LECTURES OF COL. R. G. INGERSOLL
Including His Answers To The Clergy, His Oration At His Brother's
Grave, Etc., Etc.
Complete In Two Volumes
Volume I
CONTENTS
Gods
Ghosts
Hell
Individuality
Humboldt
Which Way
The Great Infidels
Talmagian Theology
At a Child's Grave
Ingersoll's Oration at His Brother's Grave
Mistakes of Moses
Skulls and Replies
What Shall We Do To Be Saved?
Ingersoll's Answer To Prof. Swing, Dr. Thomas, And Others
INGERSOLL'S LECTURE ON GODS
Ladies and Gentlemen: An honest god is the noblest work of man. Each
nation has created a god, and the god has always resembled his creators.
He hated and loved what they hated and loved, and he was invariably
found on the side of those in power. Each god was intensely patriotic,
and detested all nations but his own. All these Gods demanded praise,
flattery, and worship. Most of them were pleased with sacrifice, and
the smell of innocent blood has ever been considered a divine perfume.
All these gods have insisted upon having a vast number of priests, and
the priests have always insisted upon being supported by the people, and
the principal business of these priests has been to boast about their
God, and to insist that he could easily vanquish all the other gods put
together.
These gods have been manufactured after numberless models, and according
to the most grotesque fashions. Some have a thousand arms, some a
hundred heads, some are adorned with necklaces of living snakes, some
are armed with clubs, some with sword and shield, some with bucklers,
and some with wings as a cherub; some were invisible, some would show
themselves entire, and some would only show their backs; some were
jealous, some were foolish, some turned themselves into men, some into
swans, some into bulls, some into doves, and some into holy ghosts, and
made love to the beautiful daughters of men. Some were married - all
ought to have been - and some were considered as old bachelors from all
eternity. Some had children, and the children were turned into gods and
worshiped as their fathers had been. Most of these gods were
revengeful, savage, lustful, and ignorant; as they generally depended
upon their priests for information, their ignorance can hardly excite
our astonishment.
These gods did not even know the shape of the worlds they had created,
but supposed them perfectly flat. Some thought the day could be
lengthened by stopping the sun, that the blowing of horns could throw
down the walls of a city, and all knew so little of the real nature of
the people they had created, that they commanded the people to love
them. Some were so ignorant as to suppose that man could believe just
as he might desire, or as might command, and to be governed by
observation, reason, and experience was a most foul and damning sin.
None of these gods could give a true account of the creation of this
little earth. All were woefully deficient in geology and astronomy. As
a rule, they were most miserable legislators, and as executives, they
were far inferior to the average of American presidents.
The deities have demanded the most abject and degrading obedience. In
order to please them, man must lay his very face in the dust. Of course,
they have always been partial to the people who created them, and they
have generally shown their partiality by assisting those people to rob
and destroy others, and to ravish their wives and daughters. Nothing is
so pleasing to these gods as the butchery of unbelievers. Nothing so
enrages them, even now as to have some one deny their existence.
Few nations have been so poor as to have but one god. Gods were made so
easily, and the raw material cost so little, that generally the god
market was fairly glutted, and heaven crammed with these phantoms.
These gods not only attended to the skies, but were supposed to
interfere in all the affairs of men. They presided over everybody and
everything. They attended to every department. All was supposed to be
under their immediate control. Nothing was too small - nothing too
large; the falling of sparrows and the motions of planets were alike
attended to by these industrious and observing deities. From their
starry thrones they frequently came to the earth for the purpose of
imparting information to man. It is related of one that he came amid
thunderings and lightnings in order to tell the people they should not
cook a kid in its mother's milk. Some left their shining abode to tell
women that they should, or should not, have children, to inform a priest
how to cut and wear his apron, and to give directions as to the proper
manner for cleaning the intestines of a bird.
