,juliet ,sutherland1 ,charles ,franks and the ,online ,distributed ,proofreading ,team4 ,,the ,,truth ,,about ,,jesus ,,is ,,he ,a ,,myth8 ,,illustrated ,m4 ,m4 ,mangasarian ,illustration3 ,woman ,crucified4 ,in the ,church of ,st4 ,etienne1 ,france4 ,for a ,long ,time ,this ,bearded ,woman ,was ,supposed to be the ,christ ,if it is not historically true that such and such things happened in ,palestine eighteen centuries ago1 what becomes of ,christianity8 --,thomas ,huxley4 ,,contents ,,part ,i ,a ,,parable ,,in ,,confidence ,,is ,,jesus ,a ,,myth8 ,,the ,,problem ,,stated ,,the ,,christian ,,documents ,,virgin ,,births ,,the ,,origin ,,of ,,the ,,cross ,,silence ,,of ,,contemporary ,,writers ,,the ,,story ,,of ,,jesus ,a ,,religious ,,drama ,,the ,,jesus ,,of ,,paul ,,not ,,the ,,jesus ,,of ,,the ,,gospels ,,is ,,christianity ,,real8 ,,part ,,ii ,,is ,,the ,,world ,,indebted ,,to ,,christianity8 ,,paganism ,,and ,,christianity1 ,,or ,,christianity ,,not ,,suited ,,to ,,western ,,races ,,part ,,iii ,,some ,,modern ,,opinions ,,of ,,jesus ,a ,,rhetorical ,,jesus ,,we ,,owe ,,everything ,,to ,,jesus ,a ,,liberal ,,jew ,,praises ,,jesus ,,appendix--,,replies ,,to ,,clerical ,,critics ,by education most have been misled1 ,so they believe because they were so bred2 ,the priest continues what the nurse began1 ,and thus the child imposes on the man4 ,,dryden4 ,,preface ,the following work offers in book form the series of studies on the question of the historicity of ,jesus1 presented from time to time before the ,independent ,religious ,society in ,orchestra ,hall4 ,no effort has been made to change the manner of the spoken1 into the more regular form of the written1 word4 ,m4 ,m4 ,,mangasarian4 ,,orchestra ,,hall ,,chicago ,illustration3 ,picture in ,herculaneum1 of the ,days of ,pompeii1 ,showing ,cupid ,crowned with a ,cross4 ,,part ,i4 ,a ,,parable ,i am today twenty-five hundred years old4 ,i have been dead for nearly as many years4 ,my place of birth was ,athens2 my grave was not far from those of ,xenophon and ,plato1 within view of the white glory of ,athens and the shimmering waters of the ,aegean sea4 ,after sleeping in my grave for many centuries ,i awoke suddenly--,i cannot tell how nor why--and was transported by a force beyond my control to this new day and this new city4 ,i arrived here at daybreak1 when the sky was still dull and drowsy4 ,as ,i approached the city ,i heard bells ringing1 and a little later ,i found the streets astir with throngs of well dressed people in family groups wending their way hither and thither4 ,evidently they were not going to work1 for they were accompanied by their children in their best clothes1 and a pleasant expression was upon their faces4 ,this must be a day of festival and worship1 devoted to one of their gods1 ,i murmured to myself4 ,looking about me ,i saw a gentleman in a neat black dress1 smiling1 and his hand extended to me with great cordiality4 ,he must have realized ,i was a stranger and wished to tender his hospitality to me4 ,i accepted it gratefully4 ,i clasped his hand4 ,he pressed mine4 ,we gazed for a moment silently into each other's eyes4 ,he understood my bewilderment amid my novel surroundings1 and offered to enlighten me4 ,he explained to me the ringing of the bells and the meaning of the holiday crowds moving in the streets4 ,it was ,sunday--,sunday before ,christmas1 and the people were going to the ,house of ,god4 ,of course you are going there1 too1 ,i said to my friendly guide4 ,yes1 he answered1 ,i conduct the worship4 ,i am a priest4 ,a priest of ,apollo8 ,i interrogated4 ,no1 no1 he replied1 raising his hand to command silence1 ,apollo is not a god2 he was only an idol4 ,an idol8 ,i whispered1 taken by surprise4 ,i perceive you are a ,greek1 he said to me1 and the ,greeks1 he continued1 notwithstanding their distinguished accomplishments1 were an idolatrous people4 ,they worshipped gods that did not exist4 ,they built temples to divinities which were merely empty names--empty names1 he repeated4 ,apollo and ,athene--and the entire ,olympian lot were no more than inventions of the fancy4 ,but the ,greeks loved their gods1 ,i protested1 my heart clamoring in my breast4 ,they were not gods1 they were idols1 and the difference between a god and an idol is this3 an idol is a thing2 ,god is a living being4 ,when you cannot prove the existence of your god1 when you have never seen him1 nor heard his voice1 nor touched him--when you have nothing provable about him1 he is an idol4 ,have you seen ,apollo8 ,have you heard him8 ,have you touched him8 ,no1 ,i said1 in a low voice4 ,do you know of any one who has8 ,i had to admit that ,i did not4 ,he was an idol1 then1 and not a god4 ,but many of us ,greeks1 ,i said1 have felt ,apollo in our hearts and have been inspired by him4 ,you imagine you have1 returned my guide4 ,if he were really divine he would be living to this day4 ,is he1 then1 dead8 ,i asked4 ,he never lived2 and for the last two thousand years or more his temple has been a heap of ruins4 ,i wept to hear that ,apollo1 the god of light and music1 was no more--that his fair temple had fallen into ruins and the fire upon his altar had been extinguished2 then1 wiping a tear from my eyes1 ,i said1 ,oh1 but our gods were fair and beautiful2 our religion was rich and picturesque4 ,it made the ,greeks a nation of poets1 orators1 artists1 warriors1 thinkers4 ,it made ,athens a city of light2 it created the beautiful1 the true1 the good--yes1 our religion was divine4 ,it had only one fault1 interrupted my guide4 ,what was that8 ,i inquired1 without knowing what his answer would be4 ,it was not true4 ,but ,i still believe in ,apollo1 ,i exclaimed2 he is not dead1 ,i know he is alive4 ,prove it1 he said to me2 then1 pausing for a moment1 if you produce him1 he said1 we shall all fall down and worship him4 ,produce ,apollo and he shall be our god4 ,produce him6 ,i whispered to myself4 ,what blasphemy6 ,then1 taking heart1 ,i told my guide how more than once ,i had felt ,apollo's radiant presence in my heart1 and told him of the immortal lines of ,homer concerning the divine ,apollo4 ,do you doubt ,homer8 ,i said to him2 ,homer1 the inspired bard8 ,homer1 whose inkwell was as big as the sea2 whose imperishable page was ,time8 ,homer1 whose every word was a drop of light8 ,then ,i proceeded to quote from ,homer's ,iliad1 the ,greek ,bible1 worshipped by all the ,hellenes as the rarest ,manuscript between heaven and earth4 ,i quoted his description of ,apollo1 than whose lyre nothing is more musical1 than whose speech even honey is not sweeter4 ,i recited how his mother went from town to town to select a worthy place to give birth to the young god1 son of ,zeus1 the ,supreme ,being1 and how he was born and cradled amid the ministrations of all the goddesses1 who bathed him in the running stream and fed him with nectar and ambrosia from ,olympus4 ,then ,i recited the lines which picture ,apollo bursting his bands1 leaping forth from his cradle1 and spreading his wings like a swan1 soaring sunward1 declaring that he had come to announce to mortals the will of ,god4 ,is it possible1 ,i asked1 that all this is pure fabrication1 a fantasy of the brain1 as unsubstantial as the air8 ,no1 no1 ,apollo is not an idol4 ,he is a god1 and the son of a god4 ,the whole ,greek world will bear me witness that ,i am telling the truth4 ,then ,i looked at my guide to see what impression this outburst of sincere enthusiasm had produced upon him1 and ,i saw a cold smile upon his lips that cut me to the heart4 ,it seemed as if he wished to say to me1 ,you poor deluded pagan6 ,you are not intelligent enough to know that ,homer was only a mortal after all1 and that he was writing a play in which he manufactured the gods of whom he sang--that these gods existed only in his imagination1 and that today they are as dead as is their inventor--the poet4 ,by this time we stood at the entrance of a large edifice which my guide said was the ,house of ,god4 ,as we walked in ,i saw innumerable little lights blinking and winking all over the spacious interior4 ,there were1 besides1 pictures1 altars and images all around me4 ,the air was heavy with incense2 a number of men in gorgeous vestments were passing to and fro1 bowing and kneeling before the various lights and images4 ,the audience was upon its knees enveloped in silence--a silence so solemn that it awed me4 ,observing my anxiety to understand the meaning of all this1 my guide took me aside and in a whisper told me that the people were celebrating the anniversary of the birthday of their beautiful ,savior--,jesus1 the ,son of ,god4 ,so was ,apollo the son of ,god1 ,i replied1 thinking perhaps that after all we might find ourselves in agreement with one another4 ,forget ,apollo1 he said1 with a suggestion of severity in his voice4 ,there is no such person4 ,he was only an idol4 ,if you were to search for ,apollo in all the universe you would never find any one answering to his name or description4 ,jesus1 he resumed1 is the ,son of ,god4 ,he came to our earth and was born of a virgin4 ,again ,i was tempted to tell my guide that that was how ,apollo became incarnate2 but ,i restrained myself4 ,then ,jesus grew up to be a man1 continued my guide1 performing unheard-of wonders1 such as treading the seas1 giving sight1 hearing and speech to the blind1 the deaf and the dumb1 converting water into wine1 feeding the multitudes miraculously1 predicting coming events and resurrecting the dead4 ,of course1 of your gods1 too1 he added1 it is claimed that they performed miracles1 and of your oracles that they foretold the future1 but there is this difference--the things related of your gods are a fiction1 the things told of ,jesus are a fact1 and the difference between ,paganism and ,christianity is the difference between fiction and fact4 ,just then ,i heard a wave of murmur1 like the rustling of leaves in a forest1 sweep over the bowed audience4 ,i turned about and unconsciously1 my ,greek curiosity impelling me1 ,i pushed forward toward where the greater candle lights were blazing4 ,i felt that perhaps the commotion in the house was the announcement that the ,god ,jesus was about to make his appearance1 and ,i wanted to see him4 ,i wanted to touch him1 or1 if the crowd were too large to allow me that privilege1 ,i wanted1 at least1 to hear his voice4 ,i1 who had never seen a god1 never touched one1 never heard one speak1 ,i who had believed in ,apollo without ever having known anything provable about him1 ,i wanted to see the real ,god1 ,jesus4 ,but my guide placed his hand quickly upon my shoulder1 and held me back4 ,i want to see ,jesus1 ,i hastened1 turning toward him4 ,i said this reverently and in good faith4 ,will he not be here this morning8 ,will he not speak to his worshippers8 ,i asked again4 ,will he not permit them to touch him1 to caress his hand1 to clasp his divine feet1 to inhale the ambrosial fragrance of his breath1 to bask in the golden light of his eyes1 to hear the music of his immaculate accents8 ,let me1 too1 see ,jesus1 ,i pleaded4 ,you cannot see him1 answered my guide1 with a trace of embarrassment in his voice4 ,he does not show himself any more4 ,i was too much surprised at this to make any immediate reply4 ,for the last two