,,the ,,christian ,,mythology4 ,,by ,,brigham ,,leatherbee ,knowledge is power1 but ignorance is the mother of devotion4 ,new ,york3 ,,the ,,truth ,,seeker ,,company1 #fb ,vesey ,street4 ,,contents4 ,i4 ,the ,virgin ,birth4 ,,ii4 ,pagan ,miracles4 ,,iii4 ,spurious ,relics4 ,,iv4 ,trial and ,execution ,myths4 ,v4 ,distorted ,prophecies4 ,,vi4 ,the ,resurrection4 ,,vii4 ,miracles4 ,,viii4 ,atonement and ,salvation by ,faith4 ,,ix4 ,the ,trinity--,mariolatry4 ,x4 ,saints--,good and ,evil ,spirits4 ,,xi4 ,religious ,holidays and ,rites4 ,,xii4 ,the ,eucharist4 ,,xiii4 ,spread of ,christianity4 ,,the ,,christian ,,mythology4 ,that ,christianity1 as to-day presented by the orthodox1 is far different from the ,christianity promulgated by the early fathers1 few are so blinded as to doubt4 ,christianity1 like all other religions1 came not into the world full-grown1 but from the simple conceptions of its early followers became gradually elaborated by the introduction of pagan forms and customs until it supplanted its early rivals and gave its adherents a compact and solid theology not very different from that of its predecessors4 ,however1 before considering the genealogy of ,christianity1 or its heirlooms from paganism1 let us turn our attention to what were presumably the beginnings of the religious views of mankind4 ,probably the true source of that human characteristic which is defined as the religious instinct and which is supposed to be an elevating and moral agent1 is to be found in the superstition which originated in fear of the unknown4 ,the first ages of human life were so devoted to the animal needs that little attention was given to anything else1 but later the craving for protection and help from some power greater than himself led primitive man to look about him for something to sustain and aid him in his struggle for existence4 ,surrounded by natural phenomena of which he could give no explanation satisfactory to his experience1 he came to the conclusion that he was in an environment permeated with bodiless intelligences who governed these matters by supernatural power4 ,awed to fear by the inexplicable workings of nature1 he sought to propitiate the spiritual agencies by bribes1 and he did all things for them which he thought would be agreeable to them to keep them in good-natured interest or indifference toward him4 ,and1 naturally1 he considered that what would be pleasing to himself would be pleasing to them4 ,therefore1 his offerings and his conduct towards these spirits were such as he would have desired shown toward himself4 ,death and its imitation1 sleep1 being the greatest mysteries confronting him1 he naturally began to consider the spirits of the dead1 with whom he seemed to have intercourse in his dreams1 as being influential factors in his career2 and thus originated ancestor-worship with its highly-developed rites and sacrifices1 which in a modified form still exists in the ,roman church in the practice of reading masses for the souls of the dead4 ,at the same time1 noticing the great benefits derived from the warmth of the sun1 to whose rays he owed his subsistence and whose glorious and awful presence was constantly before him1 man began to feel grateful to that mighty power which was the source of all his welfare1 and1 appreciating that all terrestrial life depended upon it1 he came to recognize it as the great creative power4 ,from such superstitious fear and weakness of primitive man arose all those religious feelings which the pious call instinctive and which have1 through progress1 evolution1 and elaboration1 controlled certain races1 and from whose union have arisen all the religious systems that have ever flourished4 ,owing to the varied influences of climate1 environment1 and racial character1 the various forms of worship predominating in different geographical situations have naturally assumed different characteristics1 but1 when stripped of their surrounding1 and often enveloping rites1 ceremonies1 and superficialities they may all be traced to the above-mentioned fundamental sources4 ,it is my intention to show1 as briefly as possible1 that in the ,christianity of to-day we have nothing new nor of vital difference from what has always been taught and believed in the many epochs of the past4 ,in common with all religious systems1 ,christianity has a hero--the personified sun-god of all time--who is of obscure origin1 who passes through various episodes common to all1 who is finally executed1 and who rises once more to renewed power4 ,in our perusal of the subject1 we shall first consider the life of ,jesus as taught by the ,christian church2 secondly1 the dogmas affecting the source of his power and the results of his influence2 and1 thirdly1 the rites and ceremonies with which his worship is performed4 ,i--,,the ,,virgin ,,birth4 ,some two thousand years ago there is said to have appeared in the notoriously rebellious province of ,galilee1 the headquarters of ,hebrew radicalism1 a wandering teacher called ,jesus1 who passed from village to village expounding certain ethical and socialistic ideas1 which were condemned by the ,roman government and which resulted in this man's arrest and subsequent execution4 ,after his death1 his various pupils continued to preach his theories1 and1 separating1 spread these ideas over various parts of the then civilized world4 ,these pupils1 naturally1 having a firm belief in their former leader1 and desiring to strengthen in every possible manner their faith as well as to increase the number of their proselytes1 and1 also1 being themselves more or less affected by the ancient messianic idea1 did not deny ,jesus more than mortal powers1 and allowed certain pagan theories of deity to creep into their faith4 ,later1 when the vicious and crafty ,constantine found it advisable for political reasons to adopt ,christianity as the state religion1 the great mass of ,roman worshipers merely transferred the attributes of their ancient deities to the objects venerated by the new sect4 ,there was nothing new in bestowing a divine origin on ,jesus4 ,all the lesser gods of antiquity were the sons of ,zeus1 and1 in later times1 monarchs were accorded the same origin4 ,it was a common myth of all ancient peoples that numerous beings derived their birth from other than natural causes4 ,virgins gave birth to sons without aid of men4 ,zeus produced offspring without female assistance4 ,almost all the extraordinary men that lived under the old heathen mythology were reputed to have been the sons of some of the gods4 ,the doctrine of the virgin birth is perhaps one of the oldest of religious ideas2 it is so universal that its origin is impossible to trace4 ,therefore1 no wonder is excited when we find that most of the religious leaders have been of celestial origin4 ,krishna1 the ,indian savior1 was born of a chaste virgin called ,devaki1 who1 on account of her purity1 was selected to become the mother of ,god4 ,gautama ,buddha was born of the virgin ,maya and mercifully left ,paradise and came down to earth because he was filled with compassion for the sins and miseries of mankind4 ,he sought to lead them into better paths1 and took their sufferings upon himself that he might expiate their crimes and mitigate the punishment they must otherwise inevitably undergo4 ,the great father of gods and men sent a messenger from heaven to the ,mexican virgin1 ,sochiquetzal1 to inform her that it was the will of the gods that she should immaculately conceive a son4 ,as a result she bore ,quetzalcoatl1 the ,mexican savior1 who set his face against all forms of violence and bloodshed1 and encouraged the arts of peace4 ,the ,mexican god ,huitzilopochtli was likewise immaculately conceived by a woman who1 while walking in a temple1 beheld a ball of feathers descending in the air4 ,she grasped this and placed it in her bosom4 ,it gradually disappeared and her pregnancy resulted4 ,the ,mexican ,montezumas were later supposed to have been immaculately conceived by a drop of dew falling on the exposed breast of the mother as she lay asleep4 ,the ,siamese have a virgin-born god and savior whom they call ,codom2 the ,chinese have several virgin-born gods1 one being the result of his mother's having become impregnated by merely treading on the toe-print of ,god2 while the ,egyptians bowed in worship before the shrine of ,horus1 son of the virgin ,isis4 ,setting aside the mythological interpretation of the miraculous conception of ,jesus and the theory that his history is entirely fictitious1 and viewing his birth from a natural human standpoint1 even admitting that he may have been a divinely inspired man1 a little better than any other human being1 there seems to be only one explanation for his peculiar conception as recorded in ,luke i4 ,some critics of the rational school have not failed to notice a solution of the problem in the appearance of the angel ,gabriel and his private interview with ,mary 7,luke i1 #bh-ch74 ,say they very pertinently1 why may not some libidinous young man1 having become enamoured of the youthful wife of the aged ,joseph1 and1 knowing the prophecy of the messiah1 have visited the object of his desire in angelic guise and1 having won her confidence in this rle1 gained those favors that produced the miraculous birth8 ,and such an explanation is not improbable when we consider that it is an historical fact that young and confiding women often resorted to the pagan temples at the instigation of the unscrupulous1 where they enjoyed the embraces of ardent but previously unsuccessful lovers1 under the impression that they were being favored by deities4 ,so those ,christians whose reasoning powers will not allow them to believe in the absurdity of an unnatural conception1 and whose superstitious adoration will not permit of their believing ,mary guilty of an intentional faux pas1 try in this manner to reconcile the two1 and declare ,joseph the guilty man4 ,according to the ,gospels1 ,joseph1 the husband1 knowing ,mary to be with child1 married her 7,matt4 i1 #ah72 but that is no reason for believing that he regarded the ,holy ,ghost's responsibility for his wife's condition with faith4 ,he told of a dream in which he had been informed that such was the case 7,matt4 i1 #bj-bc74 ,he may have believed the dream1 and he may not4 ,the most sensible view is that he1 being a just man1 took this method of preserving her reputation1 and that he himself was the actual parent4 ,having betrayed the girl1 he honestly married her1 but1 to defend her and himself from the accusation of a serious misdemeanor among the ,jews 7,deut4 xxii71 he invented the dream story to account for her unfortunate condition4 ,girls have ever told improbable stories to explain like misfortunes4 ,dan concocted the shower of gold yarn2 ,leda preferred to accuse herself of bestiality with a swan to acknowledging a lover1 and ,europa blamed a bull4 ,modern damsels have invented more modern but just as innocent agents4 ,it would seem from the subsequent actions and words of ,mary that she must have forgotten that her son was miraculously conceived of ,god1 for we find her reproaching him for remaining in the temple of ,jerusalem to argue with the rabbis with1 ,son1 why hast thou thus dealt with us8 ,behold1 thy father and ,i have sought thee sorrowing 7,luke ii1 #dh74 ,again1 when ,simeon and ,anna proclaimed the messiahship of ,jesus 7,luke ii1 #be-cb2 #cf-ch71 we are told that ,joseph and his mother marveled at those things which were spoken of him 7,luke ii1 #cc74 ,this would hardly have been the case had they already known him as the ,son of the ,highest1 who shall reign over the house of ,jacob forever 7,luke i1 #cb-cc74 ,neither would ,mary1 had she realized that she was the mother of ,god1 have considered it necessary to resort to the temple 7,luke ii1 #bb-bd7 to be purified from the stains of her childbirth4 ,women1 having borne natural children1 were considered to have become defiled in the act of parturition1 through the contact of the perpetually active agency of original sin1 whereof they must be purified4 ,the mere fact of her submitting to such a churching is evidence that ,mary did not know that she had done anything remarkable in bearing ,jesus1 and was ignorant of an unusual conception4 ,their neighbors1 despite the dream1 always recognized ,jesus as ,joseph's son 7,matt4 xii1 #ee2 ,luke iv1 #bb2 ,john ii1 #de2 vi1 #db2 ,nicodemus i1 #b74 ,the orthodox explain this on the supposition that ,joseph and ,mary kept all these things in their hearts1 and did not tell the actual facts of the case1 which seems unlikely4 ,joseph would want to explain the early birth of ,jesus1 and ,mary would be desirous of saving her reputation1 and both would naturally boast of the honor conferred by the ,holy ,ghost1 had they known of it1 for in such case ,joseph's relation to his god was the same as that of the peasant to his seigneur in the days of the jus prim noctis4 ,the liaison was an honor1 and would have been related to save ,jesus from the disagreeable allusions made by his neighbors regarding his birth 7,john viii1 #da74 ,conforming to the narrations of the miraculous conception in ,luke1 ,mary1 and the ,protevangelion1 is an old miracle play called ,joseph's ,jealousy1 in which we find a very natural picture of the good old husband discovering a condition in his wife for which he is not responsible and accusing her in plain old ,english of adorning his brow with antlers4 ,the following is the dialogue as given in ,hone's ,ancient ,mysteries ,described3 ,jos4 ,say me1 ,mary1 this childys fadyr who is8 ,i pry the telle me1 and that anon8 ,mry4 ,the ,fadyr of hevyn1 se1 it is1 ,other fadyr hath he non4 ,to which ,joseph very naturally replies in a burst of anger3 ,jos4 ,goddys childe6 thou lyist1 in fay6 ,god dede nevyr rape so with may4 ,but yit ,i say1 ,mary whoos childe is this8 ,mry4 ,goddys and your1 ,i sey1 ,i wys4 ,then in wrath at her obstinacy he breaks forth3 ,jos4 ,ya1 ya6 all olde men1 to me take tent1 weddyth no wyff1 in no kynnys wyse4 ,alas6 ,alas6 my name is shent2 ,all men may me now dyspyse1 seyn olde cokwold4 ,mary tries to explain and says that her child is from ,god alone and that she was so informed by an angel4 ,the suspicious ,joseph will not be deceived1 and gives way to some words that have since been accepted as a true explanation of the miraculous conception3 ,jos4 ,an ,a'gel6 alas1 alas6 fy for schame6 ,ye syn now1 in that ye to say2 ,to puttyn an ,a'ngel in so gret blame4 ,alas1 alas6 let be do way2 ,it was s'n boy began this game1 ,that closhyd was clene and gay1 ye geve hym now an ,a'ngel name4 ,the old prophecy in ,isaiah 7vii1 #ad7 that a virgin shall bear a son loses its utility when we recognize that this was the sign given ,ahaz that ,god would preserve his kingdom1 although he was then threatened by a coalition of the kings of ,ephraim and ,syria4 ,if the prophecy referred to the ,christ1 how could it have any influence on ,ahaz8 ,how could he be calmed and made to preserve his courage in the face of danger by a sign which would not be given until centuries after he slept with his fathers8 ,but such was not the case4 ,isaiah made his sign appear as he had promised 7vii1 #af71 ,before the child shall know to refuse evil1 and choose the good1 the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings 7the rulers of ,israel and ,syria74 ,now1 this prophecy was fulfilled1 either by the trickery of the prophet or the compliance of a virgin1 for we find in the next chapter 7,isaiah viii1 #c71 ,and ,i went unto the prophetess2 and she conceived and bare a son4 ,and that is the whole story4 ,to apply it to the mythical birth of ,jesus is puerile4 ,no one can doubt that so good a ,jew as ,josephus believed in the prospect of a messiah1 yet so little did ,isaiah's prophecy impress him that he did not even mention the virgin episode4 ,probably1 on the whole1 he thought it a rather contemptible bit of trickery and rather detrimental to the memory of ,isaiah4 ,james ,orr1 in his treatise written expressly to prove the historical fact of the virgin birth1 denies that the prophecy of ,isaiah could be applied to ,jesus4 ,here we have an orthodox writer who firmly believes in the miraculous conception1 shattering the great cornerstone of the church's foundation for this belief4 ,he says that the word almah was not ,hebrew for virgin at all1 but meant only a marriageable young woman4 ,he says it can have no connection with ,jesus1 and thus he agrees with ,thomas ,paine1 but for opposite reasons4 ,while ,orr evidently considers that all pagan tales of divine paternity are legends1 he affirms that the case of ,jesus is genuine4 ,just why ,god became ,deus ,genetrix only once1 he does not explain4 ,if ,god approved of this method of creation1 he would surely have performed it more than once4 ,that he should have chosen a woman at all seems strange1 when he could have produced ,jesus without female assistance4 ,why should he have given his son1 coexistent with the father1 and1 as such1 undoubtedly of a fully developed intelligence1 all the discomfort and danger of infantile life8 ,if ,jesus were but another phase of the godhead1 one of the divine eternal trinity1 it was degrading and ridiculous to have inflicted him with the processes of foetal life1 with all the embryonic phases of development from ovule1 through vertebrate and lower form to human guise2 to have given him the dangers of human gestation and parturition1 the inconvenience of childhood1 with teething and other infantile discomforts1 and the slow years of growth4 ,why did he inflict all these things on a part1 a third1 of himself1 in many years of preparation for but a few years of preaching1 when he could have produced the ,christ in a wonderful manner1 full grown in all the beauty and dignity and strength of perfect and sublime manhood8 ,probably some will answer that then ,jesus would have been regarded as an impostor4 ,but no more doubt could be cast on such an appearance than has been thrown on the doubtful story of the purity of ,mary4 ,orr1 in his haste to prove his belief1 gives a very good argument against it 7page #hb7 in the words1 ,the idea of a ,virgin birth 444 was one entirely foreign to ,jewish habits of thought1 which honored marriage1 and set no premium on virginity4 ,therefore1 it could not have been of ,jewish origin4 ,the ,jews never accepted it1 and it grew up only under the influence of ,gentile converts4 ,it was an idea of classic paganism1 an adoption of universal phallism1 this conception of a divine impregnation4 ,the doctrine that by conjunction with a woman1 ,god begat the ,christ is merely another