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Dedication
Dedication
The writer of this book dedicates it to all men and women of common honesty and common sense. That depends. If a man is going to get his living by standing in a Christian pulpit, I should be obliged to answer, Yes! But if he is going to follow any other calling, or work at any trade, I should have to answer, No! There is absolutely no information in the Bible that man can make any use of as he goes through life. The Bible is not a book of knowledge. It does not give instruction in any of the sci
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Is The Bible Worth Reading
Is The Bible Worth Reading
The cross everywhere is a dagger in the heart of liberty. A miracle is not an explanation of what we cannot comprehend. The statue of liberty that will endure on this continent is not the one made of granite or bronze, but the one made of love of freedom. Take away every achievement of the world and leave man freedom, and the earth would again bloom with every glory of attainment; but take away liberty and everything useful and beautiful would vanish. The sacrifice of Jesus, so much boasted by t
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Sacrifice
Sacrifice
And I place above all that is brave and true, great and good, in the past or present, the mothers of our age.—What man cannot see that silent, patient mother in her home, the victim of a multitude of trials, crosses, annoyances, day after day and week after week, meeting all, bearing all, with a saint's look and manner; and what man, seeing her there, at the side of the sick, worn out with watching and waiting, and then at the bed of death, faithful and true to the last, though wounded in heart
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The Drama Of Life
The Drama Of Life
A dogma will thrive in soil where the truth could not get root. The measure of liberty which man enjoys determines the civilization of the age in which he lives. The person who can make a loaf of bread is more to the world than the person who could perform a miracle. The indifference to Christianity may well alarm the men who live on the credulity that gives it the show of life, but to those who delight in actions of sincerity, it affords the greatest encouragement, for it promises to the world
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Nature In June
Nature In June
The feet of progress have always been shod by doubt. A true man will not join anything that in any way abridges his freedom or robs him of his rights. A Christian writer recently said:— “The supreme duty of humanity is to get into touch with the infinite purpose.” This may be so, but we want first to understand just what the infinite purpose is before we subscribe to it. When the infinite purpose is bent on getting up an earthquake we do not care to “get into touch” with it, not much. When this
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The Infinite Purpose
The Infinite Purpose
This notion of uniting the finite with the infinite purpose is all right, providing the latter does not conflict with the former, but we have serious objection to doing anything that will interfere with the highest development of our humanity. The purpose which is at work in the world does not make for health any more than for disease. It seems to carry a tubercle with as much satisfaction as a ray of sunshine, and lends all its forces to assist the highwayman with no more charge than it makes t
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Freethought Commands
Freethought Commands
Let us not forget that men speak according to the measure of their knowledge and light, and that a superior enlightenment is a higher authority. History shows that there is nothing so easy to enslave and nothing so hard to emancipate as ignorance, hence it becomes the double enemy of civilization. By its servility it is the prey of tyranny, and by its credulity it is the foe of enlightenment. There is little doubt that the faith of the early Christians was what might be classed under the head of
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A Rainbow Religion
A Rainbow Religion
We presume that this faith led men to give up work and to trust to begging for a living. But the question is, which got the most good things,—those who studied the laws of Nature and of life and worked in harmony with them, or those who prayed for good things? How is it to-day? What good things can be had by praying? Who has any good thing that he received by asking his “Father in heaven” for it? The asking business has been carried on for hundreds of years, and all that has been asked of God ha
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A Cruel God
A Cruel God
Christians seem to delight in pictures of hell. God would hardly be God to them if he did not damn somebody. In painting the divine idea vengeance and damnation are laid on thick. Here is the Christian notion of father and son:— Think of the religion based on such an idea of God! And think on the terrible effect on men and women which such religion must have! The following description of the Christian God was probably written by one of his adorers:— And we are asked to love this God! We should j
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What Is Jesus
What Is Jesus
There is no justifiable Christianity in this age. A dogma is the hand of the dead on the throat of the living. The progress of the world depends upon freedom of thought and freedom of utterance. If you can forgive the man who wronged you, the neighbor who slandered you and help the poor about you, you need not be particular about making any professions of righteousness. We have tears of regret to shed over the wreck of beauty and talent; but if we take no steps to preserve beauty and talent from
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Deeds Better Than Professions
Deeds Better Than Professions
If there is one tree that man needs to eat of, it is the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and evil; and if any knowledge will keep him alive and make him happy and perfect, it is just this knowledge which God forbid him to acquire. We are dying to-day from ignorance, not from knowledge,—dying because we do not know the good from the evil; and we are dooming ourselves and future generations to premature death because we do not eat more of the tree of knowledge. To know more is what we need
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Give Us The Truth
Give Us The Truth
The great work of man has ever been to rescue the present from the past; to turn the mind from what it has left behind to the opportunities and duties which are around it. For this has genius toiled down the ages, sung its song of love, carved its dream of beauty and whispered to the world's dull ear its bright message of hope. Everybody has heard of what is called the “Christian sabbath,” and nearly everybody has a tolerably clear idea of what is meant by a “continental sabbath.” A “continental
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The American Sunday
The American Sunday
A day of rest once a week is a good thing in itself, but it is a bad thing when controlled by religion. We are in favor of Sunday as a day when man can lay aside his business, his care, his tools, and enjoy himself, but we want everybody to take their hands off of it. Sunday is not a day for religion alone. If certain people wish to go to church on Sunday, let them go; but when these people, who go to church on Sunday, wish to compel everyone else to do the same, they need to be informed that li
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Lord And Master
Lord And Master
Some persons are remembered solely for their virtues and others solely for their faults. This is why we have a Jesus and a Judas. Future generations will regard the men who accept the Christian superstitions either as simple or dishonest. We are forced to doubt the sanity or sincerity of people who profess to believe in the doctrine of the trinity, in a “begotten Son of God,” in miraculous conception, in the resurrection of the body, in the Bible as the word of God, in miracles, and in heaven an
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Are Christians Intelligent Or Honest
Are Christians Intelligent Or Honest
