Essays on the probable, the possible and the impossible

Preface

I feel assured that some will think the author of this book is irreverent; but, when they have read it through, they will see that their first impression was far from the truth. It is truly my reverence for the Author of the Universe and my being that prompts me to write. From my childhood I have been a skeptic. My mother was a devoted churchwoman, with a strong sense of religious responsibility resting on her as to the manner of educating her children, so as to impress them with her religious faith. She firmly believed the Bible to be the word of God from beginning to ending. 'She knew exactly the number of chapters to read every Sunday, so as to read it through in a year. I being the oldest, after each reading she questioned me about what we had just read. One morning we read the story of Lazarus, Dives, and Abraham. After being interrogated on the subject, I asked her who was there to hear what was said on this occasion. My father looked up from his paper, and said to my mother: "You had best let that boy alone; he is beginning to think." I have been thinking all the while since. I have read

PEERAGE.

quite a number of books by the greatest philosophers the world has produced, ancient and modern. I find that they were skeptical. I notice they improved civilization and progress by the study of natural law. They all favored free universal education. I have carefully investigated the Old and New Testaments, and from beginning to end I found nothing of the science of mathematics, of astronomy, or chemistry, of physiology, of philosophy, that has been of much benefit to the progress and civilization of the human race. I found the Bible filled with crimes too horrible for a civilized mind to conceive of. I do not believe them to be true, and am grateful to God for giving me reason not to believe. I have given those reasons for my doubt, in this book, to the best of my ability. I found enough, and more, too, to strengthen my disbelief, and to relieve my sympathetieal feelings, while reading of the suffering of whole nations with famine, pestilence, and the most indiscriminate and cruel murder. I believe the whole of the Old Testament to be written at least eight hundred years after what is written was said to have occurred. I think it is founded on fables and traditions, and written by writers with hyperbolical imaginations, and who were both visionary and given to exaggeration. I do not pretend to ask

PKEFACE. 5

others to believe as I do. I only ask that they read for themselves as I have, with the belief that God alone gives reason to man, and by the exercise of their God-endowed minds they will be convinced that what they read is false. I am sure they, like me, will find evidence enough in the books themselves to prove them the fabrication of a very wicked mind, both visionary and exaggerative. To believe these fables to be the word of God would destroy at once the magnanimity of the all-wise and benevolent Creator, making him a malicious, revengeful tyrant, devoid of justice or mercy. I feel it is a sacrilege to entertain such an absurd idea for a single moment. After reading the New Testament, I found the writers trying to establish a foundation for its being the word of God on the so-called prophecies of the Old. I endeavor to show, from the books themselves, those predictions of the so-called prophets are false. I find the whole of the four books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John made up with anecdotes of what Christ said, and what others said to Christ, with a lot of miracles that no two of them relate in the same way, and, if found in any other book, would neither be probable nor at all interesting, because they are too improbable for belief. Christ was quite a disappointment to most of the people. They looked for a great king, with

PREFACE.

a crown and a drawn sword, to rule the world forever. They, instead, found him to be a simple man in appearance. But he felt he had a soul in him, given by God at his birth. Leaving alone the many miraculous stories of him, for they only confuse the mind, and lead it from the true mission that Christ took upon himself — to teach men the true system of morality and civilization— he never once pretended to be infinite or divine. He looked upon God as the father of all creation. The system of morality taught by him has never been improved on by our greatest philosophers up to this time. I believe that Christ was really the savior of the world, not by any prescribed salvation or redemption, but he held out to mankind the first beacon-light of true civilization that the world ever saw. Christ never made any revenue laws, such as selling salvation, redemption, indulgences, pardon of sins, for money. Christ, while living, was an exa pie for a true, God-loving, and God- trusting Deist. He never threatened anyone with everlasting torment for his religions belief. He taught brotherly love, justice, and mercy. The real objects of Christ's teachings have been perverted by the founders of the Church, and interpolated with revenue laws for the benefit of priests. Christ did not come with a sword to advance his system of morality or re-

PREFACE.

ligion; but, as soon as the Church obtained power, it used the sword, persecution, and the rack of torture, the crudest of all the Church's inquisitions, to enforce its idea of Christ, and salvation and redemption— two of the greatest curses to mankind. That was foreign to the nature and teachings of Christ. I think that, if it were possible for Christ to return to earth to-day, he would not recognize what is taught as the Christian religion. .