thousand years1 my guide continued1 it has not pleased ,jesus to show himself to any one2 neither has he been heard from for the same number of years4 ,for two thousand years no one has either seen or heard ,jesus8 ,i asked1 my eyes filled with wonder and my voice quivering with excitement4 ,no1 he answered4 ,would not that1 then1 ,i ventured to ask1 impatiently1 make ,jesus as much of an idol as ,apollo8 ,and are not these people on their knees before a god of whose existence they are as much in the dark as were the ,greeks of fair ,apollo1 and of whose past they have only rumors such as ,homer reports of our ,olympian gods--as idolatrous as the ,athenians8 ,what would you say1 ,i asked my guide1 if ,i were to demand that you should produce ,jesus and prove him to my eyes and ears as you have asked me to produce and prove ,apollo8 ,what is the difference between a ceremony performed in honor of ,apollo and one performed in honor of ,jesus1 since it is as impossible to give oracular demonstration of the existence of the one as of the other8 ,if ,jesus is alive and a god1 and ,apollo is an idol and dead1 what is the evidence1 since the one is as invisible1 as inaccessible1 and as unproducible as the other8 ,and1 if faith that ,jesus is a god proves him a god1 why will not faith in ,apollo make him a god8 ,but if worshipping ,jesus1 whom for the best part of the last two thousand years no man has seen1 heard or touched2 if building temples to him1 burning incense upon his altars1 bowing at his shrine and calling him ,god1 is not idolatry1 neither is it idolatry to kindle fire upon the luminous altars of the ,greek ,apollo1--,god of the dawn1 master of the enchanted lyre--he with the bow and arrow tipped with fire6 ,i am not denying1 ,i said1 that ,jesus ever lived4 ,he may have been alive two thousand years ago1 but if he has not been heard from since1 if the same thing that happened to the people living at the time he lived has happened to him1 namely--if he is dead1 then you are worshipping the dead1 which fact stamps your religion as idolatrous4 ,and1 then1 remembering what he had said to me about the ,greek mythology being beautiful but not true1 ,i said to him3 ,your temples are indeed gorgeous and costly2 your music is grand2 your altars are superb2 your litany is exquisite2 your chants are melting2 your incense1 and bells and flowers1 your gold and silver vessels are all in rare taste1 and ,i dare say your dogmas are subtle and your preachers eloquent1 but your religion has one fault--it is not true4 ,illustration3 ,swastika4 ,earlier ,form of the ,cross4 ,illustration3 ,the ,lamb in the ,holy ,sepulchre1 ,mosaic of the ,,iv ,century1 ,sarcophagus of ,luc de ,bearn4 ,showing the ,lamb on the ,cross4 ,,in ,,confidence ,i shall speak in a straightforward way1 and shall say today what perhaps ,i should say tomorrow1 or ten years from now1--but shall say it today1 because ,i cannot keep it back1 because ,i have nothing better to say than the truth1 or what ,i hold to be the truth4 ,but why seek truths that are not pleasant8 ,we cannot help it4 ,no man can suppress the truth4 ,truth finds a crack or crevice to crop out of2 it bobs up to the surface and all the volume and weight of waters can not keep it down4 ,truth prevails6 ,life1 death1 truth--behold1 these three no power can keep back4 ,and since we are doomed to know the truth1 let us cultivate a love for it4 ,it is of no avail to cry over lost illusions1 to long for vanished dreams1 or to call to the departing gods to come back4 ,it may be pleasant to play with toys and dolls all our life1 but evidently we are not meant to remain children always4 ,the time comes when we must put away childish things and obey the summons of truth1 stern and high4 ,a people who fear the truth can never he a free people4 ,if what ,i will say is the truth1 do you know of any good reason why ,i should not say it8 ,and if for prudential reasons ,i should sometimes hold back the truth1 how would you know when ,i am telling what ,i believe to be the truth1 and when ,i am holding it back for reasons of policy8 ,the truth1 however unwelcome1 is not injurious2 it is error which raises false hopes1 which destroys1 degrades and pollutes1 and which1 sooner or later1 must be abandoned4 ,was it not ,spencer1 whom ,darwin called our great philosopher1 who said1 ,repulsive as is its aspect1 the hard fact which dissipates a cherished illusion is presently found to contain the germ of a more salutary belief8 ,spain is decaying today because her teachers1 for policy's sake1 are withholding the disagreeable truth from the people4 ,holy water and sainted bones can give a nation illusions and dreams1 but never1--strength4 ,a difficult subject is in the nature of a challenge to the mind4 ,one difficult task attempted is worth a thousand commonplace efforts completed4 ,the majority of people avoid the difficult and fear danger4 ,but he who would progress must even court danger4 ,political and religious liberty were discovered through peril and struggle4 ,the world owes its emancipation to human daring4 ,had ,columbus feared danger1 ,america might have slept for another thousand years4 ,i have a difficult subject in hand4 ,it is also a delicate one4 ,but ,i am determined not only to know1 if it is possible1 the whole truth about ,jesus1 but also to communicate that truth to others4 ,some people can keep their minds shut4 ,i cannot2 ,i must share my intellectual life with the world4 ,if ,i lived a thousand years ago1 ,i might have collapsed at the sight of the burning stake1 but ,i feel sure ,i would have deserved the stake4 ,people say to me1 sometimes1 ,why do you not confine yourself to moral and religious exhortation1 such as1 ',be kind1 do good1 love one another1 etc4'8 ,but there is more of a moral tonic in the open and candid discussion of a subject like the one in hand1 than in a multitude of platitudes4 ,we feel our moral fiber stiffen into force and purpose under the inspiration of a peril dared for the advancement of truth4 ,tell us what you believe1 is one of the requests frequently addressed to me4 ,i never deliver a lecture in which ,i do not1 either directly or indirectly1 give full and free expression to my faith in everything that is worthy of faith4 ,if ,i do not believe in dogma1 it is because ,i believe in freedom4 ,if ,i do not believe in one inspired book1 it is because ,i believe that all truth and only truth is inspired4 ,if ,i do not ask the gods to help us1 it is because ,i believe in human help1 so much more real than supernatural help4 ,if ,i do not believe in standing still1 it is because ,i believe in progress4 ,if ,i am not attracted by the vision of a distant heaven1 it is because ,i believe in human happiness1 now and here4 ,if ,i do not say ,lord1 ,lord6 to ,jesus1 it is because ,i bow my head to a greater ,power than ,jesus1 to a more efficient ,savior than he has ever been--,science6 ,oh1 he tears down1 but does not build up1 is another criticism about my work4 ,it is not true4 ,no preacher or priest is more constructive4 ,to build up their churches and maintain their creeds the priests pulled down and destroyed the magnificent civilization of ,greece and ,rome1 plunging ,europe into the dark and sterile ages which lasted over a thousand years4 ,when ,galileo waved his hands for joy because he believed he had enriched humanity with a new truth and extended the sphere of knowledge1 what did the church do to him8 ,it conspired to destroy him4 ,it shut him up in a dungeon6 ,clapping truth into jail2 gagging the mouth of the student--is that building up or tearing down8 ,when ,bruno lighted a new torch to increase the light of the world1 what was his reward8 ,the stake6 ,during all the ages that the church had the power to police the world1 every time a thinker raised his head he was clubbed to death4 ,do you think it is kind of us--does it square with our sense of justice to call the priest constructive1 and the scientists and philosophers who have helped people to their feet--helped them to self-government in politics1 and to self-help in life1--destructive8 ,count your rights--political1 religious1 social1 intellectual--and tell me which of them was conquered for you by the priest4 ,he is irreverent1 is still another hasty criticism ,i have heard advanced against the rationalist4 ,i wish to tell you something4 ,but first let us be impersonal4 ,the epithets irreverent1 blasphemer1 atheist1 and infidel1 are flung at a man1 not from pity1 but from envy4 ,not having the courage or the industry of our neighbor who works like a busy bee in the world of men and books1 searching with the sweat of his brow for the real bread of life1 wetting the open page before him with his tears1 pushing into the wee hours of the night his quest1 animated by the fairest of all loves1 the love of truth1--we ease our own indolent conscience by calling him names4 ,we pretend that it is not because we are too lazy or too selfish to work as hard or think as freely as he does1 but because we do not want to be as irreverent as he is that we keep the windows of our minds shut4 ,to excuse our own mediocrity we call the man who tries to get out of the rut a blasphemer4 ,and so we ask the world to praise our indifference as a great virtue1 and to denounce the conscientious toil and thought of another1 as blasphemy4 ,illustration3 ,the ,lamb ,standing ,upon the ,gospels4 ,,viii ,century4 ,,is ,,jesus ,a ,,myth8 ,what is a myth8 ,a myth is a fanciful explanation of a given phenomenon4 ,observing the sun1 the moon1 and the stars overhead1 the primitive man wished to account for them4 ,this was natural4 ,the mind craves for knowledge4 ,the child asks questions because of an inborn desire to know4 ,man feels ill at ease with a sense of a mental vacuum1 until his questions are answered4 ,before the days of science1 a fanciful answer was all that could be given to man's questions about the physical world4 ,the primitive man guessed where knowledge failed him--what else could he do8 ,a myth1 then1 is a guess1 a story1 a speculation1 or a fanciful explanation of a phenomenon1 in the absence of accurate information4 ,many are the myths about the heavenly bodies1 which1 while we call them myths1 because we know better1 were to the ancients truths4 ,the ,sun and ,moon were once brother and sister1 thought the child-man2 but there arose a dispute between them2 the woman ran away1 and the man ran after her1 until they came to the end of the earth where land and sky met4 ,the woman jumped into the sky1 and the man after her1 where they kept chasing each other forever1 as ,sun and ,moon4 ,now and then they came close enough to snap at each other4 ,that was their explanation of an eclipse4 7,childhood of the ,world4--,edward ,clodd47 ,with this mythus1 the primitive man was satisfied1 until his developing intelligence realized its inadequacy4 ,science was born of that realization4 ,during the middle ages it was believed by ,europeans that in certain parts of the world1 in ,india1 for instance1 there were people who had only one eye in the middle of their foreheads1 and were more like monsters than humans4 ,this was imaginary knowledge1 which travel and research have corrected4 ,the myth of a one-eyed people living in ,india has