, of those who attended theaters
and balls, and drank wine in summer gardens on the Sabbath-day, and
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
laughed at priests, the better ministers they are supposed to be.
They must show that misery fits the good for heaven, while
happiness prepares the bad for hell; that the wicked get all their
good things in this life, and the good all their evil; that in this
world God punishes the people he loves, and in the next, the ones
he hates; that happiness makes us bad here, but not in heaven; that
pain makes us good here, but not in hell. No matter how absurd
these things may appear to the carnal mind, they must be preached
and they must he believed. If they were reasonable, there would be
no virtue in believing. Even the publicans and sinners believe
reasonable things. To believe without evidence, or in spite of it,
is accounted as righteousness to the sincere and humble Christian.
The ministers are in duty bound to denounce all intellectual
pride, and show that we are never quite so dear to God as when we
admit that we are poor, corrupt and idiotic worms; that we never
should have been born; that we ought to be damned without the least
delay; that we are so infamous that we like to enjoy ourselves;
that we love our wives and children better than our God; that we
are generous only because we are vile; that we are honest from the
meanest motives, and that sometimes we have fallen so low that we
have had doubts about the inspiration of the Jewish Scriptures. In
short, they are expected to denounce all pleasant paths and
rustling trees, to curse the grass and flowers, and glorify the
dust and weeds. They are expected to malign the wicked people in
the green and happy fields, who sit and laugh beside the gurgling
springs or climb the hills and wander as they will. They are
expected to point out the dangers of freedom, the safety of
implicit obedience, and to show the wickedness of philosophy, the
goodness of faith, the immorality of science and the purity of
ignorance.
Now and then a few pious people discover some young man of a
religious turn of mind and a consumptive habit of holy, not quite
sickly enough to die, nor healthy enough to be wicked. The idea
occurs to them that he would make a good orthodox minister. They
take up a contribution, and send the young man to some theological
school where he can be taught to repeat a creed and despise reason.
Should it turn out that the young man had some mind of his own,
and, after graduating, should change his opinions and preach a
different doctrine from that taught in the school, every man who
contributed a dollar towards his education would feel that he had
been robbed, and would denounce him as a dishonest and ungrateful
wretch.
The pulpit should not be a pillory. Congregations should allow
the minister a little liberty. They should, at least, permit him to
tell the truth.
They have, in Massachusetts, at a place called Andover, a kind
of minister factory, where each professor takes an oath once in
five years -- that time being considered the life of an oath --
that he has not, during the last five years, and will not, during
the next five years, intellectually advance. There is probably no
oath that they could easier keep. Probably, since the foundation
stone of that institution was laid there has not been a single case
of perjury. The old creed is still taught. They still insist that
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
God is infinitely wise, powerful and good, and that all men are
totally depraved. They insist that the best man God ever made,
deserved to he damned the moment he was finished. Andover puts its
brand upon every minister it turns out, the same as Sheffield and
Birmingham brand their wares, and all who see the brand know
exactly what the minister believes, the books he has read, the
arguments he relies on, and just what he intellectually is. They
know just what he can be depended on to preach, and that he will
continue to shrink and shrivel, and grow solemnly stupid day by day
until he reaches the Andover of the grave and becomes truly
orthodox forever.
I have not singled out the Andover factory because it is worse
than the others. They are all about the same. The professors, for
the most part, are ministers who failed in the pulpit and were
retired to the seminary on account of their deficiency in reason
and their excess of faith. As a rule, they know nothing of this
world, and far less of the next; but they have the power of stating
the most absurd propositions with faces solemn an stupidity touched
by fear.
Something should be done for the liberation of these men. They
should be allowed to grow -- to have sunlight and air. They should
no longer be chained and tied to confessions of faith, to mouldy
books and musty creeds. Thousands of ministers are anxious to give
their honest thoughts. The hands of wives and babes now stop their
mouths. They must have bread, and so the husbands and fathers are
forced to preach a doctrine that they hold in scorn. For the sake
of shelter, food and clothes, they are obliged to defend the
childish miracles of the past, and denounce the sublime discoveries
of to-day. They are compelled to attack all modern thought, to
point out the dangers of science, the wickedness of investigation
and the corrupting influence of logic. It is for them to show that
virtue rests upon ignorance and faith, while vice impudently feeds
and fattens upon fact and demonstration. It is a part of their
business to malign and vilify the Voltaires, Humes, Paines,
Humboldts, Tyndalls, Haeckels, Darwins, Spencers, and Drapers, and
to bow with uncovered heads before the murderers, adulterers, and
persecutors of the world. They are, for the most part, engaged in
poisoning the minds of the young, prejudicing children against
science, teaching the astronomy and geology of the Bible, and
inducing all to desert the sublime standard of reason.
These orthodox ministers do not add to the sum of knowledge.
They produce nothing. They live upon alms. They hate laughter and
joy. They officiate at weddings, sprinkle water upon babes, and
utter meaningless words and barren promises above the dead. They
laugh at the agony of unbelievers, mock at their tears, and of
their sorrows make a jest. There are some noble exceptions. Now and
then a pulpit holds a brave and honest man. Their congregations are
willing that they should think -- willing that their ministers
should have a little freedom.
As we become civilized, more and more liberty will be accorded
to these men, until finally ministers will give their best and
highest thoughts. The congregations will finally get tired of
hearing about the patriarchs and saints, the miracles and wonders,
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
and will insist upon knowing something about the men and women of
our day, and the accomplishments and discoveries of our time. They
will finally insist upon knowing how to escape the evils of this
world instead of the next. They will ask light upon the enigmas of
this life. They will wish to know what we shall do with our
criminals instead of what God will do with his -- how we shall do
away with beggary and want -- with crime and misery -- with
prostitution, disease and famine, -- with tyranny in all its cruel
forms -- with prisons and scaffolds, and how we shall reward the
honest workers, and fill the world with happy homes! These are the
problems for the pulpits and congregations of an enlightened
future. If Science cannot finally answer these questions, it is a
vain and worthless thing.
The clergy, however, will continue to answer them in the old
way, until their congregations are good enough to set them free.
They will still talk about believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, as
though that were the only remedy for all human ills. They will
still teach, that retrogression is the only path that leads to
light; that we must go back, that faith is the only sure guide, and
that reason is a delusive glare, lighting only the road to eternal
pain.
Until the clergy are free they cannot be intellectually
honest. We can never tell what they really believe until they know
that they can safely speak. They console themselves now by a secret
resolution to be as liberal as they dare, with the hope that they
can finally educate their congregations to the point of allowing
them to think a little for themselves. They hardly know what they
ought to do. The best part of their lives has been wasted in
studying subjects of no possible value. Most of them are married,
have families, and know but one way of making their living. Some of
them say that if they do not preach these foolish dogmas, others
will, and that they may through fear, after all, restrain mankind.
Besides, they hate publicly to admit that they are mistaken, that
the whole thing is a delusion, that the "scheme of salvation" is
absurd, and that the Bible is no better than some other books, and
worse than most.
You can hardly expect a bishop to leave his palace, or the
pope to vacate the Vatican. As long as people want popes, plenty of
hypocrites will be found to take the place. And as long as labor
fatigues, there will be found a good many men willing to preach
once a week, if other folks will work and give them bread. In other
words, while the demand lasts, the supply will never fail.
If the people were a little more ignorant, astrology would
flourish -- if a little more enlightened, religion would perish!
II
FREE SCHOOLS.
It is also my desire to free the schools. When a professor in
a college finds a fact, he should make it known, even if it is
inconsistent with something Moses said. Public opinion must not
compel the professor to hide a fact, and, "like the base Indian,
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
throw the pearl away." With the single exception of Cornell, there
is not a college in the United States where truth has ever been a
welcome guest. The moment one of the teachers denies the
inspiration of the Bible, he is discharged. If he discovers a fact
inconsistent with that book, so much the worse for the fact, and
especially for the discoverer of the fact. He must not corrupt the
minds of his pupils with demonstrations. He must beware of every
truth that cannot, in some way be made to harmonize with the
superstitions of the Jews. Science has nothing in common with
religion. Facts and miracles never did, and never will agree. They
are not in the least related. They are deadly foes. What has
religion to do with facts? Nothing. Can there be Methodist
mathematics, Catholic astronomy, Presbyterian geology, Baptist
biology, or Episcopal botany? Why, then, should a sectarian college
exist? Only that which somebody knows should be taught in our
schools. We should not collect taxes to pay people for guessing.
The common school is the bread of life for the people, and it
should not be touched by the withering hand of superstition.
Our country will never be filled with great institutions of
learning until there is an absolute divorce between Church and
School. As long as the mutilated records of a barbarous people are
placed by priest and professor above the reason of mankind, we
shall reap but little benefit from church or school.
Instead of dismissing professors for finding something out,
let us rather discharge those who do not. Let each teacher
understand that investigation is not dangerous for him; that his
bread is safe, no matter how much truth he may discover, and that
his salary will not be reduced, simply because he finds that the
ancient Jews did not know the entire history of the world.
Besides, it is not fair to make the Catholic support a
Protestant school, nor is it just to collect taxes frown infidels
and atheists to support schools in which any system of religion is
taught.
The sciences are not sectarian. People do not persecute each
other on account of disagreements in mathematics. Families are not
divided about botany, and astronomy does not even tend to make a
man hate his father and mother. It is what people do not know, that
they persecute each other about. Science will bring, not a sword'
but peace.
Just as long as religion has control of the schools, science
will be an outcast. Let us free our institutions of learning. Let
us dedicate them to the science of eternal truth. Let us tell every
teacher to ascertain all the facts he can -- to give us light, to
follow Nature, no matter where she leads; to be infinitely true to
himself and us; to feel that he is without a chain, except the
obligation to be honest; that he is bound by no books, by no creed,
neither by the sayings of the dead nor of the living; that he is
asked to look with his own eyes, to reason for himself without
fear, to investigate in every possible direction, and to bring us
the fruit of all his work.