The Church founders, forgetting the true object of Christ's mission, went to work inventing creeds. In their creeds they are all professed believers in the doctrines taught by Christ, but never follow his example either in living or practice. It was too simple— only to love each other and be just. They wanted a more complicated and more difficult method to commune with God. They have shut God up in the four walls of their different churches. Some of them substitute Christ and the Holy Ghost for God, to be communicated with only through the medium of the priest. The ancient mythologists had a number of gods. The Church mythologists have three, which they claim to embody in one, but they have innumerable saints to act as guardian angels. Creeds, superstition, credulity, and mystery are their main support, aided by the numerous revenue laws. As I do not believe

8 PKEFACE.

that the salvation of my immortal soul, given to me at my birth, can be bought of a priest, I will proudly hold to the right I have to believe God has given to all the power to be just and kind and trust the salvation of their souls to Him.

It is impossible to even surmise when the idea of a soul in man had its origin. I hope every man, or woman, who lives to maturity, will not dread to think that, after this life, he, or she, will die and pass into nothingness. We feel that God has provided everyone with an immortal soul at birth. By the natural law, our bodies perish, and return to the elements of which they are composed. But the soul does not die, but returns to God, who intended that there shall be no immortality except through the soul. All of our wisest philosophers believe this, and it helps us to look forward to the end of our lives without dread, and feel that we will have a consciousness in a better life evermore. Feeling this assurance, need we trouble our minds as to what form our souls shall take or where they shall exist? Trust this to God, who is the author of all forms and places, and let us not worry our minds with things that are unknowable. I here give my own creed, transposed to verse :

PREFACE.

When there are so many gods, and so many creeds,

And so many ways that wind and wind, When all that this life needs

Is to be just and kind.

ON PHILOSOPHY AND COMMON-SENSE.

There is in the world of reason but one real work for science, and that is to produce and prove truth. Common-sense always gravitates to truth and ratifies it. Truth, once established, is permanent. Philosophy treats of material things from experience, and analyzes them. Philosophers call to their aid all the sciences, but more especially chemistry, aided by the senses and experience of things. Things that are transcendental, philosophy fails to prove to the satisfaction of common reason. To establish the truth of the existence of a Supreme Being, or Creator of the World, is impossible. To attempt to solve this wonderful problem by scientific research is worse than useless, yet we know intuitively that there was necessarily an Infinite Being before anything could exist. How and why do we accept this as an undoubted fact ? I am satisfied of it in my own mind because it does not admit of argument, for God is above nature, above the world, and is beyond reason, yet he is a necessity, for we know the world is a fact, we know our being is a fact, and we know there must have been some incomprehensible pre-existent power. My conscience and my reason intuitively accept the fact of Deity, and I am satisfied without further proof. We know another fact ; that is, if philosophy cannot prove the existence of God, it is impossible to disprove his existence. I notice that all the great philosophers, both ancient and modern, worthy of mention, accept the existence of Deity as an established, necessary fact. Theologians attempt to prove the existence of God by the so-called science of psychology. I boldly acknowledge that common reason causes me to be a confirmed philanthropist ; but, if psychology was the only means to convince me of the existence of the true Deity, I would necessarily be a confirmed atheist, for the so-called science of psychology treats of ghosts, the existence of which in the world they attempt to establish by another so-called science of metaphysics, neither of which has any rational foundation. In truth, all their attempted reasoning vanishes into myth and mystery when common reason is applied to its teachings. Ghosts and spirits may do for the ancient mythologist or the modern spiritualist, but they are only looked on by the philosopher as fabrications or delusions created by superstition and ignorance. God is real, though beyond the comprehension of the mind of man. The theologian's theory of spirits is non-existent and is beyond proof, and can only exist in the mind of a visionary theologian, whose reasoning is weak and without foundation. Saints are rapidly being recognized by the enlightened world as frauds, not worthy of mention.

There are two other things in nature that are beyond the comprehension of science or common-sense, yet they are perceptible to the senses. One is time, the other is space. It is impossible for the mind to conceive when time first began, or when there will be no time. Neither can we contemplate the extent of space. Space can be calculated to a fraction of a cubic inch or less, if necessary, in any material thing, no matter what shape, by the science of mathematics; but, when we look up at that bine ethereal dome, that canopy of the globe, which gives room for the untold stars to revolve like a million tops spinning around in a circle, like a horse goes in a mill, the mind feels its weakness, and the thinker stands in awe of the omniscience of God, who alone knows. This, too, we realize as proof of the existence of Deity, who is above and beyond nature.

I leave a subject that I consider presumption in anyone to attempt by any reasoning, whether scientific or merely rational, to explain. "We feel a truth, as I before stated, intuitively, and it is only understood by the infinite, incomprehensible God of the unbounded universe.