been replaced by accurate information concerning the ,hindoos4 ,likewise1 before the science of ancient languages was perfected--before archaeology had dug up buried cities and deciphered the hieroglyphics on the monuments of antiquity1 most of our knowledge concerning the earlier ages was mythical1 that is to say1 it was knowledge not based on investigation1 but made to order4 ,just as the theologians still speculate about the other world1 primitive man speculated about this world4 ,even we moderns1 not very long ago1 believed1 for instance1 that the land of ,egypt was visited by ten fantastic plagues2 that in one bloody night every first born in the land was slain2 that the angel of a tribal-god dipped his hand in blood and printed a red mark upon the doors of the houses of the ,jews to protect them from harm2 that ,pharaoh and his armies were drowned in the ,red ,sea2 that the children of ,israel wandered for forty years around ,mount ,sinai2 and so forth1 and so forth4 ,but now that we can read the inscriptions on the stone pages dug out of ancient ruins2 now that we can compel a buried world to reveal its secret and to tell us its story1 we do not have to go on making myths about the ancients4 ,myths die when history is born4 ,it will be seen from these examples that there is no harm in myth- making if the myth is called a myth4 ,it is when we use our fanciful knowledge to deny or to shut out real and scientific knowledge that the myth becomes a stumbling block4 ,and this is precisely the use to which myths have been put4 ,the king with his sword and the priest with his curses1 have supported the myth against science4 ,when a man pretends to believe that the ,santa ,claus of his childhood is real1 and tries to compel also others to play a part1 he becomes positively immoral4 ,there is no harm in believing in ,santa ,claus as a myth1 but there is in pretending that he is real1 because such an attitude of mind makes a mere trifle of truth4 ,is ,jesus a myth8 ,there is in man a faculty for fiction4 ,before history was born1 there was myth2 before men could think1 they dreamed4 ,it was with the human race in its infancy as it is with the child4 ,the child's imagination is more active than its reason4 ,it is easier for it to fancy even than to see4 ,it thinks less than it guesses4 ,this wild flight of fancy is checked only by experience4 ,it is reflection which introduces a bit into the mouth of imagination1 curbing its pace and subduing its restless spirit4 ,it is1 then1 as we grow older1 and1 if ,i may use the word1 riper1 that we learn to distinguish between fact and fiction1 between history and myth4 ,in childhood we need playthings1 and the more fantastic and bizarre they are1 the better we are pleased with them4 ,we dream1 for instance1 of castles in the air--gorgeous and clothed with the azure hue of the skies4 ,we fill the space about and over us with spirits1 fairies1 gods1 and other invisible and airy beings4 ,we covet the rainbow4 ,we reach out for the moon4 ,our feet do not really begin to touch the firm ground until we have reached the years of discretion4 ,i know there are those who wish they could always remain children1--living in dreamland4 ,but even if this were desirable1 it is not possible4 ,evolution is our destiny2 of what use is it1 then1 to take up arms against destiny8 ,let it be borne in mind that all the religions of the world were born in the childhood of the race4 ,science was not born until man had matured4 ,there is in this thought a world of meaning4 ,children make religions4 ,grown up people create science4 ,the cradle is the womb of all the fairies and faiths of mankind4 ,the school is the birthplace of science4 ,religion is the science of the child4 ,science is the religion of the matured man4 ,in the discussion of this subject1 ,i appeal to the mature1 not to the child mind4 ,i appeal to those who have cultivated a taste for truth--who are not easily scared1 but who can screw their courage to the sticking point and follow to the end truth's leading4 ,the multitude is ever joined to its idols2 let them alone4 ,i speak to the discerning few4 ,there is an important difference between a lecturer and an ordained preacher4 ,the latter can command a hearing in the name of ,god1 or in the name of the ,bible4 ,he does not have to satisfy his hearers about the reasonableness of what he preaches4 ,he is ,god's mouthpiece1 and no one may disagree with him4 ,he can also invoke the authority of the church and of the ,christian world to enforce acceptance of his teaching4 ,the only way ,i may command your respect is to be reasonable4 ,you will not listen to me for ,god's sake1 nor for the ,bible's sake1 nor yet for the love of heaven1 or the fear of hell4 ,my only protection is to be rational--to be truthful4 ,in other words1 the preacher can afford to ignore common sense in the name of ,revelation4 ,but if ,i depart from it in the least1 or am caught once playing fast and loose with the facts1 ,i will irretrievably lose my standing4 ,illustration3 ,in ,use ,upon ,heathen ,altars ,centuries ,before ,christianity4 ,our answer to the question1 ,is ,jesus a ,myth8 must depend more or less upon original research1 as there is very little written on the subject4 ,the majority of writers assume that a person answering to the description of ,jesus lived some two thousand years ago4 ,even the few who entertain doubts on the subject1 seem to hold that while there is a large mythical element in the ,jesus story1 nevertheless there is a historical nucleus round which has clustered the elaborate legend of the ,christ4 ,in all probability1 they argue1 there was a man called ,jesus1 who said many helpful things1 and led an exemplary life1 and all the miracles and wonders represent the accretions of fond and pious ages4 ,let us place ourselves entirely in the hands of the evidence4 ,as far as possible1 let us be passive1 showing no predisposition one way or another4 ,we can afford to be independent4 ,if the evidence proves the historicity of ,jesus1 well and good2 if the evidence is not sufficient to prove it1 there is no reason why we should fear to say so2 besides1 it is our duty to inform ourselves on this question4 ,as intelligent beings we desire to know whether this ,jesus1 whose worship is not only costing the world millions of the people's money1 but which is also drawing to his service the time1 the energies1 the affection1 the devotion1 and the labor of humanity1--is a myth1 or a reality4 ,we believe that all religious persecutions1 all sectarian wars1 hatreds and intolerance1 which still cramp and embitter our humanity1 would be replaced by love and brotherhood1 if the sects could be made to see that the ,god-,jesus they are quarreling over is a myth1 a shadow to which credulity alone gives substance4 ,like people who have been fighting in the dark1 fearing some danger1 the sects1 once relieved of the thraldom of a tradition which has been handed down to them by a childish age and country1 will turn around and embrace one another4 ,in every sense1 the subject is an all-absorbing one4 ,it goes to the root of things2 it touches the vital parts1 and it means life or death to the ,christian religion4 ,illustration3 ,ascension of ,jesus1 ,ninth ,century4 ,illustration3 ,juno ,nursing ,her ,divine ,child1 ,mars4 ,,the ,,problem ,,stated ,let me now give an idea of the method ,i propose to follow in the study of this subject4 ,let us suppose that a student living in the year #cjjj desired to make sure that such a man as ,abraham ,lincoln really lived and did the things attributed to him4 ,how would he go about it8 ,a man must have a birthplace and a birthday4 ,all the records agree as to where and when ,lincoln was born4 ,this is not enough to prove his historicity1 but it is an important link in the chain4 ,neither the place nor the time of ,jesus' birth is known4 ,there has never been any unanimity about this matter4 ,there has been considerable confusion and contradiction about it4 ,it cannot be proved that the twenty-fifth of ,december is his birthday4 ,a number of other dates were observed by the ,christian church at various times as the birthday of ,jesus4 ,the ,gospels give no date1 and appear to be quite uncertain--really ignorant about it4 ,when it is remembered that the ,gospels purport to have been written by ,jesus' intimate companions1 and during the lifetime of his brothers and mother1 their silence on this matter becomes significant4 ,the selection of the twenty-fifth of ,december as his birthday is not only an arbitrary one1 but that date1 having been from time immemorial dedicated to the ,sun1 the inference is that the ,son of ,god and the ,sun of heaven enjoying the same birthday1 were at one time identical beings4 ,the fact that ,jesus' death was accompanied with the darkening of the ,sun1 and that the date of his resurrection is also associated with the position of the ,sun at the time of the vernal equinox1 is a further intimation that we have in the story of the birth1 death1 and resurrection of ,jesus1 an ancient and nearly universal ,sun-myth1 instead of verifiable historical events4 ,the story of ,jesus for three days in the heart of the earth2 of ,jonah1 three days in the belly of a fish2 of ,hercules1 three days in the belly of a whale1 and of ,little ,red ,riding ,hood1 sleeping in the belly of a great black wolf1 represent the attempt of primitive man to explain the phenomenon of ,day and ,night4 ,the ,sun is swallowed by a dragon1 a wolf1 or a whale1 which plunges the world into darkness2 but the dragon is killed1 and the ,sun rises triumphant to make another ,day4 ,this ancient ,sun myth is the starting point of nearly all miraculous religions1 from the days of ,egypt to the twentieth century4 ,illustration3 ,the ,persian ,god1 ,mithra4 ,all the ,gods ,have the ,solar ,disc ,around ,their ,heads1 ,showing ,that ,sun-,worship ,was ,one of the ,earliest ,forms of ,religion4 ,the story which ,mathew relates about a remarkable star1 which sailing in the air pointed out to some unnamed magicians the cradle or cave in which the wonder-child was born1 helps further to identify ,jesus with the ,sun4 ,what became of this performing star1 or of the magicians1 and their costly gifts1 the records do not say4 ,it is more likely that it was the astrological predilections of the gospel writer which led him to assign to his ,god-child a star in the heavens4 ,the belief that the stars determine human destinies is a very ancient one4 ,such expressions in our language as ill-starred1 a lucky star1 disaster1 lunacy1 and so on1 indicate the hold which astrology once enjoyed upon the human mind4 ,we still call a melancholy man1 ,saturnine2 a cheerful man1 ,jovial2 a quick-tempered man1 ,mercurial2 showing how closely our ancestors associated the movements of celestial bodies with human affairs4 ,footnote3 ,childhood of the ,world4--,edward ,clodd4 ,the prominence1 therefore1 of the sun and stars in the ,gospel story tends to show that ,jesus is an astrological rather than a historical character4 ,that the time of his birth1 his death1 and supposed resurrection is not verifiable is generally admitted4 ,this uncertainty robs the story of ,jesus1 to an extent at least1 of the atmosphere of reality4 ,the