When men are hungry roast mutton is better than the lamb that taketh away wrath. If a man can look in the mirror of his own soul without shame, he can look the whole world in the face without a blush. Men speak usually as though voters ranged themselves on one side of a political question, or another, according to their convictions or principles. We wish this were so, then we should be nearer having a pure ballot. But we cannot share this lofty view. It does not seem to us that the average voter
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The Danger Of The Ballot
The Danger Of The Ballot
There have been too many voters led to the polls, and used as party troops. There are still slaves on election day who are afraid of the crack of the whip. There ought to be permitted in this nation no political or religious disability on account of the honest exercise of the right of suffrage. A man should be protected from the politician and the priest. When a man votes as he thinks, he has discharged the highest duty of citizenship, but when he votes through bribe or fear, he forfeits the pri
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Who Carried The Cross
Who Carried The Cross
We must in honesty say that no one knows who carried the cross on which Jesus was crucified, and no one knows whether Jesus was crucified or not, and no one knows whether any such person as Jesus ever lived, to be crucified. Civilization has come about by going to school more than to church. Nature is the volume from which all of our knowledge has been translated. The modern disciples do not resemble very closely the ancient disciples of Jesus. In fact it is very hard to find a reason why Christ
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Modern Disciples Of Jesus
Modern Disciples Of Jesus
If there is one person who believes thoroughly in looking after himself and his in the world, and getting all the good things out of it, it is the Christian minister. He is well housed, well fed, well dressed, and, as a rule, has a comfortable income. How he must laugh when he reads the New Testament! He probably regards Jesus as a chump to tell men and women to take no thought for what they shall eat and drink and wear, and not to lay up a few dollars for a rainy day. He has to make believe hon
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A Poor Excuse
A Poor Excuse
There are a great many persons who are anxious to pass for more than they are worth, to stand for more than they represent. They always get on the side of the majority, because that is considered the safe side, the side that is most likely to have the largest number of loaves and fishes. These people are willing to pay the price of popularity; willing to do anything that is regarded as respectable, even to denying their own souls. The easiest way to win favor is by professing the popular faith,
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Profession And Practice
Profession And Practice
The church spends thousands of dollars to save a dogma, where it spends a cent to find a truth. Men have enthroned truth in some far-off kingdom, away from the world, as though it were too pure to live on earth. It has been made supernatural, and only to be known by being revealed. But truth is everywhere; its voice is heard in everything. The very pebble at our feet holds its image, and its light twinkles in the white splendor of the distant star. Man has searched for truth in books, but has no
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Where Is Truth
Where Is Truth
Christianity is like a slow clock—always being moved ahead. The day of the Bible is passed. Books have taken its place. Better be late to church Sunday morning than late at home Saturday night. Man to-day has more and better ways of getting a living than at any time in the history of the race. Christians say that the resurrection of Jesus proves his claim to be the Messiah. But what proves the resurrection? Certainly not the contradictory stories of the gospels. The story of the resurrection of
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What Does It Prove
What Does It Prove
There is nothing that tends to perpetuate the weakness of humanity more than religion. Men have been taught for ages that they were dependent upon God for all they have. This kind of teaching must be corrected; it is false. Man is dependent upon man. No God will help or hurt him. Be he ever so good no God will praise him; be he ever so bad no God will blame him. What he wants to escape is his own condemnation. In order to develop an independent spirit in man it is necessary to increase his respo
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Human Responsibility
Human Responsibility
We should like to see one generation brought up to hate dirt. Every child ought to be taught that clean hands and face and clean clothes help to a clean life. There are too many homes on this earth that human beings live in that are dirty, in which those three household gods—the broom, the mop, and the dust-rag—have no place. Children should be taught to drive dirt out of the house as they would a mad dog. Dirt is the food of disease. It is the enemy of health and happiness. Abolish dirt. If God
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Abolish Dirt
Abolish Dirt
A religious man is not trusted to-day because he is religious. Faith in vicarious atonement is not accepted as a moral substitute for meeting one's obligations. Worship of God is not equivalent to helping your neighbor. The fact that a man is religious may not be proof that he is a bad man, but it is no evidence that he is a good man. The most contemptible wretch that ever robbed the widow or orphan could shine in a prayer-meeting, where words are passed for virtues. The veriest scoundrel can pa
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Religion And Morality
Religion And Morality
Never forget the good deeds that others do to you, nor remember those that you do to others. It is common to speak of Jesus as though he touched the borders of every human experience, and sounded the depths of every joy and every woe, but there is no warrant for such statements. He lived a very narrow life, and his brief career cannot be stretched to cover the limits of our earthly existence. He is held up for us to imitate, as though he had left a pattern for every hour of our lives, and a mode
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Jesus As A Model
Jesus As A Model
Go into any Christian church and you will hear the choir and the congregation singing lies. Is it not time to stop it? Is music married irrevocably to falsehood? Take up an ordinary hymn-book and you will hardly find a sensible line in it. The entire contents of the book is about God, heaven, salvation, and other equally unknown quantities, states and conditions. Why not sing sense? Why not sing facts? Why not sing truth? Why not sing the glories of Nature, of life, of man? Music is a wonderful
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Singing Lies
Singing Lies
Lies enough have been sung. Let truth now fill the air. Out of the great hope of the race let new songs come. We are beginning to live for life on earth, for happiness here, for love here, for victory here. Let the hands and feet, the brains and hearts of men and women move to the music of truth. There is not a village where poverty does not pinch the stomach or starve the mind, where misery does not need charity and where wealth could not bless. Piety could do nothing better than imitate morali
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A Walk Through A Cemetery
A Walk Through A Cemetery
God never helps those who need the help of men and women. No man ever knew Providence to interpose when his neighbor's hens are scratching up his garden. A good, pious lady said to us not long ago: “Don't you think that you ought to make your peace with God?” We have never had a bit of trouble with God. We have got along with him tip top. He has never shown that it was at all necessary for us to make peace with him. We have never quarrelled. If we are not at peace with God, we did not know it. W
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Peace With God
Peace With God
Priests will pardon thieves but not philosophers. Priest and God have formed some of the worst combinations in history. Too long has this world been at the feet of the priest. Man is never in that position for his own benefit, but for the benefit of the priest. The man who can deliberately, and in cold blood, as it were, try to save his soul, must be grossly selfish. To do that which shall redound to one's own advantage or profit, without care or consideration of another, shows little humanity.