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
At present, a good many men engaged in scientific pursuits,
and who have signally failed in gaining recognition among their
fellows, are endeavoring to make reputations among the churches by
delivering weak and vapid lectures upon the "harmony of Genesis and
Geology." Like all hypocrites, these men overstate the case to such
a degree, and so turn and pervert facts and words that they succeed
only in gaining the applause of other hypocrites like themselves.
Among the great scientists they are regarded as generals regard
settlers who trade with both armies.
Surely the time must come when the wealth of the world will
not be wasted in the propagation of ignorant creeds and miraculous
mistakes. The time must come when churches and cathedrals will be
dedicated to the use of man; when minister and priest will deem the
discoveries of the living of more importance than the errors of the
dead; when the truths of Nature will outrank the "sacred"
falsehoods of the past, and when a single fact will outweigh all
the miracles of Holy Writ.
Who can over estimate the progress of the world if all the
money wasted in superstition could be used to enlighten, elevate
and civilize mankind?
When every church becomes a school, every cathedral a
university, every clergyman a teacher, and all their hearers brave
and honest thinkers, then, and not until then, will the dream of
poet, patriot, philanthropist and philosopher, become a real and
blessed truth.
III
THE POLITICIANS.
I would like also to liberate the politician. At present, the
successful office-seeker is a good deal like the center of the
earth; he weighs nothing himself but draws everything else to him.
There are so many societies, so many churches, so many isms, that
it is almost impossible for an independent man to succeed in a
political career. Candidates are forced to pretend that they are
Catholics with Protestant proclivities, or Christians with liberal
tendencies, or temperance men who now and then take a glass of
wine, or, that although not members of any church their wives are,
and that they subscribe liberally to all. The result of all this is
that we reward hypocrisy and elect men entirely destitute of real
principle; and this will never change until the people become grand
enough to allow each other to do their own thinking.
Our Government should be entirely and purely secular. The
religious views of a candidate should be kept entirely out of
sight. He should not be compelled to give his opinion as to the
inspiration of the Bible, the propriety of infant baptism, or the
immaculate conception. All these things are private and personal.
He should be allowed to settle such things for himself and should
he decide contrary to the law and will of God, let him settle the
matter with God. The people ought to be wise enough to select as
their officers men who know something of political affairs, who
comprehend the present greatness, and clearly perceive the future
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
grandeur of our country. If we were in a storm at sea, with deck
wave-washed and masts strained and bent with storm, and it was
necessary to reef the top sail, we certainly would not ask the
brave sailor who volunteered to go aloft, what his opinion was on
the five points of Calvinism. Our Government has nothing to do with
religion. It is neither Christian nor pagan; it is secular. But as
long as the people persist in voting for or against men on account
of their religious views, just so long will hypocrisy hold place
and power. Just so long will the candidates crawl in the dust --
hide their opinions, flatter those with whom they differ, pretend
to agree with those whom they despise; and just so long will honest
men be trampled under foot. Churches are becoming political
organizations. Nearly every Catholic is a Democrat; nearly every
Methodist in the North is a Republican.
It probably will not be long until the churches will divide as
sharply upon political, as upon theological questions; and when
that day comes, if there are not liberals enough to hold the
balance of power, this Government will be destroyed. The liberty of
man is not safe in the hands of any church. Wherever the Bible and
sword are in partnership, man is a slave.
All laws for the purpose of making man worship God, are born
of the same spirit that kindled the fires of the auto da fe, and
lovingly built the dungeons of the Inquisition. All laws defining
and punishing blasphemy -- making it a crime to give your honest
ideas about the Bible, or to laugh at the ignorance of the ancient
Jews, or to enjoy yourself on the Sabbath, or to give your opinion
of Jehovah, were passed by impudent bigots, and should be at once
repealed by honest men. An infinite God ought to be able to protect
himself, without going in partnership with State Legislatures.
Certainly he ought not so to act that laws become necessary to keep
him from being laughed at. No one thinks of protecting Shakespeare
from ridicule, by the threat of fine and imprisonment. It strikes
me that God might write a book that would not necessarily excite
the laughter of his children. In fact, I think it would be safe to
say that a real God could produce a work that would excite the
admiration of mankind. Surely politicians could be better employed
than in passing laws to protect the literary reputation of the
Jewish God.
IV
MAN AND WOMAN.
Let us forget that we are Baptists, Methodists, Catholics,
Presbyterians, or Freethinkers, and remember only that we are men
and women. After all, man and woman are the highest possible
titles. All other names belittle us, and show that we have, to a
certain extent, given up our individuality, and have consented to
wear the collar of authority -- that we are followers. Throwing
away these names, let us examine these questions not as partisans,
but as human beings with hopes and fears in common.
We know that our opinions depend, to a great degree, upon our
surroundings -- upon race, country, and education. We are all the
result of numberless conditions, and inherit vices and virtues,
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
truths and prejudices. If we had been born in England, surrounded
by wealth and clothed with power, most of us would have been
Episcopalians, and believed in church and state. We should have
insisted that the people needed a religion, and that not having
intellect enough to provide one for themselves, it was our duty to
make one for them, and then compel them to support it. We should
have believed it indecent to officiate in a pulpit without wearing
a gown, and that prayers should be read from a book. Had we
belonged to the lower classes, we might have been dissenters and
protested against the mummeries of the High Church. Had we been
born in Turkey, most of us would have been Mohammedans and believed
in the inspiration of the Koran. We should have believed that
Mohammed actually visited heaven and became acquainted with an
angel by the name of Gabriel, who was so broad between the eyes
that it required three hundred days for a very smart camel to
travel the distance. If some man had denied this story we should
probably have denounced him as a dangerous person, one who was
endeavoring to undermine the foundations of society, and to destroy
all distinction between virtue and vice. We should have said to
him, "What do you propose to give us in place of that angel? We
cannot afford to give up an angel of that size for nothing." We
would have insisted that the best and wisest men believed the
Koran. We would have quoted from the works and letters of
philosophers, generals and sultans, to show that the Koran was the
best of books, and that Turkey was indebted to that book and to
that alone for its greatness and prosperity. We would have asked
that man whether he knew more than all the great minds of his
country, whether he was so much wiser than his fathers? We would
have pointed out to him the fact that thousands had been consoled
in the hour of death by passages from the Koran; that they had died
with glazed eyes brightened by visions of the heavenly harem, and
gladly left this world of grief and tears. We would have regarded
Christians as the vilest of men, and on all occasions would have
repeated "There is but one God, and Mohammed is his prophet!"
So, if we had been born in India, we should in all probability
have believed in the religion of that country. We should have
regarded the old records as true and sacred, and looked upon a
wandering priest as better than the men from whom he begged, and by
whose labor he lived. We should have believed in a god with three
heads instead of three gods with one head, as we do now.
Now and then some one says that the religion of his father and
mother is good enough for him, and wonders why anybody should
desire a better. Surely we are not bound to follow our parents in
religion any more than in politics, science or art. China has been
petrified by the worship of ancestors. If our parents had been
satisfied with the religion of theirs, we would be still less
advanced than we are. If we are, in any way, bound by the belief of
our fathers, the doctrine will hold good back to the first people
who had a religion; and if this doctrine is true, we ought now to
be believers in that first religion. In other words, we would all
be barbarians. You cannot show real respect to your parents by
perpetuating their errors. Good fathers and mothers wish their
children to advance, to overcome obstacles which baffled them, and
to correct the errors of their education. If you wish to reflect
credit upon your parents, accomplish more than they did, solve
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
problems that they could not understand, and build better than they
knew. To sacrifice your manhood upon the grave of your father is an
honor to neither. Why should a son who has examined a subject,
throw away his reason and adopt the views of his mother? Is not
such a course dishonorable to both?
We must remember that this "ancestor" argument is as old at
least as the second generation of men, that it has served no
purpose except to enslave mankind, and results mostly from the fact
that acquiescence is easier than investigation. This argument
pushed to its logical conclusion, would prevent the advance of all
people whose parents were not Freethinkers.
It is hard for many people to give up the religion in which
they were born; to admit that their fathers were utterly mistaken,
and that the sacred records of their country are but collections of
myths and fables.
But when we look for a moment at the world, we find that each
nation has its "sacred records" -- its religion, and its ideas of
worship. Certainly all cannot be right; and as it would require a
lifetime to investigate the claims of these various systems, it is
hardly fair to damn a man forever, simply because he happens to
believe the wrong one. All these religions were produced by
barbarians. Civilized nations have contented themselves with
changing the religions of their barbaric ancestors, but they have
made none. Nearly all these religions are intensely selfish. Each
one was made by some contemptible little nation that regarded
itself as of almost infinite importance, and looked upon the other
nations as beneath the notice of their god. In all these countries
it was a crime to deny the sacred records, to laugh at the priests,
to speak disrespectfully of the gods, to fail to divide your
substance with the lazy hypocrites who managed your affairs in the
next world upon condition that you would support them in this. In
the olden time these theological people who quartered themselves
upon the honest and industrious, were called soothsayers, seers,
charmers, prophets, enchanters, sorcerers, wizards, astrologers,
and impostors, but now, they are known as clergymen.
We are no exception to the general rule, and consequently have
our sacred books as well as the rest. Of course, it is claimed by
many of our people that our books are the only true ones, the only
ones that the real God ever wrote, or had anything whatever to do
with. They insist that all other sacred books were written by
hypocrites and impostors; that the Jews were the only people that
God ever had any personal intercourse with, and that all other
prophets and seers were inspired only by impudence and mendacity.
True, it seems somewhat strange that God should have chosen a
barbarous and unknown people who had little or nothing to do with
the other nations of the earth, as his messengers to the rest of
mankind.
It is not easy to account for an infinite God making people so
low in the scale of intellect as to require a revelation. Neither
is it easy to perceive why, if a revelation was necessary for all,
it was made only to a few. Of course, I know that it is extremely
wicked to suggest these thoughts, and that ignorance is the only
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
armor that can effectually protect you from the wrath of God. I am
aware that investigators with all their genius, never find the road
to heaven; that those who look where they are going are sure to
miss it, and that only those who voluntarily put out their eyes and
implicitly depend upon blindness can surely keep the narrow path.