phase of the phallic idea of the procreative principles of the deity--it is another form of the deus genetrix1 the generative principle of male procreation4 ,,ii4--,,pagan ,,parallels4 ,the orthodox church denies that the ,christ had any brothers and declares that ,jesus was the only child of ,mary1 in spite of gospel testimony to the contrary4 ,matthew i1 #be1 referring to ,joseph1 says1 ,and he knew her not till she had brought forth her first-born son1 which implies that after his birth marital relations began between ,joseph and ,mary1 from which other children were born1 for how1 otherwise1 could ,jesus have been the first-born8 ,that ,jesus had both brothers and sisters is declared in ,matthew xii1 #df2 xiii1 #ee1 #ef2 ,mark iii1 #ca2 vi1 #c2 ,luke viii1 #ai-bj2 ,john ii1 #ab2 vii1 #c1 #e1 #aj1 and ,acts i1 #ad1 while ,paul in ,galatians i1 #ai1 expressly names ,james1 the ,lord's brother4 ,as the veneration for ,mary increased under the influence of the pagan conceptions of an immaculate mother-queen of heaven1 these simple and natural consequences of her marriage could not be tolerated1 even allowing for the exceptional conception of ,jesus1 and the orthodox began to assert that ,mary was not only an uncontaminated virgin at the birth of ,jesus1 but that by miracle she did not lose her virginity by that event4 ,they attempted to explain the above references1 first1 by asserting that these children were of ,joseph by a previous marriage1 and later1 when they felt it necessary to endow the consort of their pure mother with perfect celibacy1 they named them as cousins only4 ,jerome was so strong a champion for ,joseph's virginity that he considered ,epiphanius guilty of impious invention for supporting the earlier belief regarding ,jesus' brethren4 ,the ,buddhists were far wiser than the ,christians and eluded all such difficulties by causing ,maya to die seven days after the birth of ,sakyamuni1 and by asserting such to have been the case with all the mothers of the ,buddhas4 ,at the time of ,jesus' birth a brilliant star is believed to have heralded the event1 and has passed into tradition as the star of ,bethlehem4 ,there is nothing novel in this idea1 as all ancient peoples were very superstitious about the celestial bodies1 firmly believing in astronomical influences on human affairs1 and it seems to have been a common idea that the births of great men were announced by the presence of peculiar stars4 ,in ,china1 a new star appeared at the birth of ,yu1 founder of the first dynasty1 as was also the case when the sage ,laoutze was born1 while in ,mexico the morning star was the symbol of the national savior ,quetzalcoatl4 ,the primitive ,christians1 however1 did not have to look so far for such an idea1 but easily found a parallel in the unusual star reported by the friends of ,terah to have appeared on the night of ,abraham's birth1 which they said shone so brightly in the east4 ,not only was the birth of the messiah announced by the brilliant star1 but it was also celebrated by the singing of the heavenly host4 ,similar phenomena occurred at the birth of ,krishna1 when the clouds emitted low pleasing sounds and poured down a rain of flowers4 ,on the eve of the birth of ,confucius celestial music sounded in the ears of his mother2 at ,buddha's a marvelous light illumined the earth2 and at the birth of ,osiris a voice was heard proclaiming that the ruler of the earth was born4 ,the savior having been born1 he must necessarily be recognized1 so the myth of the wise men and their gifts follows--in a fashion very similar to that told of the other saviors4 ,the marvelous infant ,buddha was visited at the time of his birth by wise men who immediately recognized in him all the characteristics of divinity4 ,at the time of ,confucius' birth five celestial sages entered the house whilst vocal and instrumental music filled the air4 ,mithras1 the ,persian savior1 was visited by wise men called magi at the time of his birth1 and was presented by them with gifts of gold1 frankincense and myrrh2 and the same story is told by ,plato in relation to the birth of ,socrates4 ,while it is claimed for all the world's saviors that they were borne by virgins and begotten by ,god1 genealogies of royal descent are traced for them through the husbands of their mothers in a most illogical manner4 ,as may be seen in the ,new ,testament1 the pedigree of ,jesus is most elaborately set forth in both ,matthew and ,luke1 who claim that through ,joseph 7whose parentage is denied7 the ,christ was a direct descendant of ,king ,david1 though1 strange to relate1 the connecting generations are different in one inspired gospel from what they are in the other4 ,krishna1 in the male line1 was of royal descent1 being of the house of ,yadava1 the oldest and noblest of ,india2 and ,buddha was descended from ,maha ,sammata1 the first monarch of the world4 ,therefore1 it is not surprising to find a royal pedigree for the god ,christ1 especially when the religious position occupied by the king in rude societies is considered4 ,the ,kaffres acknowledge no other gods than their monarch1 and to him they address those prayers which other nations are wont to prefer to the supreme deity4 ,every schoolboy knows of the apotheosis of the ,roman emperors1 and the monarchs of ,mexico and ,peru were regarded as divinities4 ,every king of ,egypt was added to the list of gods and declared to be the son of ,ra1 and even1 in some cases1 was made the third person of a trinity4 ,each denied that he owed his birth to the father from whom he inherited the crown1 and claimed to have been miraculously begotten4 ,special temples were erected for the worship of the kings1 which was conducted by special priests4 ,the ,parthian rulers of the ,arsacid house1 likewise1 claimed divinity and styled themselves brothers of the sun and moon4 ,the fable of the slaughter of the innocents1 which was merely a new form of the ancient myth of the dangerous child whose life is a constant menace to some tyrant1 was copied from several ancient religions1 and the flight of the holy family into ,egypt has its counterpart in other tales4 ,king ,kansa sought the life of ,krishna and sent messengers to kill all infants in the neighboring places1 but a heavenly voice warned his foster-father to fly with him across the river ,jumna1 which was immediately done4 ,salivahana1 a virgin-born savior anciently worshiped in southern ,india1 had a similar experience2 and fable tells that at ,abraham's birth ,nimrod sought his life1 fearing a prophecy that a child was born who should overthrow his power1 and1 as a result1 he murdered #gj1jjj newly-born male children4 ,at the time of ,moses' birth1 ,pharaoh is said to have dreamed that a new-born child would cause ,egypt's ruin1 and he ordered that all the new-born sons of ,israel should be cast into the ,nile4 ,similar stories1 familiar to all readers of the classics1 are told of ,perseus1 ,herakles1 ,paris1 ,jason1 ,bacchus1 ,romulus and ,remus4 ,all these tales of the birth and early life of ,jesus are similar to those of the other and more ancient saviors1 and so is the story of the temptation and the forty days' fast4 ,moses fasted forty days and forty nights on the mount where he received the law 7,ex4 xxiv1 #ah2 xxxiv1 #bh2 ,deut4 ix1 #i1 #aa74 ,elijah fasted forty days and forty1 nights on ,mt4 ,horeb 7,i ,kings xix1 #h74 ,joachim1 in shame at being childless1 retired to the wilderness for a fast of forty days and forty nights 7,protevangelion i1 #f1 #g74 ,buddha fasted and held his breath until he became extremely weak1 when ,mara1 ,prince of ,evil1 appeared and tempted him to break his fast by offering to make him emperor of the world4 ,quetzalcoatl was also tempted by the devil during a forty days' fast2 and the temptation of ,zoroaster forms the subject of many legends4 ,all these myths readily implanted themselves in the ,christian mythology1 but the execution of its hero gave a great opportunity for mythical expansion and elaboration4 ,it is taught that ,jesus was crucified2 whether he was or not nobody knows1 although there are more pieces of the true cross extant than could ever have flourished as trees on ,mount ,calvary4 ,if such a person as ,jesus of ,nazareth ever lived and was ever executed by the ,romans1 it is very probable that he was hanged1 and the gallows may1 very likely1 have been of a form similar to that of a rude cross4 ,the term crucifixion does not necessarily imply that one must be nailed outspread upon a symmetrical cross4 ,it was the ancient custom to use trees as gibbets for execution1 or a rude cruciform gallows1 often called a tree 7,deut4 xxi1 #bb1 #bc2 ,nicodemus ix1 #aj74 ,to be hung on such a cross was anciently called hanging on a tree1 and to be hung on a tree was crucifixion4 ,this rough method of execution was later modified by the ,christians to the present theory of the crucifixion1 as they very naturally desired to appropriate the cross for their own especial emblem1 owing to the fact that its great antiquity as a universal religious symbol would aid in the propagation of their faith1 and since its earliest inception1 ,christianity has been ever prone to aid its proselyting by the adoption of pagan dogmas1 symbols and practices from the so-called heathen theologies4 ,of all religious symbols1 the cross is the most ancient and sacred4 ,it has from the earliest antiquity been the mystic emblem for reverence and awe1 and appears to have been in the aboriginal possession of every ancient people4 ,populations of essentially different culture1 tastes1 and pursuits have vied with one another in their superstitious adoration of it4 ,greek crosses of equal arms adorned the tomb of ,midas of ,phrygia2 and long before the time of the ,eutruscans1 the inhabitants of northern ,italy erected crosses over the graves of their dead4 ,the cross was common to ,mexico2 white marble crosses were found on the island of ,saint ,ulloa by its discoverers2 and it was greatly revered in ,paraguay and ,peru4 ,while the origin of the cross1 shrouded as it is in the mists of the remotest antiquity1 has been the subject of much speculation which has resulted in numerous theories1 it is1 undoubtedly1 a conventionalized result of primitive phallic ideas4 ,sexual motives underlie and permeate all known religious systems4 ,the idea of a creative god naturally gave rise to characteristic symbolical expression of the male and female principles1 which were gradually modified and reduced to the tau 7a ,gothic ,t71 representing the male principle1 and the ring1 representing the female principle4 ,as a complete expression of the creative power1 these two symbols were often placed in conjunction2 and the most ancient form of the conjunction was1 probably1 that of the crux ansata1 known to the ,egyptians as the emblem of life1 which was very simply formed by placing the ring above the ,t4 ,this emblem is sometimes called the cross with the handle1 because in ancient sculpture it is often represented as being carried by the ring4 7,see ,doane1 ,bible ,myths2 ,inman1 ,ancient ,faiths1 etc474 ,this handled cross was also sacred to the ,babylonians and occurs repeatedly on their cylinders1 bricks and gems4 ,in ancient ,scandinavian mythology the great warrior god ,thor was always closely associated with a cruciform hammer1 this being the instrument with which he killed the great ,mitgard serpent1 with which he destroyed the giants1 and performed other acts of heroism4 ,cruciform hammers1 with a hole at the intersection of the arms for the insertion of the haft1 have been discovered in ,denmark1 and were used in consecrating victims at ,thor's altars4 ,the cross1 or hammer1 of ,thor is still used in ,iceland as a magical sign in connection with wind and rain1 just as the corresponding sign of the cross is now used among the ,german peasantry to dispel a thunderstorm2 both being expressions of the same idea that the cross is sacred to the god of thunder4 ,as ,christians blessed the full goblet with the sign of the cross1 so the ancient ,vikings made the sign of the hammer over theirs2 and the signs were identical4 ,the practice of making the sign of the cross before eating1 which has1 in ,protestant sects1 degenerated to the saying of grace1 which again has assumed the form of a prayer of thanks to ,god for bestowing the sustenance1 was originally merely a method of prevention against demonical possession4 ,it was thought that demons abounded everywhere and that one was very likely to imbibe one of these spirits unless he took the precaution of making the sign of the cross1 which they could not endure and from which they fled4 ,this belief in the efficacy of a talisman1 universal among all peoples from the most barbarous to so-called civilized communities1 was not only countenanced but encouraged by ,christianity1 and even today we find orthodox ,christians who--although they cannot be called educated in the highest sense1 yet are not to be classed as illiterate--who are still practicing it4 ,every good ,catholic wears a scapular1 and many a one carries a little image of some saint to ward off disaster4 ,the sign of the cross is still used in time of danger and is considered a weapon of miraculous power4 ,sword hilts are still constructed in the form of the cross to give fortune in battle1 and the masts of ships with yards were once considered the symbol of the cross4 ,the burial of the dead about churches is another modern form of the ancient superstition that within the shadow of the cross demons dare not disturb the body1 which was necessary for resurrection and immortality4 ,this idea is a descendant of the ancient savage notion that bodies in the vicinity of the idol were protected4 ,even in our modern ,protestant cemeteries we constantly find crosses erected over the graves in the same superstitious manner1 although in most cases it has become merely a surviving custom1 the origin of which the performers do not know4 ,,iii4--,,spurious ,,relics4 ,accompanying the worship of the cross1 we find among orthodox ,christians the adoration of the three nails of the passion which are nothing more than a union of the two ,egyptian forms of architecture--the obelisk1 expressing the male idea1 and the inverted pyramid1 expressing the female4 ,two of these nails are supposed to have been found in the time of ,constantine1 who adorned his helmet and horse's bridle with them4 ,rome1 ,milan and ,treves each boast of possessing one of them1 while still another may be seen at the church of the ,holy ,cross of ,jerusalem1 where it is annually exposed to the veneration of the people4 ,in #acec ,pope ,innocent ,,vi4 appointed a festival for these holy nails4 ,despite these facts1 a legend arose in the latter part of the sixteenth century that these three nails were fashioned into an iron ring three-eighths of an inch broad and three-tenths thick and presented by the ,empress ,helena to ,constantine to protect him in battle1 and that this ring was later used to support the golden plates of the celebrated ,iron ,crown of ,lombardy4 ,in reference to the practice of relic worship in the ,christian church1 it is interesting to note that numerous objects of worship seem endowed with remarkable powers of multiplication4 ,the ,church of ,coulombs1 ,diocese of ,chrtres2 the ,cathedral of ,pry1 the ,collegiate ,church of ,antwerp1 the ,abbey of ,our ,savior at ,charroux1 and the ,church of ,st4 ,john ,lateran at ,rome1 all boast themselves the sole possessors of the only authentic holy prepuce1 which was circumcised from ,jesus on the eighth day after his birth 7,luke ii1 #ba71 and preserved by the midwife in oil of spikenard1 which was later poured upon his head and feet by ,mary ,magdalene 7,infancy ii1 #a-d74 ,likewise1 there are numerous holy shrouds4 ,that at ,besancon1 which was brought from ,palestine by crusaders about the beginning of the twelfth century1 won fame by delivering the city from a destructive plague in #aedd1 while that at ,turin had a festival instituted for it by ,pope ,julius ,,ii4 in #aejf4 ,other authentic shrouds may be found at the ,church of ,st4 ,cornelius at ,compeigne1 in ,rome1 ,milan1 ,lisbon1 and ,aix la ,chapelle4 ,another much multiplied relic is the ,virgin's ring1 supposed to have been the marriage ring used at the nuptials of ,joseph and ,mary4 ,this sacred souvenir was discovered in #iif by a jeweler of ,jerusalem and was readily recognized by its remarkable powers of healing and self-multiplication4 ,many ,european churches claim to possess this ring and profess to expose it to the devout for veneration1 but1 undoubtedly1 the most celebrated is that held by the ,cathedral of ,perouse4 ,relic worship and belief in the miraculous powers residing in the bones of departed saints1 which continues1 despite the more general education of the laity1 is by no means of ,christian origin4 ,in ancient ,greece the bones of heroes were superstitiously regarded and those of ,hector of ,troy were sacredly preserved at ,thebes2 the tools used in the construction of the ,trojan horse were kept at ,metapontum2 the sceptre of ,pelops was held at ,chroneia2 the spear of ,achilles at ,phaselis2 and the sword of ,memnon at ,nicomedia4 ,miraculous statues of ,minerva that brandished spears1 abounded1 and paintings that could blush and images that could sweat also existed4 ,in ,india there are numerous teeth of ,buddha which his worshipers believe capable of performing miracles2 and his coat1 which as ,prince ,siddhatto he laid aside on entering the priesthood1 has been miraculously preserved1 and is still shown4 ,jerome1 in defending the worship of relics which had been attacked by ,vigilantus of ,barcelona1 did not deny that it was adopted from paganism1 but commended it and explained that as this reverence had been previously only given to idols1 and was then to be detested1 was now given to martyrs1 and therefore to be received4 ,,iv4--,,trial ,,and ,,execution ,,myths4 ,that ,jesus should have been executed1 either as an historical fact or as a mythological theory1 is not remarkable2 and even when considered in the light of his being one of the godhead1 there is nothing new in the relation of his death4 ,the idea of a dying god is very old4 ,the grave of ,zeus was shown at ,crete1 and the body of ,dionyseus was buried at ,delphi4 ,osiris and ,buddha both died1 and numerous deities were crucified4 ,krishna1 the ,indian god1 suffered such execution1 as did also the ,mexican savior ,quetzalcoatl4 ,representations of ,krishna abound wherein he is depicted as nailed to a cross and having a round hole in his side4 ,prometheus was nailed by hands and feet to ,mount ,caucasus1 with arms extended in the form of a cross4 ,so immeasurably voluminous have been the writings of the orthodox upon the trial1 execution1 and resurrection of ,jesus that it seems advisable to consider these matters1 from a rational point of view1 upon the hypothesis that such a man really lived and suffered experiences similar to those narrated in the ,gospels4 ,with that premise the following views are offered3 ,the attitude of ,jesus before ,pilate shows him to have been a willing martyr1 yea1 desirous of martyrdom4 ,in all probability his fanatical mind believed that when the supreme moment should come1 when his execution should take place1 and when his death seemed instantly imminent1 some great natural phenomenon would occur to save him4 ,he undoubtedly believed that he would not die1 but that ,god would miraculously interpose to rescue him and that at that time he would not only be saved1 but that the kingdom of heaven would be established under his control4 ,that this was his belief seems to be shown by his cry of disappointment when he realized that nothing supernatural was to prevent his death4 ,when that moment of realization came1 his surprise was evident and1 unlike many of his courageous followers who died in calmness and bravery1 he cried aloud in mental and physical anguish1 ,my ,god1 my ,god1 why hast thou forsaken me8 7,matt4 xxvii1 #df2 ,mark xv1 #cd47 ,his indifferent bearing before ,pilate showed this faith in his redemption1 for when the ,roman procurator courteously asked him if he were the king of the ,jews1 he replied ambiguously1 as had always been his practice1 ,thou sayest it 7,matt4 xxvii1 #aa2 ,mark xv1 #b2 ,luke xxiii1 #c2 ,john xviii1 #cg2 ,nicodemus iii1 #aj74 ,but such ambiguity1 which had served very well among the lower classes who had flocked to hear and question him1 was of no avail before the matter-of-fact ,roman1 who1 as an imperial officer1 desired straightforward answers1 and was little impressed by ,jesus' silence1 except that he was rightfully astonished that when given the chance the prisoner should not have availed himself of it to explain his position4 ,therefore1 seeing ,jesus had no will to answer his questions except in an exasperating manner1 after he had shown a willingness to save him1 ,pilate delivered ,jesus over to the ,jews according to the custom of the ,romans in regard to the theological disputes of a subject people--but not until he had requested them to spare the preacher4 ,had ,jesus given the ,roman a frank explanation of his position as an itinerant preacher1 ,pilate would probably have saved him1 but the chimerical idea of the interposition of ,god by a miracle1 which would glorify him above all else that could occur1 led ,jesus to make a willing sacrifice of himself and throw away the opportunity offered him by ,pilate4 ,there is nothing noble nor grand in this impudent conduct toward the ,roman officer1 but there is a good deal of justice and consideration in the conduct of ,pilate4 ,there is nothing noble in ,jesus' willingness to die nor in his courting death at this trial1 for it was entirely unnecessary and was desired on his part only because he expected a miraculous salvation4 ,according to his belief1 he was to be the gainer1 and he staked his life for a heavenly glory and lost1 although he was probably keen enough to see that in any case his death would increase his fame1 for the execution of a fanatic always lends a little glory to a cause1 no matter how base1 as witness the desire of anarchists for martyrdom and the attitude with which they view those who die for their horrible ideas4 ,the only question with the ,roman was as to whether ,jesus had proclaimed himself the king of the ,jews1 and as he declined to answer this question1 ,pilate could do nothing to save him4 ,the blind hatred of orthodox ,christianity toward ,pilate is absurd4 ,aside from the argument above1 there is another reason why his memory should be leniently treated4 ,according to the ,christian dogma1 ,jesus was the son of ,god1 and it was only by his sacrifice1 by his actual death1 that he could save man4 ,by dying he took the sins of mankind upon himself1 and thus became the ,savior4 ,as the eternal ,son1 knowing all things1 as a part of the godhead1 he knew his death must occur--that was his mission on earth4 ,therefore1 as instruments in the accomplishment of this grand plan1 by which mankind was saved1 and ,jesus became the ,savior1 ,caiaphas and ,pontius ,pilate should be regarded as divine agents worthy of glory and praise4 ,any other conclusion is entirely illogical4 ,but then1 who will look for logic in the dogmas of ,christianity8 ,when one makes a logical investigation of this faith1 he abandons its unreasonable teachings1 which cannot be accepted by a logical mind4 ,the person who allows his reason to govern his belief cannot in any way accept the teachings of the absurd and ridiculous ,christian cult4 ,while suffering his execution1 ,jesus1 according to the ,gospel writers1 lost both his moral and physical courage1 and cried aloud in agony1 ,eli1 ,eli1 lama sabachthani8 ,in view of this fact1 it seems impossible for reasonable creatures to accept the ,christian dogmas of the atonement and the trinity1 for1 if ,jesus were one of the godhead and had left his heavenly abode to descend to earth for the especial purpose of saving mankind by shedding his blood for them1 he must necessarily have been aware of what was in store for him and have known all the details attendant upon his execution4 ,looking at this fable rationally1 ,jesus was inferior in courage to many of his followers4 ,when we recall the innumerable martyrs who went to meet death with smiling lips1 in perfect confidence1 the wailing savior1 with his doubting cry to ,god1 presents anything but an impressive figure4 ,surely1 to burn at the stake1 to lie under the axe1 to endure the awful tortures of the ,inquisition1 were fully as agonizing as a crucifixion2 and yet men--and delicate women--who have never pretended to divinity1 have borne these things silently4 ,to be sure1 the whole story of the ,christ is largely legendary and very uncertain1 but1 according to the gospels of ,matthew and ,mark1 ,jesus was weak in his convictions1 afraid to die for his own teachings1 and on the whole1 his conduct at the supreme moment reminds one of the weak ,french peasants of revolutionary times rather than the brave nobility4 ,his peasant blood rose to the surface and in his fear he cried1 ,why hast thou forsaken me8 although but a few moments before he had assured one of the malefactors who suffered beside him that on this day he should be in paradise 7,luke xxiii1 #dc74 ,everything considered1 it is not strange that the ,jews would not accept ,jesus as the awaited messiah who should free them from the yoke of ,rome4 ,they desired a strong and powerful leader1 not a socialistic wandering teacher1 and the prophecies promised a ruler surpassing the wisdom and power of the gorgeous ,solomon4 ,there is not one prophetic passage in the ,old ,testament that can properly be applied to ,jesus1 although many have been distorted for such purpose4 ,the ,jews looked upon him as an impostor and a revolutionist who not only pretended to be what he was not1 but who disregarded their ancient laws and preached a doctrine contrary to that held by their rabbis4 ,it was not until long after his death that he was regarded as a prophet1 and it was not until every proof of his very existence had vanished that divine honors were paid him4 ,to the ,jews he was a vagrant revolutionist worthy of death1 and the ,jews knew him personally2 to a large majority of twentieth century ,christians1 he is a god1 and they know absolutely nothing about him1 save a collection of puerile myths which tax their credulity as children1 but which as adults they accept4 ,however1 regarding the execution of ,jesus1 there is always the legitimate doubt that it ever occurred4 ,aside from the fact that the usual mode of death for criminals was by hanging1 there is much internal evidence in the gospels themselves which points to the conclusion that the whole story of the execution and resurrection is mythical and was composed from various ,hebrew and pagan legends4 ,the dying cry was copied verbatim from ,psalms xxii1 #a1 wherein ,david complaineth in great discouragement over his diseased condition4 ,v4--,,distorted ,,prophecies4 ,the ,jews1 desirous that the spectacle of the execution should not pollute the sanctity of their ,sabbath1 requested that the death of the victim might be hastened 7,john xix1 #ca74 ,therefore1 according to custom1 the ,roman soldiers broke the legs of the thieves1 but1 finding ,jesus already dead1 they did not break his legs 7,john xix1 #cc74 ,in this the writer of ,john sees the fulfillment of a prophecy 7,john xix1 #cf74 ,in ,exodus xii1 #df1 occur the words neither shall ye break a bone thereof1 which were nothing more than a command of the ordinance of the passover 7,ex4 xii1 #dc71 and applied to the sacrificial animals to be eaten then4 ,but the gospel writers1 delving for prophecies1 saw with their queerly distorted eyes a prophecy in this and ,numbers ix1 #ab1 regardless of the fact that for centuries1 in celebrating the passover1 the ,jews had conformed to this practice of not breaking the bones of the animals eaten4 ,but the biographers saw ,jesus as the paschal lamb1 and associated him with the meat of the passover4 ,the tendency to regard his body as the solid of the ,eucharist has likewise aided in this construction of the passages in ,exodus and ,numbers into a prophecy4 ,in ,david's apostrophe to the righteous he says that though their afflictions are many1 the ,lord delivereth him out of them all and preserves him4 ,he keepeth all his bones2 not one of them is broken 7,psalm xxxiv1 #ai-bj74 ,this has no reference to the ,christ1 but the distorted vision of the apostolic writer saw in it such an intent4 ,he says 7,john xix1 #cf71 ,for these things were done1 that the scripture should be fulfilled1 ,a bone of him shall not be broken4 ,in order1 however1 to be sure that ,jesus was actually dead and1 in case he was not1 to hasten that event1 one of the soldiers pierced his heart with a lance4 ,here ,john sees another prophecy fulfilled 7,john xix1 #cg71 ,they shall look on him whom they pierced4 ,this refers to ,zechariah xii1 #aj1 where we find the words1 ,and ,i will pour upon the house of ,david1 and upon the inhabitants of ,jerusalem1 the spirit of grace and supplications2 and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced4 ,this was the language of a prophet in a diatribe against the enemies of ,juda4 ,how could the writer of ,john have seen a prophecy in this1 when the context reads in that day ,i will seek to destroy all the nations that come against ,jerusalem 7,zech4 xii1 #i71 and when at the time of the crucifixion1 ,jerusalem was in the hands of the ,romans8 ,likewise1 the writers of ,matthew and ,john saw in the drawing of lots by the soldiers at the foot of the cross for the garments of ,jesus--the usual custom regarding the minor possessions of executed criminals1 which were always considered the spoil of the military guard--the fulfillment of a prophecy 7,matt4 xxvii1 #ce ,john xix1 #bc1 #bd7 found in ,psalms xxii1 #ah1 ,they part my garments among them1 and cast lots upon my vesture1 which really was a metaphorical expression of ,david concerning the treatment accorded him by his enemies4 ,in the preceding verse #af1 in the same relation and rhetorical figure1 he says they pierced my hands and my feet4 ,on the whole1 ,psalm xxii was a particularly happy composition for the ,christian adepts at misconstruction4 ,neither ,mark nor ,luke refers to the fulfillment of a prophecy regarding the vestments1 but content themselves with narrating the event 7,mark xv1 #bd2 ,luke xxiii1 #cd74 ,it was customary to give the condemned a drink of wine and myrrh to stupefy him and thus decrease the sufferings of execution4 ,when this was offered to ,jesus he refused it 7,mark xv1 #bc71 probably because he wished to be perfectly conscious at the time when ,god should miraculously reprieve him4 ,matthew1 xxvii1 #cd1 intentionally falsifies the episode and calls the drink vinegar and gall1 so bound is he to see a messianic prophecy in ,psalms xix1 #ba1 ,they gave me also gall for my meat2 and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink1 which words were really applied by ,david to his own personal enemies4 ,,vi4--,,the ,,resurrection4 ,regarding the resurrection1 it is interesting to note that1 whereas most crucified men lived a number of hours and even a day in this torture1 the wounds in the hands not being mortal and the position only affecting the circulation1 causing death by exhaustion or starvation1 ,jesus lived only three hours4 ,therefore1 it may have been that he was not actually dead1 but merely in a state of coma1 or perhaps a cataleptic condition4 ,the custom he had of using his subjective mind in telepathic cures1 as told in the gospels1 seems to point to this conclusion1 that1 being strongly subjective1 his condition here was cataleptic4 ,many cases are known of men having been restored after crucifixion1 and1 as the embalming given ,jesus in the ,jewish custom consisted in nothing more than a wrapping in a shroud with myrrh and aloes1 there is nothing to oppose this hypothesis4 ,after resting for a while in the tomb1 he may have revived and gone out and been seen by others1 after which he wandered away again to die in solitude from exhaustion and lack of food4 ,it is more probable1 however1 that this legend was copied from those of other religious heroes1 who likewise rose from the dead1 as there seems to be much variance between the different versions of the visit of ,mary ,magdalene to the sepulchre and her meeting with ,christ4 ,matthew says 7xxviii1 #a7 that ,mary ,magdalene and the other ,mary visited the sepulchre 7#c71 where they saw a male angel descend from heaven during an earthquake and roll back the stone from the door and sit upon it 7#g74 ,and he told them to go quickly1 and tell his disciples that he had risen1 which they did4 ,but as they were going 7#i7 ,jesus met them 444 and they came 444 and worshiped him4 ,mark tells a similar story with some variations as to the angel1 but he relates that ,jesus appeared first to ,mary ,magdalene early the first day of the week 7xvi1 #i71 and not on her visit with ,mary1 the mother of ,james1 and ,salome at the tomb4 ,according to ,luke1 the women went to the tomb1 where they were informed by 7xxiv1 #d7 two men in shining garments that ,jesus had risen1 and they left and told the apostles4 ,no mention is made here of the encounter of ,mary ,magdalene4 ,john1 however1 gives a more elaborate version4 ,he narrates 7xx7 that ,mary1 going early and alone to the tomb1 which she found entirely empty1 ran and informed ,peter1 who verified her story and departed4 ,after she was left alone she looked into the sepulchre again1 where she beheld two angels1 and on turning away saw ,jesus standing by her4 ,setting aside the idea of a mythical plagiarism in these tales1 and also the cataleptic theory already mentioned1 and considering them from yet another point of view1 we can still find a rational explanation4 ,the meeting of ,jesus with ,mary may have been the hallucination of a hysterical woman4 ,according to ,mark xvi1 #i1 and ,luke viii1 #b1 ,jesus had cast seven devils out of her1 which is surely sufficient proof that she was of neurotic temperament and had been subject to delusions and hysteria4 ,undoubtedly after the shock of witnessing the crucifixion and death of her master1 for three gospels agree in stating that she was present 7,matt4 xxvii1 #ef2 ,mark xv1 #dj2 ,john xix1 #be71 this fond woman's mind1 which seemed more normal in his presence1 again gave way and she returned to her hysterical condition4 ,on visiting the tomb1 she found it empty because his disciples came by night and stole him away1 that they might declare he had risen from the dead1 as is commonly reported among the ,jews until this day 7,matt4 xxviii1 #aa-ae74 ,as she was leaving1 she heard his voice 7a common delusion of hysterical subjects7 and saw his form 7another hallucination71 but when she went to touch him1 she could not do so4 ,the relation has all the marks of simple neurosis1 and yet many modern ,christians base their whole faith upon the words of ,paul in #a ,corinthians xv1 #ad1 ,if ,christ be not risen1 then is our preaching vain1 and your faith is also vain4 ,as noted in various parts of this work1 unless ,christians believe in the possibility of miracles1 the power of a personal devil1 and the physical resurrection of the body1 there is no foundation for their faith1 and it is a mockery4 ,not satisfied with having executed their god according to the most approved methods of antiquity1 ,christians felt the necessity of the presence of some remarkable natural phenomena at the time of his death1 for among all ancient peoples it was customary to attribute some remarkable natural convulsions to the death of a great man4 ,when ,prometheus was crucified on ,mount ,caucasus the earth quaked1 thunder roared1 lightning flashed1 wild winds rent the air and boisterous billows rose4 ,on the death of ,romulus1 there was darkness over the face of the earth for six hours1 and when ,quetzalcoatl died the sun became black6 ,even in historical times1 we find narrations of similar phenomena accompanying the deaths of royalty2 and we read in many authenticated histories of the frightful thunderstorms that were coincident with the deaths of ,isabella of ,castile1 ,charles the ,fifth1 ,napoleon the ,great1 and ,oliver ,cromwell4 ,therefore1 it is not surprising to find mention of such occurrences at the time of the execution of the ,christian god1 although we are not prepared for such astonishing and unprecedented phenomena as related by the ever exaggerating author of the ,gospel according to ,st4 ,matthew1 who states very seriously that the vail of the temple was rent in twain from top to bottom2 and the earth did quake1 and the rocks rent2 and the graves were opened2 and many bodies of the saints which slept arose1 and came out of the graves after his resurrection1 and went into the holy city1 and appeared unto many4 ,but the execution1 while it completes the mortal life of the incarnate ,christian deity1 by no means finishes the legend4 ,like the gods of antiquity1 the ,christ must also descend into hell and perform wonders similar to those of the ancient heroes4 ,all the saviors of mankind had done so--,zoroaster1 the ,persian2 ,osiris1 the ,egyptian2 ,baldur1 the ,scandinavian2 ,quetzalcoatl1 the ,mexican2 and ,krishna1 the ,hindu2 while ,ishtar voluntarily descended into the ,assyrian inferno4 ,having descended into hell1 resurrection was necessary1 for it was unreasonable that the savior of mankind1 the son of the supreme god1 should remain perpetually in the place of punishment2 and1 as his life on earth was over1 he could no longer abide there1 and so the only plausible sequence was an ascension to heaven4 ,krishna1 the crucified ,hindu savior1 rose from the dead and ascended bodily into the celestial regions1 as did ,rama1 another avatar of ,vishnu4 ,buddha also ascended bodily into heaven when his mission on earth was fulfilled1 and marks on the rocks of a high mountain are shown as the last impressions of his footsteps on earth4 ,zoroaster and sculapius also had similar experiences1 as did ,elijah and ,adonis4 ,osiris rose from the dead and bore the title of ,the ,resurrected ,one1 his ascension being celebrated in ,egypt at the vernal equinox1 as is the ,christ's and as was ,adonis'4 ,other saviors who rose from the dead were ,dionysius1 ,herakles1 ,memnon1 ,baldur and ,quetzalcoatl4 ,modern ,catholics are still taught the fables of the bodily ascension of ,jesus1 ,mary the ,virgin1 and ,mary the ,magdalene and many other holy persons1 as actual miraculous truths1 not to be questioned nor denied4 ,very good1 but how can educated ,catholics of today reconcile such truths with their actual scientific knowledge8 ,they know that the earth is spherical1 that the stars and planets are members of solar systems1 that outside the terrestrial atmosphere is nothing but vast space4 ,there is no such place as a heaven anywhere in these celestial regions1 and the zenith of any geographical situation changes every moment4 ,clouds are mere masses of vapor1 not furniture for the repose of the glorified dead4 ,then whither did these adored beings ascend8 ,certainly1 ,god in his love for them never flung them far into space to whirl about for eternity4 ,these ,catholics also know the law of gravitation1 which would not allow of such a method of transportation4 ,but why ask these questions8 ,no religious person is capable of thinking sensibly on the teachings of his faith1 no matter how ridiculous4 ,he accepts1 as an adult1 what he questions as a child4 ,while the idea of bodily ascension of the ,christ was probably copied into his biography from that of ,enoch 7,gen4 v1 #bd7 and ,elijah 7#b ,kings ii1 #aa71 such stories form a large part of the annals of classical mythology1 almost every hero of antiquity having been translated to the heavens when his earthly life was spent4 ,the custom of converting the tombs of prominent ,christians into shrines likewise aided this belief1 as1 it being impossible to discover the burial places of the most conspicuous1 the idea arose that they had been physically removed to heaven4 ,the principal weakness of all the great theological systems now in practice is that they are terrestrial in their conception of ,god and man4 ,their foundations were laid at a period when mankind knew little1 and cared less1 about the planets2 at a period when it was presumed that the sun1 moon1 and stars were either beneficent deities or natural objects placed in the firmament to light the world and please the eye of man by their beauty4 ,therefore ,god1 as recognized in these systems1 takes heed of naught else than this particular world4 ,he totally ignores the other innumerable spheres of matter floating in space1 many of which may support life4 ,all his interests center on this infinitesimal portion of his creation4 ,it is with the doings of the inhabitants of this planet that he is engaged4 ,for this earth alone he creates man1 animals and vegetables2 to this alone1 he sends his only son1 or ,savior2 and it is here1 in the purified state1 that the souls of men shall eternally dwell after the great judgment4 ,since science has proved that our solar system is but one of the many1 and that in this system the earth is not the largest nor most important body1 should not such absurd theological ideas be abandoned and a grander and vaster conception of the ,deity be inaugurated8 ,should not organized theology turn to nobler thoughts and say with ,paul1 ,when ,i was a child 444 ,i thought as a child2 but when ,i became a man1 ,i put away childish things 7#a ,cor4 xiii1 #aa78 ,all such doctrines as predestination1 which are based upon the sin of ,adam1 are now anachronistic4 ,the acceptance of the theory of evolution1 which entirely destroys the reality of the mythical ,adam1 sweeps away his biography and leaves no foundation for such dogmas4 ,if the ,christian church desires to remain1 she must cast aside these worthless doctrines1 founded upon false hypotheses1 when the minds of men were in darkness regarding the origin of species1 and when they saw in these the only solution of their problem4 ,having accomplished his ascension and entered on his eternal kingdom1 one of the ,christ's attributes is that of judging the dead4 ,this idea undoubtedly came from the ,alexandrian school of theology1 where so many of the ,christian theories were promulgated1 for one of the best-known attributes of ,osiris was that of the judge1 and he was generally represented as seated on his throne of judgment1 bearing a staff 7the crozier of the modern bishop7 and holding the crux ansata4 ,buddha is also supposed to be the judge of the dead4 ,in connection with the idea of the ,christ as the divine judge of men1 certain sects of ,christians have advocated that of his return to earth at some future period1 which will terminate all terrestrial life as it is known to-day1 basing this belief upon ,jesus' own proclamation of his second advent1 although in his prophecy he declared the coming of the kingdom of heaven to be soon after his death4 ,he even told his disciples that they could not visit all the cities of ,israel before he should come again 7,matt4 x1 #bc72 that their own generation should see these things 7,matt4 xxiv1 #cd2 ,mark xiii1 #cj72 that some of those then listening to him should live to see his kingdom 7,matt4 xvi1 #bh2 xxiii1 #cf2 xxiv1 #cd2 ,mark viii1 #ch2 ,luke ix1 #a-bg2 xxi1 #cb74 ,such were his words1 and it seems strange that people1 believing these words1 can still regard him as a very part of ,god4 ,such improbabilities did ,jesus gradually grow to preach1 and so wild did he become in his exhortations that even his disciples at times appear to have believed him mad 7,mark iii1 #ba71 an opinion in which his enemies agreed 7,mark iii1 #bb2 ,john vii1 #e-bj2 viii1 #dh-eb2 x1 #bj74 ,they certainly had good cause for their suspicion4 ,was not his conduct in cursing the fig tree for not bearing fruit out of season an act of lunacy 7,matt4 xxi1 #ai-bj2 ,mark xi1 #ac-ad71 and likewise his arrogant assertion of the power of faith 7,matt4 xvii1 #bj2 xxi1 #ba2 ,mark xi1 #bc2 ,luke xvii1 #f78 ,it is1 however1 quite probable that this idea of a second advent was copied from the ,persian theology1 it being one of the tenets of the ,zoroastrian religion that in the end ,ormuzd1 ,god of ,light1 should conquer ,ahriman1 ,god of ,darkness1 and that he should then summon the good from their graves1 remove all evil from the face of nature1 and permanently establish the kingdom of righteousness and virtue upon the earth4 ,but such ideas are not unique to ,christians and ,persians4 ,the ,hindus believe that ,vishnu will have another avatar2 the ,siamese live in constant expectation of the second coming of ,codom2 the ,buddhists are looking forward to the return of ,buddha2 the ,jews are awaiting the messiah2 and the disciples of ,quetzalcoatl expected that deity's second advent--and most unfortunately thought their dream realized on the arrival of the ,spaniards1 who took advantage of their consequent submissiveness to exterminate them4 ,,vii4--,,miracles4 ,it is customary among orthodox ,christians to assert that the godhead of their ,christ was fully proven by the many miracles attributed to him in the ,new ,testament4 ,but one must not forget that the performance of miracles is one of the most common attributes of founders of new sects1 and one which all religious charlatans claim4 ,krishna lulled tempests1 cured lepers1 and restored the dead2 ,buddha1 ,zoroaster 7who walked on water on his way to ,mount ,iran to receive the law71 ,horus1 sculapius1 and innumerable others did likewise4 ,mohammed1 not content with miracles of the omnipotent physician type1 juggled the moon through his sleeve4 ,even to-day faith in miracles is not dead1 and miracle-working attributes have been claimed for ,mrs4 ,eddy1 founder of ,christian ,science1 ,dowie1 founder of ,zion ,city1 and ,sandford1 leader of the ,holy ,ghost and ,us4 ,there can be no doubt in the mind of a student of comparative theology that ,moncure ,d4 ,conway was correct when he stated in his essay on ,christianity that among all the miracles of the ,new ,testament not one is original4 ,bacchus changed water into wine4444 ,moses and ,elias also fasted forty days4444 ,pythagoras had power to still waves and tempests at sea4 ,elijah made the widow's meal and oil increase2 ,elisha fed a hundred men with twenty loaves4444 ,as for opening blind eyes1 healing diseases1 walking on water1 casting out demons1 raising the dead1 resurrection1 ascension1 all these have been common myths--logic currency of every race4 ,one of the best attested miracles of all profane history is that which ,tacitus reports of ,vespasian1 who cured a blind man in ,alexandria by means of his spittle1 and a lame man by the mere touch of his foot1 in obedience to a vision of the god ,serapis1 says ,hume in his ,essay on ,miracles1 and we might here mention the numerous attested cures resulting from the laying on of royal hands by divinely appointed sovereigns4 ,the rulers of ,france1 ,aragon1 and ,england touched for scrofula1 this practice being continued by the latter from the period of its origin with ,edward the ,confessor until the accession of ,william the ,third1 whose good sense put an end to it4 ,james the ,second1 the last practitioner of this art1 had so great a belief in his curative powers that he set aside certain days on which he touched the afflicted from his throne at ,whitehall1 while the sufferers came in throngs to kneel at his feet4 ,the princes of the house of ,austria likewise held divine power and were supposed to be capable of casting out devils and curing stammering by the touch of their aristocratic fingers4 ,numerous cases are narrated in which ,jesus1 by simply touching the person of the afflicted1 effected instantaneous cures4 ,such were those of the leper 7,matt4 viii1 #b-c2 ,mark i1 #dj-db2 ,luke v1 #ab-ac72 the curing of ,peter's mother-in-law of a fever 7,matt4 viii1 #ad-ae2 ,mark i1 #cj-ca2 ,luke iv1 #ch-ci71 although in the ,luke version he rebuked the fever2 and the opening of the eyes of two blind men 7,matt4 ix1 #bg-cj74 ,another method seems to have been by allowing the ill to touch him or his garments 7,matt4 ix1 #bj-bb2 xiv1 #cf2 ,mark iii1 #aj2 v1 #be-cd2 ,luke vi1 #ai2 viii1 #dc-dh74 ,at other times he simply told the patient1 or the agent of the patient1 that faith had effected the cure1 as with the centurion's servant 7,matt4 viii1 #e-ac2 ,luke vii1 #b-aj7 and the daughter of the ,canaanite 7,matt4 xv1 #bb-bh2 ,mark vii1 #be-cj72 or told the stricken to hold forth a withered arm or pick up his bed and walk1 by which command the cure was completed 7,matt4 ix1 #b-g2 xii1 #aj-ac2 ,mark ii1 #c-ab2 ,luke v1 #ah-be74 ,among all primitive peoples1 the principal cause of disease was supposed to lie in the displeasure of some deity toward the afflicted person1 who was punished by this deity for some offense or neglect 7,psalms xxxviii1 #c74 ,one of the favorite methods of the gods in afflicting was sending evil and tormenting spirits into the body of the victim4 ,after more was learned of disease1 this theory gradually diminished in strength as regarded some troubles1 but for centuries it was the universal theory that mental derangements and nervous afflictions were solely due to demoniacal possession1 and all priests and medicine-men resorted to various exorcisms1 from the primitive banging of gongs and tooting of trumpets to scare away the spirit1 to the prayers and sprinkling of holy water of the medival church to rid the patient of the unwelcome inhabitant of his body4 ,that ,jesus believed in this demoniacal possession is undoubted1 and he effected his cures by ordering or calling out the devil from the body of the possessed4 ,for example1 there is a story of ,jesus driving devils into an innocent herd of swine 7,matt4 viii1 #bh-cc2 ,mark v1 #b-ad2 ,luke viii1 #bf-cd74 ,we also find him casting out and rebuking devils in various instances 7,matt4 ix1 #cb-cd2 xii1 #bb-bd2 xvii1 #ad-ah2 ,mark i1 #bc-bd1 #cd2 iii1 #aa2 ,luke iv1 #cc-cf1 #da2 ix1 #cg-db74 ,in all probability1 these medical miracles of ,jesus were copied from older legends by his biographers4 ,but1 even if they actually occurred1 they were not miracles at all1 for a miracle must be1 in the very meaning of the word1 performed by the suspension of a natural law1 and from all gospel accounts the mental therapeutics of the ,christ were performed1 if at all1 in perfect accordance with well-established psychological laws4 ,they had been performed years before his birth1 and they have continued to be performed years after his death1 even to the present time4 ,through the force of faith1 the patients were placed in passivity 7hypnosis7 and treated by suggestions being impressed upon their subjective minds1 when present2 at a distance1 they were cured by the telepathic suggestions conveyed from the healer to their subjective mentalities4 ,there is no miracle here2 it is merely a demonstration of telepathic and hypnotic phenomena1 governed by psychic laws1 and does not place the ,christ on a higher intellectual plane than modern hypnotists and mental healers1 who consciously and knowingly work within the dispensation of these laws4 ,they are anything but proofs of the godhead of ,jesus4 ,it would seem that the ,pharisees had some such idea in mind when they demanded an astronomical miracle and requested a sign from heaven4 ,but1 unable to comply1 he evaded this performance by calling them hypocrites and an evil and adulterous generation1 and saying1 ,there shall no sign be given unto this generation 7,matt4 xii1 #ch-ci2 xvi1 #a-d2 ,mark viii1 #aa-ac2 ,luke xi1 #af1 #bi2 ,john ii1 #ah1 #bd2 vi1 #cj74 ,one of the commonest miracles ascribed to religious leaders of all sects and times1 and one which never fails to convince witnesses and hearers of the authenticity of such a leader's claims1 is that of restoring the dead to life4 ,such miracles have been so well attested that there seems little reason to suppose them entirely fictitious4 ,everyone has heard of cases of catalepsy1 and medical history teems with cases of suspended animation2 in fact1 the only actual proof of death is the entire decomposition of the vital organs2 therefore1 the cruelty and crime of embalming corpses before such a condition is apparent4 ,some undertakers actually insist upon embalming before such conditions1 because the dead can then be made to present a better appearance6 ,there are numerous well-proven cases of people lying for days in cataleptic conditions1 even with slight signs of decomposition due to restricted circulation1 and then returning to renewed lives and perfectly healthy states4 ,all ,eastern travelers are familiar with the practices of ,hindu fakirs who allow themselves to be buried alive for weeks1 and are resurrected without having suffered4 ,therefore1 it does not seem improbable that some such acts on the parts of various religious leaders may have occurred which have excited wonder with the ignorant1 and interest among the educated4 ,the early ,christians proclaimed many such wonderful works1 albeit when challenged by a wealthy pagan to produce even one such case1 in payment for which he would become a convert1 a failure was the result4 ,orthodox ,christians proclaim that ,jesus raised from death ,jairus' daughter1 in entire forgetfulness of the actual words accredited to their leader1 which were1 ,the maid is not dead1 but sleepeth 7,matt4 ix1 #bd2 ,mark v1 #ci2 ,luke viii1 #eb71 showing his opinion that she was in a cataleptic condition4 ,while neither of the first three gospels says aught of the raising of ,lazarus1 we find it in ,john1 who seems to have substituted it for the story of ,jairus' daughter1 which does not appear in his gospel4 ,according to this hyperbolical and probably demented authority1 ,jesus raised ,lazarus to life after he had been dead four days 7,john xi1 #ag71 although ,jesus maintained that ,lazarus was not dead 7,john xi1 #aa74 ,he declared that this sickness is not unto death1 but for the glory of ,god1 that the ,son of ,god might be glorified there-by 7,john xi1 #d71 or1 in other words1 ,jesus believed that the unfortunate ,lazarus was obliged to undergo this frightful experience that his seeming resurrection might cause gaping among the vulgar1 and add to the prestige of the miracle worker4 ,for this reason1 he purposely postponed going to the dying man1 whom he might have saved1 that he might later have the glory of bringing him to life6 ,excellent ethics6 ,finally1 however1 when he did depart1 he said positively1 ,our friend ,lazarus sleepeth2 but ,i go1 that ,i may awake him out of sleep 7,john xi1 #aa74 ,having arrived at the sepulchre1 he approached it1 groaning and weeping1 in a most theatrical manner1 such as would appeal to a highly strung audience1 and cried in a loud voice1 ,lazarus1 come forth6 whereupon the dead man arose and came out 7,john xi1 #cc1 #ce1 #dc74 ,now1 this may have been catalepsy1 and it may have been the strong voice and will of the ,christ which caused the awakening1 but1 in all probability1 if the affair ever occurred1 it was a preconceived dramatic incident4 ,all the actors were partisans of the professed messiah1 and the whole story reads like a play1 and undoubtedly the words come forth were the cue for the waiting man to appear4 ,it is by such contemptible methods that religions are established4 ,if the tale were due to the imagination of the author of ,john1 it is most discreditable to him1 and places his hero in a very bad light4 ,if it actually occurred1 it shows ,jesus as a vain-glorious boaster1 anxious to show his power to the vulgar1 and desirous of gaining a following by charlatanry1 either by raising a hypnotized man or by creating a cheap melodrama4 ,it had been prophesied 7#b ,esdras xiii1 #ej7 that