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Saving The Soul
Saving The Soul
What is there in the universe that deserves worship? Is there anything? What is there that men and women should kneel to, pray to and adore? If there is anything that deserves such worship from human beings, where is it? Let us see if we can find any such thing. We look at the earth and its inhabitants, and while we see much which calls for admiration, we find nothing to worship. The mountain impresses us with its towering grandeur, the ocean with its vast extent and terrible power, but we canno
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The Search For Something To Worship
The Search For Something To Worship
The names of most men live on account of the falsehoods told about them. We should scorn the person who would be mean enough to allow his fellow-being to be punished for his deeds. Yet we have a religion in our midst that is founded on this kind of meanness. Where are the sons of gods that loved the daughters of men? Where are the nymphs, the goddesses of the winds and waters? Where are the gnomes that lived inside the earth? Where are the goblins that used to play tricks on mortals? Where are t
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Where Are They
Where Are They
Where are they? Gone with the ignorance that believed in them. No man was ever yet canonized for minding his own business. No man was ever yet sorry to find that he had married a good cook. How do ministers know what pleases God? What is “inspiration of God?” When God “inspired men of old,” what did he do to them? What has God revealed to man that has ever helped him get a living? If we do not need to worship God six days in the week why do we need to worship him on the seventh? If there were no
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Some Questions For Christians To Answer
Some Questions For Christians To Answer
If God will answer prayer, what is the necessity of working? If God weeps when the poor suffer, what does he make it so cold for? If rich men cannot enter the kingdom of God, what business have rich men to be in Christian churches? If God is our “father,” does he take very good care of his children? If God sends what blesses us, who sends what curses us? If Christianity makes the world better, why is there so much vice and crime? If “salvation is free,” why is anybody lost? We wonder if anyone k
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The Image Of God
The Image Of God
Is it not about time that a few literary murders were committed, that some one went through our literature and killed off a lot of nonsensical expressions that, if they ever meant anything, are meaningless today? If there was more honesty in the pulpit a great many Bible expressions would go out of fashion. One of the first that needs to die or be killed is this foolish expression, “the image of God.” It may be religious, but it lacks sense. It means nothing in this age. God is a term that elude
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Religion And Science
Religion And Science
The person who tells a lie does not know what he will have to do next. A great many persons have the idea that the universe would run off the track but for them. Have a good time, make life cheerful and bright, dance if you want to, sing if you can, play as long as you live and leave the world with a smile. The longer we live the more are we convinced that no adult person would accept the Bible as a divine work if he had not been taught the dogma of the Bible's divinity when a child. Let the mat
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The Bible And The Child
The Bible And The Child
The truths which God revealed have been overthrown by the truths which man has discovered. People used to think that to mix religion with business spoiled the religion, now they think it spoils the business. Recently an old man, over eighty years of age, lay on his death-bed. He could no longer keep possession of the wealth he had accumulated. In a few hours he must leave it to the world from which he had taken it and kept it so many years. He had not been a generous man. He had loved money. He
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When To Help The World
When To Help The World
There is a better charity than that unwilling gift which death compels us to make; it is to help the world while we live. There are two ways of doing this: by giving back a part of what we take,—that is one way and a good way—and by taking less from others, that is another way and a better way. The help that men need to-day is justice. Thousands are poor that one may be rich. Thousands toil that one may live in idleness. Thousands are in want that one may live in luxury. Thousands have not a dol
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The Judgment Of God
The Judgment Of God
Prayer is like a pump in an empty well, it makes lots of noise, but brings no water. A great many people who worship Jesus would not let him come in at the back door. Christianity is opposed to freedom, and consequently freedom is opposed to Christianity. A Christian cannot be a freethinker, and a freethinker cannot be a Christian. When a man is required to believe certain doctrines, he is not free to think. A creed is to keep the mind from inquiry. Questions lead to doubt, and doubt is the deat
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Christianity And Freethought
Christianity And Freethought
From the fall of Rome a new era marks the history of man; a new soul was born out of human experience. The idea which had been prophesied by the philosophers of India, Egypt and Greece now appeared in life, and what had been hoped for seemed about to be realized. Born in an age of slaughter and inhumanity the thought of the brotherhood of man fell upon the world like a star out of the night's sky. Though the power of this idea was not fully comprehended by the people upon whom it blazed forth, s
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The Brotherhood And Freedom Of Man
The Brotherhood And Freedom Of Man