When the people failed to worship one of these gods, or failed to feed
and clothe his priests, (which was much the same thing,) he generally
visited them with pestilence and famine. Sometimes he allowed some
other nation to drag them into slavery - to sell their wives and
children; but generally he glutted his vengeance by murdering their
first born. The priests always did their whole duty, not only in
predicting these calamities, but in proving, when they did happen, that
they were brought upon the people because they had not given quite
enough to them.
These gods differed just as the nations differed; the greatest and most
powerful had the most powerful gods, while the weaker ones were obliged
to content themselves with the very off-scourings of the heavens. Each
of these gods promised happiness here and hereafter to all his slaves,
and threatened to eternally punish all who either disbelieved in his
existence or suspected that some other God might be his superior; but
to deny the existence of all gods was, and is, the crime of crimes.
Redden your hands with human blood; blast by slander the fair fame of
the innocent; strangle the smiling child upon its mother's knees;
deceive, ruin and desert the beautiful girl who loves and trusts you,
and your case is not hopeless. For all this, and for all these, you may
be forgiven. For all this, and for all these, that bankrupt court
established by the gospel, will give you a discharge; but deny the
existence of these divine ghosts, of these gods, and the sweet and
tearful face of Mercy becomes livid with eternal hate. Heaven's golden
gates are shut, and you, with an infinite curse ringing in your ears,
with the brand of infamy upon your brow, commence your endless
wanderings in the lurid gloom of hell - an immortal vagrant - an eternal
outcast - a deathless convict.
One of these gods, and one who demands our love, our admiration and our
worship, and one who is worshiped, if mere heartless ceremony is
worship, gave to his chosen people for their guidance the following laws
of war: "When thou comest nigh unto a city to fight against it, then
proclaim peace unto it. And it shall be if it make thee answer of
peace, and open unto thee, then it shall be that all the people that is
found therein shall be tributaries unto thee, and they shall serve thee.
And if it will make no peace with thee, but will make war against thee,
then thou shalt besiege it. And when the Lord thy God hath delivered it
into thine hands, thou shalt smite every male thereof with the edge of
the sword. But the women and the little ones, and the cattle, and all
that is in the city, even all the spoil thereof, shalt thou take unto
thyself, and thou shalt eat the spoil of thine enemies which the Lord
thy God hath given thee. Thus shalt thou do unto all the cities which
are very far off from thee, which are not of the cities of these
nations. But of the cities of these people which the Lord thy God doth
give thee for an inheritance, thou shall save alive nothing that
breatheth."
Is it possible for man to conceive of anything more perfectly infamous?
Can you believe that such directions were given by any except an
infinite fiend? Remember that the army receiving these instructions was
one of invasion. Peace was offered on condition that the people
submitting should be the slaves of the invader; but if any should have
the courage to defend their home, to fight for the love of wife and
child, then the sword was to spare none - not even the prattling, dimpled
babe.
And we are called upon to worship such a god; to get upon our knees and
tell him that he is good, that he is merciful, that he is just, that he
is love. We are asked to stifle every noble sentiment of the soul, and
to trample under foot all the sweet charities of the heart. Because we
refuse to stultify ourselves - refuse to become liars - we are denounced,
hated, traduced and ostracized here, and this same god threatens to
torment us in eternal fire the moment death allows him to fiercely
clutch our naked helpless souls. Let the people hate, let the god
threaten - we will educate them, and we will despise and defy him.
The book, called the bible, is filled with passages equally horrible,
unjust and atrocious. This is the book to read in schools in order to
make our children loving, kind and gentle! This is the book recognized
in our Constitution as the source of authority and justice!
Strange that no one has ever been persecuted by the Church for believing
God bad, while hundreds of millions have been destroyed for thinking him
good. The orthodox church never will forgive the Universalist for
saying "God is love." It has always been considered as one of the very
highest evidence of true and undefiled religion to insist that all men,
women and children deserve eternal damnation. It has always been heresy
to say, "God will at last save all."