the messiah should be a miracle worker1 which probably caused ,jesus to affect this rle when he accepted the part of the messiah1 and to condescend to soil his mission by charlatanism1 even to the raising of the dead in imitation of the former prophets1 ,elijah and ,elisha 7,i ,kings xvii1 #af-bd2 ,,ii ,kings iv1 #ah-cg74 ,it is rather amusing to hear ,theodore ,christlieb1 that well-named1 sturdy old ,german supporter of orthodoxy1 boldly assert in irrevocable simplicity and straightforwardness1 in his ,modern ,doubt and ,christian ,belief3 ,however much in other respects our opponents may differ1 they all agree in the denial of miracles1 and unitedly storm this bulwark of the ,christian faith2 and in its defense we have to combat them all at once4 ,but whence this unanimity8 ,because with the truth of miracles the entire citadel of ,christianity stands or falls4 ,the italics are his own4 ,for its beginning is a miracle1 its author is a miracle1 its progress depends upon miracles1 and they will hereafter be its consummation4 ,if the principle of miracles be set aside1 then all the heights of ,christianity will be leveled with one stroke1 and naught will remain but a heap of ruins4 ,if we banish the supernatural from the ,bible1 there is nothing left us but the covers 7pages #bhe-f74 ,,viii4--,,atonement ,,and ,,salvation ,,by ,,faith4 ,the dogma of the atonement which very naturally resulted from the theological interpretation of the crucifixion1 was readily accepted by the ,christian church4 ,the idea of averting disasters by sacrifice and thus causing one devoted victim to bear the load of the sins of others1 in payment of which his death was acceptable1 is one of the greatest antiquity1 and we find sacrifices of various kinds offered to propitiate the deities1 from the simple offerings of primitive man to the more elaborate sacrifices of a more complicated society4 ,finally came the idea of human sacrifice and then the culminating theory of the sacrifice of a divine being whose suffering should atone for all the sins of mankind4 ,the belief of redemption from sin by the sufferings of a divine incarnation was general and popular centuries before the time of ,jesus4 ,in the temple of the moon the ,albanians of the eastern ,caucasus kept a number of sacred slaves4 ,when one exhibited more than usual symptoms of inspiration1 the high priest maintained him in the utmost luxury for a year1 after which he was anointed and led forth to be sacrificed4 ,after his death1 the people stood upon the body as a purificationary ceremony1 it being believed that the dead man was possessed of a divine spirit4 ,the ancient ,greeks were also familiar with the use of the human scapegoat1 and it was customary at ,marsailles1 one of the busiest and most brilliant of the ,greek colonies1 to sacrifice an inspired man when the city was ravaged by the plague4 ,all are familiar with the old ,jewish practice of using the scapegoat as the vehicle for the expiation of sins1 and the whole theory of the atonement is little more than a modernized expression of the old idea that the sins of the community may be delegated to one agent to be sacrificed for the purification of the rest4 ,the prophecy1 as it is called by ,john1 made by ,caiaphas1 the high priest1 it is expedient for us that one man should die for the people1 and that the whole nation perish not 7,john xi1 #ej2 xviii1 #ad71 which has been seized upon by the ,christians as a reference to the vicarious atonement1 is nothing more than the opinion of an ardent orthodox ,jew that if ,jesus were permitted to live and preach he would destroy the ancient faith and his converts would abandon the old religion4 ,the words it is expedient for us qualify the whole statement4 ,they signified that the priesthood would be without a following were he allowed to continue4 ,the idea of a vicarious atonement for all the people would have been of no expediency whatever to ,caiaphas and his class4 ,they felt that if orthodoxy fell by ,jesus' preaching1 the ,romans could easily crush them1 for it was only by their union and the support of their ancient rites that they could form any front to the imperial government2 it was by these alone that they had any political significance4 ,once dismembered1 the ,jews would be scattered to the corners of the earth 7,john xi1 #eb74 ,this was the meaning of ,caiaphas' words1 and he was correct1 for such was the actual case4 ,when orthodoxy was undermined1 the ,jewish nation was ruined4 ,the doctrine that ,god was angry with humanity because of its ancestors' transgressions1 and would forgive its sins only on its acceptance of belief in the godhead of ,jesus1 is so entirely at variance with the ,jewish teachings1 which held that ,god freely forgave penitents on the confession of their sins 7,ex4 xxxiv1 #f-g2 ,neh4 ix1 #ag2 ,ps4 ciii1 #c2 cxxx1 #d2 ,is4 xxxiii1 #bd2 ,dan4 ix1 #i7 that it was never accepted by them4 ,some old ,christian writers believed that it was to the devil that the ,christ was sacrificed4 ,their belief in the justice of the ,supreme would not allow them to think that he demanded the sacrifice of an innocent for the sins of the guilty4 ,proclus of ,constantinople1 in the age of ,austin1 wrote that the devil held us in a state of servitude1 boasting that he had bought us4 ,it was necessary1 therefore1 that all being condemned1 either they should be dragged to death1 or a sufficient price be paid2 and because no angel had the wherewithal to pay it1 it remained that ,god should die for us4 ,while such an idea is certainly of a higher moral nature than that which states that ,god sacrificed his own innocent son for man1 it has the unfortunate result of attributing to the devil greater power than to ,god2 for if the devil could demand and receive a part of the god-head as ransom1 then ,god himself was weaker than the arch fiend4 ,hislop1 in his ,two ,babylons1 commenting upon the ,chaldean doctrine that it was by the works and merits of men themselves that they must be justified and accepted of ,god1 utterly condemns it1 and glories in the dogma of the atonement with great and illogical pleasure4 ,having reviewed the ,egyptian belief that ,anubis weighed the merits and defects of departed souls1 so that ,osiris1 in accordance with the result1 might judge and sentence them2 and the ,parsee belief that the ,angel of ,justice sat on the bridge of ,chinevad1 which connected heaven and earth1 weighing souls to decide whether or not they should enter paradise1 he condemns such theories as utterly demoralizing1 and asserts that no believer can ever have any solid feeling of comfort1 or assurance as to his prospects in the eternal world1 which very fact would seem conducive to clean lives and good deeds4 ,then he continues in ecstasy to exalt the immoral ,christian doctrine of justification by faith alone1 which he declares alone can produce a life of loving1 filial1 hearty obedience to the law and commands of ,god1 and by which man may reach salvation absolutely irrespective of human merits1 simply and solely through the righteousness of ,christ4 ,this is one of the most absurd and immoral doctrines of all the absurd and immoral doctrines of ,christianity1 and one which leads to all varieties of crime and misery4 ,a man who believes that simple faith alone is a perfect and acceptable passport to eternal bliss will take no pains to lead either a decent or useful life4 ,he is at liberty to commit all the crimes known to his nature2 he may murder1 steal1 rape1 and lie with impunity1 for his faith in ,christ will save him from his well-deserved punishment2 while a man of high ethical standards and immaculate moral principles1 who spends his whole life in self-sacrifice for the progress of humanity is doomed to damnation1 unless he believe6 ,what a horrible doctrine6 ,what a blasphemous conception of the justice of ,god6 ,every student of comparative theology knows that such views of atonement were centuries old at the date of the supposed birth of the ,christ1 and that all sorts of sacrifices were made at the altars of different gods with the same idea of atonement2 but1 aside from this1 is there not something cowardly and mean in trying to shirk the responsibilities of one's actions upon either an animal1 a man1 or a god8 ,is it not contemptible to suppose that the death and suffering of another will allow one to go unpunished1 or that such suffering is a license for humanity to sin8 ,all that is ridiculous1 blasphemous1 and illogical appears in this stupid dogma4 ,,ix4--,,the ,,trinity--,,mariolatry4 ,the dogma of the trinity1 which was introduced1 strongly advocated1 and finally successfully lobbied through the famous ,council of ,nica in #cae1 by that astute theological politician ,athanasius1 ,bishop of ,alexandria1 split the ,christian church in twain and threw ,europe into turmoil and bloodshed4 ,athanasius was the leader of the ,alexandrian school of ,christian theology which drew its inspirations and ideas largely--one might almost say1 exclusively--from ancient ,egyptian sources4 ,the ,egyptians were an essentially religious people whose deistic ideas were surrounded by ceremony1 priestcraft1 and mysticism1 all of which made such a deep impression upon the pliant minds of the ,alexandrian ,christians that they molded their new faith in the form of their old4 ,the ,egyptians highly revered the number three1 which they generally represented under the form of a triangle4 ,to the ,egyptians nothing could be perfect or complete unless it was of three component parts4 ,therefore1 their gods were generally grouped in sets of three1 many cities having their own especial trinities4 ,horus was divided into three persons1 and ,osiris1 ,isis and ,horus were worshiped under the sign of the triangle4 ,but ,egypt was not alone in her trinitarian ideas4 ,the theory of sex worship had a strong hold on all the peoples of antiquity1 and it is not surprising to find similar religious expressions in ,india4 ,one of the most prominent features of ,indian theology is the doctrine of the divine triad governing all things4 ,this triad is called the ,tri-murti and consists of ,brahma1 the creator1 ,vishnu1 the preserver1 and ,siva1 the destroyer4 ,it is an inseparable unity though three in form4 ,the inhabitants of ,china and ,japan1 most of whom are ,buddhists1 worship ,god in the form of a trinity4 ,the ,persians have a similar triad composed of ,ormuzd1 the creator1 ,mithras1 the son1 and ,ahriman1 the destroyer4 ,the ancient ,scandinavians likewise worshiped a triple deity who was yet one god1 and consisted of ,odin1 ,thor1 and ,frey4 ,one of the many weak points in the doctrine of the trinity1 and one that must be noticeable even to ,christians1 is that1 according to the ,new ,testament1 the apostles themselves never seem to have recognized the divinity of ,jesus1 but always treated him as a human ,jew like themselves4 ,this attitude of the early ,christian disciples is noted by ,priestley1 who remarks in his ,corruptions of ,christianity 7page #acf73 ,it can never be thought that ,peter and the others would have made so free with our ,lord1 as they sometimes did1 if they had considered him as their maker1 and the being who supported the whole universe2 and therefore must have been present in every part of creation1 giving his attention to everything1 and exerting his power upon everything1 at the same time that he was familiarly conversing with them4 ,moreover1 the history of the temptation must be altogether improbable in such a supposition4 ,for what could be the offer of the kingdoms of this world to him who made the world1 and was already in possession of it8 ,numerous texts which tend to affirm the humanity of ,jesus have been stumbling blocks in the paths of the trinitarians1 and they have taken great pains to explain away these embarrassing texts1 even at the cost of much ingenuity and absurdity4 ,paul1 the real founder of the faith1 in his first epistle to ,timothy1 says3 ,for there is one ,god1 and one mediator between ,god and men1 the man ,christ ,jesus 7#a ,tim4 ii1 #e72 and again in his first epistle to ,john he remarks3 ,no man hath seen ,god 7#a ,john iv1 #ab74 ,such phrases as ,why callest thou me good8 ,there is none good but one1 that is ,god 7,matt4 xix1 #ag71 and ,but now ye seek to kill me1 a man that hath told you the truth1 which ,i have heard of ,god 7,john viii1 #dj71 do not appear to be fitting remarks for the second person of the trinity4 ,again1 the words1 ,my ,father is greater than ,i 7,john xiv1 #bh71 were likewise difficult of explanation by those who held that every member of the trinity is coequal1 but ,austin got around this by declaring that ,christ having emptied himself of his former glory1 and being in form of a servant1 was then less1 not only than his ,father1 but even than himself6 ,the same writer asserts that the words1 that the ,son knew not the time of the day of judgment1 but only the ,father 7,mark xiii1 #cb71 means that while ,jesus did know something of the trinity1 he would not make it known to others--thus making a downright liar of his ,god4 ,the whole of trinitarianism is epitomized in the phrase of ,peter ,lombard1 who1 having made the impossible arithmetical assertion that no one person of the trinity is less than the other two1 says3 ,he that can receive this1 let him receive it2 but he that cannot1 let him1 however1 believe it2 and let him pray that what he believes he may understand4 ,jesus having been ordained one of the godhead1 the only begotten son of the most high god1 the worship of his mother naturally followed2 for who could reasonably refuse to bend the knee to the one virgin of all humanity1 considered worthy of the honor of bearing the incarnate deity8 ,it was all the easier for the ,christian church to adopt this practice1 that it had been one of the principal features of the ancient theologies4 ,all nations have worshiped a pure1 chaste queen of heaven1 a personification of that beautiful celestial body that smiles so benignly down on earth every month4 ,in every land the moon was worshiped as a mother goddess1 pure1 beautiful1 and loving2 for there is not the slightest doubt that the virgin queen of heaven1 so commonly worshiped by all nations1 was merely a personification of the moon4 ,isis1 mother of the ,egyptian savior ,horus1 was worshiped as a virgin and was styled ,our ,lady1 ,queen of ,heaven1 ,mother of ,god1 ,intercessor1 and ,immaculate ,virgin4 ,she was commonly represented with the divine infant seated on her lap1 or standing on a crescent moon1 and having a glory of twelve stars about her head4 ,with the adoption of the worship of ,isis to ,christianity1 the crescent moon became a sacred symbol of ,mary1 who was often portrayed standing upon one4 ,it was held peculiarly sacred by the ,greek church and a large crescent moon of gold adorned the dome of ,st4 ,sophia at ,constantinople4 ,when the city fell in #adec before the ,turkish arms1 the ,sultan adopted the crescent as a symbol of his victorious power and as a humiliation to his ,christian enemies1 and thus again the religious significance of the crescent changed1 and as an emblem of a ,mohammedan power soon came to be regarded by the forgetful ,christians with horror and a deadly hatred4 ,the ancient ,chaldees believed in a celestial virgin-mother to whom the erring sinner might appeal1 and ,shin-moo1 the mother goddess1 occupies a conspicuous place in ,chinese worship4 ,the ,babylonians and ,assyrians worshiped a goddess called ,mylitta1 whose son ,tammuz is said to have arisen from the dead4 ,in ,india they have worshiped for ages ,devaki1 the mother of ,krishna1 and ,maya1 the mother of ,buddha1 both of whom are represented with the infant saviors in their arms4 ,their statues1 similar to the ,christian madonnas1 are found in ,hindu temples1 and their portraits are always accompanied by halos4 ,sochiquetzal1 mother of ,quetzalcoatl1 was worshiped in ,mexico as the mother of their crucified savior4 ,as queen of heaven and the chaste and immaculate protectress of women1 the ,greek ,hera and her ,roman prototype1 ,juno1 were worshiped by the ancient classical world1 while the virtuous ,diana of ,ephesus held a similar place in ,phoenician mythology4 ,all the ancient beliefs in the virgin queen of heaven and her miraculous child probably had more or less effect on the growth of virgin worship in the ,christian church2 but it was undoubtedly ,egyptian influence which was most powerful in the adoption of it1 just as it was in regard to the trinitarian dogma4 ,the worship of ,isis and ,horus was introduced into ,rome during the early days of the empire and was readily accepted4 ,and with its introduction came those basalt images of the goddess and her child which have since been adopted by the ,christians as ancient representations of ,mary and ,jesus1 albeit they are as black as ,ethiopians4 ,many centuries before1 the worship of the ,greek goddess ,hera had been instituted at ,rome under the name of ,juno1 and she was especially regarded as the chaste and immaculate protectress of women4 ,and it was the combination of the worship offered to these two deities that the ,christian church condensed into the worship of the mother of ,jesus1 to which it added the attributes of ,diana1 making ,mary the patroness of chastity as well as fruitfulness6 ,in ,dante's day it was customary to invoke the ,virgin ,mary at childbirth just as ,juno ,lucina was invoked by the pagan ancestors of the ,italians4 ,the worship of the virgin as theotokos1 the mother of god1 was promulgated at the general council of ,ephesus1 which was called by the ,emperor ,theodosius ,,ii in #dca1 and1 after that date1 and up to the present time1 we find this lowly ,jewish peasant girl delineated in all the insignia of royalty and portrayed in the most beautiful and patrician type of classical beauty4 ,with the adoration of ,mary rose the legend that she1 too1 had ascended bodily into heaven and was there crowned by her son and bidden to sit eternally upon his right hand that she might plead with him to mitigate the punishments of sinners1 thus allowing that the judgment of this second member of the holy trinity might be fallible1 or at least open to influence4 ,having raised the virgin to this immense height1 the natural sequence was to go a step farther and grant to her also immaculate origin4 ,this idea was first noticed in the eleventh century and steadily grew until in #adid ,sextus the ,fourth officially recognized it and gave it the solemn sanction of the church1 and in ,july1 #afae1 ,paul the ,fifth instituted the office commemorating her immaculate conception4 ,virgin