Prayer is a hook that never caught any fish. It is a gun that never brought down any game. No man ever got an answer to prayer that he could show to another person. There are a great many familiar sayings, that are in the mouths of nearly everybody, which are perfect nonsense, and one of these many sayings is the one we have chosen for the subject of this article. One would imagine that falsehood became sacred by repetition, judging from the way that certain untruths live in the literature and l
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Whatever Is Is Right
Whatever Is Is Right
Every harsh word is wrong, every unjust judgment is wrong, every cruel act is wrong, every deception is wrong, every wicked or impure thought is wrong. Go where we will we shall meet the ugly face of wrong. On the street its presence will bring shame into the face; in our dealings with the world it will come before our eyes in all its hideous reality. Even when alone we cannot keep this phantom away. Is it right that a human being should cause another pain and anguish that will leave their marks
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The Object Of Life
The Object Of Life
When you are falling, you cannot stop where you wish to. The power that conquers men to-day must be the power of enlightened opinion. Two dollars given to the son do not atone for one stolen from the father. The Hebrew psalmist sings of man:— “Thou madest him a little lower than the angels.” A modern psalmist writing on this subject says:— “Man was made a little higher than the brutes.” Man is a rare animal; he is the only animal that can make a fire, but he is more than a brute. We do not know
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Man
Man
Men are educated into bad habits through the constant assertion of human weakness, and the publicity which is given to bad deeds. We can never build man very high on the foundation of “total depravity.” It is to be regretted that we think so meanly of mankind. We must start with a better assumption of human nature than that held by Christianity. We ought to emphasize man's strength and give prominence to the good deeds of men. It is not necessary to lie about human nature one way more than anoth
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The Dogma Of The Divine Man
The Dogma Of The Divine Man
Lots of men who would not associate with infidels for fear of contaminating their characters are not yet out of jail. The presence of numberless rich men in Christian pews leads one to wonder if the gospel of Jesus has been kicked out of the church. Such men do not, and cannot, respect the person to whom every church is dedicated. The gospel of Jesus is not the gospel of the rich, but of the poor; not of the banker, but of the beggar. It is impossible for the wealthy man to be a Christian. If he
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The Rich Man's Gospel
The Rich Man's Gospel
The beating of humanity's heart cannot be felt by placing the finger on the church's pulse. What a queer thing is Christian salvation! Believing in firemen will not save a burning house; believing in doctors will not make one well, but believing in a savior saves men. Fudge! There is nothing that will make this world brighter and happier than to speak well of one another. We sometimes wonder how a mean story about a fellow-mortal gets started, and how it is kept going. Surely no base report ever
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Speak Well Of One Another
Speak Well Of One Another
To build one house for man is better than to build a dozen houses to God. We often hear a man say that the world owes him a living. So it does, if he earns it. But man owes the world something. The debt is on both sides, and it is only by giving what is due to others that we get what is due to ourselves. We receive assistance when we render it, and it is by a law of our nature that the world turns from a man who turns from the world. Six marriages out of ten are disgraceful partnerships. The one
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Disgraceful Partnerships
Disgraceful Partnerships
The money that men waste would make them rich, and the time they waste would make them wise. Every day we are told of some wonderful discovery of science. But what has theology discovered? The scientist is searching for the truth; the theologian is trying to save his idols. Of all the great inventions and discoveries that go to make human life easier, happier, more rich and glorious, not one can be laid to the work of theology. These triumphs all belong to science. Some day the world will become
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Science And Theology
Science And Theology
A great many small men draw large salaries, and a great many large men draw small salaries. Of course we measure men by their ability to do something of value to their race. It is a sorry fact that one person is paid ten thousand dollars a year for playing base ball or riding a race-horse, and that another person in unable to earn seven hundred and fifty dollars for the same length of time by performing some useful labor. A mechanic, who actually adds to the wealth of the nation, who produces so
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Unequal Remuneration
Unequal Remuneration
Every man who claims the right to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” is bound to show that he deserves this right. This is essentially an age of change. Things which have been established for centuries are no longer regarded as fixed. That which has been looked upon as absolute is now respectfully held to be uncertain. The foundations of old ideas are being disturbed and man finds that he has built upon sandy bottom. Much which in times past answered the human soul, now affords no sat
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The Old And The New
The Old And The New
Hell is where cowards have sent heroes. A man never fell down stairs that he did not blame the stairs. The cross people carry to-day is made of gold or set with diamonds. There is nothing in this world of ours that will work harder, fight harder, wait more patiently and suffer longer than love, unless it be hate. Much of our character depends upon what we hear. A person may be saved or lost by what reaches him through the ear. The ear has no defense. It is open to every sound. It cannot be deaf.