We are asked to justify these frightful passages, these infamous laws of
war, because the bible is the word of God. As a matter of fact, there
never was, and there never can be, an argument, even tending to prove
the inspiration of any book whatever. In the absence of positive
evidence, analogy and experience, argument is simply impossible, and at
the very best, can amount only to a useless agitation of the air. The
instant we admit that a book is too sacred to be doubted, or even
reasoned about, we are mental serfs. It is infinitely absurd to suppose
that a god would address a communication to intelligent beings, and yet
make it a crime, to be punished in eternal flames for them to use their
intelligence for the purpose of understanding his communication. If we
have the right to use our reason, we certainly have the right to act in
accordance with it, and no god can have the right to punish us for such
action.
The doctrine that future happiness depends upon belief is monstrous. It
is the infamy of infamies. The notion that faith in Christ is to be
rewarded by an eternity of bliss, while a dependence upon reason,
observation, and experience merits everlasting pain, is too absurd for
refutation, and can be relieved only by that unhappy mixture of insanity
and ignorance, called "faith." What man, who ever thinks, can believe
that blood can appease God? And yet, our entire system of religion is
based upon that belief. The Jews pacified Jehovah with the blood of
animals, and according to the Christian system, the blood of Jesus
softened the heart of God a little, and rendered possible the salvation
of a fortunate few. It is hard to conceive how the human mind can give
assent to such terrible ideas, or how any sane man can read the bible
and still believe in the doctrine of inspiration.
Whether the bible is true or false, is of no consequence in comparison
with the mental freedom of the race.
Salvation through slavery is worthless. Salvation from slavery is
inestimable.
As long as man believes the bible to be infallible, that is his master.
The civilization of this century is not the child of faith, but of
unbelief - the result of free thought.
All that is necessary, as it seems to me, to convince any reasonable
person that the bible is simply and purely of human invention - of
barbarian invention - is to read it. Read it as you would any other
book; think of it as you would any other; get the bandage of reverence
from your eyes; drive from your heart the phantom of fear; push from
the throne of your brain the cowled form of superstition - then read the
holy bible, and you will be amazed that you ever, for one moment,
supposed a being of infinite wisdom, goodness and purity to be the
author of such ignorance and of such atrocity.
Our ancestors not only had their God-factories, but they made devils as
well. These devils were generally disgraced and fallen gods. Some had
headed unsuccessful revolts; some had been caught sweetly reclining in
the shadowy folds of some fleecy clouds, kissing the wife of the God of
gods. These devils generally sympathized with man. There is in regard
to them a most wonderful fact: In nearly all the theologies, mythologic
and religious, the devils have been much more humane and merciful than
the gods. No devil ever gave one of his generals an order to kill
children and to rip open the bodies of pregnant women. Such barbarities
were always ordered by the good gods. The pestilences were sent by the
most merciful gods. The frightful famine, during which the dying child
with pallid lips sucked the withered bosom of a dead mother, was sent by
the loving gods. No devil was ever charged with such fiendish
brutality.
One of these gods, according to the account, drowned an entire world,
with the exception of eight persons. The old, the young, the beautiful
and the helpless were remorselessly devoured by the shoreless sea.
This, the most fearful tragedy that the imagination of ignorant priests
ever conceived, was the act not of a devil, but of God so-called, whom
men ignorantly worship unto this day. What a stain such an act would
leave upon the character of a devil! One of the prophets of one of
these gods, having in his power a captured king, hewed him in pieces in
the sight of all the people. Was ever any imp of any devil guilty of
such savagery?
One of these gods is reported to have given the following directions
concerning human slavery: "If thou buy a Hebrew servant six years
shall he serve, and in the seventh he shall go out free for nothing. If
he came in by himself, he shall go out by himself; if he were married,
then his wife shall go out with him. If his master have given him a
wife, and she have borne him sons or daughters, the wife and her
children shall be her master's, and he shall go out by himself. And if
the servant shall plainly say, I love my master, my wife and my
children; I will not go out free; then his master shall bring him unto
the judges: he shall also bring him unto the door, or unto the
doorpost; and his Master shall bore his ear with an awl; and he shall
serve him forever."