Whoever reads our sacred book is compelled to believe it or
suffer forever the torments of the lost. We are told that we have
the privilege of examining it for ourselves; but this privilege is
only extended to us on the condition that we believe it whether it
appears reasonable or not. We may disagree with others as much as
we please upon the meaning of all passages in the Bible, but we
must not deny the truth of a single word. We must believe that the
book is inspired. If we obey its every precept without believing in
its inspiration we will be damned just as certainly as though we
disobeyed its every word. We have no right to weigh it in the
scales of reason -- to test it by the laws of nature, or the facts
of observation and experience. To do this, we are told, is to put
ourselves above the word of God, and sit in judgment on the works
of our creator.
For my part, I cannot admit that belief is a voluntary thing.
It seems to me that evidence, even in spite of ourselves, will have
its weight, and that whatever our wish may be, we are compelled to
stand with fairness by the scales, and give the exact result. It
will not do to say that we reject the Bible because we are wicked.
Our wickedness must be ascertained not from our belief but from our
acts.
I am told by the clergy that I ought not to attack the Bible;
that I am leading thousands to perdition and rendering certain the
damnation of my own soul. They have had the kindness to advise me
that, if my object is to make converts, I am pursuing the wrong
course. They tell me to use gentler expressions, and more cunning
words. Do they really wish me to make more converts? If their
advice is honest, they are traitors to their trust. If their advice
is not honest, then they are unfair with me. Certainly they should
wish me to pursue the course that will make the fewest converts,
and yet they pretend to tell me how my influence could be
increased. It may be, that upon this principle John Bright advises
America to adopt free trade, so that our country can become a
successful rival of Great Britain. Sometimes I think that even
ministers are not entirely candid.
Notwithstanding the advice of the clergy, I have concluded to
pursue my own course, to tell my honest thoughts, and to have my
freedom in this world whatever my fate may be in the next.
The real oppressor, enslaver and corrupter of the people is
the Bible. That book is the chain that binds, the dungeon that
holds the clergy. That book spreads the pall of superstition over
the colleges and schools. That book puts out the eyes of science,
and makes honest investigation a crime. That book unmans the
politician and degrades the people. That book fills the world with
bigotry, hypocrisy and fear. It plays the same part in our country
that has been played by "sacred records" in all the nations of the
world.
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A little while ago I saw one of the Bibles of the Middle Ages.
It was about two feet in length, and one and a half in width. It
had immense oaken covers, with hasps, and clasps, and hinges large
enough almost for the doors of a penitentiary. It was covered with
pictures of winged angels and aureoled saints. In my imagination I
saw this book carried to the cathedral altar in solemn pomp --
heard the chant of robed and kneeling priests, felt the strange
tremor of the organ's peal; saw the colored light streaming through
windows stained and touched by blood and flame -- the swinging
censer with its perfumed incense rising to the mighty roof, dim
with height and rich with legend carved in stone, while on the
walls was hung, written in light, and shade, and all the colors
that can tell of joy and tears, the pictured history of the
martyred Christ. The people fell upon their knees. The book was
opened, and the priest read the messages from God to man. To the
multitude, the book itself was evidence enough that it was not the
work of human hands. How could those little marks and lines and
dots contain, like tombs, the thoughts of men, and how could they,
touched by a ray of light from human eyes, give up their dead? How
could these characters span the vast chasm dividing the present
from the past, and make it possible for the living still to hear
the voices of the dead?
V
THE PENTATEUCH.
The first five books in our Bible are known as the Pentateuch.
For a long time it was supposed that Moses was the author, and
among the ignorant the supposition still prevails. As a matter of
fact, it seems to be well settled that Moses had nothing to do with
these books, and that they were not written until he had been dust
and ashes for hundreds of years. But, as all the churches still
insist that he was the author, that he wrote even an account of his
own death and burial, let us speak of him as though these books
were in fact written by him. As the Christians maintain that God
was the real author, it makes but little difference whom he
employed as his pen, or clerk.
Nearly all authors of sacred books have given an account of
the creation of the universe, the origin of matter, and the destiny
of the human race. Nearly all have pointed out the obligation that
man is under to his creator for having placed him upon the earth,
and allowed him to live and suffer, and have taught that nothing
short of the most abject worship could possibly compensate God for
his trouble and labor suffered and done for the good of man. They
have nearly all insisted that we should thank God for all that is
good in life but they have not all informed us as to whom we should
hold responsible for the evils we endure.
Moses differed from most of the makers of sacred books by his
failure to say anything of a future life, by failing to promise
heaven, and to threaten hell. Upon the subject of a future state,
there is not one word in the Pentateuch. Probably at that early day
God did not deem it important to make a revelation as to the
eternal destiny of man. He seems to have thought that he could
control the Jews, at least, by rewards and punishments in this
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
world, and so he kept the frightful realities of eternal joy and
torment a profound secret from the people of his choice. He thought
it far more important to tell the Jews their origin than to
enlighten them as to their destiny.
We must remember that every tribe and nation has some way in
which the more striking phenomena of nature are accounted for.
These accounts are handed down by tradition, changed by numberless
narrators as intelligence increases, or to account for newly
discovered facts, or for the purpose of satisfying the appetite for
the marvelous.
The way in which a tribe or nation accounts for day and night,
the change of seasons, the fall of snow and rain, the flight of
birds, the origin of the rainbow, the peculiarities of animals, the
dreams of sleep, the visions of the insane, the existence of
earthquakes, volcanoes, storms, lightning and the thousand things
that attract the attention and excite the wonder, fear or
admiration of mankind, may be called the philosophy of that tribe
or nation. And as all phenomena are, by savage and barbaric man
accounted for as the action of intelligent beings for the
accomplishment of certain objects, and as these beings were
supposed to have the power to assist or injure man, certain things
were supposed necessary for man to do in order to gain the
assistance, and avoid the anger of these gods. Out of this belief
grew certain ceremonies, and these ceremonies united with the
belief, formed religion; and consequently every religion has for
its foundation a misconception of the cause of phenomena.
All worship is necessarily based upon the belief that some
being exists who can, if he will, change the natural order of
events. The savage prays to a stone that he calls a god, while the
Christian prays to a god that he calls a spirit, and the prayers of
both are equally useful. The savage and the Christian put behind
the Universe an intelligent cause, and this cause whether
represented by one god or many, has been, in all ages, the object
of all worship. To carry a fetich, to utter a prayer, to count
beads, to abstain from food, to sacrifice a lamb, a child or an
enemy, are simply different ways by which the accomplishment of the
same object is sought, and are all the offspring of the same error.
Many systems of religion must have existed many ages before
the art of writing was discovered, and must have passed through
many changes before the stories, miracles, histories, prophecies
and mistakes became fixed and petrified in written words. After
that, change was possible only by giving new meanings to old words,
a process rendered necessary by the continual acquisition of facts
somewhat inconsistent with a literal interpretation of the "sacred
records." In this way an honest faith often prolongs its life by
dishonest methods; and in this way the Christians of to-day are
trying to harmonize the Mosaic account of creation with the
theories and discoveries of modern science.
Admitting that Moses was the author of the Pentateuch, or that
he gave to the Jews a religion, the question arises as to where he
obtained his information. We are told by the theologians that he
received his knowledge from God, and that every word he wrote was
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
and is the exact truth. It is admitted at the same time that he was
an adopted son of Pharaoh's daughter, and enjoyed the rank and
privilege of a prince. Under such circumstances, he must have been
well acquainted with the literature, philosophy and religion of the
Egyptians, and must have known what they believed and taught as to
the creation of the world.
Now, if the account of the origin of this earth as given by
Moses is substantially like that given by the Egyptians, then we
must conclude that he learned it from them. Should we imagine that
he was divinely inspired because he gave to the Jews what the
Egyptians had given him?
The Egyptian priests taught first, that a god created the
"original matter" leaving it in a state of chaos; second, that a
god molded it into from; third, that the breath of a god moved upon
the face of the deep; fourth, that a god created simply by saying
"Let it be;" fifth, that a god created light before the sun
existed.
Nothing can be clearer than that Moses received from the
Egyptians the principal parts of his narrative, making such changes
and additions as were necessary to satisfy the peculiar
superstitions of his own people.
If some man at the present day should assert that he had
received from God the theories of evolution, the survival of the
fittest, and the law of heredity, and we should afterwards find
that he was not only an Englishman, but had lived in the family of
Charles Darwin, we certainly would account for his having these
theories in a natural way. So, if Darwin himself should pretend
that he was inspired, and had obtained his peculiar theories from
God, we should probably reply that his grandfather suggested the
same ideas, and that Lamarck published substantially the same
theories the same year that Mr. Darwin was born.
Now, if we have sufficient courage, we will, by the same
course of reasoning, account for the story of creation found in the
Bible. We will say that it contains the belief of Moses, and that
he received his information from the Egyptians, and not from God.
If we take the account as the absolute truth and use it for the
purpose of determining the value of modern thought, scientific
advancement becomes impossible. And even if the account of the
creation as given by Moses should turn out to be true, and should
be so admitted by all the scientific world, the claim that he was
inspired would still be without the least particle of proof. We
would be forced to admit that he knew more than we had supposed. It
certainly is no proof that a man is inspired simply because he is
right.
No one pretends that Shakespeare was inspired, and yet all the
writers of the books of the Old Testament put together, could not
have produced Hamlet.
Why should we, looking upon some rough and awkward thing, or
god in stone, say that it must have been produced by some inspired
sculptor, and with the same breath pronounce the Venus de Milo to
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
be the work of man? Why should we, looking at some ancient daub of
angel, saint or virgin, say its painter must have been assisted by
a god?
Let us account for all we see by the facts we know. If there
are things for which we cannot account, let us wait for light. To
account for anything by supernatural agencies is, in fact to say
that we do not know. Theology is not what we know about God, but
what we do not know about Nature. In order to increase our respect
for the Bible, it became necessary for the priests to exalt and
extol that book, and at the same time to decry and belittle the
reasoning powers of man. The whole power of the pulpit has been
used for hundreds of years to destroy the confidence of man in
himself -- to induce him to distrust his own powers of thought, to
believe that he was wholly unable to decide any question for
himself and that all human virtue consists in faith and obedience.