worship has continued to grow and flourish1 and even so late as #ahed1 ,pius the ,ninth issued a bull officially declaring ,mary the ,mediatrix between ,christ and the faithful4 ,mary is not1 however1 the only intercessor that stands between man and his ,god4 ,there is an immense horde of saints who also occupy positions of honor about the heavenly throne4 ,these immortal semi-human beings are created by a decree of the ,roman pontiff and their canonization has often been due to whimsical reasoning4 ,that all the apostles1 martyrs1 and early ,christian fathers should have been raised to this holy peerage is not so remarkable2 but that such honor should have been conferred on the wicked1 unscrupulous1 and vicious ,constantine1 and his almost unknown mother ,helena2 on the powerful and warlike ,charlemagne2 and on the ambitious and ungrateful ,thomas ,becket1 seems strange to say the least4 ,x4--,,the ,,saints--,,good ,,and ,,evil ,,spirits4 ,that this army of saints was originally created to replace the body of heroes and demi-gods of antiquity cannot be doubted4 ,the compliance with which the church converted pagan deities into ,christian heroes is perfectly well known1 and it is shown in many ways4 ,ancient statues were declared to represent newly canonized saints to whom pagan attributes were unhesitatingly given--often most ridiculously4 ,at the temple of ,sebona1 in ,nubia1 the ,christians replaced the figure of the old god of the temple1 which appeared in a fresco1 by that of ,st4 ,peter1 thus depicting ,king ,rameses the ,second as presenting his offering to the ,christian saint6 ,the statue of ,jupiter in ,st4 ,peter's at ,rome has been declared that of the erstwhile fisherman1 and its original thunderbolts have been replaced by the keys1 which the ,christian mythologists have filched from the god ,janus to bestow on their revered patron in accordance with the promise of ,matthew xvi1 #ai4 ,rome is full of proofs of this conversion of heathen to ,christian deities4 ,the temple formerly sacred to the ,bona ,dea was dedicated to the ,virgin ,mary2 the church of ,saint ,apollinaris stands on the spot formerly dedicated to ,apollo2 and the temple of ,mars was given to ,st4 ,martina4 ,the very names of some of the saints have an old familiar sound--as ,st4 ,baccho1 ,st4 ,quirinus1 ,st4 ,romula1 ,st4 ,redempta1 ,st4 ,concordia1 ,st4 ,nympha1 and ,st4 ,mercurius4 ,the ,christian symbolism of its heroes has also a decidedly pagan flavor4 ,the ancient winged lion of the ,egyptian mythology is made to portray ,st4 ,mark2 the sacred bull denotes ,st4 ,luke2 while ,st4 ,john is generously supplied with both the eagle of ,jove and the hawk's head of ,horus4 ,the idea of intercession1 which is the principal attribute of all the saints1 is also a very ancient religious theory and probably came with the other dogmas already mentioned from ,alexandria1 as we find that the ,egyptians believed that some of their gods--and particularly the four gods of the dead--acted as mediators with the stern judge ,osiris and attempted to turn aside his wrath and the punishment of sins4 ,much akin to the saints1 though differing from them in form and in never having been mortal1 are the angels4 ,these beings combine the wings of the ,roman victories with the sweet voices of the ,teutonic elves and the classical sirens1 and are in many ways similar to the famous northern valkyries who wore shirts of swan plumage and hovered over ,scandinavian battlefields to receive the souls of falling heroes4 ,the ,hindu apsaras and ,moslem houris belong to the same family4 ,a few years ago a bitter controversy arose in ,new ,york ,episcopal circles as to the sex of these unearthly creatures1 some strenuously advocating their masculinity1 while others gallantly asserted that they were essentially feminine1 but the earlier idea was that they were entirely sexless1 combining the characteristic virtues of both sexes4 ,apart from both saints and angels stands another figure in the ,christian mythology--one1 however1 that has no actual counterpart in the ancient faiths4 ,this is ,satan4 ,the classical religious systems had no such conception1 their king of the dead being a gloomy and austere deity without any of the malicious or mischievous propensities of the more modern devil1 and having no designs upon the welfare of mankind4 ,the medieval conception of the devil was a grotesque compound of elements derived from all the pagan mythologies which ,christianity superseded4 ,from the sylvan deity ,pan he gets his goat-like body1 his horns and cloven hoofs2 his lameness was due to his fall from heaven1 in imitation of the fall of the ,roman ,vulcan2 and his red beard was taken from the lightning god ,thor1 as was also his power over the thunderbolts2 while his pitchfork is the converted trident of ,neptune4 ,that much of the absurd fabric of ,christianity is built upon a belief in ,satan cannot be denied1 for the whole theology is based upon the necessity of a savior whose death atones for the sins of mankind1 which were consequent upon man's fall from grace through the machinations of the devil4 ,had man never fallen1 there were no need of a savior4 ,had man never been tempted1 he would never have fallen1 and in no words was the necessity of a belief in the devil more plainly set forth than by that most orthodox writer1 des ,mousseaux1 in his ,moeurs et ,pratiques des ,demons1 published in #aheb4 ,he says3 ,the ,devil is the chief pillar of ,faith4 ,he is one of the grand personages whose life is closely allied to that of the church1 and without his speech1 which issued out so triumphantly from the mouth of the serpent1 the fall of man could never have taken place4 ,thus1 if it were not for him1 the ,savior1 the ,crucified1 the ,redeemer1 would be but the most ridiculous of supernumeraries and the cross an insult to good sense6 ,in his preface to ,les ,hauts ,phenomnes de la ,magie1 des ,mousseaux repeats this theory3 ,if magic and spiritualism were both but chimeras1 we would have to bid an eternal farewell to all the rebellious angels now troubling the world2 for thus we would have no more demons down here4444 ,and if we lost our demons1 we would lose our ,savior likewise2 for1 from whom did that ,savior save us8 ,and then there would be no more ,redeemer2 for1 from whom or what could that ,redeemer redeem us8 ,hence1 there would be no more ,christianity4 ,he evidently regards ,satan as the prince of this world 7,john xii1 #ca2 xvi1 #aa72 the god of this world 7,cor4 iv1 #d72 and the prince of the power of the air 7,eph4 ii1 #b74 ,the universally accepted belief of ,christendom in the almost absolute power of the devil was the cause of the most awful persecution of innocence that the world has ever seen4 ,while the tortures of the heretics by the ,inquisition had some cause of a political as well as ecclesiastical nature1 the houndings of those accused of witchcraft and sorcery had no foundation save in superstition and gross ignorance4 ,during the ,christian era millions of persons have been destroyed for this crime in conformity to the command1 ,thou shalt not suffer a witch to live 7,ex4 xxii1 #ah74 ,the ,roman church recognized and punished the crime2 ,luther approved of the burning of witches2 the ,scotch reformers did likewise1 and the ,puritans of ,new ,england delighted in the persecution4 ,while all religiously orthodox people accept the narrative of scriptural miracles with unquestioning faith and never cast a doubt on the greatest improbabilities so long as they are told of biblical heroes1 these very people assign all the seeming supernatural affairs of post-scriptural times to the devil4 ,psychical phenomena which1 if performed two thousand years ago by ,jesus 7such as the resurrection of ,lazarus and the materialization to the ,magdalene71 they accept without hesitation1 they brand as trickery or a delusion or ,satan1 when placed before them by a professed ,spiritualist4 ,witches and wizards were condemned to horrible deaths by the medieval church for performing the very identical acts for which the same church canonized departed saints and instituted offices for their adoration and worship2 and modern ,christians smile and sneer derisively at fortune tellers1 but condemn in holy horror as heretics those who refuse to believe in the foreseeing powers of the ancient ,hebrew prophets4 ,this ,christian devil-worship1 for it can be called little else1 crept into ,judaism during the ,babylonian captivity1 and was originally a recognition of the dual powers of good and evil1 seemingly coequal4 ,by placing ,satan in opposition to ,god1 in giving him eternal life1 and endowing him with miraculous powers1 and even allowing him to upset and vanquish the plans of ,god1 ,christians have made ,satan equal1 if not superior1 to the ,deity4 ,a ,puritan bigot hanging witches in ,new ,england was admitting in the plainest manner his faith in ,satan's power1 though it never occurred to him for an instant that these curious happenings might be attributed to ,god4 ,the power of ,god to perform miracles was then1 as now1 a matter of the past4 ,with the ,protestant ,reformation came the idea that no longer did ,god interfere for the benefit of man4 ,in the seventeenth century ,god had ceased to work by other than natural agencies4 ,his miraculous powers1 if not lost1 were at least suspended4 ,but not so ,satan--that archfiend was as powerful as ever1 if not more so4 ,he could inflict magical tortures on ,god's divinely elect and make them writhe in agony4 ,pious ,cotton ,mather had ceased to believe in divine miracles1 but he had no doubt of devilish ones1 and it appears to all students of that dark and shameful period of our history that the belief was rampant among the majority that ,god was vanquished and ,satan ruled4 ,never was belief in the dual principles of good and evil more surely set forth in ancient ,persia than it was in ,new ,england by such harsh1 cruel1 and bigoted priests as ,mather and ,parrish4 ,today1 while all churchmen have grown more liberal1 we still find both in pulpit and pew innumerable believers in the power of ,satan to tempt and force erring humanity into wrong and sinful paths in miraculous salvation from which by ,god they have no faith4 ,today1 instead of earthly and present salvation by the ,deity from the clutches of ,satan1 the belief seems prevalent that a post-mortem salvation is more efficacious1 and that all that is required for eternal bliss is belief in the vicarious atonement of the ,christ4 ,to hear our orthodox friends declaim on the powers of ,satan almost makes one ready to believe that ,god is dead and ,satan rules supreme4 ,such is the blasphemy of demonic faith4 ,while ,satan1 as the arch-enemy1 is somewhat similar to the ,persian ,ahriman1 he is not alone in his wickedness4 ,when ,christianity came into power and supplanted paganism as the ,roman state religion1 it immediately debased all of the pagan gods1 whom it did not appropriate to itself as saints1 to devils and assigned them subordinate positions in hell1 under command of the great ,satan4 ,and thus1 all the beautiful water sprites1 sylvan nymphs1 spirits of the air1 and other lesser deities1 became the associates of wickedness1 and1 as such1 continued1 until a very recent date1 to hold sway over the superstitious imaginations of the majority of ,europeans4 ,the medival church likewise invented the famous succub and incubi1 the former demons impersonating the beautiful nymphs of the old mythology and attacking the virtue of youths with their seductive arts1 while the latter1 in imitation of the ancient satyrs1 sought the virginity of unsuspecting maidens2 all of which may readily be learned of in accounts of the many trials held by the ,holy ,inquisition1 in which such were condemned as had held intercourse with these demons4 ,in many cases1 women swearing to have had intercourse with incubi were merely suffering from erotic and nymphomaniac hallucinations1 while others may have found it a convenient excuse for explaining illicit impregnations4 ,men1 falling under the charms of women1 found it a convenient method for disposing of their loves1 after the infatuation had passed1 by declaring them succub2 and monks1 who had contracted venereal diseases1 laid their sufferings to these same fair demons4 ,in the case of the monks1 however1 the succub were often of purely hallucinary origin1 due to excessive asceticism together with the suppression of natural desires and a too faithful conformity to the ordinance of celibacy4 ,nymphomania is also prevalent in convents1 owing to the unnatural sexual lives led by the nuns1 who either remain truly chaste or abandon themselves to all sorts of debauchery and perverted lubricities4 ,in former times these rages of demented women were supposed to have been caused by possession of demons1 which tormented them at the orders of magicians1 and advantage was often taken by the unscrupulous to accuse their enemies of the crime of sorcery1 and thus cause their execution4 ,one of the most famous of these horrible affairs was that of ,loudin in ,poitiers1 where the nuns of the ,ursuline convent1 becoming hysterical and demented1 swore themselves afflicted by ,urbain ,grandier1 a priest of the local church1 and despite the attempts of the rational bailiff and sensible civil lieutenants1 some enemies of the cur among the exorcists managed to secure the arrest1 torture1 and final burning of the unfortunate man in #afcb4 ,later1 it was discovered that1 being personally attractive1 handsome and gallant1 ,grandier1 who never denied his numerous amours1 had incurred the enmity of the ,loudin nuns by entirely ignoring their advances2 and hell hath no fury like a woman scorned6 ,these libidinous women1 constantly brooding over disappointment to their fond hopes1 gave such a character of demonic possession to their neurosis that advantage could be taken of it by rival priests to rid themselves of an envied enemy4 ,the writhings1 gesticulations1 convulsions1 etc41 of these unfortunate women1 combined with the indecency of their actions on the approach of the exorcists 7caused merely by the approach of a male71 were believed by the vulgar to be demonstrations of demonic possession4 ,other nuns1 seeing the attention and notoriety thus gained by these sisters1 although themselves free from dementia1 could not resist the temptation to simulate its forms and thus acquire renown for themselves4 ,thus arose those horrible demonical scenes which occupied the attention of all ,europe during the seventeenth century and seemed to point to the possession of all convents by devils4 ,and not convents alone1 for other hysterical women1 without the walls1 possessed of the same rage for notoriety1 took up the character of demonic possessed and spread the vulgar superstition until it seems that every woman in ,europe who was so unfortunate as to be in any way afflicted with tendencies to hysteria1 neurosis1 idiocy1 or dementia of any character whatever1 came to be regarded as in the power of a demon1 which in turn was the slave of some magician4 ,and thus1 through the influence of an ignorant and unscrupulous priesthood1 a powerful engine was placed at its disposal for the removal of enemies4 ,executions for sorcery continued until their very number and barbarity palled1 and the wearied people were ready for their abolition1 when the ,reformation opened and with the accession of power1 ,protestantism1 in this matter1 at least1 swayed the masses to reason once more4 ,dr4 ,figuier1 in his ,histoire du ,merveilleux1 explains these demonical possessions as entirely due to hypnotism1 and1 ignoring the nymphomaniac theory1 asserts that the exorcists themselves hypnotized the nuns for their own glory and for purposes of vengeance4 ,one page #bcd of volume ,i he says3 ,l'appareil deploy par les exorcistes1 leurs adjurations1 leurs gestes imposants et forcens1 tenaient lieu des manipulations que nos magnetiseurs emploient pour endormir leurs sujets4 ,operant sur des jeunes filles nerveuses1 malades1 melancoliques1 les exorcistes produisaient chez elles une partie des phenomnes auxquels donn lieu le somnambulisme artificiel4 ,the universal belief in evil spirits became a powerful engine for the advancement of the church4 ,by its use all those who were inimical to the church could be put out of the way as comrades of devils1 and1 furthermore1 the theory was advanced that only by the exorcisms of the church could man be protected from malevolent powers4 ,holy water1 signs of the cross1 repetitions of the name of ,mary had full power to annul all the machinations of the demons1 but only in the hands of the true believers was this efficacious4 ,to preserve one from the dangers of demonic spite1 absolute orthodoxy was essential1 and thus a great premium was imposed upon strict adherence to the church4 ,thus was gross superstition a most powerful factor in the growth and spread of ,christianity4 ,according to ,lecky3 ,there was scarcely a village or a church that had not1 at some time1 been the scene of supernatural interposition4 ,the powers of light and the powers of darkness were regarded as visibly struggling for the mastery4 ,saintly miracles1 supernatural cures1 startling judgments1 visions1 prophecies1 and prodigies of every order1 attested the activity of the one1 while witchcraft and magic1 with all their attendant horrors1 were the visible manifestations of the other4444 ,tens of thousands of victims perished by the most agonizing and protracted torments1 without exciting the slightest compassion4444 ,nations that were separated by position1 by interests1 and by character1 on this question were united4 ,and the germ of all this evil lay in the very foundation of ,christianity--the faith held in supernatural agencies4 ,the belief in the supernatural agency in the temptation of ,eve1 the temptations of ,jesus1 the possibility of the miraculous conception1 and the miracles of ,christ1 were but stepping-stones to faith in innumerable invisible but potent powers4 ,one who can conscientiously believe in the supernatural as found between the covers of the ,bible can1 by but a slight stretch of the imagination1 believe any preposterous tale that is woven about a supernatural agency4 ,if one can believe a woman can conceive without contact with semen1 one can believe some old woman can dry up his cow4 ,if one can believe that ,jesus actually raised ,lazarus from the dead1 one can believe that a man can kill him by sticking pins in a wax effigy4 ,if one can believe that ,elijah ascended to heaven in a fiery chariot1 one can believe that ,goody ,jones rode a broomstick through