I will take the subject of intellectual culture. In my opinion, it has been proven by observation that the mind of a child should only be taxed with things perceptible in nature by the natural senses. This is taught by experience. Experience is the foundation of natural philosophy. Learning consists in the understanding of the laws of nature as to existing things that we come in contact with. It is only the developed mind that is capable, by scientific experiment and research, to develop truth out of theory. To put books in the hands of a child, whose mind is not developed so as to comprehend what they treat of, is rationally wrong, and does harm instead of good. No teacher should allow it; yet, in the graded public schools, children are taken at the age of five or six years, and taught steadily ten years by a graded method, advanced yearly from grade to grade. They are taught by a fixed, set method, including music, drawing, and other things not required by universities. "When they graduate after all this time, their education is superficial, and few of them can enter the freshman class in a university, for much time is lost with what does not pertain to real learning. A pupil that can only read and write at the age of twelve years, if placed with a good instructor, will in four years be prepared to enter college, and be thorough in all the studies required. A skillful teacher is he who gains the attention of the scholar as well as his affection and respect, and such a one will not meet with obstinacy in any scholar who has the proper pride. Pride should be encouraged, so as to develop in the pupil principles of virtue and admiration for what is excellent and praiseworthy. Calling their attention to men of honor is more effectual and makes more impression than any other method, and leads a boy to imitate whatever is excellent and worthy. As soon as a pupil has reason of his own to guide him, rough usage by his teacher only causes ill-nature and perverseness, and aversion for his instructor. Corporal punishment, in my opinion, should never be resorted to by a teacher. It is what no proud, manly boy will submit to. To beat the body is to debase the mind. Nothing so soon abolishes the sense of shame as the use of the rod, and that sense of shame is the best preservative of virtue and the greatest incentive to excellence. Hence, corporal punishment only breaks down the noble independence of the soul. The only office of the teacher should be to inform the mind, and not to break or weaken the spirit. The most valuable part of education is acquired after the student is done with schools— "by observation, experience, and the study of human nature.

To illustrate: Take two men, sound in body and mind, equal as to ability in reading and writing their own language. One is collegebred, the other is not. They differ only, through life, as two diamonds of equal value — one is polished, and the other is not.

The foundation for later and true learning is obtained at school. The study of nature is what real learning consists of— to observe, to associate with learned men, to travel, to associate with refined and educated ladies, to experiment with and practically investigate the facts of nature.

Learning to speak other languages is what is required for what may be called all-around, thoroughly-educated persons, who will prove equal to all occasions, and grace any society, with honor to themselves and pleasure to others, and render them competent to fill any office. Such an education is the greatest blessing that can be obtained in this life, for it fits one to enjoy life in all its different phases, intellectually and socially.

INSTINCT.

The atheist, who pretends to doubt the existence of God, has only to bring his mind to bear on the instinct that God has endowed all animated nature with, and he can doubt no longer.

He will here find unanswerable the truths of the laws of nature and the wonderful providence and blessings that could come only through the power of our All- Wise Creator.

His honest thoughts will bring him nearer to God than he has ever been. He will see that God is generous; that God is considerate of all his creation ; that all is provided for most liberally. He will see that God is not partial, but deals with all in the same benevolent way, and that the unbeliever enjoys the same blessings with the most devout. He will see that God has made man superior to all animated nature by giving to him reason, by which he can learn nature and provide for himself, and enjoy the blessinsrs that are placed within his reach. Thus he will see that this world is given to us ready-made, and he is a free ajrent to enjoy it, and, therefore, will doubt no more.

He can but observe the systematic arrangement in the economy of nature's laws— that nothing is lost, or can be destroyed. Even in decay they only return to the elements of which they were composed. Chemically the animal elements are taken up by the vegetable, and, in return, they are consumed and nourish the animal. They both depend on each other for existence. Remove one, and the other is consequently destroyed. Remove from the world either water, ammonia, or carbonic-acid gas, and all life, both animal and vegetable, necessarily ceases. God has provided that the animal shall, at every breath, give off carbonic-acid gas. The vegetable takes it up, and gives off oxygen. Nitrogen is given off from ammonia, which is produced from the decomposition of animal matter. Animals, birds, and insects depend almost entirely on instinct for their self-preservation. They are endowed with but little reasoning power.