twenty-fifth of ,december is celebrated as his birthday4 ,yet there is no evidence that he was born on that day4 ,although the ,gospels are silent as to the date on which ,jesus was born1 there is circumstantial evidence in the accounts given of the event to show that the twenty- fifth of ,december could not have been his birthday4 ,it snows in ,palestine1 though a warmer country1 and we know that in ,december there are no shepherds tending their flocks in the night time in that country4 ,often at this time of the year the fields and hills are covered with snow4 ,hence1 if the shepherds sleeping in the fields really saw the heavens open and heard the angel-song1 in all probability it was in some other month of the year1 and not late in ,december4 ,we know1 also1 that early in the history of ,christianity the months of ,may and ,june enjoyed the honor of containing the day of ,jesus' birth4 ,illustration3 ,isis ,nursing ,her ,divine ,child1 #cjjj ,b4 ,c4 ,of course1 it is immaterial on which day ,jesus was born1 but why is it not known8 ,yet not only is the date of his birth a matter of conjecture1 but also the year in which he was born4 ,matthew1 one of the ,evangelists1 suggests that ,jesus was born in ,king ,herod's time1 for it was this king who1 hearing from the ,magi that a ,king of the ,jews was born1 decided to destroy him2 but ,luke1 another ,evangelist1 intimates that ,jesus was born when ,quirinus was ruler of ,judea1 which makes the date of ,jesus' birth about fourteen years later than the date given by ,matthew4 ,why this discrepancy in a historical document1 to say nothing about inspiration8 ,the theologian might say that this little difficulty was introduced purposely into the scriptures to establish its infallibility1 but it is only religious books that are pronounced infallible on the strength of the contradictions they contain4 ,again1 ,matthew says that to escape the evil designs of ,herod1 ,mary and ,joseph1 with the infant ,jesus1 fled into ,egypt1 ,luke says nothing about this hurried flight1 nor of ,herod's intention to kill the infant ,messiah4 ,on the contrary he tells us that after the forty days of purification were over ,jesus was publicly presented at the temple1 where ,herod1 if he really1 as ,matthew relates1 wished to seize him1 could have done so without difficulty4 ,it is impossible to reconcile the flight to ,egypt with the presentation in the temple1 and this inconsistency is certainly insurmountable and makes it look as if the narrative had no value whatever as history4 ,when we come to the more important chapters about ,jesus1 we meet with greater difficulties4 ,have you ever noticed that the day on which ,jesus is supposed to have died falls invariably on a ,friday8 ,what is the reason for this8 ,it is evident that nobody knows1 and nobody ever knew the date on which the ,crucifixion took place1 if it ever took place4 ,it is so obscure and so mythical that an artificial day has been fixed by the ,ecclesiastical councils4 ,while it is always on a ,friday that the ,crucifixion is commemorated1 the week in which the day occurs varies from year to year4 ,good ,friday falls not before the spring equinox1 but as soon after the spring equinox as the full moon allows1 thus making the calculation to depend upon the position of the sun in the ,zodiac and the phases of the moon4 ,but that was precisely the way the day for the festival of the pagan goddess ,oestera was determined4 ,the ,pagan ,oestera has become the ,christian ,easter4 ,does not this fact1 as well as those already touched upon1 make the story of ,jesus to read very much like the stories of the ,pagan deities4 ,the early ,christians1 ,origin1 for instance1 in his reply to the rationalist ,celsus who questioned the reality of ,jesus1 instead of producing evidence of a historical nature1 appealed to the mythology of the pagans to prove that the story of ,jesus was no more incredible than those of the ,greek and ,roman gods4 ,this is so important that we refer our readers to ,origin's own words on the subject4 ,before replying to ,celsus1 it is necessary to admit that in the matter of history1 however true it might be1 writes this ,christian ,father1 it is often very difficult and sometimes quite impossible to establish its truth by evidence which shall be considered sufficient4 ,footnote3 ,origin ,contre ,celse4 #a4 #eh et ,suiv4 ,ibid4 ,this is a plain admission that as early as the second and third centuries the claims put forth about ,jesus did not admit of positive historical demonstration4 ,but in the absence of evidence ,origin offers the following metaphysical arguments against the sceptical ,celsus3 #a4 ,such stories as are told of ,jesus are admitted to be true when told of pagan divinities1 why can they not also be true when told of the ,christian ,messiah8 #b4 ,they must be true because they are the fulfillment of ,old ,testament prophecies4 ,in other words1 the only proofs ,origin can bring forth against the rationalistic criticism of ,celsus is1 that to deny ,jesus would be equivalent to denying both the ,pagan and ,jewish mythologies4 ,if ,jesus is not real1 says ,origin1 then ,apollo was not real1 and the ,old ,testament prophecies have not been fulfilled4 ,if we are to have any mythology at all1 he seems to argue1 why object to adding to it the mythus of ,jesus8 ,there could not be a more damaging admission than this from one of the most conspicuous defenders of ,jesus' story against early criticism4 ,justin ,martyr1 another early ,father1 offers the following argument against unbelievers in the ,christian legend3 ,when we say also that the ,word1 which is the first birth of ,god1 was produced without sexual union1 and that he1 ,jesus ,christ1 our teacher1 was crucified1 died1 and rose again1 and ascended into heaven1 we propound nothing different from what you believe regarding those whom you esteem sons of ,jupiter4 ,footnote3 ,first ,apology1 ,chapter xxi 7,anti-,nicene ,library74 ,which is another way of saying that the ,christian mythus is very similar to the pagan1 and should therefore be equally true4 ,pressing his argument further1 this interesting ,father discovers many resemblances between what he himself is preaching and what the pagans have always believed3 ,for you know how many sons your esteemed writers ascribe to ,jupiter4 ,mercury1 the interpreting word 7he spells this word with a small w while in the above quotation he uses a capital w to denote the ,christian incarnation7 and teacher of all2 ,aesculapius444who ascended to heaven2 one ,hercules444and ,perseus2444and ,bellerophon1 who1 though sprung from mortals1 rose to heaven on the horses of ,pegasus4 ,footnote3 ,ibid4 ,if ,jupiter can have1 ,justin ,martyr seems to reason1 half a dozen divine sons1 why cannot ,jehovah have at least one8 ,illustration3 ,the ,unsexed ,christ1 ,naked ,in the ,church of ,st4 ,antoine1 ,tours1 ,france4 ,instead of producing historical evidence or appealing to creditable documents1 as one would to prove the existence of a ,caesar or an ,alexander1 ,justin ,martyr draws upon pagan mythology in his reply to the critics of ,christianity4 ,all he seems to ask for is that ,jesus be given a higher place among the divinities of the ancient world4 ,to help their cause the ,christian apologists not infrequently also changed the sense of certain ,old ,testament passages to make them support the miraculous stories in the ,new ,testament4 ,for example1 having borrowed from ,oriental books the story of the god in a manger1 surrounded by staring animals1 the ,christian fathers introduced a prediction of this event into the following text from the book of ,habakkuk in the ,bible3 ,accomplish thy work in the midst of the years1 in the midst of the years make known1 etc4 ,footnote3 ,hab4 iii4 #b4 ,this ,old ,testament text appeared in the ,greek translation as follows3 ,thou shalt manifest thyself in the midst of two animals which was fulfilled of course when ,jesus was born in a stable4 ,how weak must be one's case to resort to such tactics in order to command a following6 ,and when it is remembered that these follies were deemed necessary to prove the reality of what has been claimed as the most stupendous event in all history1 one can readily see upon how fragile a foundation is built the story of the ,christian ,god-man4 ,let us continue3 ,abraham ,lincoln's associates and contemporaries are all known to history4 ,the immediate companions of ,jesus appear to be1 on the other hand1 as mythical as he is himself4 ,who was ,matthew8 ,who was ,mark8 ,who were ,john1 ,peter1 ,judas1 and ,mary8 ,there is absolutely no evidence that they ever existed4 ,they are not mentioned except in the ,new ,testament books1 which1 as we shall see1 are supposed copies of supposed originals4 ,if ,peter ever went to ,rome with a new doctrine1 how is it that no historian has taken note of him8 ,if ,paul visited ,athens and preached from ,mars ,hill1 how is it that there is no mention of him or of his strange ,gospel in the ,athenian chronicles8 ,for all we know1 both ,peter and ,paul may have really existed1 but it is only a guess1 as we have no means of ascertaining4 ,the uncertainty about the apostles of ,jesus is quite in keeping with the uncertainty about ,jesus himself4 ,the report that ,jesus had twelve apostles seems also mythical4 ,the number twelve1 like the number seven1 or three1 or forty1 plays an important role in all ,sun-myths1 and points to the twelve signs of the ,zodiac4 ,jacob had twelve sons2 there were twelve tribes of ,israel2 twelve months in the year2 twelve gates or pillars of heaven1 etc4 ,in many of the religions of the world1 the number twelve is sacred4 ,there have been few god-saviors who did not have twelve apostles or messengers4 ,in one or two places1 in the ,new ,testament1 ,jesus is made to send out the seventy to evangelize the world4 ,here again we see the presence of a myth4 ,it was believed that there were seventy different nations in the world--to each nation an apostle4 ,seventy wise men are supposed to have translated the ,old ,testament1 sitting in seventy different cells4 ,that is why their translation is called the ,septuagint ,but it is all a legend1 as there is no evidence of seventy scholars working in seventy individual cells on the ,hebrew ,bible4 ,one of the ,church ,fathers declares that he saw these seventy cells with his own eyes4 ,he was the only one who saw them4 ,that the ,twelve ,apostles are fanciful may he inferred from the obscurity in which the greater number of them have remained4 ,peter1 ,paul1 ,john1 ,james1 ,judas1 occupy the stage almost exclusively4 ,if ,paul was an apostle1 we have fourteen1 instead of twelve4 ,leaving out ,judas1 and counting ,matthias1 who was elected in his place1 we have thirteen apostles4 ,the number forty figures also in many primitive myths4 ,the ,jews were in the wilderness for forty years2 ,jesus fasted for forty days2 from the resurrection to the ascension were forty days2 ,moses was on the mountain with ,god for forty days4 ,an account in which such scrupulous attention is shown to supposed sacred numbers is apt to be more artificial than real4 ,the biographers of ,lincoln or of ,socrates do not seem to be interested in numbers4 ,they write history1 not stories4 ,again1 many of the contemporaries of ,lincoln bear written witness to his existence4 ,the historians of the time1 the statesmen1 the publicists1 the chroniclers--all seem to be acquainted with him1 or to have heard of him4 ,it is impossible to explain why the contemporaries of ,jesus1 the authors and historians of his time1 do not take notice of him4 ,if ,abraham ,lincoln was important enough to have attracted the attention of his contemporaries1 how much more ,jesus4 ,is it reasonable to suppose that these ,pagan and ,jewish writers knew of ,jesus1--had heard of his incomparably great works and sayings1--but omitted to give him a page or a line8 ,could they have been in a conspiracy against him8 ,how else is this unanimous silence to be accounted for8 ,is it not more likely that the wonder-working ,jesus was unknown to them8 ,and he was unknown to them because no such ,jesus existed in their day4 ,should the student1 looking into ,abraham ,lincoln's history1 discover that no one of his biographers knew positively just when he lived or where he was born1 he would have reason to conclude that because of this uncertainty on the part of the biographers1 he must be more exacting than he otherwise would have been4 ,that is precisely our position4 ,of course1 there are in history great men of whose birthplaces or birthdays we are equally uncertain4 ,but we believe in their existence1 not because no one seems to know exactly when and where they were born1 but because there is overwhelming evidence corroborating the other reports about them1 and which is sufficient to remove the suspicion suggested by the darkness hanging over their nativity4 ,is there any evidence strong enough to prove the historicity of ,jesus1 in spite of the fact that not even his supposed companions1 writing during the lifetime of ,jesus' mother1 have any definite information to give4 ,but let us continue4 ,the reports current about a man like ,lincoln are verifiable1 while many of those about ,jesus are of a nature that no amount of evidence can confirm4 ,that ,lincoln was ,president of these ,united ,states1 that he signed the ,emancipation ,proclamation1 and that he was assassinated1 can be readily authenticated4 ,but how can any amount of evidence satisfy one's self that ,jesus was born of a virgin1 for instance8 ,such a report or rumor can never even be examined2 it does not lend itself to evidence2 it is beyond the sphere of history2 it is not a legitimate question for investigation4 ,it belongs to mythology4 ,indeed1 to put forth a report of that nature is to forbid the use of evidence1 and to command forcible acquiescence1 which1 to say the least1 is a very suspicious circumstance1 calculated to hurt rather than to help the ,jesus story4 ,the report that ,jesus was ,god is equally impossible of verification4 ,how are we to prove whether or not a certain person was ,god8 ,jesus may have been a wonderful man1 but is every wonderful man a ,god8 ,jesus may have claimed to have been a ,god1 but is every one who puts forth such a claim a ,god8 ,how1 then1 are we to decide which of the numerous candidates for divine honors should be given our votes8 ,and can we by voting for ,jesus make him a ,god8 ,observe to what confusion the mere attempt to follow such a report leads us4 ,a human ,jesus may or may not have existed1 but we are as sure as we can be of anything1 that a virgin-born ,god1 named ,jesus1 such as we must believe in or be eternally lost1 is an impossibility--except to credulity4 ,but credulity is no evidence at all1 even when it is dignified by the name of faith4 ,let us pause for a moment to reflect3 ,the final argument for the existence of the miraculous ,jesus1 preached in church and ,sunday-school1 these two thousand years1 as the sole savior of the world1 is an appeal to faith--the same to which ,mohammed resorts to establish his claims1 and ,brigham ,young to prove his revelation4 ,there is no other possible way by which the virgin- birth or the godhood of a man can be established4 ,and such a faith is never free1 it is always maintained by the sword now1 and by hell-fire hereafter4 ,once more1 if it had been reported of ,abraham ,lincoln that he predicted his own assassination2 that he promised some of his friends they would not die until they saw him coming again upon the clouds of heaven2 that he would give them thrones to sit upon2 that they could safely drink deadly poisons in his name1 or that he would grant them any request which they might make1 provided they asked it for his sake1 we would be justified in concluding that such a ,lincoln never existed4 ,yet the most impossible utterances are put in ,jesus' mouth4 ,he is made to say3 ,whatsoever ye shall ask in my name that will ,i do4 ,no man who makes such a promise can keep it4 ,it is not sayings like the above that can prove a man a ,god4 ,has ,jesus kept his promise8 ,does he give his people everything1 or whatsoever they ask of him8 ,but1 it is answered1 ,jesus only meant to say that he would give whatever he himself considered good for his friends to have4 ,indeed6 ,is that the way to crawl out of a contract8 ,if that is what he meant1 why did he say something else8 ,could he not have said just what he meant1 in the first place8 ,would it not have been fairer not to have given his friends any occasion for false expectations8 ,better to promise a little and do more1 than to promise everything and do nothing4 ,but to say that ,jesus really entered into any such agreement is to throw doubt upon his existence4 ,such a character is too wild to be real4 ,only a mythical ,jesus could virtually hand over the government of the universe to courtiers who have petitions to press upon his attention4 ,moreover1 if ,jesus could keep his promise1 there would be today no misery in the world1 no orphans1 no childless mothers1 no shipwrecks1 no floods1 no famines1 no disease1 no crippled children1 no insanity1 no wars1 no crime1 no wrong6 ,have not a thousand1 thousand prayers been offered in ,jesus' name against every evil which has ploughed the face of our earth8 ,have these prayers been answered8 ,then why is there discontent in the world8 ,can the followers of ,jesus move mountains1 drink deadly poisons1 touch serpents1 or work greater miracles than are ascribed to ,jesus1 as it was promised that they would do8 ,how many self-deluded prophets these extravagant claims have produced6 ,and who can number the bitter disappointments caused by such impossible promises8 ,george ,jacob ,holyoake1 of ,england1 tells how in the days of utter poverty1 his believing mother asked the ,lord1 again and again--on her knees1 with tears streaming from her eyes1 and with absolute faith in ,jesus' ability to keep ,his promise1--to give her starving children their daily bread4 ,but the more fervently she prayed the heavier grew the burden of her life4 ,a stone or wooden idol could not have been more indifferent to a mother's tears4 ,my mind aches as ,i think of those days1 writes ,mr4 ,holyoake4 ,one day he went to see the ,rev4 ,mr4 ,cribbace1 who had invited inquirers to his house4 ,do you really believe1 asked young ,holyoake to the clergyman1 that what we ask in faith we shall receive8 ,it never struck me1 continues ,mr4 ,holyoake1 that the preacher's threadbare dress1 his half-famished look1 and necessity of taking up a collection the previous night to pay expenses showed that faith was not a source of income to him4 ,it never struck me that if help could be obtained by prayer no church would be needy1 no believer would be poor4 ,what answer did the preacher give to ,holyoake's earnest question8 ,the same which the preachers of today give3 ,he parried his answer with many words1 and at length said that the promise was to be taken with the provision that what we asked for would be given1 if ,god thought it for our good4 ,why then1 did not ,jesus explain that important proviso when he made the promise8 ,was ,jesus only making a half statement1 the other half of which he would reveal later to protect himself against disappointed petitioners4 ,but he said3 ,if ye ask anything in my name1 ,i will do it1 and ,if it were not so1 ,i would have told you4 ,did he not mean just what he said8 ,the truth is that no historical person in his senses ever made such extraordinary1 such impossible promises1 and the report that ,jesus made them only goes to confirm that their author is only a legendary being4 ,when this truth dawned upon ,mr4 ,holyoake he ceased to petition ,heaven1 which was like dropping a bucket into an empty well1 and began to look elsewhere for help4 ,footnote3 ,bygones ,worth ,remembering4--,george ,jacob ,holyoake ,the world owes its advancement to the fact that men no longer look to ,heaven for help1 but help themselves4 ,self-effort1 and not prayer1 is the remedy against ignorance1 slavery1 poverty1 and moral degradation4 ,fortunately1 by holding up before us an impossible ,jesus1 with his impossible promises1 the churches have succeeded only in postponing1 but not in preventing1 the progress of man4 ,this is a compliment to human nature1 and it is well earned4 ,it is also a promise that in time humanity will be completely emancipated from every phantom which in the past has scared it into silence or submission1 and ,a loftier race than e'er the world ,hath known shall rise ,with flame of liberty in their souls1 ,and light of science in their eyes4 ,illustration3 ,portion of ,manuscript ,supposed to ,be ,copy of ,lost ,originals4 ,,the ,,christian ,,documents ,the documents containing the story of ,jesus are so unlike those about ,lincoln or any other historical character1 that we must be doubly vigilant in our investigation4 ,the ,christians rely mainly on the four ,gospels for the historicity of ,jesus4 ,but the original documents of which the books in the ,new ,testament are claimed to be faithful copies are not in existence4 ,there is absolutely no evidence that they ever were in existence4 ,this is a statement which can not be controverted4 ,is it conceivable that the early believers lost through carelessness or purposely every document written by an apostle1 while guarding with all protecting jealousy and zeal the writings of anonymous persons8 ,is there any valid reason why the contributions to ,christian literature of an inspired apostle should perish while those of a nameless scribe are preserved1 why the original ,gospel of ,matthew should drop quietly out of sight1 no one knows how1 while a supposed copy of it in an alien language is preserved for many centuries8 ,jesus himself1 it is admitted1 did not write a single line4 ,he had come1 according to popular belief1 to reveal the will of ,god--a most important mission indeed1 and yet he not only did not put this revelation in writing during his lifetime1 and with his own hand1 which it is natural to suppose that a divine teacher1 expressly come from heaven1 would have done1 but he left this all-important duty to anonymous chroniclers1 who1 naturally1 made enough mistakes to split up ,christendom into innumerable factions4 ,it is worth a moment's pause to think of the persecutions1 the cruel wars1 and the centuries of hatred and bitterness which would have been spared our unfortunate humanity1 if ,jesus himself had written down his message in