According to this, a man was given liberty upon condition that he would
desert forever his wife and children. Did any devil ever force upon a
husband, upon a father, so cruel and so heartless an alternative? Who
can worship such a god? Who can bend the knee to such a monster? Who
can pray to such a fiend?
All these gods threatened to torment forever the souls of their enemies.
Did any devil ever make so infamous a threat? The basest thing recorded
of the devil, is what he did concerning job and his family, and that was
done by the express permission of one of these gods and to decide a
little difference of opinion between their serene highnesses as to the
character of "my servant Job."
The first account we have of the devil is found in that purely
scientific book called Genesis, and is as follows: "Now the serpent was
more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made, and
he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, ye shall not eat of the
fruit of the trees of the garden? And the woman said unto the serpent.
We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of
the tree which is in the midst of the garden God hath said, Ye shall
not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. And the serpent
said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die. For God doth know that in
the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened and ye shall be
as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree
was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to
be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof and did eat,
and gave also unto her husband with her, and he did eat...... And the
Lord God said, Behold the man has become as one of us, to know good and
evil; and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of
life and eat, and live forever. Therefore the Lord God sent him forth
from the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So
he drove out the man, and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden
cherubims and a flaming sword, which turned every way to keep the way of
the tree of life."
According to this account the promise of the devil was fulfilled to the
very letter. Adam and Eve did not die, and they did become as gods,
knowing good and evil. The account shows, however, that the gods
dreaded education and knowledge then just as they do now. The church
still faithfully guards the dangerous tree of knowledge, and has exerted
in all ages her utmost power to keep mankind from eating the fruit
thereof. The priests have never ceased repeating the old falsehood and
the old threat: "Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it,
lest ye die." From every pulpit comes the same cry, born of the same
fear "Lest they eat and become as gods, knowing good and evil." For
this reason, religion hates science, faith detests reason, theology is
the sworn enemy of philosophy, and the church with its flaming sword
still guards the hated tree, and like its supposed founder, curses to
the lowest depths the brave thinkers who eat and become as gods.
If the account given in Genesis is really true, ought we not, after all,
to thank this serpent? He was the first schoolmaster, the first
advocate of learning, the first enemy of ignorance, the first to whisper
in human ears the sacred word liberty, the creator of ambition, the
author of modesty, of inquiry, of doubt, of investigation, of progress
and of civilization.
Give me the storm and tempest of thought and action, rather than the
dead calm of ignorance and faith. Banish me from Eden when you will;
but first let me eat of the fruit of the tree of knowledge! Some
nations have borrowed their gods; of this number, we are compelled to
say, is our own. The Jews having ceased to exist as a nation, and
having no further use for a god, our ancestors appropriated him and
adopted their devil at the same time. This borrowed god is still an
object of some adoration, and this adopted devil still excites the
apprehensions of our people. He is still supposed to be setting his
traps and snares for the purpose of catching our unwary souls, and is
still, with reasonable success, waging the old war against our god.
To me, it seems easy to account for these ideas concerning gods and
devils. They are a perfectly natural production. Man has created them
all, and under the same circumstances will create them again. Man has
not only created all these gods, but he has created them out of the
materials by which he has been surrounded. Generally he has modeled them
after himself, and has given them hands, heads, feet, eyes, ears, and
organs of speech. Each nation made its gods and devils speak its
language not only, but put in their mouths the same mistakes in history,
geography, astronomy, and in all matters of fact, generally made by the
people.