Instinct is that wonderful, mysterious power donated by God to all his created, living creatures. As soon as they breathe air into their bodies, and as soon as they are separated by birth from the mother, the young of all mammalia, except man, will go directly to her nipple for the nourishment necessary to support their external life. The babe has only instinct to suck anything thrust into its mouth. The insect, as soon as it leaves the chrysalis, seeks its mate; then deposits its eggs where most favorable for germinating. The wonderful instinct of the homing pigeon, when taken far from its native place and set free, will cause it to ascend high into the air, whence, after circling around, it will take its unerring course to its home, no matter how far distant. The bee has seemingly the instinct of the architect in constructing its cells for storing its honey, and to economize space. The bird builds its first nest the same as the mother-bird did. The dirt-dauber builds its nest, deposits its eggs, and with them food for the expected grubs, and seals them up securely. To see this every day of our lives, we can but reason that there is a cause, and that cause is what we call ' ' God. ' ' Instinct, then, is the spontaneous action of all forms of animate nature to preserve life and to propagate their species. They know by the operation of the law of their individual instinct that God has in his providence provided all that is necessary for their propagation and preservation. Man has less than all other animals. "When reason begins, instinct diminishes. God has opened to man his orreat and universal book of nature, and has given to him reason with which to learn; hence, the progress that man has achieved has been by the study and learning of natural laws. The same elements in creation were here in the beginning of animal and vegetable life as now, but man was slow to understand their nature. The most rapid strides have been made by science during the last century, and man, in that period, has accomplished more than for thousands of years previous. By the study and mastering of nature's laws, man can realize the many blessings and enjoy them. The more he Learns, the nearer he is in touch with his Creator. Scientists do not doubt, but feel the spirit of God within themselves.

ON HOPE.

This is the great dividing line between mankind and the Creator. Hope and desire are emotions very similar in human nature. We first desire a thing or condition, and direct our efforts in the hope that we can obtain the object desired. Hope varies according to the age of the person. The babe, as soon as the mind is developed sufficiently to desire, expresses its hope to be taken to the mother's breast. "When older, its hope is to possess the toys of its fancy, as desire prompts. The boy's greatest hope is to possess a gun, bicycle, or pony. The young man hopes for the time when he will be with his lady-love. The ambitious man hopes for wealth, power, fame, political popularity, and notoriety. The very aged man ceases to hope for further achievements in this life. He lives in thoughts of the past and the care for his children and others that are dear to him, and in hopes for their welfare in the future. For himself, he no longer enjoys the many pleasures of life as formerly. His thoughts change, and he naturally turns his mind to the hope for happiness after this life. The desire for immortality and future welfare is founded only on the hope that there is a spiritual existence after this life. Reasoning from everything that has been advanced by the minds of the most scientific philosophers in the world, he finds no positive evidence of existence after this life. He can only hope the accepted theory of a place for departed spirits is trne. His reason tells hiin, beyond a possible doubt, that after death his body passes to nothingness after a given time— there is not an atom of it left— yet hope is anchored in his mind, as long as life lasts, that he is possessed with an immortal soul. This hope in immortality is the foundation for all religious creeds fabricated by man. The ancient mythologists had a number of gods. The priests blend hope with faith in such a manner that it is difficult to separate the meaning from a religious idea. This faith is taught and instilled in the child as divine truth as soon as it is capable of being taught anything.

Faith and hope, according to the theologian, is a complete and unreserved surrender of the mind, so that one can accept the Bible as the true revelation of God to man, giving him free consent to accept and acknowledge it as the truth and the word of God. On this faith his only hope for his soul's salvation depends. To doubt is sacrilegious, and the one who doubts is excommunicated and forever damned and cast into eternal torment. 'Some of the most brilliant men, since the time of Shakespeare to the present time, did not, and do not, believe the Bible to be true, or any part of it the revelation of God to man. Since the advent of Jesus Christ and his founding the Christian religion, the priests and preachers of the different Christian denominations have usurped the authority of declaring that the salvation of souls can only be obtained through what they are pleased to call the blood of Christ. This idea of salvation has been the cause of more trouble and bloodshed to the human race than all other differences put together. The religious wars during centuries of the past are well-known historical facts. What is known as the "Inquisition," of Spain and other countries where the Pope had the power, tortured people in the most inhuman way, with instruments made for the purpose, to be used by the priests to compel belief in their method of salvation. Faith and hope then are blended, and are a consequence of education and fear — education, when the delusion is willingly accepted; fear, when we dare not express what reason dictates. "When I was in Home I visited the national museum, and asked the guide to let me see the rack and other instruments invented by the priests which were used during the Inquisition, for the love of God, to compel belief in their mode of salvation. I was told that every year, on a certain day, the

Pope had petitioned the King of Italy to have them placed out of sight. The king for a long time refused, but, at last, granted the petition. I was told, by applying for special permit, I could, by paying a small fee, be allowed to see them. As I had seen drawings of them, I did not care to take the trouble. His Holiness the Pope did not wish the visitors to be reminded by ocular demonstration of the torture to which persons were subjected to compel them to accept salvation.