the clearest and plainest manner1 instead of leaving it to his supposed disciples to publish it to the world1 when he could no longer correct their mistakes4 ,moreover1 not only did ,jesus not write himself1 but he has not even taken any pains to preserve the writings of his apostles1 ,it is well known that the original manuscripts1 if there were any1 are nowhere to be found4 ,this is a grave matter4 ,we have only supposed copies of supposed original manuscripts4 ,who copied them8 ,when were they copied8 ,how can we be sure that these copies are reliable8 ,and why are there thousands upon thousands of various readings in these1 numerous supposed copies8 ,what means have we of deciding which version or reading to accept8 ,is it possible that as the result of ,jesus' advent into our world1 we have only a basketful of nameless and dateless copies and documents8 ,is it conceivable1 ,i ask1 that a ,god would send his ,son to us1 and then leave us to wander through a pile of dusty manuscripts to find out why ,he sent ,his ,son1 and what ,he taught when on earth8 ,the only answer the ,christian church can give to this question is that the original writings were purposely allowed to perish4 ,when a precious document containing the testament of ,almighty ,god1 and inscribed for an eternal purpose by the ,holy ,ghost1 disappears altogether there is absolutely no other way of accounting for its disappearance than by saying1 as we have suggested1 that its divine author must have intentionally withdrawn it from circulation4 ,god moves in a mysterious way is the last resort of the believer4 ,this is the one argument which is left to theology to fight science with4 ,unfortunately it is an argument which would prove every cult and ism under the heavens true4 ,the ,mohammedan1 the ,mazdaian1 and the ,pagan may also fall back upon faith4 ,there is nothing which faith can not cover up from the light4 ,but if a faith which ignores evidence be not a superstition1 what then is superstition8 ,i wonder if the ,catholic ,church1 which pretends to believe--and which derives quite an income from the belief--that ,god has miraculously preserved the wood of the cross1 the ,holy ,sepulchre1 in ,jerusalem1 the coat of ,jesus1 and quite a number of other mementos1 can explain why the original manuscripts were lost4 ,i have a suspicion that there were no original manuscripts4 ,i am not sure of this1 of course1 but if nails1 bones and holy places could be miraculously preserved1 why not also manuscripts8 ,it is reasonable to suppose that the ,deity would not have permitted the most important documents containing ,his ,revelation to drop into some hole and disappear1 or to be gnawed into dust by the insects1 after having had them written by special inspiration4 ,again1 when these documents1 such as we find them1 are examined1 it will be observed that1 even in the most elementary intelligence which they pretend to furnish1 they are hopelessly at variance with one another4 ,it is1 for example1 utterly impossible to reconcile ,matthew's genealogy of ,jesus with the one given by ,luke4 ,in copying the names of the supposed ancestors of ,jesus1 they tamper with the list as given in the book of ,chronicles1 in the ,old ,testament1 and thereby justly expose themselves to the charge of bad faith4 ,one evangelist says ,jesus was descended from ,solomon1 born of her that had been the wife of ,urias4 ,it will be remembered that ,david ordered ,urias killed in a cowardly manner1 that he may marry his widow1 whom he coveted4 ,according to ,matthew1 ,jesus is one of the offspring of this adulterous relation4 ,according to ,luke1 it is not through ,solomon1 but through ,nathan1 that ,jesus is connected with the house of ,david4 ,again1 ,luke tells us that the name of the father of ,joseph was ,heli2 ,matthew says it was ,jacob4 ,if the writers of the gospels were contemporaries of ,joseph they could have easily learned the exact name of his father4 ,again1 why do these biographers of ,jesus give us the genealogy of ,joseph if he was not the father of ,jesus8 ,it is the genealogy of ,mary which they should have given to prove the descent of ,jesus from the house of ,david1 and not that of ,joseph4 ,these irreconcilable differences between ,luke1 ,matthew and the other evangelists1 go to prove that these authors possessed no reliable information concerning the subjects they were writing about4 ,for if ,jesus is a historical character1 and these biographers were really his immediate associates1 and were inspired besides1 how are we to explain their blunders and contradictions about his genealogy8 ,a good illustration of the mythical or unhistorical character of the ,new ,testament is furnished by the story of ,john the ,baptist4 ,he is first represented as confessing publicly that ,jesus is the ,christ2 that he himself is not worthy to unloose the latchet of his shoes2 and that ,jesus is the ,lamb of ,god1 who taketh away the sins of the world4 ,john was also present1 the gospels say1 when the heavens opened and a dove descended on ,jesus' head1 and he heard the voice from the skies1 crying3 ,he is my beloved ,son1 in whom ,i am well pleased4 ,is it possible that1 a few chapters later1 this same ,john forgets his public confession1--the dove and the voice from heaven1--and actually sends two of his disciples to find out who this ,jesus is1 ,footnote3 ,matthew xi4 ,the only way we can account for such strange conduct is that the compiler or editor in question had two different myths or stories before him1 and he wished to use them both4 ,a further proof of the loose and extravagant style of the ,gospel writers is furnished by the concluding verse of the ,fourth ,gospel3 ,there are also many other things which ,jesus did1 the which1 if they should be written1 every one1 ,i suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written4 ,this is more like the language of a myth-maker than of a historian4 ,how much reliance can we put in a reporter who is given to such exaggeration8 ,to say that the world itself would be too small to contain the unreported sayings and doings of a teacher whose public life possibly did not last longer than a year1 and whose reported words and deeds fill only a few pages1 is to prove one's statements unworthy of serious consideration4 ,and it is worth our while to note also that the documents which have come down to our time and which purport to be the biographies of ,jesus1 are not only written in an alien language1 that is to say1 in a language which was not that of ,jesus and his disciples1 but neither are they dated or signed4 ,jesus and his twelve apostles were ,jews2 why are all the four ,gospels written in ,greek8 ,if they were originally written in ,hebrew1 how can we tell that the ,greek translation is accurate1 since we can not compare it with the originals8 ,and why are these ,gospels anonymous8 ,why are they not dated8 ,but as we shall say something more on this subject in the present volume1 we confine ourselves at this point to reproducing a fragment of the manuscript pages from which our ,greek ,translations have been made4,footnote3 ,see page #eg4 ,it is admitted by scholars that owing to the difficulty of reading these ancient and imperfect and also conflicting texts1 an accurate translation is impossible4 ,but this is another way of saying that what the churches call the ,word of ,god is not only the word of man1 but a very imperfect word1 at that4 ,the belief in ,jesus1 then1 is founded on secondary documents1 altered and edited by various hands2 on lost originals1 and on anonymous manuscripts of an age considerably later than the events therein related--manuscripts which contradict each other as well as themselves4 ,such is clearly and undeniably the basis for the belief in a historical ,jesus4 ,it was this sense of the insufficiency of the evidence which drove the missionaries of ,christianity to commit forgeries4 ,if there was ample evidence for the historicity of ,jesus1 why did his biographers resort to forgery8 ,the following admissions by ,christian writers themselves show the helplessness of the early preachers in the presence of inquirers who asked for proofs4 ,the church historian1 ,mosheim1 writes that1 ,the ,christian ,fathers deemed it a pious act to employ deception and fraud4 ,footnote3 ,ecclesiastical ,hist41 ,vol4 ,i1 ,p4 #bdg4 ,again1 he says3 ,the greatest and most pious teachers were nearly all of them infected with this leprosy4 ,will not some believer tell us why forgery and fraud were necessary to prove the historicity of ,jesus4 ,another historian1 ,milman1 writes that1 ,pious fraud was admitted and avowed by the early missionaries of ,jesus4 ,it was an age of literary frauds1 writes ,bishop ,ellicott1 speaking of the times immediately following the alleged crucifixion of ,jesus4 ,dr4 ,giles declares that1 ,there can be no doubt that great numbers of books were written with no other purpose than to deceive4 ,and it is the opinion of ,dr4 ,robertson ,smith that1 ,there was an enormous floating mass of spurious literature created to suit party views4 ,books which are now rejected as apochryphal were at one time received as inspired1 and books which are now believed to be infallible were at one time regarded as of no authority in the ,christian world4 ,it certainly is puzzling that there should be a whole literature of fraud and forgery in the name of a historical person4 ,but if ,jesus was a myth1 we can easily explain the legends and traditions springing up in his name4 ,the early followers of ,jesus1 then1 realizing the force of this objection1 did actually resort to interpolation and forgery in order to prove that ,jesus was a historical character4 ,one of the oldest critics of the ,christian religion was a ,pagan1 known to history under the name of ,porphyry2 yet1 the early ,fathers did not hesitate to tamper even with the writings of an avowed opponent of their religion4 ,after issuing an edict to destroy1 among others1 the writings of this philosopher1 a work1 called ,philosophy of ,oracles1 was produced1 in which the author is made to write almost as a ,christian2 and the name of ,porphyry was signed to it as its author4 ,st4 ,augustine was one of the first to reject it as a forgery4 ,footnote3 ,geo4 ,w4 ,foote4 ,crimes of ,christianity4 ,a more astounding invention than this alleged work of a heathen bearing witness to ,christ is difficult to produce4 ,do these forgeries1 these apocryphal writings1 these interpolations1 freely admitted to have been the prevailing practice of the early ,christians1 help to prove the existence of ,jesus8 ,and when to this wholesale manufacture of doubtful evidence is added the terrible vandalism which nearly destroyed every great ,pagan classic1 we can form an idea of the desperate means to which the early ,christians resorted to prove that ,jesus was not a myth4 ,it all goes to show how difficult it is to make a man out of a myth4 ,illustration3 ,the ,goddess ,mother in the ,grecian ,pantheon4 ,,virgin ,,births ,stories of gods born of virgins are to be found in nearly every age and country4 ,there have been many virgin mothers1 and ,mary with her child is but a recent version of a very old and universal myth4 ,in ,china and ,india1 in ,babylonia and ,egypt1 in ,greece