The church has said, "Believe, and obey! If you reason, you will
become an unbeliever, and unbelievers will be lost. If you disobey,
you will do so through vain pride and curiosity, and will, like
Adam and Eve, be thrust from Paradise forever.
For my part I care nothing for what the church says, except in
so far as it accords with my reason; and the Bible is nothing to
me, only in so far as it agrees with what I think or know.
All books should be examined in the same spirit, and truth
should be welcomed and falsehood exposed, no matter in what volume
they may be found.
Let us in this spirit examine the Pentateuch; and if anything
appears unreasonable, contradictory or absurd, let us have the
honesty and courage to admit it. Certainly no good can result
either from deceiving ourselves or others. Many millions have
implicitly believed this book, and have just as implicitly believed
that polygamy was sanctioned by God. Millions have regarded this
book as the foundation of all human progress, and at the same time
looked upon slavery as a divine institution. Millions have declared
this book to have been infinitely holy, and to prove that they were
right, have imprisoned, robbed and burned their fellow-men. The
inspiration of this hook has been established by famine, sword and
fire, by dungeon, chain and whip, by dagger and by rack, by force
and fear and fraud, and generations have been frightened by threats
of hell, and bribed with promises of heaven.
Let us examine a portion of this book, not in the darkness of
our fear, but in the light of reason.
And first, let us examine the account given of the creation of
this world, commenced, according to the Bible, on Monday morning
about five thousand eight hundred and eighty-three years ago.
Moses commences his story by telling us that in the beginning
God created the heaven and the earth.
If this means anything, it means that God produced, caused to
exist, called into being, the heaven and the earth. It will not do
to say that he formed the heaven and the earth of previously
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
existing matter. Moses conveys, and intended to convey the idea
that the matter of which the heaven and the earth are composed, was
created.
It is impossible for me to conceive of something being created
from nothing. Nothing, regarded in the light of a raw material, is
a decided failure. I cannot conceive of matter apart from force.
Neither is it possible to think of force disconnected with matter.
You cannot imagine matter going back to absolute nothing. Neither
can you imagine nothing being changed into something. You may be
eternally damned if you do not say that you can conceive these
things, but you cannot conceive them. Such is the constitution of
the human mind that it cannot even think of a commencement or an
end of matter, or farce.
If God created the universe, there was a time when he
commenced to create. Back of that commencement there must have been
an eternity. In that eternity what was this God doing? He certainly
did not think. There was nothing to think about. He did not
remember. Nothing had ever happened. What did he do? Can you
imagine anything more absurd than an infinite intelligence in
infinite nothing wasting an eternity?
I do not pretend to tell how all these things really are; but
I do insist that a statement that cannot possibly be comprehended
by any human being, and that appears utterly impossible, repugnant
to every fact of experience, and contrary to everything that we
really know, must be rejected by every honest man.
We can conceive of eternity, because we cannot conceive of a
cessation of time. We can conceive of infinite space because we
cannot conceive of so much matter that our imagination will not
stand upon the farthest star, and see infinite space beyond. In
other words, we cannot conceive of a cessation of time; therefore
eternity is a necessity of the mind. Eternity sustains the same
relation to time that space does to matter.
In the time of Moses, it was perfectly safe for him to write
an account of the creation of the world. He had simply to put in
form the crude notions of the people. At that time, no other Jew
could have written a better account. Upon that subject he felt at
liberty to give his imagination full play. There was no one who
could authoritatively contradict any thing he might say. lt was
substantially the same story that had been imprinted in curious
characters upon the clay records of Babylon, the gigantic
monuments, of Egypt, and the gloomy temples of India. In those days
there was an almost infinite difference between the educated and
ignorant. The people were controlled almost entirely by signs and
wonders. By the lever of fear, priests moved the world. The sacred
records were made and kept, and altered by them. The people could
not read, and looked upon one who could, as almost a god. In our
day it is hard to conceive of the influence of an educated class in
a barbarous age. It was only necessary to produce the "sacred
record," and ignorance fell upon its face. The people were taught
that the record was inspired, and therefore true. They were not
taught that it was true, and therefore inspired.
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
After all, the real question is not whether the Bible is
inspired, but whether it is true. If it is true, it does not need
to be inspired. If it is true, it makes no difference whether it
was written by a man or a god. The multiplication table is just as
useful, just as true as though God had arranged the figures
himself. If the Bible is really true, the claim of inspiration need
not be urged; and if it is not true, its inspiration can hardly be
established. As a matter of fact, the truth does not need to be
inspired. Nothing needs inspiration except a falsehood or a
mistake. Where truth ends, where probability stops, inspiration
begins. A fact never went into partnership with a miracle. Truth
does not need the assistance of miracle. A fact will fit every
other fact in the Universe, because it is the product of all other
facts. A lie will fit nothing except another lie made for the
express purpose of fitting it. Alter a while the man gets tired of
lying, and then the last lie will not fit the next fact, and then
there is an opportunity to use a miracle. Just at that point, it is
necessary to have a little inspiration.
It seems to me that reason is the highest attribute of man,
and that if there can be any communication from God to man, it must
be addressed to his reason. It does not seem possible that in order
to understand a message from God it is absolutely essential to
throw our reason away. How could God make known his will to any
being destitute of reason? How can any man accept as a revelation
from God that which is unreasonable to him? God cannot make a
revelation to another man for me. He must make it to me, and until
he convinces my reason that it is true, I cannot receive it.
The statement that in the beginning God created the heaven and
the earth, I cannot accept. It is contrary to my reason, and I
cannot believe it. It appears reasonable to me that force has
existed from eternity. Force cannot, as it appears to me, exist
apart from matter. Force, in its nature, is forever active, and
without matter it could not act and so I think matter must have
existed forever. To conceive of matter without force, or of force
without matter, or of a time when neither existed, or of a being
who existed for an eternity without either, and who out of nothing
created both, is to me utterly impossible. I may be damned on this
account, but I cannot help it. In my judgment, Moses was mistaken.
It will not do to say that Moses merely intended to tell what
God did, in making the heavens and the earth out of matter then in
existence. He distinctly states that in the beginning God created
them. If this account is true, we must believe that God, existing
in infinite space surrounded by eternal nothing, naught and void,
created, produced, called into being, willed into existence this
universe of countless stars, the next thing we are told by this
inspired gentleman is that God created light, and proceeded to
divide it from the darkness.
Certainly, the person who wrote this believed that darkness
was a thing, an entity, a material that could get mixed and tangled
up with light, and that these entities, light and darkness, had to
be separated. In his imagination he probably saw God throwing
pieces and chunks of darkness on one side, and rays and beams of
light on the other. It is hard for a man who has been born but once
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
to understand these things. For my part, I cannot understand how
light can be separated from darkness. I had always supposed that
darkness was simply the absence of light, and that under no
circumstances could it be necessary to take the darkness away from
the light. It is certain, however, that Moses believed darkness to
be a form of matter, because I find that in another place he speaks
of a darkness that could be felt. They used to have on exhibition
at Rome a bottle of the darkness that overspread Egypt.
You cannot divide light from darkness any more than you can
divide heat from cold. Cold is an absence of heat, and darkness is
an absence of light. I suppose that we have no conception of
absolute cold. We know only degrees of heat. Twenty degrees below
zero is just twenty degrees warmer than forty degrees below zero.
Neither cold nor darkness are entities, and these words express
simply either the absolute or partial absence of heat or light. I
cannot conceive how light can be divided from darkness, but I can
conceive how a barbarian several thousand years ago, writing upon
a subject about which he knew nothing, could make a mistake. The
creator of light could not have written in this way. If such a
being exists, he must have known the nature of that "mode of
motion" that paints the earth on every eye, and clothes in garments
sevenhued this universe of worlds. We are next informed by Moses
that "God said let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters
and let it divide the waters from the waters;" and that "God made
the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the
firmament from the waters which were above the firmament."
What did the writer mean by the word firmament? Theologians
now tell us that he meant an "expanse." This will not do. How could
an expanse divide the waters from the waters, so that waters above
the expanse would not fall into and mingle with the waters below
the expanse? The truth is that Moses regarded the firmament as a
solid affair. It was where God lived, and where water was kept. It
was for this reason that they used to pray for rain. They supposed
that some angel could with a lever raise a gate and let out the
quantity of moisture desired. It was with the water from this
firmament that the world was drowned when the windows of heaven
were opened. It was in this firmament that the sons of God lived --
the sons who "saw the daughters of men that they were fair and took
them wives of all which they chose." The issue of such marriages
were giants, and "the same became mighty men which were of old, men
of renown."
Nothing is clearer than that Moses regarded the firmament as
a vast material division that separated the waters of the world,
and upon whose floor God lived, surrounded by his sons. In no other
way could he account for rain. Where did the water come from? He
knew nothing about the laws of evaporation. He did not know that
the sun wooed with amorous kisses the waves of the sea, and that
they, clad in glorified mist rising to meet their lover, were, by
disappointment, changed to tears and fell as rain.
The idea that the firmament was the abode of the Deity must
have been in the mind of Moses when he related the dream of Jacob.
"And he dreamed, and behold, a ladder set upon the earth and the
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
top of it reached to heaven; and behold the angels of God ascending
and descending on it; and behold the Lord stood above it and said,
I am the Lord God."
So, when the people were building the tower of Babel "the Lord
came down to see the city, and the tower which the children of men
builded. And the Lord said, Behold the people is one, and they have
all one language; and this they begin to do; and nothing will be
restrained from them which they imagined to do. Go to, let us go
down and confound their language that they may not understand one
another's speech."
The man who wrote that absurd account must have believed that
God lived above the earth, in the firmament. The same idea was in
the mind of the Psalmist when he said that God "bowed the heavens
and came down."
Of course, God could easily remove any person bodily to
heaven, as it was but a little way above the earth. "Enoch walked
with God" and he was not, for God took him." The accounts in the
Bible of the ascension of Elijah, Christ and St. Paul were born of
the belief that the firmament was the dwelling place of God. It
probably never occurred to these writers that if the firmament was
seven or eight miles away, Enoch and the rest would have been
frozen perfectly stiff long before the journey could have been
completed. Possibly Elijah might have made the voyage, as he was
carried to heaven in a chariot of fire "by a whirlwind."