No god was ever in advance of the nation that created him. The negroes
represented their deities with black skins and curly hair. The Mongolian
gave to his a yellow complexion and dark almond-shaped eyes. The Jews
were not allowed to paint theirs, or we should have seen Jehovah with a
full beard, an oval face, and an aquiline nose. Zeus was a perfect Greek
and Jove looked as though a member of the Roman senate. The gods of
Egypt had the patient face and placid look of the loving people who made
them. The gods of northern countries were represented warmly clad in
robes of fur; those of the tropics were naked. The gods of India were
often mounted upon elephants, those of some islanders were great
swimmers, and the deities of the Arctic zone were passionately fond of
whale's blubber. Nearly all people have carved or painted
representations of their gods, and these representations were, by the
lower classes generally treated as the real gods, and to these images
and idols they addressed prayers and offered sacrifice.
In some countries, even at this day, if the people after long praying
do not obtain their desires, they turn their images off as impotent
gods, or upbraid them in a most reproachful manner, loading them with
blows and curses. 'How now, dog of a spirit,' they say, 'we give you
lodging in a magnificent temple, we gild you with gold, feed you with
the choicest food, and offer incense to you; yet, after all this care,
you are so ungrateful as to refuse us what we ask.' Hereupon they will
pull the god down and drag him through the filth of the street. If, in
the meantime, it happens that they obtain their request, then with a
great deal of ceremony, they wash him clean, carry him back and place
him in his temple again, where they fall down and make excuses for what
they have done. 'Of a truth,' they say, 'we were a little too hasty,
and you were a little too long in your grant. Why should you bring this
beating on yourself. But what is done cannot be undone.' Let us not
think of it any more. If you will forget what is past, we will gild you
over brighter again than before.
Man has never been at a loss for gods. He has worshiped almost
everything, including the vilest and most disgusting beasts. He has
worshiped fire, earth, air, water, light, stars, and for hundreds of
ages, prostrated himself before enormous snakes. Savage tribes often
make gods of articles they get from civilized people. The Todas worship
a cow-bell. The Kotas worship two silver plates, which they regard as
husband and wife, and another tribe manufactured a god out of a king of
hearts.
Man, having always been the physical superior of woman, accounts for the
fact that most of the high gods have been males. Had woman been the
physical superior, the powers supposed to be the ruler of Nature would
have been woman, and instead of being represented in the apparel of man,
they would have luxuriated in trains, low necked dresses, laces and
back-hair.
Nothing can be plainer than that each nation gives to its god its
peculiar characteristics, and that every individual gives to his God his
personal peculiarities.
Man has no ideas, and can have none, except those suggested by his
surroundings. He cannot conceive of anything utterly unlike what he has
seen or felt. He can exaggerate, diminish, combine, separate, deform,
beautify, improve, multiply and compare what he sees, what he feels,
what he hears, and all of which he takes cognizance through the medium
of the senses; but he cannot create. Having seen exhibitions of power,
he can say, omnipotent. Having lived, he can say, immortality. Knowing
something of time, he can say, eternity. Conceiving something of
intelligence, he can say God. Having seen exhibitions of malice, he can
say, devil. A few gleams of happiness having fallen athwart the gloom
of his life, he can say, heaven. Pain, in its numberless forms, having
been experienced, he can say, hell. Yet all these ideas have a
foundation in fact, and only a foundation. The superstructure has been
reared by exaggerating, diminishing, combining, separating, deforming,
beautifying, improving or multiplying realities, so that the edifice or
fabric is but the incongruous grouping of what man has perceived through
the medium of the senses. It is as though we should give to a lion the
wings of an eagle, the hoofs of a bison, the tail of a horse, the pouch
of a kangaroo, and the trunk of an elephant. We have in imagination
created an impossible monster. And yet the various parts of this
monster really exist. So it is with all the gods that man has made.
Beyond nature man cannot go even in thought - above nature he cannot
rise - below nature he cannot fall.
Man, in his ignorance, supposed that all phenomena were produced by some
intelligent powers, and with direct reference to him. To preserve
friendly relations with these powers was, and still is, the object of
all religions. Man knelt through fear and to implore assistance, or
through gratitude for some favor which he supposed had been rendered.