and ,rome1 divine beings selected from among the daughters of men the purest and most beautiful to serve them as a means of entrance into the world of mortals4 ,wishing to take upon themselves the human form1 while retaining at the same time their divinity1 this compromise--of an earthly mother with a divine father--was effected4 ,in the form of a swan ,jupiter approached ,leda1 as in the guise of a dove1 or a ,paracletus1 ,jehovah overshadowed ,mary4 ,a nymph bathing in a river in ,china is touched by a lotus plant1 and the divine ,fohi is born4 ,in ,siam1 a wandering sunbeam caresses a girl in her teens1 and the great and wonderful deliverer1 ,codom1 is born4 ,in the life of ,buddha we read that he descended on his mother ,maya1 in likeness as the heavenly queen1 and entered her womb1 and was born from her right side1 to save the world4 ,footnote3 ,stories of ,virgin ,births4 ,reference3 ,lord ,macartney4 ,voyage dans 'interview de la ,chine et en ,tartarie4 ,vol4 ,i1 ,p4 #dh4 ,see also ,les ,vierges ,meres et les ,naissance ,miraculeuse4 ,p4 ,saintyves4 ,p4 #ai1 etc4 ,in ,greece1 the young god ,apollo visits a fair maid of ,athens1 and a ,plato is ushered into the world4 ,in ancient ,mexico1 as well as in ,babylonia1 and in modern ,corea1 as in modern ,palestine1 as in the legends of all lands1 virgins gave birth and became divine mothers4 ,footnote3 ,stories of ,virgin ,births4 ,reference3 ,lord ,macartney4 ,voyage dans 'interview de la ,chine et en ,tartarie4 ,vol4 ,i1 ,p4 #dh4 ,see also ,les ,vierges ,meres et les ,naissance ,miraculeuse4 ,p4 ,saintyves4 ,p4 #ai1 etc4 ,but the real home of virgin births is the land of the ,nile4 ,eighteen hundred years before ,christ1 we find carved on one of the walls of the great temple of ,luxor a picture of the annunciation1 conception and birth of ,king ,amunothph ,,iii1 an almost exact copy of the annunciation1 conception and birth of the ,christian ,god4 ,of course no one will think of maintaining that the ,egyptians borrowed the idea from the ,catholics nearly two thousand years before the ,christian era4 ,the story in the ,gospel of ,luke1 the first and second chapters is1 says ,malvert1 a reproduction1 'point by point1' of the story in stone of the miraculous birth of ,amunothph4 ,footnote3 ,science and ,religion ,p4 #if4 ,illustration3 ,the ,annunciation1 ,birth1 and ,adoration of ,amenophis of ,egypt1 ,nearly #bjjj ,years ,before ,christ4 ,sharpe in his ,egyptian ,mythology1 page #ai1 gives the following description of the ,luxor picture1 quoted by ,g4 ,w4 ,foote in his ,bible ,romances1 page #abf3 ,in this picture we have the annunciation1 the conception1 the birth and the adoration1 as described in the first and second chapters of ,luke's ,gospel4 ,massey gives a more minute description of the ,luxor picture4 ,the first scene on the left hand shows the god ,taht1 the divine ,word or ,loges1 in the act of hailing the virgin queen1 announcing to her that she is to give birth to a son4 ,in the second scene the god ,kneph 7assisted by ,hathor7 gives life to her4 ,this is the ,holy ,ghost1 or ,spirit that causes conception4444,next the mother is seated on the midwife's stool1 and the child is supported in the hands of one of the nurses4 ,the fourth scene is that of the adoration4 ,here the child is enthroned1 receiving homage from the gods and gifts from men4 ,footnote3 ,natural ,genesis4 ,massey1 ,vol4 ,,ii1 ,p4 #cih4 ,the picture on the wall of the ,luxor temple1 then1 is one of the sources to which the anonymous writers of the ,gospels went for their miraculous story4 ,it is no wonder they suppressed their own identity as well as the source from which they borrowed their material4 ,not only the idea of a virgin mother1 but all the other miraculous events1 such as the stable cradle1 the guiding star1 the massacre of the children1 the flight to ,egypt1 and the resurrection and bodily ascension toward the clouds1 have not only been borrowed1 but are even scarcely altered in the ,new ,testament story of ,jesus4 ,illustration3 ,the ,nativity of the ,god ,dionysius1 ,museum of ,naples4 ,that the early ,christians borrowed the legend of ,jesus from earthly sources is too evident to be even questioned4 ,gerald ,massey in his great work on ,egyptian origins demonstrates the identity of ,mary1 the mother of ,jesus1 with ,isis1 the mother of ,horus4 ,he says3 ,the most ancient1 gold-bedizened1 smoke-stained ,byzantine pictures of the virgin and child represent the mythical mother as ,isis1 and not as a human mother of ,nazareth4 ,footnote3 ,vol4 ii1 ,p4 #dhg4 ,science and research have made this fact so certain that1 on the one hand ignorance1 and on the other1 interest only1 can continue to claim inspiration for the authors of the undated and unsigned fragmentary documents which pass for the ,word of ,god4 ,if1 then1 ,jesus is stripped of all the borrowed legends and miracles of which he is the subject2 and if we also take away from him all the teachings which collected from ,jewish and ,pagan sources have been attributed to him--what will be left of him8 ,that the ideas put in his mouth have been culled and compiled from other sources is as demonstrable as the ,pagan origin of the legends related of him4 ,nearly every one of the dogmas and ceremonies in the ,christian cult were borrowed from other and older religions4 ,the resurrection myth1 the ascension1 the eucharisty1 baptism1 worship by kneeling or prostration1 the folding of the hands on the breast1 the ringing of bells and the burning of incense1 the vestments and vessels used in church1 the candles1 holy water1--even the word ,mass were all adopted and adapted by the ,christians from the religions of the ancients4 ,the ,trinity is as much ,pagan1 as much ,indian or ,buddhist1 as it is ,christian4 ,the idea of a ,son of ,god is as old as the oldest cult4 ,the sun is the son of heaven in all primitive faiths4 ,the physical sun becomes in the course of evolution1 the ,son of ,righteousness1 or the ,son of ,god1 and heaven is personified as the ,father on ,high4 ,the halo around the head of ,jesus1 the horns of the older deities1 the rays of light radiating from the heads of ,hindu and ,pagan gods are incontrovertible evidence that all gods were at one time--the sun in heaven4 ,illustration3 ,prehistoric ,crosses ,discovered in ,pagan ,sepulchres 7,italy74 ,,the ,,origin ,,of ,,the ,,cross ,only the uninformed1 of whom1 we regret to say1 there are a great many1 and who are the main support of the old religions1 still believe that the cross originated with ,christianity4 ,like the dogmas of the ,trinity1 the virgin birth1 and the resurrection1 the sign of the cross or the cross as an emblem or a symbol was borrowed from the more ancient faiths of ,asia4 ,perhaps one of the most important discoveries which primitive man felt obliged never to be ungrateful enough to forget1 was the production of fire by the friction of two sticks placed across each other in the form of a cross4 ,as early as the stone age we find the cross carved on monuments which have been dug out of the earth and which can be seen in the museums of ,europe4 ,on the coins of later generations as well as on the altars of prehistoric times we find the sacred symbol of the cross4 ,the dead in ancient cemeteries slept under the cross as they do in our day in ,catholic churchyards4 ,illustration3 ,house of ,goodness1 with ,cross4 ,egyptian1 #bjjj ,b4 ,c4 ,in ancient ,egypt1 as in modern ,china1 ,india1 ,corea1 the cross is venerated by the masses as a charm of great power4 ,in the ,musee ,guimet1 in ,paris1 we have seen specimens of pre-,christian crosses4 ,in the ,louvre ,museum one of the heathen gods carries a cross on his head4 ,during his second journey to ,new ,zealand1 ,cook was surprised to find the natives marking the graves of their dead with the cross4 ,we saw1 in the ,museum of ,st4 ,germain1 an ancient divinity of ,gaul1 before the conquest of the country by ,julius ,caesar1 wearing a garment on which was woven a cross4 ,in the same museum an ancient altar of ,gaul under ,paganism1 had a cross carved upon it4 ,that the cross was not adopted by the followers of ,jesus until a later date may be inferred from the silence of the earlier gospels1 ,matthew1 ,mark and ,luke1 on the details of the crucifixion1 which is more fully developed in the later gospel of ,john4 ,the first three evangelists say nothing about the nails or the blood1 and give the impression that he was hanged4 ,writing of the two thieves who were sentenced to receive the same punishment1 ,luke says1 ,one of the malefactors that was hanged with him4 ,the idea of a bleeding ,christ1 such as we see on crosses in ,catholic churches1 is not present in these earlier descriptions of the crucifixion2 the ,christians of the time of ,origin were called the followers of the god who was hanged4 ,in the fourth gospel we see the beginnings of the legend of the cross1 of ,jesus carrying or falling under the weight of the cross1 of the nail prints in his hands and feet1 of the spear drawing the blood from his side and smearing his body4 ,of all this1 the first three evangelists are quite ignorant4 ,illustration3 ,pagan ,priest of ,herculaneum ,wearing the ,cross4 ,illustration3 ,cross of the ,chinese ,emperor ,fou-,hi1#biec ,years ,before ,christ4 ,illustration3 ,discovered in ,newgrange1 ,ireland4 ,an ,ancient ,pagan ,cross4 ,let it be further noted that it was not until eight hundred years after the supposed crucifixion that ,jesus is seen in the form of a human being on the cross4 ,not in any of the paintings on the ancient catacombs is found a crucified ,christ4 ,the earliest cross bearing a human being is of the eighth century4 ,for a long time a lamb with a cross1 or on a cross1 was the ,christian symbol1 and it is a lamb which we see entombed in the holy sepulchre4 ,in more than one mosaic of early ,christian times1 it is not ,jesus1 but a lamb1 which is bleeding for the salvation of the world4 ,how a lamb came to play so important a role in ,christianity is variously explained4 ,the similarity between the name of the ,hindu god1 ,agni and the meaning of the same word in ,latin1 which is a lamb1 is one theory4 ,another is that a ram1 one of the signs of the zodiac1 often confounded by the ancients with a lamb1 is the origin of the popular reverence for the lamb as a symbol--a reverence which all religions based on sun-worship shared4 ,the lamb in ,christianity takes away the sins of the people1 just as the paschal lamb did in the ,old ,testament1 and earlier still1 just as it did in ,babylonia4 ,illustration3 ,used by a ,priest of ,bacchus1 ,showing the ,cross4 ,illustration3 ,engraving of the ,,xi ,century4 ,illustration3 ,lamb on ,cross4 ,illustration3 ,from a ,picture in the ,church of ,genest4 ,a ,lamb ,carrying the ,cross4 ,illustration3 ,the ,lamb and the ,cross1 ,,ix ,century4 ,to the same effect is the following letter of the bishop of ,mende1 in ,france1 bearing date of the year #hjj ,a4 ,d43 ,because the darkness has disappeared1 and because also ,christ is a real man1 ,pope ,adrian commands us to paint him under the form of a man4 ,the lamb of ,god must not any longer be painted on a cross1 but after a human form has been placed on the cross1 there is no objection to have a lamb also