The truth is, that Moses was mistaken, and upon that mistake
the Christians located their heaven and their hell. The telescope
destroyed the firmament, did away with the heaven of the New
Testament, rendered the ascension of our Lord and the assumption of
his Mother infinitely absurd, crumbled to chaos the gates and
palaces of the New Jerusalem, and in their places gave to man a
wilderness of worlds.
We are next informed by the historian of creation, that after
God had finished making the firmament and had succeeded in dividing
me waters by means of an "expanse" he proceeded "to gather the
waters on the earth together in seas, so that the dry land might
appear."
Certainly the writer of this did not have any conception of
the real form of the earth. He could not have known anything of the
attraction of gravitation. He must have regarded the earth as flat
and supposed that it required considerable force and power to
induce the water to leave the mountains and collect in the valleys.
Just as soon as the water was forced to run down hill, the dry land
appeared, and the grass began to grow, and the mantles of green
were thrown over the shoulders of the hills, and the trees laughed
into bud and blossom, and the branches were laden with fruit. And
all this happened before a ray had left the quiver of the sun,
before a glittering beam had thrilled the bosom of a flower, and
before the Dawn with trembling hands had drawn aside the curtains
of the East and welcomed to her arms the eager god of Day.
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
It does not seem to me that grass and trees could grow and
ripen into seed and fruit without the sun. According to the
account, this all happened on the third day. Now, if, as the
Christians say, Moses did not mean by the word day a period of
twenty-four hours, but an immense and almost measureless space of
time, and as God did not, according to this view make any animals
until the fifth day, that is, not for millions of years after he
made the grass and trees, for what purpose did he cause the trees
to bear fruit?
Moses says that God said on the third day, "Let the earth
bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree
yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself upon the
earth; and it was so. And the earth brought forth grass and herb
yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit whose
seed was in itself after his kind; and God saw that it was good,
and the evening and the morning were the third day."
There was nothing to eat this fruit; not an insect with
painted wings sought the honey of the flowers; not a single living,
breathing thing upon the earth, plenty of grass, a great variety of
herbs, an abundance of fruit, but not a mouth in all the world. If
Moses is right, this state of things lasted only two days; but if
the modern theologians are correct, it continued for millions of
ages.
It is now well known that the organic history of the earth can
be properly divided into five epochs -- the Primordial, Primary,
Secondary, Tertiary, and Quaternary. Each of these epochs is
characterized by animal and vegetable life peculiar to itself. In
the First will be found Algae and Skull-less Vertebrates, in the
Second, Ferns and Fishes, in the Third, Pine Forests and Reptiles,
in the Fourth, Foliaceous Forests and Mammals, and in the Fifth,
Man."
How much more reasonable this is than the idea that the earth
was covered with grass, and herbs, and trees loaded with fruit for
millions of years before an animal existed.
There is, in nature, an even balance forever kept between the
total amounts of animal and vegetable life. "In her wonderful
economy she must form and bountifully nourish her vegetable progeny
-- twin brother life to her, with that of animals. The perfect
balance between plant existences and animal existences must always
be maintained, while matter courses through the eternal circle,
becoming each in turn. If an animal be resolved into its ultimate
constituents in a period according to the surrounding
circumstances, say, of four hours, of four months, of four years,
or even of four thousand years, -- for it is impossible to deny
that there may be instances of all these periods during which the
process has continued -- those elements which assume the gaseous
form mingle at once with the atmosphere and are taken up from, it
without delay by the ever-open mouths of vegetable life. By a
thousand pores in every leaf the carbonic acid which renders the
atmosphere unfit for animal life is absorbed, the carbon being
separated, and assimilated to form the vegetable fibre, which, as
wood, makes and furnishes our houses and ships, is burned for our
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
warmth, or is stored up under pressure for coal. All this carbon
has played its part, and many parts in its time, as animal
existences from monad up to man. Our mahogany of to-day has been
many negroes in its turn, and before the African existed, was
integral portions of many a generation of extinct species."
It seems treasonable to suppose that certain kinds of
vegetation and certain kinds of animals should exist together, and
that as the character of the vegetation changed, a corresponding
change would take place in the animal world. It may be that I am
led to these conclusions by "total depravity" or that I lack the
necessary humility of spirit to satisfactorily harmonize Haeckel
and Moses; or that I am carried by pride, blinded by reason, given
over to hardness of heart that I might be damned, but I never can
believe that the earth was covered with leaves, and buds, and
flowers, and fruits before the sun with glittering spear had driven
back the hosts of Night.
IX
THURSDAY.
After the world was covered with vegetation, it occurred to
Moses that it was about time to make a sun and moon; and so we are
told that on the fourth day God said, "Let there be light in the
firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let
them be for signs and for seasons, and for days and years; and let
them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light
upon the earth; and it was so. And God made two great lights; the
greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the
night; he made the stars also."
Can we believe that the inspired writer had any idea of the
size of the sun? Draw a circle five inches in diameter, and by its
side thrust a pin through the paper. The hole made by the pin will
sustain about the same relation to the circle that the earth does
to the sun. Did he know that the sun was eight hundred and sixty
thousand miles in diameter; that it was enveloped in an ocean of
fire thousands of miles in depth, hotter even than the Christian's
hell. Over which sweep tempests of flame moving at the rate of one
hundred miles a second, compared with which the wildest storm that
ever wrecked the forests of this world was but a calm? Did he know
that the sun every moment of time throws out as much heat as could
be generated by the combustion of millions upon millions of tons of
coal? Did he know that the volume of the earth is less than one-
millionth of that of the sun? Did he know of the one hundred and
four planets belonging to our solar system, all children of the
sun? Did he know of Jupiter eighty five thousand miles in diameter,
hundreds of times as large as our earth, turning on his axis at the
rate of twenty-five thousand miles an hour accompanied by four
moons, making the tour of his orbit in fifty years, a distance of
three thousand million miles? Did he know anything about Saturn,
his rings and his eight moons? Did he have the faintest idea that
all these planets were once a part of the sun; that the vast
luminary was once thousands of millions of miles in diameter; that
Neptune, Uranus, Saturn, Jupiter and Mars were all born before our
earth, and that by no possibility could this world have existed
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
three days, nor three periods, nor three "good whiles" before its
source, the sun? Moses supposed the sun to be about three or four
feet in diameter and the moon about half that size. Compared with
the earth they were but simple specks. This idea seems to have been
shared by all the "inspired" men. We find in the book of Joshua
that the sun stood still, and the moon stayed until the people had
avenged themselves upon their enemies. "So the sun stood still in
the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day."
We are told that the sacred writer wrote in common speech as
we do when we talk about the rising and setting of the sun, and
that all he intended to say was that the earth ceased to turn on
its axis for about a whole day."
My own opinion is that General Joshua knew no more about the
motions of the earth than he did about mercy and justice. If he had
known that the earth turned upon its axis at the rate of a thousand
miles an hour, and swept in its course about the sun at the rate of
sixty-eight thousand miles an hour, he would have doubled the
hailstones, spoken of in the same chapter, that the Lord cast down
from heaven, and allowed the sun and moon to rise and set in the
usual way.
It is impossible to conceive of a more absurd story than this
about the stopping of the sun and moon, and yet nothing so excites
the malice of the orthodox preacher as to call its truth in
question. Some endeavor to account for the phenomenon by natural
causes, while others attempt to show that God could, by the
refraction of light have made the sun visible although actually
shining on the opposite side of the earth. The last hypothesis has
been seriously urged by ministers within the last few months. The
Rev. Henry M. Morey of South Bend, Indiana, says "that the
phenomenon was simply optical. The rotary motion of the earth was
not disturbed, but the light of the sun was prolonged by the same
laws of refraction and reflection by which the sun now appears to
be above the horizon when it is really below. The medium through
which the sun's rays passed may have been miraculously influenced
so as to have caused the sun to linger above the horizon long after
its usual time for disappearance."
This is the latest and ripest product of Christian scholarship
upon this question no doubt, but still it is not entirely
satisfactory to me. According to the sacred account the sun did not
linger, merely, above the horizon. but stood still "in the midst of
heaven for about a whole day," that is to say. for about twelve
hours. If the air was miraculously changed, so that it would
refract the rays of the sun while the earth turned over as usual
for "about a whole day," then, at the end of that time the sun must
have been visible in the east, that is, it must by that time have
been the next morning. According to this, that most wonderful day
must have been at least thirty-six hours in length. We have first,
the twelve hours of natural light, then twelve hours of "refracted
and reflected" light. By that time it would again be morning, and
the sun would shine for twelve hours more in the natural way,
making thirty-six hours in all.
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
If the Rev. Morey would depend a little less on "refraction"
and a little more on "reflection" he would conclude that the whole
story is simply a barbaric myth and fable.
It hardly seems reasonable that God, if there is one, would
either stop the globe, change the constitution of the atmosphere or
the nature of light simply to afford Joshua an opportunity to kill
people on that day when he could just as easily have waited until
the next morning. It certainly cannot be very gratifying to God for
us to believe such childish things.
It has been demonstrated that force is eternal; that it is
forever active, and eludes destruction by change of form. Motion is
a form of force, and all arrested motion changes instantly to heat.
The earth turns upon its axis at about one thousand miles an hour.
Let it be stopped and a force beyond our imagination is changed to
heat. It has been calculated that to stop the world would produce
as much heat as the burning of a solid piece of coal three times
the size of the earth. And yet we are asked to believe that this
was done in order that one barbarian might defeat another. Such
stories never would have been written, had not the belief been
general that the heavenly bodies were as nothing compared with the
earth.