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Guard The Ear
Guard The Ear
The character of God would stand vastly higher in human estimation if he had visited the garden in which he had placed the first human pair and picked up the serpent and cast him over the garden wall before he had a chance to tempt Eve, instead of waiting until the mischief was done, and then cursing the whole lot for what he might so easily have prevented. No man can be himself with fear always at his heels. Death can get into a house when everything else can be kept out. It is plain enough tha
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The Character Of God
The Character Of God
A Christian contemporary says: “No question is so important to mankind as religion.” We wonder how a person could write that sentence without writing after it, a la Artemus Ward, “This is a goak.” Of course, a preacher is the author of it, or a person who gets his living out of religion. Had the writer said, “No question is so important to ministers and priests as religion,” he would have told the truth; but as it stands, it is a falsehood. We can mention several questions of more importance to
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Not Important
Not Important
The superstition prevails that unless man swears to tell the truth he will tell a lie. This superstition makes the sanctity of the oath. But is it a fact that a person will, under oath, always tell “the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?” It is the general opinion that judicial swearing is simply a judicial farce. We concur in the general opinion. An oath is the liar's retreat. Behind it falsehood puts on the robes of truth. The perjurer delights in swearing, for the act invests
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Oaths
Oaths
To depend upon God is like holding on to the tail-end of nothing. A man cannot be happy who believes in hell, any more than he can sweeten his coffee with a pickle. The church wants us to believe that God will go out of his way to strike a blasphemer and work a week to save the soul of a murderer. There is not one real, true, live word in the Christian vocabulary of salvation. Eden, the stage on which was performed the tragedy of original sin, is a dead word; devil, the name of the scaly gentlem
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Dead Words
Dead Words
When the church teaches that “confession is good for the soul,” it teaches false doctrine; it is only good for the church. Men once confessed their sins, believing that it was the evidence of the loftiest courage to acknowledge that they had made fools of themselves or that they were the veriest knaves. But never was a greater mistake made. Confession is itself a sin, a base betrayal of one's own heart. It shows utter lack of shame. Our sins should be sacred. We should let no eyes see them but o
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Confession Of Sin
Confession Of Sin
To make crime easy is to make criminals. One cannot rob the clothes-line if the clothes are in the house. Every now and then a man dies and the world praises his name, and men die every day whose names we never hear. Why is the one lifted up above the other? In the case we have in mind it was because the man, when he died, left several millions of dollars to churches, to charities, and to public benefactions. This age honors the accumulation of wealth. It puts its stamp of honor upon the man who
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Death's Philanthropy
Death's Philanthropy
There is no vicarious suffering for the one who has eaten too much. The nation that proclaims the right of free speech, but will not protect that right, has abandoned its principles. The idea that Nature is to be worshipped, either as God, the unknown, or the incomprehensible, is being seriously questioned. We wish first to know what good such worship does. It cannot be of any benefit to Nature. Is it of any benefit to man? This is the only question to be answered. Almost everybody is ready to s
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Reverence For Motherhood
Reverence For Motherhood
The man that has reverence for motherhood is the man who loves and tenderly cares for his own mother and the mother of his children, but the man who prostrates his mind before a carved figure of the “Virgin Mary” and pounds his wife and kicks his daughter into the street has reverence for nothing. Adam might have obeyed God, but he could not resist Eve. It looks easy to break off a bad habit that somebody else has got. The blind, foolish faith in the Bible is the cause of intellectual dishonesty
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The God Of The Bible
The God Of The Bible
What this generation should do is to take the Lord God of the Israelites, that lies dead on the banks of time and bury him from human sight forever. Not another human being born on this earth should be allowed to read of his cruel deeds, and if Christian ministers were honest, and had the courage of their honesty, they would tell the world that the being called God in the Bible was no God, only an idol of a rude and barbarous age. A theologian is a person who uses the word “God” to hide his igno
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The Measure Of Suffering
The Measure Of Suffering
Trying to find God is a good deal like looking for money one has lost in a dream. We could believe in God if he shortened the road for the lame, led the blind or fed the starving. We are told that “all things are possible with God,” and yet God cannot boil an egg in cold water. Some people are afraid of the word Nature. They cross themselves when they hear it pronounced. It has a sound like “Old Nick” in their ears. To these pious souls the word Nature banishes God from the universe. This is loo
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Nature
Nature
This is the age of revision. Churches are all hurrying to catch up with the world. There is a desire to square ideas with facts, and shape beliefs with knowledge. Religion must suffer in this process. Something will be lost, but only what is bad, false and wrong. Creeds are out of date. They are behind the times. They are the dead leaves from the tree of knowledge, the dead branches on the tree of life. The world's faith is in the living; in the bud, the blossom, the promise of things—not in the
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Creeds
Creeds
We do not say that another world is not worth a single thought, but rather that this world is worth all our thoughts, and needs them. If there is one person on earth who is to be envied it is the happy, cheerful man or woman who always sees the bright side of life, the good side of a fellow-being, and the warm, sunny side of what belongs to earth. If there is a person to be pitied, it is the sour, gloomy man or woman, who sees only the dark side of life, the bad side of a fellow-being, and the c
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Don't Try To Stop The Sun Shining
Don't Try To Stop The Sun Shining
Jesus said: “Follow me.” But we decline; we had rather not. We do not wish to follow a person until we know where he is going. If by following Jesus is meant living as he lived, doing as he did, believing as he believed, teaching as he taught and dying as he died, we are not in it. We shall have to say: Thank you, we guess not. We prefer to go some other way. We do not see any necessity of following anybody very far, if at all. This following business is played out. Those who profess to follow J
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Follow Me
Follow Me
We recently overheard a remark which made us query if we cannot get along without servants? A lady was commenting on the character of the “help,” which one was obliged to employ to-day, and expressed the opinion that, if our public schools continued to fill the heads of children with the notion that one person was as good as another, it would not be long before it would be impossible to get help at all. There seems to be an idea abroad in this land as well as in others, that a certain class of p
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Can We Never Get Along Without Servants?
Can We Never Get Along Without Servants?