He endeavored by supplication to appease some being who, for some
reason, had, as he believed become enraged. The lightning and thunder
terrified him. In the presence of the volcano he sank upon his knees.
The great forests filled with wild and ferocious beasts, the monstrous
serpents crawling in mysterious depths, the boundless sea, the flaming
comets, the sinister eclipses, the awful calmness of the stars, and more
than all, the perpetual presence of death, convinced him that he was the
sport and prey of unseen and malignant powers. The strange and
frightful diseases to which he was subject, the freezings and burnings
of fever, the contortions of epilepsy, the sudden palsies, the darkness
of night, and the wild, terrible and fantastic dreams that filled his
brain, satisfied him that he was haunted and pursued by countless
spirits of evil. For some reason he supposed that these spirits
differed in power - that they were not all alike malevolent - that the
higher controlled the lower, and that his very existence depended upon
gaining the assistance of the more powerful. For this purpose he
resorted to prayer, to flattery, to worship and to sacrifice. These
ideas appear to have been almost universal in savage man.
For ages all nations supposed that the sick and insane were possessed by
evil spirits. For thousands of years the practice of medicine consisted
in frightening these spirits away. Usually the priests would make the
loudest and most discordant noises possible. They would blow horns,
beat upon rude drums, clash cymbals, and in the meantime utter the most
unearthly yells. If the noise-remedy failed, they would implore the aid
of some more powerful spirit.
To pacify these spirits was considered of infinite importance. The poor
barbarian, knowing that men could be softened by gifts, gave to these
spirits that which to him seemed of the most value. With bursting heart
he would offer the blood of his dearest child. It was impossible for him
to conceive of a god utterly unlike himself, and he naturally supposed
that these powers of the air would be affected a little at the sight of
so great and so deep a sorrow. It was with the barbarian then as with
the civilized now - one class lived upon and made merchandise of the
fears of another. Certain persons took it upon themselves to appease the
gods, and to instruct the people in their duties to these unseen powers.
This was the origin of the priesthood. The priest pretended to stand
between the wrath of the gods and the helplessness of man. He was man's
attorney at the court of heaven. He carried to the invisible world a
flag of truce, a protest and a request. He came back with a command,
with authority and with power. Man fell upon his knees before his own
servant, and the priest, taking advantage of the awe inspired by his
supposed influence with the gods, made of his fellow-man a cringing
hypocrite and slave. Even Christ, the supposed son of God, taught that
persons were possessed of evil spirits, and frequently, according to the
account, gave proof of his divine origin and mission by frightening
droves of devils out of his unfortunate countrymen. Casting out devils
was his principal employment, and the devils thus banished generally
took occasion to acknowledge him as the true Messiah; which was not
only very kind of them, but quite fortunate for him. The religious
people have always regarded the testimony of these devils as perfectly
conclusive, and the writers of the New Testament quote the words of
these imps of darkness with great satisfaction.
The fact that Christ could withstand the temptations of the devil was
considered as conclusive evidence that he was assisted by some god, or
at least by some being superior to man. St. Matthew gives an account of
an attempt made by the devil to tempt the supposed son of God; and it
has always excited the wonder of Christians that the temptation was so
nobly and heroically withstood. The account to which I refer is as
follows:
"Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted
of the devil. And when the tempter came to him, he said: 'If thou be
the son of God command that these stones be made bread.' But he
answered, and said 'It is written: man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.' Then the
devil taketh him up into the holy city and setteth him upon a pinnacle
of the temple and saith unto him: 'If thou be the son of God, cast
thyself down, for it is written. He shall give his angels charge
concerning thee, lest at any time thou shalt dash thy foot against a
stone.' Jesus said unto him 'It is written again, thou shalt not tempt
the Lord thy God.' Again the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high
mountain and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of
them, and saith unto him 'All these will I give thee if thou wilt fall
down and worship me.'"