the air4 ,if one can believe that the ,christ was actually tempted by the devil1 one can believe in succub and incubi4 ,it is all a matter of logical reasoning4 ,as soon as a ,christian's intellectual powers develop to a point where he can find no place for the miraculous in the world about him1 he begins to doubt that which was in the world before him2 but1 regarding theological tales1 he either places them in another category or ignores them1 unless faced with them1 when he crawls and calls them sacred mysteries4 ,that an old woman can sour his milk or kill his child by the evil eye he does not believe1 for reason has taught him otherwise4 ,and for the same reason he would not believe his daughter if she told him she was pregnant with a miraculous child4 ,he did not believe ,josephine ,woodbury when she made a similar statement in ,boston a few years ago4 ,but he does believe it of ,mary1 because it is a holy mystery1 and is in another category4 ,he has inherited his faith from a long line of orthodox ancestors1 and he has never stopped to consider it by the light of pure reason4 ,it is fortunate for the dogma of the virgin birth that it took root when people believed such things1 otherwise ,mary would have been adorned with the scarlet letter4 ,feasts1 fasts and elaborate ceremonials were important features of the most ancient worships1 and it is not1 therefore1 strange to find somewhat modified adaptations of them in the ,christian church4 ,for1 wherever ,christianity wandered and found firmly implanted religious theories and customs1 it immediately gave them new significations and accepted them1 until finally the greater part of paganism was gathered from all parts of the civilized world and amalgamated into one strong theological organization4 ,finding in almost every nation a festival at the winter solstice1 in commemoration of the accouchement of the celestial1 virgin queen of heaven1 and the birth of the sun-god1 the ,christian fathers decided to adopt the #beth of ,december as the natal day of their ,christ4 ,mithras1 ,osiris1 ,horus1 ,bacchus1 ,adonis and ,buddha were all said to have been born on this day1 and it is the date of one of the greatest religious festivals of ,india1 during which the people decorate their houses with garlands and make presents to relatives and friends2 a custom adopted by the ,christians in much the same manner as was that of the ancient ,german yule-log1 burned in honor of the sun-god4 ,,xi4--,,religious ,,holidays ,,and ,,rites4 ,the winter solstice was also the time of the great ,scandinavian festival in honor of ,frey1 son of ,odin and ,frigga1 who was supposed to have been born at this time4 ,the ,jews1 likewise1 have a feast beginning on the #beth of ,december1 which lasts eight days1 and is in memory of the victory of the ,maccabees over the ,greeks4 ,it is called the feast of ,hanuca4 ,a great annual festival1 called the feast of lamps1 was held by the ,egyptians in the early part of the year in honor of the goddess ,neith1 during which lamps of oil were burned all night before the houses4 ,this festival was renamed ,candlemas or the purification of the virgin1 and was adopted by the ,christian church4 ,the ancient pagan inhabitants of ,europe annually celebrated a spring festival which began with a week's indulgence in all kinds of sports and was called the carne-vale1 or taking farewell of meat1 because a fast of forty days immediately followed4 ,in ,germany this was held in honor of the ,saxon goddess ,hertha1 or ,ostara1 or ,eostre--as you may prefer to call her--whose name was adopted as ,easter by the ,christians as the name to be applied to the end of their lenten period4 ,among the ,syrians it was the custom to celebrate an elaborate festival at the time of the spring equinox in honor of the glorious ,adonis1 beloved of the great goddess ,astarte4 ,this worship was later introduced into ,greece1 whence it traveled to ,rome with the majority of ,grecian mythological theories4 ,it was later introduced into ,egypt1 where it was annually celebrated at ,alexandria1 the cradle of ,christianity1 until the latter part of the fourth century1 when a ,christian significance was given it4 ,the myth of ,adonis is too well known to need repetition here1 and its parallel to that of the ,christ is readily seen4 ,the ceremonies now held in ,rome at ,easter are but slightly different from those held there at the same time of year centuries ago4 ,this similarity was explained away by the assertion of the ,christian fathers that a long time before there were ,christians in existence1 the devil had taken pleasure to have their future mysteries and ceremonies copied by his worshipers--a very simple and satisfactory explanation6 ,that ,easter is in reality an astronomical festival in honor of the sun-god seems conclusive from the fact that it occurs on no settled date1 but takes place on the first ,sunday after the first full moon after the passing of the vernal equinox1 which1 for convenience1 is fixed at ,march #ba4 ,among the many ,christian fasts of pagan origin none is more familiar to all than the weekly ,friday abstinence from meat4 ,under the old mythology1 ,friday1 the dies veneris1 was sacred to ,venus1 and on that day the devout worshipers of this charming goddess ate nothing but fish1 as all the finny tribe were sacred to her1 and considered proper diet for those that worshiped at her shrine4 ,when the ,bishop of ,rome assumed the power and dignity of head of the western church1 he also assumed all the prerogatives of the ancient pontifex maximus 7who was supposed to be the direct physical communication between the people and the deities71 and many of the attributes of the emperors4 ,he adopted the gorgeous vestments of the ancient high priest and even stretched forth a foot to be kissed1 as ,heliogabalus had done4 ,he considered himself capable of raising such as he saw fit to semi-divine honors by canonization1 just as the emperors had raised altars to their favorites1 and he claimed precedence over every monarch of the earth1 just as they also had done4 ,but the ,roman pontiff is not unique in his position of viceroy of the deity4 ,the grand lama of ,thibet is considered as the representative of ,buddha and has the power of dispensing divine blessings on whomsoever he will4 ,taoism also has a pope who resides on the ,lung-h mountain1 in the department of ,kwang-hsi1 who bears the surname ,chang and is called ,heavenly ,master4 ,the best known rites of the ,christian church are probably those of baptism1 confession and communion1 with which are associated the ideas of purification1 prayer and transubstantiation4 ,the rite of baptism1 like all ideas which refer to the purification of sin by water1 is a most ancient one4 ,rivers1 as sources of purification1 were at an early date invested with a sacred character1 and every great river was supposed to be permeated with a divine essence and its waters were believed to cleanse from all mortal guilt and contamination4 ,the ,ganges and the ,jordan are well known examples of this faith1 and vases of ,ganges water are to be found in almost every dwelling in ,india for religious purposes4 ,in ,mongolia and ,thibet children are named by the priests1 who immerse them in holy water while reading a prescribed prayer1 after which the name is bestowed4 ,baptism preceded initiation into the mysteries of both the ,egyptian ,isis and the ,persian ,mithras1 and was held to be the means of regeneration and of remission of sins4 ,tertullian1 noticing the great similarity between the ,christian and pagan baptisms1 navely remarked that the devil baptizes some1 of course1 such as believe in him and are faithful to him2 he promises expiation of sins from the bath1 and1 if my memory of ,mithras serves me still1 in this rite he signs his soldiers on their foreheads4 ,much akin to baptism is the general use by the ,christian church of so-called holy water1 which is ascribed to ,pope ,alexander the ,first1 who ruled during the first century4 ,this pontiff probably did little more than officially to condone1 by his papal sanction1 the very general use of lustral water1 which the ,romans had inherited from their pagan ancestors2 for lustral water was always kept in vases at the entrance of the ,roman temples1 that those passing in and out might sprinkle themselves with it2 and the priests used a sprinkling brush called the aspersorium with which they threw the purifying water over their congregations1 in the same manner as modern priests use the hyssop4 ,the druids gave1 or sprinkled upon1 the worshipers water in which mistletoe had been immersed or steeped4 ,similar to the idea of purification by baptism is that of purification by confession and prayer4 ,the idea involved in confession is that the declaration of the crime relieves the conscience of its criminality4 ,in ,iceland and among the ,scandinavian and ,teutonic peoples in general1 murder ceased to be a crime when the slayer had declared himself guilty4 ,among the ,jews confession was practiced1 the purpose of its institution being that the priest might judge of the sacrifice required for the expiation of the sin committed1 and1 also1 that every crime might be rehearsed over the scapegoat4 ,the ,peruvians confessed their sins to their priests with the exception of the ,incas1 who confessed to the sun4 ,at the famous ,samothracian mysteries a priest was especially charged with hearing the confessions of great criminals and with granting them absolution4 ,among ,protestant ,christians confession is often made directly to the supreme deity in the form of prayer1 which1 like most other religious practices1 is an eminently pagan custom4 ,the ,assyrians1 ,babylonians1 ,greeks1 ,romans1 ,persians1 and most other ancient peoples offered sacrifices on the altars of their gods to propitiate them1 and accompanied these offerings with prayers4 ,today1 instead of presenting wines and viands to his god1 the devout ,christian offers verbal expressions of a contrite spirit or1 more often1 asks a favor4 ,he demands1 begs1 or advises through this method1 according to his own nature and disposition4 ,the expression used in modern orthodox ,protestant prayers1 through our ,lord1 ,jesus ,christ1 is merely the concrete expression of the idea of mediation4 ,the great supreme ,god was looked upon by most nations of antiquity as being too great1 too sublime1 too holy1 to be addressed directly2 and1 in this lofty conception of the deity1 they prayed for favors to mediators whom they created to request boons from the real ruler of heaven and earth4 ,among the ,hindus1 supplications were addressed to the various apotheosized incarnations of ,vishnu1 rather than to the great ,brahma2 the ,greeks made supplication to numerous lesser gods1 rather than to ,zeus2 ,persians addressed ,mithras instead of ,ormuzd2 and the modern ,romanist kneels to saints and martyrs1 or ,jesus or his mother1 at whose shrines they place offerings which are bribes for favors2 but almost never do they immediately supplicate the supreme ,god4 ,in this they are certainly less blasphemous than their ,protestant fellows1 who do not hesitate to talk familiarly to ,god of the most trivial affairs4 ,belief in the efficacy of prayer is an absurdity which owes its origin to a hereditary trait of humanity1 descended through a long line of superstitious ancestors4 ,primitive man prayed to his dead fathers for their good will1 believing them more powerful in their post mortem state than during life4 ,the ancients offered prayers at the shrines of their various gods and1 among all nations1 from time immemorial1 deities have been supplicated to bestow gifts and avert misfortunes4 ,the overcharged mind of the superstitious has ever found relief in expressing its troubles to the imaginary beings on whom it has bestowed superhuman attributes4 ,all over the world1 in all languages1 have arisen various petitions to the deities1 and still do they continue to arise4 ,savages pray to their idols1 ,moslems crouch facing ,mecca to pray to ,allah1 ,hindus pray to the avatars of ,vishnu1 and all ,christendom besieges the throne of ,god in constant supplication4 ,can any rational mind believe that these numerous1 varied and even antagonistic petitions will be answered8 ,some are praying for rain1 some for a cessation of it1 some for health1 some for happiness1 some for material blessings1 and some for spiritual welfare4 ,vain repetitions6 ,the material universe is governed by immutable laws which all the breath in creation wasted in prayer cannot in any way affect2 while such spiritual benefits as morality1 character and virtue are equally dependent on the invariable laws of cause and effect4 ,prayers for forgiveness of sins are perhaps the most common1 as well as the most absurd1 that are daily offered4 ,sin is the breaking of a material or moral law1 and no law can be broken without the transgressor's incurring the penalty4 ,is it not absurd of the church to preach the immutable justice of ,god1 and at the same time declare that sinners may escape punishment by prayer8 ,communion1 or union with the deity1 is an idea of great antiquity and has been common to all religions2 although the methods practiced are numerous and varied4 ,the more common mode1 however1 is by the consumption of consecrated foods and drinks1 with the idea that these have acquired 7by the act of consecration7 a divine character of which the communicant becomes a partaker through their reception4 ,the dogma of the eucharist was instituted many centuries before the ,christian era and was believed in by the ancient ,egyptians 7from whom the ,christians probably received it through the ,alexandrian school71 who1 at the time of the celebration of the resurrection of ,osiris1 ate a sacred wafer1 which1 after consecration by a priest1 was declared the flesh of the god4 ,in ancient ,greece1 bread was worshiped as ,ceres and wine as ,bacchus2 and1 when the devout ate the bread and drank the wine1 they claimed they were eating the flesh and drinking the blood of their deities4 ,the ancient ,mexicans used bread of corn meal mixed with blood1 which1 after1 having been consecrated by the priests1 was given to the people to eat as the flesh of ,quetzalcoatl1 much to the surprise and horror of the first ,spanish missionaries1 who ascribed it to mockery of their holy eucharist due to ,satan4 ,,xii--,,the ,,eucharist4 ,the primal origin of the eucharist probably occurred far back in the period of universal anthropophagy4 ,most savage and semi-savage peoples have practiced cannibalism because they believed that by eating the flesh of the dead they gained the qualities of the deceased4 ,just as some ,africans eat tiger to become brave1 savages ate their courageous foes to attain their virtues4 ,following this same idea further1 the belief was established that by consuming the flesh of a god1 supernatural powers might be acquired4 ,thus the early ,christian missionaries to the ,new ,world found such customs in ,peru and ,mexico4 ,father ,acosta described one of these festivals which occurred annually each ,may in ,mexico1 wherein the statue of a god was made of dough1 and killed by an arrow in the hand of a priest4 ,the god was then broken in pieces which by means of certain ceremonies 444 were blessed and consecrated for the flesh and bones of this idoll4 ,these pieces the priest gave to the people in manner of a communion who received it with such feare1 and reverence1 as it was an admirable thing1 saying that they did eate the flesh and bones of ,god4 ,likewise came the idea that sacrifices to the gods in some way attained godlike characteristics1 and so the ,guatemalan priests ate the bodies of the sacrificed4 ,the words of the modern ,roman priest1 hoc est corpus meum1 which are supposed1 by some magical influence1 to cause the actual transubstantiation in the celebration of the eucharist1 remind one forcibly of the dotting of the memorial ,chinese tablet by a mandarin1 by which official act the spirit of the departed1 to whom it is dedicated1 is presumed to take up residence in the new abode4 ,as a logical deduction from a given hypothesis1 any ,roman priest is greater than the virgin4 ,she conceived ,god but once1 while the priest may through his mass create the body of the ,christ whenever he so desires4 ,every time a priest performs this function he is the father of ,god4 ,however1 in spite of the absurdity of the practice1 to deprive the communion of the real presence is to make it a senseless and useless ceremony4 ,while the communicants believe in the efficacy of the wafer as the actual body1 there is reason for absorbing it1 as they thus unite themselves with the actual spirit of the ,christ4 ,but the moment this dogma is rejected1 the rite becomes futile1 and nothing is more ridiculous than its perpetuation in the ,protestant churches4 ,the quibble that it is performed in memory of ,jesus is a fallacy4 ,in ,unitarian churches it is an arrant absurdity 7one that is retained in many cases simply because the old historical churches of that denomination have inherited fine old communion plate which is proudly displayed71 and one can only respect and admire ,ralph ,waldo ,emerson's stand in the matter1 when he preferred to relinquish his remunerative and honorable pastorate in the ,second ,church of ,boston 7the only pulpit he ever filled7 rather than celebrate this anachronistic and indefensible rite4 ,jerome carried his reverence for the ,eucharistic bread #a so far that he considered that the table on which it was consecrated1 together with the cloth in which it was wrapped1 and the other utensils connected with its service1 were to be worshiped with equal respect as that given the body and blood of the ,savior4 ,this theory led to the consecration of altars1 which by a decree of the ,council of ,epaone1 in #eag1 in imitation of the ,jewish and pagan sacrificial altars1 were ordered to be of stone1 which material had been originally chosen as the most suitable material for the execution of the sacrifices1 whose blood should flow over it1 without danger of absorption4 ,another of the ancient pagan ideas which took a strong hold upon ,christianity and rose to an abnormal power during the middle ages was that of monasticism with its accompanying asceticism4 ,there is scarcely a religion of ancient and modern times that does not recognize asceticism as an element of its system4 ,buddha taught his disciples a religion of abstinence1 and1 among the ,buddhists1 there are ordained and tonsured priests1 living in monasteries under vows of celibacy1 while there are similar asylums for women4 ,brahmanism also has its