The view of Moses was acquiesced in by the Jewish people and
by the Christian world for thousands of years. It is supposed that
Moses lived about fifteen hundred years before Christ, and although
he was "inspired," and obtained his information directly from God,
he did not know as much about our solar system as the Chinese did
a thousand years before he was born. "The Emperor Chwenhio adopted
as an epoch, a conjunction of the planets Mercury, Mars, Jupiter
and Saturn, which has been shown by M. Bailly to have occurred no
less than 2449 years before Christ." The ancient Chinese knew not
only the motions of the planets, but they could calculate eclipses.
"In the reign of the Emperor Chow-Kang, the chief astronomers, Ho
and Hi were condemned to death for neglecting to announce a solar
eclipse which took place 2169 B.C., a clear proof that the
prediction of eclipses was a part of the duty of the imperial
astronomers."
Is it not strange that a Chinaman should find out by his own
exertions more about the material universe than Moses could when
assisted by its Creator?
About eight hundred years after God gave Moses the principal
facts about the creation of the "heaven and the earth" he performed
another miracle far more wonderful than stopping the world. On this
occasion he not only stopped the earth, but actually caused it to
turn the other way. A Jewish king was sick, and God, in order to
convince him that he would ultimately recover, offered to make the
shadow on the dial go forward, or backward ten degrees. The king
thought it was too easy a thing to make the shadow go forward, and
asked that it be turned back. Thereupon, "Isaiah the prophet cried
unto the Lord, and he brought the shadow ten degrees backward by
which it had gone down in the dial of Ahaz." I hardly see how this
miracle could be accounted for even by "refraction" and
"reflection."
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
It seems, from the account, that this stupendous miracle was
performed after the king had been cured. The account of the shadow
going backward is given in the eleventh verse of the twentieth
chapter of Second Kings, while the cure is given in the seventh
verse of the same chapter. "And Isaiah said, Take a lump of figs.
And they took and laid it on the boil, and he recovered."
Stopping the world and causing it to turn back ten degrees
after that, seems to have been, as the boil was already cured by
the figs, a useless display of power.
The easiest way to account for all these wonders is to say
that the "inspired" writers were mistaken. In this way a fearful
burden is lifted from the credulity of man, and he is left free to
believe the evidences of his own senses, and the demonstrations of
science. In this way he can emancipate himself from the slavery of
superstition, the control of the barbaric dead, and the despotism
of the church.
Only about a hundred years ago, Buffon, the naturalist, was
compelled by the faculty of theology of Paris to publicly renounce
fourteen "errors" in his work on Natural History because they were
at variance with the Mosaic account of creation. The Pentateuch is
still the scientific standard of the church, and ignorant priests,
armed with that, pronounce sentence upon the vast accomplishments
of modern thought.
X
"HE MADE THE STARS ALSO."
Moses came very near forgetting about the stars and only gave
five words to all the hosts of heaven. Can it be possible that he
knew anything about the stars beyond the mere fact that he saw them
shining above him?
Did he know that the nearest star, the one we ought to be best
acquainted with, is twenty-one billion of miles away, and that it
is a sun shining by its own light? Did he know of the next, that is
thirty-seven billion miles distant? Is it possible that he was
acquainted with Sirius, a sun two thousand six hundred and eighty-
eight times larger than our own, surrounded by a system of heavenly
bodies, several of which are already known, and distant from us
eighty-two billion miles? Did he know that the Polar star that
tells the mariner his course and guided slaves to liberty and joy,
is distant from this little world two hundred and ninety-two
billion miles, and that Capella wheels and shines one hundred and
thirty-three billion miles beyond? Did he know that it would
require about seventy-two years for light to reach us from this
star? Did he know that light travels one hundred and eighty-five
thousand miles a second? Did he know that some stars are so far
away in the infinite abysses that five millions of years are
required for their light to reach this globe?
If this is true, and if as the Bible tells us, the stars were
made after the earth, then this world has been wheeling in its
orbit for at least five million years.
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
It may be replied that it was not the intention of God to
teach geology and astronomy. Then why did he say anything upon
these subjects? and if he did say anything, why did he not give the
fact?
According to the sacred records God created, on the first day,
the heaven and the earth, "moved upon the face of the waters," and
made the light. On the second day he made the firmament or the
"expanse" and divided the waters. On the third day he gathered the
waters into seas, let the dry land appear and caused the earth to
bring forth grass, herbs and fruit trees, and on the fourth day he
made the sun, moon and stars and set them in the firmament of
heaven to give light upon the earth. This division of labor is very
striking. The work of the other days is as nothing when compared
with that of the fourth. Is it possible that it required the same
time and labor to make the grass, herbs and fruit trees, that it
did to fill with countless constellations the infinite expanse of
space?
We are then told that on the next day "God said, Let the
waters bring forth abundantly the moving creatures that hath life,
and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of
heaven. And God created great whales and every living creature
which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and
every winged fowl after his kind, and God saw that it was good. And
God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the
waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth."
Is it true that while the dry land was covered with grass, and
herbs, and trees bearing fruit, the ocean was absolutely devoid of
life, and so remained for millions of years?
If Moses meant twenty-four hours by the word day, then it
would make but little difference on which of the six days animals
were made; but if the word day was used to express millions of ages
during which life was slowly evolved from monad up to man, then the
account becomes infinitely absurd, puerile and foolish. There is
not a scientist of high standing who will say that in his judgment
the earth was covered with fruit-bearing trees before the moners"
the ancestors it may be of the human race, felt in Laurentian seas
the first faint throb of life. Nor is there one who will declare
that there was a single spire of grass before the sun had poured
upon the world his flood of gold.
Why should men in the name of religion try to harmonize the
contradictions that exist between Nature and a book? Why should
philosophers be denounced for placing more reliance upon what they
know than upon what they have been told? If there is a God, it is
reasonably certain that he made the world, but it is by no means
certain that he is the author of the Bible. Why then should we not
place greater confidence in Nature than in a book? And even if this
God made not only the world but the book besides, it does not
follow that the book is the best part of creation, and the only
part that we will be eternally punished for denying. It seems to me
that it is quite as important to know something of the solar
system, something of the physical history of this globe, as it is
to know the adventures of Jonah or the diet of Ezekiel. For my
part, I would infinitely prefer to know all the results of
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
scientific investigation, than to be inspired as Moses was.
Supposing the Bible to be true; why is it any worse or more wicked
for Freethinkers to deny it, than for priests to deny the doctrine
of evolution, or the dynamic theory of heat? Why should we be
damned for laughing at Samson and his foxes, while others, holding
the Nebular Hypothesis in utter contempt, go straight to heaven? It
seems to me that a belief in the great truths of science are fully
as essential to salvation, as the creed of any church. We are
taught that a man may be perfectly acceptable to God even if he
denies the rotundity of the earth, the Copernican system, the three
laws of Kepler, the indestructibility of matter and the attraction
of gravitation. And we are also taught that a man may be right upon
all these questions, and yet, for failing to believe in the "scheme
of salvation," be eternally lost.
XII
SATURDAY.
On this, the last day of creation, God said: "Let the earth
bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping
things and beast of the earth after his kind; and it was so. And
God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after
their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his
kind; and God saw that it was good."
Now, is it true that the seas were filled with fish, the sky
with fowls, and the earth covered with grass, and herbs, and fruit
bearing trees, millions of ages before there was a creeping thing
in existence? Must we admit that plants and animals were the result
of the fiat of some incomprehensible intelligence independent of
the operation of what are known as natural causes? Why is a miracle
any more necessary to account for yesterday than for to-day or for
to-morrow? If there is an infinite Power, nothing can be more
certain than that this Power works in accordance with what we call
law, that is, by and through natural causes. If anything can be
found without a pedigree of natural antecedents, it will then be
time enough to talk about the fiat of creation. There must have
been a time when plants and animals did not exist upon this globe.
The question, and the only question is, whether they were naturally
produced. If the account given by Moses is true, then the vegetable
and animal existences are the result of certain special fiats of
creation entirely independent of the operation of natural causes.
This is so grossly improbable, so at variance with the experience
and observation of mankind, that it cannot be adopted without
abandoning forever the basis of scientific thought and action.
It may be urged that we do not understand the sacred record
correctly. To this it may be replied that for thousands of years
the account of the creation has, by the Jewish and Christian world,
been regarded as literally true. If it was inspired, of course God
must have known just how it would be understood, and consequently
must have intended that it should be understood just as he knew it
would be. One man writing to another, may mean one thing, and yet
be understood as meaning something else. Now, if the writer knew
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
that he would be misunderstood, and also knew that he could use
other words that would convey his real meaning, but did not, we
would say that he used words on purpose to mislead, and was not an
honest man.
If a being of infinite wisdom wrote the Bible, or caused it to
be written, he must have known exactly how his words would be
interpreted by all the world, and he must have intended to convey
the very meaning that was conveyed. He must have known that by
reading that book, man would form erroneous views as to the shape,
antiquity, and size of this world; that he would be misled as to
the time and order of creation; that he would have the most
childish and contemptible views of the creator; that the "sacred
word" would be used to support slavery and polygamy; that it would
build dungeons for the good, and light fagots to consume the brave,
and therefore he must have intended that these results should
follow. He also must have known that thousands and millions of men
and women never could believe his Bible, and that the number of
unbelievers would increase in the exact ratio of civilization, and
therefore, he must have intended that result.
Let us understand this. An honest finite being uses the best
words, in his judgment, to convey his meaning. This is the best he
can do, because he cannot certainly know the exact effect of his
words on others. But an infinite being must know not only the real
meaning of the words, but the exact meaning they will convey to
every reader and hearer. He must know every meaning that they are
capable of conveying to every mind. He must also know what
explanations must be made to prevent misconception. If an infinite
being cannot, in making a revelation to man, use such words that
every person to whom a revelation is essential will understand
distinctly what that revelation is, then a revelation from God
through the instrumentality of language is impossible, or it is not
essential that all should understand it correctly. It may be urged
that millions have not the capacity to understand a revelation,
although expressed in the plainest words. To this it seems a
sufficient reply to ask, why a being of infinite power should
create men so devoid of intelligence, that he cannot by any means
make known to them his will? We are told that it is exceedingly
plain, and that a wayfaring man, though a fool, need not err
therein. This statement is refuted by the religious history of the
Christian world. Every sect is a certificate that God has not
plainly revealed his will to man. To each reader the Bible conveys
a different meaning. About the meaning of this book, called a
revelation, there have been ages of war, and centuries of sword and
flame. If written by an infinite God, he must have known that these
results must follow; and thus knowing, he must be responsible for
all.