The Christians now claim that Jesus was God. If he was God, of course
the devil knew that fact, and yet, according to this account, the devil
took the omnipotent God and placed him upon a pinnacle of the temple,
and endeavored to induce him to dash himself against the earth. Failing
in that, he took the creator, owner and governor of the universe up into
an exceeding high mountain, and offered him this world - this grain of
sand - if he, the God of all the worlds, would fall down and worship him,
a poor devil, without even a tax title to one foot of dirt! Is it
possible the devil was such an idiot? Should any great credit be given
to this deity for not being caught with such chaff? Think of it! The
devil - the prince of sharpers - the king of cunning - the master of
finesse, trying to bribe God with a grain of sand that belonged to God!
Is there in ail the religious literature of the world any thing more
grossly absurd than this?
These devils, according to the bible, were various kinds - some could
speak and hear, others were deaf and dumb. All could not be cast out in
the same way. The deaf and dumb spirits were quite difficult to deal
with. St. Mark tells of a gentleman who brought his son to Christ. The
boy, it seems, was possessed of a dumb spirit, over which the disciples
had no control. "Jesus said unto the spirit: 'Thou dumb and deaf
spirit. I charge thee come out of him, and enter no more into him.'"
Whereupon, the deaf spirit having heard what was said, cried out (being
dumb) and immediately vacated the premises. The ease with which Christ
controlled this deaf and dumb spirit excited the wonder of his
disciples, and they asked him privately why they could not cast that
spirit out. To whom he replied: "This kind can come forth by nothing
but prayer and fasting." Is there a Christian in the whole world who
would believe such a story if found in any other book? The trouble is,
these pious people shut up their reason, and then open their bible.
In the olden times the existence of devils was universally admitted. The
people had no doubt upon that subject, and from such belief it followed
as a matter of course, that a person, in order to vanquish these devils,
had either to be a god, or to be assisted by one. All founders of
religions have established their claims to divine origin by controlling
evil spirits - and suspending the laws of nature. Casting out devils was
a certificate of divinity. A prophet, unable to cope with the powers of
darkness, was regarded with contempt. The utterance of the highest and
noblest sentiments, the most blameless and holy life, commanded but
little respect, unless accompanied by power to work miracles and command
spirits.
This belief in good and evil powers had its origin in the fact that man
was surrounded by what he was pleased to call good and evil phenomena.
Phenomena affecting man pleasantly were ascribed to good spirits, while
those affecting him unpleasantly or injuriously, were ascribed to evil
spirits. It being admitted that all phenomena were produced by spirits,
the spirits were divided according to the phenomena, and the phenomena
were good or bad as they affected man. Good spirits were supposed to be
the authors of good phenomena, and evil spirits of the evil - so that the
idea of a devil has been as universal as the idea of a god.
Many writers maintain that an idea to become universal must be true;
that all universal ideas are innate, and that innate ideas cannot be
false. If the fact that an idea has been universal proves that it is
innate, and if the fact that an idea is innate proves that it is
correct, then the believer in innate ideas must admit that the evidence
of a god superior to nature, and of a devil superior to nature, is
exactly the same, and that the existence of such a devil must be as
self-evident as the existence of such a god. The truth is, a god was
inferred from good, and a devil from bad, phenomena. And it is just as
natural and logical to suppose that a devil would cause happiness as to
suppose that a god would produce misery. Consequently, if an
intelligence, infinite and supreme, is the immediate author of all
phenomena, it is difficult to determine whether such intelligence is the
friend or enemy of man. If phenomena were all good, we might say they
were all produced by a perfectly beneficent being. If they were all
bad, we, might say they were produced by a perfectly malevolent power;
but as phenomena are, as they affect man, both good and bad, they must
be produced by different and antagonistic spirits; by one who is
sometimes actuated by kindness, and sometimes by malice; or all must be
produced of necessity, and without reference to their consequences upon
man.