orders of ascetics and ,hinduism has its fakirs4 ,fasting and self-denial were observances required by the ,greeks of those who desired initiation into the mysteries2 the ,jews observed many fasts2 and the ,egyptian priests passed their novitiate in the deserts engaged in prayer and living in caves4 ,like many other ,christian customs1 the monastic habit probably came from ,egypt1 and it was considered by ,gibbon to have had a potent influence on the fall of the western empire1 in that it removed from active and useful life so many able-bodied men and women4 ,,xiii4--,,spread ,,of ,,christianity4 ,having now shown that there is nothing new in ,christianity2 nothing in which it differs essentially from the older faiths2 having shown that it brought no new ideas in its dogmas1 practices1 or morality1 but a few words are necessary to explain its marvelous growth and rapid acceptance4 ,christianity grew so rapidly1 and was adopted so readily in many parts of the world simply because it was so cosmopolitan and elastic4 ,it went forth to proselyte in a very conciliatory manner1 embracing and absorbing every deeply rooted theological idea and custom which obstructed its path1 and1 in every way1 exerting itself to propitiate its converts4 ,and it was not until it became strong and powerful and was well supported by fanatical adherents that it dared to assume the rle of conqueror4 ,then1 when the period of its strength was full1 its tone changed and1 strong in self-confidence1 ,christianity became militant and strode forth in armor to vanquish with the sword and fill the world with blood4 ,one of the reasons for the rapid acceptance of ,christianity among the ,romans and its remarkable growth in their dependencies was that for centuries the people had ceased to take their religion seriously4 ,the vulgar masses1 undoubtedly then as now1 and at all times1 unthinkingly swallowed all that was taught them of their deities1 but the writings of cultivated men show clearly that for centuries the worship and reverence of their ancestral gods had but slight influence upon their ethical ideas4 ,lucretius 7#ie-eb ,b4 ,c471 the exponent of the ,epicurean doctrines1 regarded the gods as the creations of human fear4 ,ennius 7#bci-afi ,b4 ,c47 translated and expounded the writings of ,euhemerus 7#caf ,b4 ,c471 wherein it was claimed that all the ancient myths were historical events1 that the gods were originally kings who were accorded post mortem worship by their grateful subjects4 ,the ,stoics regarded the gods as personifications of the different attributes of nature4 ,cicero adopted the ,platonic conception of the deity as mind freed from all taint of matter1 while ,ovid made the gods ridiculous in his mocking ,metamorphoses1 and1 in his lascivious descriptions of their amours1 degraded them forever as ethical models4 ,horace likewise mocked them4 ,the glorious military conquests of the ,roman arms in ,asia and ,africa brought the soldiers into contact with alien religions1 and the germs instilled in the minds of the armies spread among all the peoples of ,rome's domains1 upon their return4 ,likewise the ever-increasing influx of foreigners1 bringing with them their native gods and theological systems1 had more or less influence1 while the apotheoses of the emperors gave a powerful impetus to the degradation of the ancient faith4 ,the vulgar clung to their ancient shrines and the cultured sneered at them for so doing4 ,they bent the knee in public and they laughed mockingly in private4 ,in such a state was the religion of ,rome when the first ,christians began to proselyte2 and on such fertile ground1 amid the ruins of an ancient faith1 the seed readily took root and rapidly spread out4 ,any other faith1 supported by sturdy1 conscientious and indomitable missionaries1 would have done the same4 ,the old faith was dead and the time was ripe for something new and vigorous4 ,as the civilized world was then under one powerful government1 which allowed no political discord within its borders and which granted absolute religious freedom1 the ,christian missionaries could travel in safety from one province to another and1 without fear of molestation1 could propagate their doctrines among the people through the media of the ,greek and ,latin tongues1 which were universal throughout the empire4 ,early ,christianity was merely a sect of ,judaism1 and as the ,jews were scattered all through the ,roman provinces1 every ,jewish settlement having its synagogue which the ,christian missionaries visited in order to preach their message1 the new religion1 which was undertaken in the name of the ,god of ,abraham1 and ,moses1 found a sphere already prepared for itself4 ,the new sect was naturally welcomed by the ,roman ,jews1 as it was a purely national religion1 founded upon the teachings of a ,jewish peasant for the ,jewish people4 ,there is nothing in the gospels which portrays ,jesus as anything other than a prophet to his own nation4 ,while his moral doctrines1 like all ethical principles1 are applicable to all races1 he was ignorant of all peoples save his own1 and it was to them alone that he preached1 proclaiming his messiahship for them only4 ,he was content to remain within the boundaries of his own country and expressed no wish nor desire to visit other lands4 ,had it remained as ,jesus desired1 ,christianity would never have been separated from ,judaism4 ,it was owing to the direct disobedience of ,peter and ,paul in this particular1 that ,christianity spread among the gentiles 7,acts xiv1 #df74 ,in sending forth his apostles to preach his mission1 ,jesus commanded1 ,go not into the way of the gentiles1 and into any city of the ,samaritans enter ye not3 ,but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of ,israel 7,matt4 x1 #e-f74 ,when appealed to by the ,canaanite woman1 he said1 ,i am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of ,israel 7,matt4 xv1 #bd74 ,it was to the ,jews that he spoke when he said1 ,ye are the salt of the earth 7,matt4 v4 #ac74 ,ye are the light of the world 7,matt4 v1 #ad74 ,it was in reference to the twelve tribes of ,israel that he so numbered his apostles 7,matt4 xix1 #bh74 ,and it was of his compatriots that he thought when prophesying his resurrection1 ,ye shall not have gone over the cities of ,israel1 till the ,son of ,man be come 7,matt4 x1 #bc74 ,there is no thought of a universal mission in all this4 ,his mission and sacrifice were for his own nation1 and1 as ,paul writes to ,titus1 he gave himself that he might purify unto himself a peculiar people 7,tit4 ii1 #ad74 ,thinking probably of the political strife which his messiahship would cause1 ,jesus said1 ,i came not to bring peace1 but a sword 7,matt4 x1 #cd71 in which remark he was a truer prophet than the heavenly host that sang at his birth on earth peace1 good will toward men 7,luke ii1 #ad74 ,the ,church of ,rome has shed more innocent blood than any other institution that ever existed among mankind1 says ,lecky in his ,rationalism in ,europe 7vol4 ii1 p4 #dj74 ,the ,holy ,office in ,spain burned over #ca1jjj persons and condemned to punishment hardly less severe #bij1jjj4 ,during the reign of ,charles the ,fifth #ej1jjj heretics were executed in the ,netherlands and on ,february #af1 #aejh1 the ,holy ,office condemned all the inhabitants1 numbering #c1jjj1jjj of people1 to death as heretics1 and ,philip the ,second confirmed the decree and ordered its instant execution4 ,the whole history of ,christianity1 in all its forms1 reeks with blood and smells to heaven with carrion4 ,in the first centuries ,christians persecuted pagans or1 divided among themselves1 persecuted each other as heretics4 ,later arose the feuds of orthodox and ,arian1 then came a united ,christendom against ,islam1 followed by ,protestant wars4 ,in these ,catholics murdered1 pillaged1 and devastated ,protestants and burned and tortured them as heretics by ecclesiastical tribunals2 ,protestants persecuted and executed ,catholics and1 divided among themselves1 persecuted one another4 ,in the sixteenth century ,anglican ,episcopalians persecuted ,catholics and ,nonconformists4 ,in the seventeenth century ,puritans persecuted ,catholics1 ,episcopalians1 and ,quakers1 and so on4 ,the whole history of this religion is a long narration of blasphemous and degrading theories propagated by violence1 hypocrisy and crime4 ,christian charity is a delusion which is found only among the persecuted1 who1 the instant the scale turns1 become the ruling faction1 forget its meaning1 and hasten to avenge their sufferings in persecutions4 ,no other religion has so bloody a history as ,christianity4 ,the old heathen religions went calmly on their way1 indifferent to one another and showing the most perfect toleration4 ,rival gods of rival nations were worshiped in temples side by side1 without conflict or ill feeling4 ,buddhists and ,brahmins mildly flourish in proximity4 ,but ,christians who believe that the ,christ was sacrificed for love of humanity1 that their gospel is one of love1 peace1 and good will1 vie with one another to outstrip the ferocity of wild beasts4 ,while many students believe that ,jesus was a purely mythical being1 without actual existence save in the brains of religious ,christians1 ,i see no reason to doubt that a certain ,jewish rabbi may have come out of the rebellious province of ,galilee about the time of ,herod4 ,such messiahs had come before him and such have succeeded him4 ,some of the messiahs subsequent to ,jesus were3 one who appeared in ,persia in #aach1 another in ,arabia in #aafg1 and one in ,moravia at the close of the twelfth century4 ,eldavid proclaimed himself messiah in ,persia in #aaii1 ,sabathai ,tzevi assumed the title of ,king of ,kings in #afff and was executed at ,constantinople by the ,sultan4 ,so late as #ahbi there appeared in ,india the eight-year-old son of a peasant who was a wonderful serpent charmer and was called ,marayum ,powar4 ,it was an ancient belief that the ability to handle serpents unharmed was a proof that one had become perfectly holy--absorbed in ,god6 ,therefore1 numerous people came to believe ,powar a god and in ten months ten thousand followers were about him1 baptizing and performing miraculous cures--and his cult seemed well on the road to establishment when1 over-confident of his power1 he was bitten by a serpent and died4 ,his followers1 after vainly awaiting his resurrection1 dispersed4 ,that ,jesus' whole career is lost in encircling myth is no proof that the original figure never existed4 ,there is plenty of historical evidence to show that the central portion of ,europe was once ruled by a king named ,karl1 and we do not doubt this simply because a great cloud of myths has been gathered about the name of ,st4 ,charlemagne1 any more than we feel bound to believe that because he once lived he must now necessarily exist1 sleeping in a mountain1 until it shall be necessary for him to spring forth and save the ,german fatherland4 ,one set of students assert that the ,christ was merely the personification of vegetable life1 claiming that his death and resurrection typify the death and revivification of vegetation4 ,others hold that he is the modern phase of the eternal sun-god4 ,to sustain this hypothesis the following allegorical interpretation of his supposed career is offered as an explanation4 ,he was born on the early dawn of the twenty-fifth day of ,december1 the day on which commences the sun's apparent revolution around the earth2 his birth was announced by the brilliant morning star2 his virgin mother was the pure and beautiful dawn2 his temptation was his struggle with the adverse clouds which he dispersed2 his trial1 execution1 and death were emblematic of the solar decline and crucifixion at the beginning of winter2 his descent into hell was typical of the three days of the winter solstice2 and his resurrection and ascension refer to the return of the sun after its seeming extinction4 ,i have now shown that among the great majority of the nations of antiquity1 no matter as to how they may have differed in the details1 all held one general idea of faith in a savior-mediator between man and the supreme deity4 ,some such medium seemed necessary to them1 for they had not reached that intellectual plane on which one feels able to hold direct communication with the creator4 ,modern ,christianity1 in all its forms1 still panders to this ancient superstition that man must needs have an agent between himself and his ,god4 ,he must have an intercessor between his weakness and ,god's power--and vengeance4 ,but when the human mind is freed from superstition and men learn that right living and a clean ethical code is all that is required1 then they will cease to bow1 either physically or mentally1 to any humanly invented mediator1 and their enlarged ideas of the justice of the supreme deity will prohibit any belief in impossible demi-gods4 ,however1 for the majority1 that happy time of emancipation is still in the distant future1 and1 until its dawn lightens the general intelligence1 men will continue to adore and supplicate the mediator whom inheritance and environment have taught them to revere1 as ,krishna1 ,buddha1 ,mithras1 or the ,christ1 as the case may be4 ,,bibliography4 ,apocryphal ,new ,testament1 ,being ,all the ,gospels1 ,epistles and ,other ,pieces ,now ,extant1 ,attributed in the ,first ,four ,centuries to ,jesus ,christ1 ,his ,apostles1 and their ,companions1 and not ,included in the ,new ,testament by its ,compilers4 ,london4 ,printed for ,william ,hone1 #ahba4 ,baring-,gould1 ,s4--,curious ,myths of the ,middle ,ages4 ,london4 #ahgg4 ,legends of the ,patriarchs and ,prophets1 and other ,old ,testament ,characters4 ,new ,york4 #ahgb4 ,the ,origin and ,development of ,religious ,beliefs4 ,new ,york4 #ahgj4 #b vols4 ,blavatsky1 ,h4 ,p4--,isis ,unveiled3 ,a ,master-key to the ,mysteries of ,ancient and ,modern ,science and ,mythology4 ,new ,york4 #ahia4 #b vols4 ,bourke1 ,john ,g4--,scatalogic ,rites of ,all ,nations4 ,washington4 #ahia4 ,bunsen1 ,christian ,charles ,josias4--,christianity and ,mankind2 ,their ,beginnings and ,prospects4 ,london4 #ahed4 #g vols4 ,god in ,history2 or1 ,the ,progress of ,man's ,faith in the ,moral ,order of the ,world4 ,london4 #ahfh4 #c vols4 ,castan1 ,l',abee ,em4--,les ,origines du ,christianisme d'apres la tradition catholique4 ,paris4 #ahfi4 #b vols4 ,les ,origines du ,christianisme d'apres la critique rationaliste contemporaine4 ,paris4 #ahfh4 ,chantepepie de la ,saussaye1 ,p4 ,d4--,the ,religion of the ,teutons4 ,boston4 #aijb4 ,cheetham1 ,s4--,the ,mysteries--,pagan and ,christian4 ,london4 #ahig4 ,christlieb1 ,theodore4--,modern ,doubt and ,christian ,belief4 ,new ,york4 #ahgd4 ,clodd1 ,edward4--,myths and ,dreams4 ,london4 #ahhe4 ,colenso1 ,john ,william4--,lectures on the ,pentateuch and ,moabite ,stone4 ,london4 #ahgc4 ,conway1 ,moncure ,daniel4--,idols and ,ideals1 with an essay on ,christianity4 ,new ,york4 #ahgg4 ,doane1 ,t4 ,w4--,bible ,myths and ,their ,parallels in ,other ,religions4 ,new ,york4 ,dorman1 ,rushton ,m4--,the ,origin of ,primitive ,superstitions1 etc4 ,philadelphia4 #ahha4 ,draper1 ,john ,william4--,history of the ,conflict between ,religion and ,science4 ,new ,york4 #ahha4 ,history of the ,intellectual ,development of ,europe4 ,new ,york4 #ahgh4 #b vols4 ,farrar1 ,j4 ,a4--,paganism and ,christianity4 ,london4 #ahia4 ,primitive ,manners and ,customs4 ,new ,york4 #ahgi4 ,figuier1 ,louis4--,histoire du ,merveilleux dans les temps modernes4 ,paris4 #ahhj4 #d vols4 ,fiske1 ,john4--,myths and ,myth-,makers4 ,boston4 #aija4 ,frazer1 ,j4 ,c4--,the ,golden ,bough4 ,london4 #ahij4 #b vols4 ,frothingham1 ,octavius ,brooks4--,the ,cradle of the ,christ4 ,new ,york4 #ahgg4 ,gibbon1 ,edward4--,the ,history of the ,decline and ,fall of the ,roman ,empire4 ,philadelphia4 #ahgf4 #f vols4 ,de ,gubernatis1 ,angelo4--,zoological ,mythology2 or1 ,the ,legends of ,animals4 ,london4 #ahgb4 #b vols4 ,hardwick1 ,charles4--,christ and ,other ,masters4 ,london4 #ahgd4 ,hargraves1 ,jennings4--,the ,rosicrucians4 ,their ,rites and ,mysteries4 ,london4 #ahgj4 #b vols4 ,harnack1 ,adolph4--,the ,expansion of ,christianity in the ,first ,three ,centuries4 ,translated by ,james ,moffatt4 ,new ,york4 #aijd4 #b vols4 ,herodotus4--,translation of ,g4 ,c4 ,macauley4 ,london4 #ahij4 #b vols4 ,hislop1 ,alexander4--,the ,two ,babylons2 or1 ,the ,papal ,worship1 etc4 ,edinburgh4 #ahfb4 ,hone1 ,william4--,ancient ,mysteries ,described1 etc4 ,london4 #ahbc4 ,hudson1 ,thompson ,jay4--,the ,law of ,psychic ,phenomena4 ,chicago4 #ahif4 ,inman1 ,thomas4--,ancient ,faiths and ,modern4 ,london4 #ahgf4 ,ancient ,pagan and ,modern ,christian ,symbolism4 ,london4 #ahfi4 ,jameson1 ,mrs4--,legends of the ,madonna4 ,london4 #aheb4 ,jevons1 ,frank ,byron4--,an ,introduction to the ,history of ,religion4 ,london4 #ahif4 ,lang1 ,andrew4--,custom and ,myth4 ,london4 #ahhd4 ,myth1 ,ritual1 and ,religion4 ,london4 #ahhg4 #b vols4 ,lecky1 ,william ,edward ,hartpole4--,history of ,european ,morals from ,augustus to ,charlemagne4 ,london4 #ahgg4 #b vols4 ,history of the ,rise and ,influence of the ,spirit of ,rationalism in ,europe4 ,new ,york4 #ahff4 #b vols4 ,kundy1 ,j4 ,p4--,monumental ,christianity4 ,london4 #ahhi4 ,macdonald1 ,james4--,religion and ,myth4 ,london4 #ahic4 ,middleton1 ,conyers4--,a ,letter from ,rome4 ,london4 #ahdg4 ,des ,mousseaux4--,les ,haunts ,phenomenes de la ,magie ,moeurs et ,pratiques des ,demons4 #aheb4 ,muller1 ,max4--,chips from a ,german ,workshop4 ,london4 #ahfg4 #b vols4 ,orr1 ,james4--,the ,virgin ,birth of ,christ4 ,new ,york4 #aijg4 ,picart1 ,bernard4--,the ,ceremonies and ,religious ,customs of the ,various ,nations of the ,known ,world1 etc4 ,london4 #agcc4 #g vols4 ,priestley1 ,joseph4--,an ,history of the ,corruptions of ,christianity4 ,birmingham4 #agic4 #b vols4 ,renan1 ,ernest4--,the ,life of ,jesus4 ,translated by ,c4 ,e4 ,wilboir4 ,new ,york4 #ahfe4 ,sharpe1 ,samuel4--,egyptian ,mythology and ,egyptian ,christianity4 ,london4 #ahfc4 ,smith1 ,w4 ,robertson4--,lectures on the ,religion of the ,semites4 ,edinburgh4 #ahhi4 ,strauss1 ,david ,friedrich4--,the ,life of ,jesus4 ,translated by ,george ,eliot4 ,london4 #ahib4 ,tuttle1 ,hudson4--,the ,career of the ,christ-,idea in ,history4 ,boston4 ,the ,career of the ,god-,idea in ,history4 ,boston4 ,,note #a ,the use of unleavened bread by the ,greek church caused great disputes between it and the ,latin in the eleventh century1 but the latter finally accepted it on the argument that as the ,christ instituted the supper during the passover1 he must have used it1 as there was no leaven procurable at that time4