We believe the community in which all are independent and none are servants is the ideal one. Why should not this be the ambition of the race, to live in a manner that will leave others their independence and encourage in them the desire for a home? Our children all ought to be taught to work, and be made to work, and not be brought up with the notion that they have the right to expect others to wait upon them. We do not wish to imply that one individual should not consider it his or her duty to
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A Heavenly Father
A Heavenly Father
The world will never throb with new life until the spell of worship is broken. Nothing holds mankind down so much as veneration for its idols. Shake off the lethargy that worship has brought upon the soul. Live like men, and you need not worship gods. When we live true to the soul we cease to ask for anything. Worship is denial of self. Let us have no disputes about divinity. Let God take care of himself. The light of the stars proves their existence. The universe needs no counsel of defence. Th
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Worship Not Needed
Worship Not Needed
We denied in the presence of a Christian, who wished to have a religious talk with us, that Jesus was divine. This denial was somewhat anticipated, we imagine, as the gentleman who challenged our views was knowing to the fact that we did not pay pew rent anywhere. But he thought to secure assent from us by saying, “You will have to admit that Jesus was a good man.” What constitutes a good man? A good man is a man who is kind, loving, merciful, reasonable, and just. Would a just man pay the labor
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Was Jesus A Good Man
Was Jesus A Good Man
There are various ways of helping the world, and all are to be commended. Perhaps the way that costs the least, and consequently helps the least, is the giving of good advice. This, we believe, is about the poorest thing that can be given to man. It is a gratuity on the giver's part which is never received quite as it is bestowed. But it is usually born of good intentions, and so we have to be thankful for it, even if we do not use it. To those who are inclined, however, to render assistance to
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How To Help Mankind
How To Help Mankind
The man who gets on his knees has not learned the right use of his legs. Ignorance is all that saves some people: if they knew more they would do worse. Christianity teaches that Jesus was divine. To admit that he was not divine is to give up Christianity. In the light of this teaching let us look at Jesus on the cross. After a brief, but rather peaceful career, Jesus is arrested, tried and convicted as a blasphemer, and sentenced to be put to death. It is said that he died on a cross. How did h
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On The Cross
On The Cross
The man who does no thinking before he acts does twice as much afterwards. Adam may not have been so perfect after the “fall,” but he was not so big a fool. Why are girls brought up with more care as to their personal habits than boys? And why do women have fewer vices than men? It is an undeniable fact that what is looked upon with indifference in a man would be regarded with disgust, if not horror, in a woman. Boys do things that would not be tolerated in girls. Why are there two standards of
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Equal Moral Standards
Equal Moral Standards
We must hold women largely responsible for the vices of men. There is not a vicious habit which a man would not lay at the feet of woman did she demand it. Not a man would tolerate in a woman what a woman tolerates in a man. Let us have one moral standard for men and women, for both sexes, and mete out to each the same punishment for violation of its restrictions. The man that does what his reason says is right is the man that should be honored by men. There can be no higher authority for doing
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Authority
Authority
It is plain to be seen, without illustration or example, that man's authority is not found in his own mind. He has no history that reaches beyond custom. Man begins with man so far as facts prove. Society rests upon hearsay and religion upon tradition. A claim has only to be made upon ignorance to be granted. This good-natured world of ours would believe anything, or make-believe believe it, to save its soul. It takes either a very shrewd man or a moderately mean one to dodge every duty of life
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A Clean Sabbath
A Clean Sabbath
It is hard for a man to be a man. It is easier to be almost anything else. We do not find the reason for what we do in ourselves, but seek it in someone else, or somewhere else. Manhood is not our standard of action. Human integrity is generally looked upon as an eccentricity. We almost despise a person who is more upright than the conventional man. Throughout society there runs a stream of circumstance upon which lives float like chips. The man who turns against this stream, and seeks to stem i
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Human Integrity
Human Integrity
Man must learn this, that he has no greater strength than his own; that he has no higher duty than to obey the behest of his own nature. When we forsake the world's follies and shams we shall find something better. We are never abandoned until we have been abandoned by ourselves. When we refuse to do our duty we must still expect Nature to do hers. The sun and moon do not stand still at man's command. It is greater to keep one's integrity than it is to gain the whole world. It is harder to live
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Is It True
Is It True
Who believes it? Did Pope when he wrote it? Does a person that reads it? I doubt it. It ought to be true, perhaps, that men should be respected, honored, and praised just as much for carrying a hod well as for writing a poem or acting Hamlet well, but it is not so regarded. A man as a man may be just as worthy, just as honorable, just as much deserving the respect of his fellows who uses a pick and shovel on the highway, but it is a fact that the common laborer as such is not respected nor honor
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Keep The Children At Home
Keep The Children At Home
There is one great change which we hope to see brought about in the near future, because we think it ought to be brought about as a matter of justice. It is this: the elevation of teachers above preachers. Civilization, and all that this word stands for today, depends more upon the school than upon the church. It is the teacher and not the preacher that trains the growing minds of our children, that builds the structure of character for future men and women, and gives to the young the sacred tou
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Teacher And Preacher
Teacher And Preacher
We cannot help thinking that Goethe showed lack of courage when he said: “I will listen to any one's convictions, but pray keep your doubts to yourself, I have plenty of my own!” It seems to us that only a coward is afraid of doubts. If our convictions are false is it not better to know it and correct them? Doubt is the way to truth. It is the attitude of the mind that wants to know things just as they are. They who are unwilling to be deceived are the ones to doubt, to inquire. Let us hear all
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Bible-Backing
Bible-Backing