The foolish doctrine that all phenomena can be traced to the
interference of good and evil spirits, has been, and still is, almost
universal. That most people still believe in some spirit that can
change the natural order of events, is proven by the fact that nearly
all resort to prayer. Thousands, at this very moment, are probably
imploring some supposed power to interfere in their behalf. Some want
health restored; some ask that the loved and absent be watched over and
protected, some pray for riches, some for rain, some want diseases
stayed, some vainly ask for food, some ask for revivals, a few ask for
more wisdom, and now and then one tells the Lord to do as he thinks
best. Thousands ask to be protected from the devil; some, like David,
pray for revenge, and some implore, even God, not to lead them into
temptation. All these prayers rest upon, and are produced by the idea
that some power not only can, but probably will, change the order of the
universe. This belief has been among the great majority of tribes and
nations. All sacred books are filled with the accounts of such
interferences, and our own bible is no exception to this rule.
If we believe in a power superior to nature, it is perfectly natural to
suppose that such power can and will interfere in the affairs of this
world. If there is no interference, of what practical use can such
power be? The scriptures give us the most wonderful accounts of divine
interference: Animals talk like men; springs gurgle from dry bones;
the sun and moon stop in the heavens in order that General Joshua may
have more time to murder; the shadow on a dial goes back ten degrees to
convince a petty king of a barbarous people that he is not going to die
of a boil; fire refused to burn; water positively declined to seek its
level, but stands up like a wall; grains of sand become lice; common
walking-sticks, to gratify a mere freak, twist themselves into serpents,
and then swallow each other by way of exercise; murmuring streams,
laughing at the attraction of gravitation, run up hill for years,
following wandering tribes from a pure love of frolic; prophecy becomes
altogether easier than history; the sons of God become enamored of the
world's girls; women are changed into salt for the purpose of keeping a
great event fresh in the minds of man; an excellent article of
brimstone is imported from heaven free of duty; clothes refuse to wear
out for forty years, birds keep restaurants and feed wandering prophets
free of expense; bears tear children in pieces for laughing at old men
without wigs; muscular development depends upon the length of one's
hair; dead people come to life, simply to get a joke on their enemies
and heirs; witches and wizards converse freely with the souls of the
departed, and God himself becomes a stone-cutter and engraver, after
having been a tailor and dressmaker.
The veil between heaven and earth was always rent or lifted. The
shadows of this world, the radiance of heaven, and the glare of hell
mixed and mingled until man became uncertain as to which country he
really inhabited. Man dwelt in an unreal world. He mistook his ideas,
his dream, for real things. His fears became terrible and malicious
monsters. He lived in the midst of furies and fairies, nymphs and
naiads, goblins and ghosts, witches and wizards, sprites and spooks,
deities and devils. The obscure and gloomy depths were filled with claw
and wing - with beak and hoof - with leering look and sneering mouths -
with the malice of deformity - with the cunning of hatred, and with all
the slimy forms that fear can draw and paint upon the shadowy canvas of
the dark.
It is enough to make one almost insane with pity to think what man in
the long night has suffered: of the tortures he has endured,
surrounded, as he supposed, by malignant powers and clutched by the
fierce phantoms of the air. No wonder that he fell upon his trembling
knees - that he built altars and reddened them even with his own blood.
No wonder that he implored ignorant priests and impudent magicians for
aid. No wonder that he crawled groveling in the dust to the temple's
door, and there, in the insanity of despair, besought the deaf gods to
hear his bitter cry of agony and fear.
The savage as he emerges from a state of barbarism, gradually loses
faith in his idols of wood and stone, and in their place puts a
multitude of spirits. As he advances in knowledge, he generally
discards the petty spirits, and in their stead believes in one, whom he
supposes to be infinite and supreme. Supposing this great spirit to be
superior to nature, he offers worship or flattery in exchange for
assistance. At last, finding that he obtains no aid from this supposed
deity - finding that every search after the absolute must of necessity
end in failure - finding that man cannot by any possibility conceive of