These popes and priests, too, claimed to represent, and were agents to carry on, the beautiful moral system of religion founded by Christ, who preached the Sermon on the Mount. The greatest sin, in my opinion, asrainst our merciful Father and Creator, is wanton cruelty, and yet, when practicing it, the priests claimed to be acting in the name of Christ. When their victims were about to expire, these miserable fiends would hold that emblem of Roman cruelty — a miniature cross— to their lips.

These followers of Christ were devoid of all mercy, humanity, kindness, or morality— yet for centuries they were allowed, by the deluded rulers of nations, to practice their cruel methods of salvation, ostensibly for the love of Christ, but in reality for the love of power and gold. History shows that the priests who claimed to be followers of Christ were demons, and the onlytrue Christians were simple deists whose onlyhope for salvation was trust in the love and mercy of God. Man is taught, by the example God gives him, to be just, merciful, and kind to all others, and how he should be honest with everyone else in his dealings through life.

ON SATAN, OR DEVIL.

ON SATAN, OR DEVIL.

The Christian mythologists say the devil is a fallen angel, who rebelled in heaven, was defeated and cast into a pit. The next account given of him was in the (harden of Eden, when he became a talking snake, and he persuaded Eve to eat of an apple, for which all mankind was damned. After reading this fable, it seems that Satan triumphed over God, and obtained control of the whole world. He has a power as great as the Almighty. He is omnipresent, and capable of dealing with infinite power and getting control of creation. This account makes God surrender to the sovereignty of this devil the government and control of the world.

They go on and say that God so loved the world that to redeem it he sent his only-begotten Son (meaning Jesus Christ), said to have been born of a virgin begotten by a ghost for the purpose of afterwards being crucified on a Roman cross to redeem the world from the control of the devil. The Church has never allowed the devil to return to the pit. After the redemption by God dying on the cross, they claim Christ to be divine, but allow the devil to roam at large and continue by strategy to defeat God. The story of this fable throughout makes the

26 ON SATAN, OB DEVIL.

devil triumphant in every case where he and God disagree, as in the matter of Job, when they met and discussed the merits of Job as to patience by afflicting him cruelly in various ways, such as destroying his children, taking away all his property, and covering his body with painful boils. One of the most ridiculous parts of the. fable is where Satan flew off with Christ to the mountain and to the top of a high steeple in order to tempt him. It is related that his iSatanic Majesty offered Christ all he could behold from these high places— in fact, the whole world— if he would worship him. The idea of the devil offering the world to the creator of that world, as well as to the creator of the devil himself, is absurd. The story does not say what shape Satan assumed when he flew off with Christ. He, being the all-powerful devil, probably wafted himself through space without wings, as Asmodeus, the demon, did with Faust. We find this devil getting into the herd of swine, and it is stated that Christ cast seven devils out of Mary Magdalene. The Church seems to have bribed Satan to remain on earth. They promised him all the Jews, all the Mohammedans, all the Confucians, all the Buddhists, and ninetenths of the balance of mankind, only reserving the few that professed their particular faith. The Roman Catholics gave him all the Protes-

ON SATAN, OR DEVIL. 27

tants, and all that did not confess and pay tribute to the Church, or bought absolution and extreme unction from the priests. The different Protestant sects gave him all the Roman Catholics and all other Christian denominations that did not conform to their particular persuasion. As to salvation, we know there are a great number of men and women who live very good lives notwithstanding their belief in these various fallacious and superstitious church doctrines. Now, if these good people are cast into the devil's hell-fire because of a slight difference of opinion as to whether immersion, sprinkling, or the application of holy water, is the proper and accepted mode of baptism, what will heaven be populated with ? The priests and preachers of all the different Christian sects? Visit our prisons where murderers are confined awaiting execution. Pray with them, and (as it is called) convert them. Give them extreme unction; hold that cherished emblem of Roman cruelty— the cross— to their lips, and console them with the belief that they are saved and will be received by Christ, who died to save sinners, no matter how heinous and inhuman the crime for which they are to be executed. But the poor victim, who was murdered without the benefit of priest or other clergy, stands no chance of salvation or heaven. He is suddenly