The heart that can deride misfortune confesses its own deformity. When we are satisfied with the present we do not think of the future. The more mystery is encouraged, the more deceit can impose upon the human mind. If wisdom and diamonds grew on the same tree we could soon tell how much men loved wisdom. We have come to look upon the poor beggar as a nuisance; upon the man who comes to our doors for food or clothes as one who has no claim upon our charity. The common beggar is, as a rule, a wor
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Beggars
Beggars
Men need nothing so much to-day as self-reliance; courage to stand up manfully for the right, all alone, without prop or pay, daring everything for an idea, counting not the cost, but seeing only the grand result which would follow its triumph and working for that with single purpose and courageous fidelity. Habit makes the man, but man makes the habit. It is here where we want to get in a word. A habit seems a little thing in itself, but it is the most terrible tyrant that rules the world. And
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Habits
Habits
It takes the shingles from the widow's cottage to put paint on the house of God. Many persons who claim that they are “clothed with righteousness” do not seem to have got very good fits. Is poverty a malady of the individual or of society? To answer this question is to determine how to treat the disease. If the individual is alone responsible for being poor, then he alone is to apply the remedy; but if society is to blame for poverty, then must society take the steps to effect a cure. Poverty is
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Can Poverty Be Abolished
Can Poverty Be Abolished
Cicero said that “men, having exhausted all the mad extravagancies they are capable of, have yet never entertained the idea of eating the God whom they adore.” The extravagance which was beyond the contemplation of the Pagan mind, is an every day affair with a large part of the Christian world. The Roman Catholic eats his God every week, and Catholics have been guilty of this religious cannibalism for centuries. In the celebration of the eucharist, which is a service commemorative of the death o
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The Roman Catholic God
The Roman Catholic God
No one is to blame for what no one knows. It is singular that people want to live another life when it is so hard to live this. A church that sets up a religious faith as more essential than purity, than kindness, charity or goodness, is a dangerous institution. The mosquito inflicts his sting upon the place whence he draws his life. Not unlike this venomed insect is the person who, through malice, wounds the feelings of a human being. There seems to be in certain organizations the poison of hat
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Human Cruelty
Human Cruelty
When the minister wants to frighten his congregation he draws a picture of infidelity. The infidel has been used for years to scare weak-minded persons into accepting Christianity. Outwardly the infidel is painted like a man, but the world is warned not to trust to appearances, for the infidel is not what he looks to be; he is “a fiend in human shape;” he is “a moral monster,” and a mirror in which everything bad and vicious can see its face. We do not wonder that a minister paints the infidel i
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Infidelity
Infidelity
The infidel gains nothing by avowing his convictions; on the contrary, he is condemned for making them known. The Christian presumes upon the right to damn infidels here and to teach that God will damn them hereafter. It is in the face of a fate, in many instances cruel, that a man acknowledges that his honest thoughts, his honest convictions place him in antagonism to the popular faith, and yet he is denounced, rather than praised, for his brave action. Infidelity is the proof of an honest man.
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Atheism
Atheism
Christians are constantly telling “how happy their religion makes them,” how happy they feel “since they found Jesus.” We will take them at their word and believe that they are just as happy as they say they are. What has their religion done for them, what has Jesus done for them, that they should be so happy? They will answer that they have been saved, that their souls have been rescued from destruction. Without going into the question whether they need to be saved or whether their souls are in
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Christian Happiness
Christian Happiness
The loving heart is happiest in the joy of those it loves; it is happy in seeing others happy, but there could be no joy for it to be saved while those it loved were lost. Christianity is a heartless religion, a cruel faith, a selfish scheme, and it is for those who care more about being saved than saving others. The highest freedom is the freedom to say what we believe to be right. It was a childless woman who said: The happiest woman is she whose bosom pillows the sweet head of a child. We see
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What God Knows
What God Knows
Blessings on the man who first dared to doubt. The improvement in ways of travel and methods of labor has altered our reverence. Every kiss of love imprinted by a mother's lips on the face of her babe gives the lie to the Christian doctrine of total depravity, and every gift which the heart of pity lays in the hand of misfortune brands this doctrine as false and a libel on our human nature. I do not deny that the word “God” has today a moral and religious meaning which is derived from his suppos
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The Meaning Of The Word God
The Meaning Of The Word God
A great deal is said about “what Jesus has done for the world.” We wish some of those people who repeat this statement would take ten or fifteen minutes and tell us just what Jesus has done for the world. It would puzzle the most ardent admirer of the Galilean reformer to point out anything that Jesus ever did to help man in this life. There is too much of this thoughtless, senseless praise of Jesus. Not a Christian on this earth but what owes a thousand times more to his father and mother than
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What Has Jesus Done For The World
What Has Jesus Done For The World
Some avowed Liberal writers are engaged in abusing the Agnostic. One looks upon him as a fool, while another considers him a hypocrite. One pities him for his ignorance, the other abuses him for confessing it. I side with the Agnostic. I sit down with the ignorant. I take my place in the class of “I-don't-know.” The difference between people is this: Some don't know, and some don't know that they don't know, and the rest won't admit that they don't know. It seems to me that the Agnostic's positi
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The Agnostic's Position
The Agnostic's Position
There is as much perfumery in petroleum as there is righteousness in orthodoxy. Its dead theology and make-believe piety have no value only to the priest. Orthodoxy survives only by right of possession. Turn it out of the churches and it would never re-enter them. The church to-day is a hospital for sick dogmas. Every Christian doctrine is a cripple; not one can walk or stand alone. Orthodoxy has put a false valuation on things. It calls a man good who goes to church, offers a prayer in public a
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Orthodoxy
Orthodoxy