Is it not infinitely more reasonable to say that this book is
the work of man, that it is filled with mingled truth and error,
with mistakes and facts, and reflects, too faithfully perhaps, the
"very form and pressure of its time"?
If there are mistakes in the Bible, certainly they were made
by man. If there is anything contrary to nature, it was written by
man. If there is anything immoral, cruel, heartless or infamous, it
certainly was never written by a being worthy of the adoration of
mankind.
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
XIII
LET US MAKE MAN.
We are next informed by the author of the Pentateuch that God
said "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness," and that
"God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he
him -- male and female created he them."
If this account means anything, it means that man was created
in the physical image and likeness of God. Moses while he speaks of
man as having been made in the image of God, never speaks of God
except as having the form of a man. He speaks of God as "walking in
the garden in the cool of the day;" and that Adam and Eve "heard
his voice." He is constantly telling what God said, and in a
thousand passages he refers to him as not only having the human
form, but as performing actions, such as man performs. The God of
Moses was a God with hands, with feet, with the organs of speech.
A God of passion, of hatred, of revenge, of affection, of
repentance; a God who made mistakes: -- in other words, an immense
and powerful man.
It will not do to say that Moses meant to convey the idea that
God made man in his mental or moral image. Some have insisted that
man was made in the moral image of God because he was made pure.
Purity cannot be manufactured. A moral character cannot be made for
man by a god. Every man must make his own moral character.
Consequently, if God is infinitely pure, Adam and Eve were not made
in his image in that respect. Others say that Adam and Eve were
made in the mental image of God. If it is meant by that, that they
were created with reasoning power like, but not to the extent of
those possessed by a god, then this may be admitted. But certainly
this idea was not in the mind of Moses. He regarded the human form
as being in the image of God, and for that reason always spoke of
God as having that form. No one can read the Pentateuch without
coming to the conclusion that the author supposed that man was
crated in the physical likeness of Deity. God said "Go to, let us
go down." "God smelled a sweet savor;" "God repented him that he
had made man;" "and God said;" and "walked;" and "talked;" and
"rested." All these expressions are inconsistent with any other
idea than that the person using them regarded God as having the
form of man.
As a matter of fact, it is impossible for a man to conceive of
a personal God, other than as a being having the human form. No one
can think of an infinite being having the form of a horse, or of
bird, or of any animal beneath man. It is one of the necessities of
the mind to associate forms with intellectual capacities. The
highest form of which we have any conception is man's, and
consequently, his is the only form that we can find in imagination
to give to a personal God, because all other forms are, in our
minds, connected with lower intelligences.
It is impossible to think of a personal God as a spirit
without form. We can use these words, but they do not convey to the
mind any real and tangible meaning. Every one who thinks of a
personal God at all, thinks of him as having the human form. Take
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
from God the idea of form; speak of him simply as an all pervading
spirit -- which means an all pervading something about which we
know nothing -- and Pantheism is the result.
We are told that God made man; and the question naturally
arises, how was this done? Was it by a process of "evolution,"
"development;" the "transmission of acquired habits;" the "survival
of the fittest" or was the necessary amount of clay kneaded to the
proper consistency, and then by the hands of God molded into form?
Modern science tells that man has been evolved, through countless
epochs, from the lower forms; that he is the result of almost an
infinite number of actions, reactions, experiences, states, forms,
wants and adaptations. Did Moses intend to convey such a meaning,
or did he believe that God took a sufficient amount of dust, made
it the proper shape, and breathed into it the breath of life? Can
any believer in the Bible give any reasonable account of this
process of creation? Is it possible to imagine what was really
done? Is there any theologian who will contend that man was created
directly from the earth? Will he say that man was made
substantially as he now is, with all his muscles properly developed
for walking and speaking, and performing every variety of human
action? That all his bones were formed as they now are, and all the
relations of nerve, ligament, brain and motion as they are to-day?
Looking back over the history of animal life from the lowest to the
highest forms, we find that there has been a slow and gradual
development; a certain but constant relation between want and
production; between use and form. The Moner is said to be the
simplest form of animal life that has yet been found. It has been
described as "an organism without organs." It is a kind of
structureless structure; a little mass of transparent jelly that
can flatten itself out, and can expand and contract around its
food. It can feed without a mouth, digest without a stomach, walk
without feet, and reproduce itself by simple division. By taking
this Moner as the commencement of animal life, or rather as the
first animal, it is easy to follow the development of the organic
structure through all the forms of life to man himself. In this way
finally every muscle, bone and joint, every organ, form and
function may be accounted for. In this way, and in this way only,
can the existence of rudimentary organs be explained. Blot from the
human mind the ideas of evolution, heredity, adaptation, and "the
survival of the fittest," with which it has been enriched by
Lamarck, Goethe, Darwin, Haeckel and Spencer, and all the facts in
the history of animal life become utterly disconnected and
meaningless.
Shall we throw away all that has been discovered with regard
to organic life, and in its place take the statements of one who
lived in the rude morning of a barbaric day? Will anybody now
contend that man was a direct and independent creation, and
sustains and bears no relation to the animals below him? Belief
upon this subject must be governed at last by evidence. Man cannot
believe as he pleases. He can control his speech, and can say that
he believes or disbelieves; but after all, his will cannot depress
or raise the scales with which his reason finds the worth and
weight of facts. If this is not so, investigation, evidence,
judgment and reason are but empty words.
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
I ask again, how were Adam and Eve created? In one account
they are created male and female, and apparently at the same time.
In the next account, Adam is created first, and Eve a long time
afterwards, and from a part of the man. Did God simply by his
creative fiat cause a rib slowly to expand, grow and divide into
nerve, ligament, cartilage and flesh? How was the woman created
from a rib? How was man created simply from dust? For my part, I
cannot believe this statement. I may suffer for this in the world
to come; and may, millions of years hence, sincerely wish that I
had never investigated the subject, but had been content to take
the ideas of the dead. I do not believe that any deity works in
that way. So far as my experience goes, there is an unbroken
procession of cause and effect. Each thing is a necessary link in
an infinite chain; and I cannot conceive of this chain being broken
even for one instant. Back of the simplest moner there is a cause,
and back of that another, and so on, it seems to me, forever. In my
philosophy I postulate neither beginning nor ending.
If the Mosaic account is true, we know how long man has been
upon this earth. If that account can be relied on, the first man
was made about five thousand eight hundred and eighty-three years
ago. Sixteen hundred and fifty-six years after the making of the
first man, the inhabitants of the world, with the exception of
eight people, were destroyed by a flood. This flood occurred only
about four thousand two hundred and twenty-seven years ago. If this
account is correct, at that time, only one kind of men existed.
Noah and his family were certainly of the same blood. It therefore
follows that all the differences we see between the various races
of men have been caused in about four thousand years. If the
account of the deluge is true, then since that event all the
ancient kingdoms of the earth were founded, and their inhabitants
passed through all the stages of savage, nomadic, barbaric and
semi-civilized life; through the epochs of Stone, Bronze and Iron;
established commerce, cultivated the arts, built cities, filled
them with palaces and temples, invented writing, produced a
literature and slowly fell to shapeless ruin. We must believe that
all this has happened within a period of four thousand years.
From representations found upon Egyptian granite made more
than three thousand years ago, we know that the negro was as black,
his lips as full, and his hair as curled then as now. If we know
anything, we know that there was at that time substantially the
same difference between the Egyptian and the negro as now. If we
know anything, we know that magnificent statues were made in Egypt
four thousand years before our era -- that is to say, about six
thousand years ago. There was at the World's Exposition, in the
Egyptian department, a statue of king Cephren, known to have been
chiseled more than six thousand years ago. In other words, if the
Mosaic account must be believed, this statue was made before the
world. We also know, if we know anything, that men lived in Europe
with the hairy mammoth, the cave bear, the rhinoceros, and the
hyena. Among the bones of these animals have been found the stone
hatchets and flint arrows of our ancestors. In the caves where they
lived have been discovered the remains of these animals that had
been conquered, killed and devoured as food, hundreds of thousands
of years ago.
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
If these facts are true, Moses was mistaken. For my part, I
have infinitely more confidence in the discoveries of to-day, than
in the records of a barbarous people. It will not now do to say
that man has existed upon this earth for only about six thousand
years. One can hardly compute in his imagination the time necessary
for man to emerge from the barbarous state, naked and helpless,
surrounded by animals far more powerful than he, to progress and
finally create the civilizations of India, Egypt and Athens. The
distance from savagery to Shakespeare must be measured not by
hundreds, but by millions of years.
XIV
SUNDAY.
"And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made,
and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had
made. And God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it; because
that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and
made."
The great work had been accomplished, the world, the sun, and
moon, and all the hosts of heaven were finished; the earth was
clothed in green, the seas were filled with life, the cattle
wandered by the brooks -- insects with painted wings were in the
happy air, Adam and Eve were making each other's acquaintance, and
God was resting from his work. He was contemplating the
accomplishments of a week.
Because he rested on that day he sanctified it, and for that
reason and for that alone, it was by the Jews considered a holy
day. If he only rested on that day, there ought to be some account
of what he did the following Monday. Did he rest on that day? What
did he do after he got rested? Has he done anything in the way of
creation since Saturday evening of the first week?
It is now claimed by the "scientific" Christians that the
"days" of creation were not ordinary days of twenty-four hours
each, but immensely long periods of time. If they are right, then
how long was the seventh day? Was that, too, a geologic period
covering thousands of ages? That cannot be, because Adam and Eve
were created the Saturday evening before, and according to the
Bible that was about five thousand eight hundred and eighty-three
years ago. I cannot state the time exactly, because there have been
as many as one hundred and forty different opinions given by
learned Biblical students as to the time between the creation of
the world and the birth of Christ. We are quite certain, however,
that, according to the Bible, it is not more than six thousand
years since the creation of Adam. From this it would appear that
the seventh day was not a geologic epoch, but was in fact a period
of less than six thousand years, and probably of only twenty-four
hours. The theologians who "answer" these things may take their
choice. If they take the ground that the "days" were periods of
twenty-four hours, then geology will force them to throw away the
whole account. If on the other hand, they admit that the days were
vast "periods" then the sacredness of the Sabbath must be given up.