There is a vast difference between knowledge of the Bible and knowledge. A person may know all there is in the Bible, and not know but little. In fact, so much of the Bible is either pure fiction or doubtful history that one is not sure when he has got hold of what is reliable. Probably no person whose name appears in the Bible is less a historical figure than Jesus. As we see him in either gospel he is more the product of the artist than the work of the biographer. He is less a human being than
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Ideas Of Jesus
Ideas Of Jesus
Our opinion is that Jesus is a myth, that no such being as is painted in the New Testament ever lived. This seems to be the only rational idea of Jesus. A Christian minister not long ago spoke upon the subject: “When the Bible is Silent.” He said a great many silly things about his subject, but not one sensible one. This preacher wishes us to believe that when the Bible is silent it is because we cannot hear. He said the silence of Jesus before Caiaphas, Pilate and Herod, shows that Jesus knew t
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The Silence Of Jesus
The Silence Of Jesus
When he was asked by Pilate. “What is truth?” Jesus was silent; and when Pilate again asked, “Whence art thou?” Jesus “gave him no answer.” When Herod “questioned with him in many words,” “he answered him nothing.” What are we to infer from this silence? What the minister wishes us to infer, or that Jesus saw that he was unable to maintain his claim and so sought refuge in silence? The silence of Jesus condemns him. He was in duty bound to prove that he was the Christ, the Son of God, as he clai
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Does The Church Save
Does The Church Save
Which shall it be, Christianity or the Republic? It is apparent that the Christian church under a purely secular government, where justice is granted to all and where favors are allowed to none, cannot long survive. The Christian church in this country to-day is the worst foe of our free republic that exists within its borders. If the state survives it is plain to us that the church must perish, and the church can only flourish on the ruins of free institutions. We may have Christianity with a c
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Save The Republic
Save The Republic
The Christian church of to-day is the church of women. Woman is certainly the better-half of Christianity. She is the minister's right bower. The Christian soldier is an Amazon. The first at the prayer-meeting, at the donation party, at the missionary convention, at the Sunday service, at the altar, at the Sunday school is woman, and the last is woman, too. Without its female members, adherents and workers the Christian church would be an abandoned wreck within a week. It is true that men give m
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A Woman's Religion
A Woman's Religion
A great deal has been written, preached and said about the great sacrifice which Jesus made for the world. We deny that he made any such sacrifice as is claimed for him by the Christian church. In fact, we cannot see, find or learn from any record of the New Testament that he made any sacrifice at all. This whole idea about the sacrifice of Jesus depends upon a theological assumption. Jesus had no earthly honor, position or estate to sacrifice, even had he been disposed to offer such for the goo
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The Sacrifice Of Jesus
The Sacrifice Of Jesus
The only incident in the whole career of Jesus which has been construed as a sacrifice was his crucifixion, but this was not voluntary on the part of the victim. Jesus, in dying, made no sacrifice. He surrendered his life at the command of a political power; he did not offer it for the world's advancement. Jesus was the sport of circumstances, the victim of a cruel fate. He played for high stakes and lost. He was an adventurer, and suffered the penalty of failure. Taking the account of his caree
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Fashionable Hypocrisy
Fashionable Hypocrisy
When religion comes in at the door common sense goes out at the window. The churches erected in the name of God will ere long be tombstones to his memory. Churches do not stand for moral influence. Not a Christian minister preaches salvation by good behavior. What a poor business Roman Catholicism would do among men if it advertised to save only those who were temperate, upright, intelligent and moral. It is pretty certain that the laborer is hereafter to have more time for himself. That fact is
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The Saturday Half-Holiday
The Saturday Half-Holiday
Why does a man enter the Christian ministry? Why do men preach the Christian faith? There is some reason for doing so. What is it? We have been told that the men who adopt the profession of preaching for a living make a sacrifice of personal advantage by doing so; that these men, had they entered any other profession, could not only more readily achieve greatness, but could also make more money. We do not believe it. As a rule, we believe that the men who are getting a living to-day as ministers
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The Motive For Preaching
The Motive For Preaching
The truth is this, the motive for preaching to-day is the pay, and the religion of the pulpit is to say nothing that will cause a panic in the pews. Man's history is below his life, his destiny above it. All that secularists ask is that their thoughts be met fairly and honestly, and that the world accept what will lead it in the highest and surest way. If a person can join the salvation army corps and still be respected by his fellow-beings, he ought to be at liberty to enlist in the ranks of re
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Indifference To Religion
Indifference To Religion
If If the government can carry a letter across the continent for two cents, why cannot it send a telegraphic message correspondingly cheap? If the government can build and manage a navy, why cannot it build and operate a railroad? If the government can run the treasury department, why cannot it run the banks? If the government can maintain an army of soldiers in idleness, why cannot it support an army of laborers at some useful occupation? If the government can serve at less cost than private co
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Sunday Schools
Sunday Schools
If the factory pays taxes and the church does not, it follows that the church will some day own the factory. When christian ministers stand up in their pulpits and say “Let us pray,” if they would sometimes vary the invitation and say: Let us laugh, they would do their congregations more good. Every little while some minister wakes up to the fact that a large proportion of the people of our cities do not go to church, and he blames the people for this state of affairs. Nobody blames men and wome
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Going To Church
Going To Church
In going to the theatre, we do not always go to the same place, nor to hear the same play, nor to witness the same actors; nor do we always visit the same gallery or park when we desire to see paintings or statuary, or to enjoy the flowers and general beauties of Nature. Why should men join one church and go to it all their lives? Why should men hear only one kind of religion preached? Why should men listen all their lives to the preaching of one set of dogmas? Supposing a man were to go once or
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