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
There is found in the Bible no intimation that there was the
least difference in the days. They are all spoken of in the same
way. It may be replied that our translation is incorrect. If this
is so, then only those who understand Hebrew, have had a revelation
from God, and all the rest have been deceived.
How is it possible to sanctify a space of time? Is rest holier
than labor? If there is any difference between days, ought not that
to be considered best in which the most useful labor has been
performed?
Of all the superstitions of mankind, this insanity about the
"sacred Sabbath" is the most absurd. The idea of feeling it a duty
to be solemn and sad one-seventh of the time! To think that we can
please an infinite being by staying in some dark and somber room,
instead of walking in the perfumed fields! Why should God hate to
see a man happy? Why should it excite his wrath to see a family in
the woods, by some babbling stream, talking, laughing and loving?
Nature works on that "sacred" day. The earth turns, the rivers run,
the trees grow, buds burst into flower, and birds fill the air with
song. Why should we look sad, and think about death, and hear about
hell? Why should that day be filled with gloom instead of joy?
A poor mechanic, working all the week in dust and noise, needs
a day of rest and joy, a day to visit stream and wood -- a day to
live with wife and child; a day in which to laugh at care, and
gather hope and strength for toils to come. And his weary wife
needs a breath of sunny air, away from street and wall, amid the
hills or by the margin of the sea, where she can sit and prattle
with her babe, and fill with happy dreams the long, glad day.
The "Sabbath" was born of asceticism, hatred of human joy,
fanaticism, ignorance, egotism of priests and the cowardice of the
people. This day, for thousands of years, has been dedicated to
superstition, to the dissemination of mistakes, and the
establishment of falsehoods. Every freethinker, as a matter of
duty, should violate this day. He should assert his independence,
and do all within his power to wrest the Sabbath from the gloomy
church and give it back to liberty and joy. Freethinkers should
make the Sabbath a day of mirth and music; a day to spend with wife
and child -- a day of games, and books, and dreams -- a day to put
fresh flowers above our sleeping dead -- a day of memory and hope,
of love and rest.
Why should we in this age of the world be dominated by the
dead? Why should barbarian Jews who went down to death and dust
three thousand years ago, control the living world? Why should we
care for the superstition of men who began the Sabbath by paring
their nails, "beginning at the fourth finger, then going to the
second, then to the fifth, then to the third, and ending with the
thumb?" How pleasing to God this must have been. The Jews were very
careful of these nail parings. They who threw them upon the ground
were wicked, because Satan used them to work evil upon the earth.
They believed that upon the Sabbath, souls were allowed to leave
purgatory and cool their burning souls in water. Fires were neither
allowed to be kindled nor extinguished, and upon that day it was a
sin to bind up wounds. "The lame might use a staff, but the blind
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
could not." So strict was the Sabbath kept, that at one time "if a
Jew on a journey was overtaken by the "sacred day" in a wood, or on
the highway, no matter where, nor under what circumstances, he must
sit down "and there remain" until the day was gone. "If he fell
down in the dirt, there he was compelled to stay until the day was
done." For violating the Sabbath, the punishment was death, for
nothing short of the offender's blood could satisfy the wrath of
God. There are, in the Old Testament, two reasons given for
abstaining from labor on the Sabbath: -- the resting of God, and
the redemption of the Jews from the bondage of Egypt.
Since the establishment of the Christian religion, the day has
been changed, and Christians do not regard the day as holy upon
which God actually rested, and which he sanctioned. The Christian
Sabbath, or the "Lord's day" was legally established by the
murderer Constantine, because upon that day Christ was supposed to
have risen from the dead.
It is not easy to see where Christians got the right to
disregard the direct command of God, to labor on the day he
sanctified, and keep as sacred, a day upon which he commanded men
to labor. The Sabbath of God is Saturday, and if any day is to be
kept holy, that is the one, and not the Sunday of the Christian.
Let us throw away these superstitions and take the higher,
nobler ground, that every day should be rendered sacred by some
loving act, by increasing the happiness of man, giving birth to
noble thoughts, putting in the path of toil some flower of joy,
helping the unfortunate, lifting the fallen, dispelling gloom,
destroying prejudice, defending the helpless and filling homes with
light and love.
It must not be forgotten that there are two accounts of the
creation in Genesis. The first account stops with the third verse
of the second chapter. The chapters have been improperly divided.
In the original Hebrew the Pentateuch was neither divided into
chapters nor verses. There was not even any system of punctuation.
It was written wholly with consonants, without vowels, and without
any marks, dots, or lines to indicate them.
These accounts are materially different, and both cannot be
true. Let us see wherein they differ.
The second account of the creation begins with the fourth
verse of the second chapter, and is as follows"
"These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth
when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth
and the heavens. "And every plant of the field before it was in the
earth, and every herb of the field before it to grew; for the Lord
God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a
man to till the ground.
"But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole
face of the ground.
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a
living soul.
"And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there
he put the man whom he had formed.
"And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree
that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life
also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good
and evil.
"And a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from
thence it was parted and became into four heads.
"The name of the first is Pison; that is it which compasseth
the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold.
"And the gold of that land is good: there is bdellium and the
onyx stone.
"And the name of the second river is Gihon: the same is it
that compasseth the whole land of Ethiopia.
"And the name of the third river is Hiddekel; that is it which
goeth toward the east of Assyria. And the forth river is Euphrates.
"And the Lord God took the man, and put him Into the Garden of
Eden to dress it and to keep it.
"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of
the garden thou mayest freely eat; But of the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it; for in the day that
thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
"And the Lord God said" It is not good that the man should be
alone; I will make him an helpmeet for him.
"And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the
field, and every fowl of the air; and bought them unto Adam to see
what he would call them and whatsoever Adam called every living
creature, that was the name thereof.
"And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the
air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not
found a helpmeet for him.
"And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and
he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh
instead thereof;
"And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he
a woman and brought her unto the man.
"And Adam said" This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my
flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of man.
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
"Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and
shall cleave unto his wife; and they shall be one flesh.
"And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not
ashamed."
ORDER OF CREATION IN THE FIRST ACCOUNT:
1. The heaven and the earth, and light were made.
2. The firmament was constructed and the waters divided.
3. The waters gathered into seas -- and then came dry land,
grass, herbs and fruit trees.
4. The sun and moon. He made the stars also.
5. Fishes, fowls, and great whales.
6. Beasts, cattle, every creeping thing, man and woman.
ORDER OF CREATION IN THE SECOND ACCOUNT:
1. The heavens and the earth.
2. A mist went up from the earth, and watered the whole face
of the ground.
3. Created a man out of dust, by the name of Adam.
4. Planted a garden eastward in Eden, and put the man in it.
5. Created the beasts and fowls.
6. Created a woman out of one of the man's ribs.
In the second account, man was made before the beasts and
fowls. If this is true, the first account is false. And if the
theologians of our time are correct in their view that the Mosaic
day means thousands of ages, then, according to the second account,
Adam existed millions of years before Eve was formed. He must have
lived one Mosaic day before there were any trees, and another
Mosaic day before the beasts and fowls were created. Will some kind
clergymen tell us upon what kind of food Adam subsisted during
these immense periods?
In the second account a man is made, and the fact that he was
without a helpmeet did not occur to the Lord God until a couple "of
vast periods" afterwards. The Lord God suddenly coming to a
appreciation of the situation said, "It is not good that the man
should be alone. I will make him an helpmeet for him."
Now, after concluding to make "an helpmeet" for Adam, what did
the Lord God do? Did he at once proceed to make a woman? No. What
did he do? He made the beasts, and tried to induce Adam to take one
of them for "an helpmeet." If I am incorrect, read the following
account, and tell me what it means;
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SOME MISTAKES OF MOSES.
"And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be
alone; I will make him an helpmeet for him.
"And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the
field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see
what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living
creature, that was the name thereof.
"And Adam gave names to all cattle, and to the fowl of the
air, and to every beast of the field; but for Adam there was not
found an helpmeet for him."
Unless the Lord God was looking for an help meet for Adam, why
did he cause the animals to pass before him . And why did he, after
the menagerie had passed by, pathetically exclaim, "But for Adam
there was not found an helpmeet for him"?
It seems that Adam saw nothing that struck his fancy. The
fairest ape, the sprightliest chimpanzee; the loveliest baboon, the
most bewitching orangoutang, the most fascinating gorilla failed to
touch with love's sweet pain, poor Adam's lonely heart. Let us
rejoice that this was so. Had he fallen in "love" then, there never
would have been a Freethinker in this world.
Dr. Adam Clarke, speaking of this remarkable proceeding says:
-- "God caused the animals to pass before Adam to show him that no
creature yet formed could make him a suitable companion; that Adam
was convinced that none of these animals could be a suitable
companion for him, and that therefore he must continue in a state
that was not good (celibacy) unless he became a further debtor to
the bounty of his maker, for among all the animals which he had
formed, there was not a helpmeet for Adam."
Upon this same subject, Dr. Scott informs us "that it was not
conducive to the happiness of the man to remain without the
consoling society, and endearment of tender friendship, nor
consistent with the end of his creation to be without marriage by
which the earth might be replenished and worshipers and servants
raised up to render him praise and glory. Adam seems to have been
vastly better acquainted by intuition or revelation with the
distinct properties of every creature than the most sagacious
observer since the fall of man.
"Upon this review of the animals, not one was found in outward
form his counterpart, nor one suited to engage his affections,
participate in his enjoyments, or associate with him in the worship
of God."
Dr. Matthew Henry admits that "God brought all the animals
together to see if there was a suitable match for Adam in any of
the numerous families of the inferior creatures, but there was
none. They were all looked over, but Adam could not be matched
among them all. Therefore God created a new thing to be a helpmeet
for him