represented with it1 either at the foot of the cross or on the opposite side4 ,footnote3 ,translated from the ,french of ,didron4 ,quoted by ,malvert4 ,we leave it to our readers to draw the necessary conclusions from the above letter4 ,how did a lamb hold its place on the cross for eight hundred years8 ,if ,jesus was really crucified1 and that fact was a matter of history1 why did it take eight hundred years for a ,christian bishop to write1 now that ,christ is a real man1 etc48 ,today1 it would be considered a blasphemy to place a lamb on a cross4 ,on the tombstones of ,christians of the fourth century are pictures representing1 not ,jesus1 but a lamb1 working the miracles mentioned in the gospels1 such as multiplying the loaves and fishes1 and raising ,lazarus from the dead4 ,illustration3 ,mosaic of ,st4 ,praxedes1 ,v ,century1 ,showing the ,lamb ,christ4 ,illustration3 ,the ,lamb ,slowly ,becoming ,human4 ,illustration3 ,the ,lamb ,multiplying the ,loaves and ,fishes1 ,,iv ,century ,sarcophagus4 ,the first representations of a human form on the cross differ considerably from those which prevail at the present time4 ,illustration3 ,the ,lamb ,resurrecting ,lazarus1 ,,iv ,century ,sarcophagus4 ,while the figure on the modern cross is almost naked1 those on the earlier ones are clothed and completely covered4 ,wearing a flowing tunic1 ,jesus is standing straight against the cross with his arms outstretched1 as though in the act of delivering an address4 ,frequently1 at his feet1 on the cross1 there is still painted the figure of a lamb1 which by and by1 he is going to replace altogether4 ,gradually the robe disappears from the crucified one1 until we see him crucified1 as in the adjoining picture1 with hardly any clothes on1 and wearing an expression of great agony4 ,illustration3 ,modern ,christ4 ,illustration3 ,christ and the ,twelve ,apostles1 ,carrying ,swastikas and ,solar ,discs ,instead of the ,cross4 ,sarcophagus1 ,milan4 ,,the ,,silence ,,of ,,profane ,,writers ,in all historical matters1 we cannot ask for more than a reasonable assurance concerning any question4 ,in fact1 absolute certainty in any branch of human knowledge1 with the exception of mathematics1 perhaps1 is impossible4 ,we are finite beings1 limited in all our powers1 and1 hence1 our conclusions are not only relative1 but they should ever be held subject to correction4 ,when our law courts send a man to the gallows1 they can have no more than a reasonable assurance that he is guilty2 when they acquit him1 they can have no more than a reasonable assurance that he is innocent4 ,positive assurance is unattainable4 ,the dogmatist is the only one who claims to possess absolute certainty4 ,but his claim is no more than a groundless assumption4 ,when1 therefore1 we learn that ,josephus1 for instance1 who lived in the same country and about the same time as ,jesus1 and wrote an extensive history of the men and events of his day and country1 does not mention ,jesus1 except by interpolation1 which even a ,christian clergyman1 ,bishop ,warburton1 calls a rank forgery1 and a very stupid one1 too1 we can be reasonably sure that no such ,jesus as is described in the ,new ,testament1 lived about the same time and in the same country with ,josephus4 ,the failure of such a historian as ,josephus to mention ,jesus tends to make the existence of ,jesus at least reasonably doubtful4 ,few ,christians now place any reliance upon the evidence from ,josephus4 ,the early ,fathers made this ,jew admit that ,jesus was the ,son of ,god4 ,of course1 the admission was a forgery4 ,de ,quincey says the passage is known to be a forgery by all men not lunatics4 ,of one other supposed reference in ,josephus1 ,canon ,farrar says3 ,this passage was early tampered with by the ,christians4 ,the same writer says this of a third passage3 ,respecting the third passage in ,josephus1 the only question is whether it be partly or entirely spurious4 ,lardner1 the great ,english theologian1 was the first man to prove that ,josephus was a poor witness for ,christ4 ,in examining the evidence from profane writers we must remember that the silence of one contemporary author is more important than the supposed testimony of another4 ,there was living in the same time with ,jesus a great ,jewish scholar by the name of ,philo4 ,he was an ,alexandrian ,jew1 and he visited ,jerusalem while ,jesus was teaching and working miracles in the holy city4 ,yet ,philo in all his works never once mentions ,jesus4 ,he does not seem to have heard of him4 ,he could not have helped mentioning him if he had really seen him or heard of him4 ,in one place in his works ,philo is describing the difference between two ,jewish names1 ,hosea and ,jesus4 ,jesus1 he says1 means saviour of the people4 ,what a fine opportunity for him to have added that1 at that very time1 there was living in ,jerusalem a saviour by the name of ,jesus1 or one supposed to be1 or claiming to be1 a saviour4 ,he could not have helped mentioning ,jesus if he had ever seen or heard of him4 ,we have elsewhere referred to the significant silence of the ,pagan historians and miscellaneous writers on the wonderful events narrated in the ,new ,testament4 ,but a few remarks may be added here in explanation of the supposed testimony of ,tacitus4 ,the quotation from ,tacitus is an important one4 ,that part of the passage which concerns us is something like this3--,they have their denomination from ,chrestus1 put to death as a criminal by ,pontius ,pilate during the reign of ,tiberius4 ,i wish to say in the first place that this passage is not in the ,history of ,tacitus1 known to the ancients1 but in his ,annals1 which is not quoted by any ancient writer4 ,the ,annals of ,tacitus were not known to be in existence until the year #adfh4 ,an ,english writer1 ,mr4 ,ross1 has undertaken1 in an interesting volume1 to show that the ,annals were forged by an ,italian1 ,bracciolini4 ,i am not competent to say whether or not ,mr4 ,ross proves his point4 ,but is it conceivable that the early ,christians would have ignored so valuable a testimony had they known of its existence1 and would they not have known of it had it really existed8 ,the ,christian ,fathers1 who not only collected assiduously all that they could use to establish the reality of ,jesus--but who did not hesitate even to forge passages1 to invent documents1 and also to destroy the testimony of witnesses unfavorable to their cause--would have certainly used the ,tacitus passage had it been in existence in their day4 ,not one of the ,christian ,fathers in his controversy with the unbelievers has quoted the passage from ,tacitus1 which passage is the church's strongest proof of the historicity of ,jesus1 outside the gospels4 ,but1 to begin with1 this passage has the appearance1 at least1 of being penned by a ,christian4 ,it speaks of such persecutions of the ,christians in ,rome which contradict all that we know of ,roman civilization4 ,the abuse of ,christians in the same passage may have been introduced purposely to cover up the identity of the writer4 ,the terrible outrages against the ,christians mentioned in the text from ,tacitus are supposed to have taken place in the year #fd ,a4 ,d4 ,according to the ,new ,testament1 ,paul was in ,rome from the year #fc to the year #fe1 and must1 therefore1 have been an eye-witness of the persecution under ,nero4 ,let me quote from the ,bible to show that there could have been no such persecution as the ,tacitus passage describes4 ,the last verse in the book of ,acts reads3 ,and he 7,paul7 abode two whole years in his own hired dwelling1 and received all that went in unto him1 preaching the kingdom of ,god1 and teaching things concerning the ,lord ,jesus ,christ with all boldness1 none forbidding him4 ,how is this picture of peace and tranquility to be reconciled with the charge that the ,romans rolled up the ,christians in straw mats and burned them to illuminate the streets at night1 and also that the lions were let loose upon the disciples of ,jesus8 ,moreover1 it is generally known that the ,romans were indifferent to religious propaganda1 and never persecuted any sect or party in the name of religion4 ,in ,rome1 the ,jews were free to be ,jews2 why should the ,jewish ,christians--and the early ,christians were ,jews--have been thrown to the lions8 ,in all probability the persecutions were much milder than the ,tacitus passage describes1 and politics was the real cause4 ,until not very long ago1 it was universally believed that ,william ,tell was a historical character4 ,but it is now proven beyond any reasonable doubt1 that ,tell and his apple are altogether mythical4 ,notwithstanding that a great poet has made him the theme of a powerful drama1 and a great composer devoted one of his operas to his heroic achievements2 notwithstanding also that the ,swiss show the crossbow with which he is supposed to have shot at the apple on his son's head--he is now admitted to be only a legendary hero4 ,the principal arguments which have led the educated world to revise its views concerning ,william ,tell are that1 the ,swiss historians1 ,faber and ,hamurbin1 who lived shortly after the hero1 and who wrote the history of their country1 as ,josephus did that of his1 do not mention ,tell4 ,had such a man existed before their time1 they could not have failed to refer to him4 ,their complete silence is damaging beyond help to the historicity of ,tell4 ,neither does the historian1 who was an eye witness of the battle of ,morgarten in #acae1 mention the name of ,tell4 ,the ,zurich ,chronicle of #adig1 also omits to refer to his story4 ,in the accounts of the struggle of the ,swiss against ,austria1 which drove the former into rebellion and ultimate independence1 ,tell's name cannot be found4 ,yet all these arguments are not half so damaging to the ,william ,tell story1 as the silence of ,josephus is to the ,jesus story4 ,jesus was supposed to have worked greater wonders and to have created a wider sensation than ,tell2 therefore1 it is more difficult to explain the silence of historians like ,josephus1 ,pliny and ,quintilian2 or of philosophers like ,philo1 ,seneca and ,epictetus1 concerning ,jesus1 than to explain the silence of the ,swiss chroniclers concerning ,tell4 ,,the ,,jesus ,,story ,a ,,religious ,,drama ,we have now progressed far enough in our investigation to pause a moment for reflection before we proceed any further4 ,i am conscious of no intentional misrepresentation or suppression of the facts relating to the question in hand4 ,if ,i have erred through ignorance1 ,i shall correct any mistake ,i may have made1 if some good reader will take the trouble to enlighten me4 ,i am also satisfied that ,i have not commanded the evidence1 but have allowed the evidence to command me4 ,i am not interested in either proving or disproving the existence of the ,new- ,testament ,jesus4 ,i am not an advocate1 ,i am rather an umpire1 who hears the evidence and pronounces his decision accordingly4 ,let the lawyers or the advocates argue pro and con4 ,i only weigh1--and ,i am sure1 impartially1--the evidence which the witnesses offer4 ,we have heard and examined quite a number of these1 and1 ,i1 at least1 am compelled to say1 that unless stronger evidence be forthcoming1 a historical ,jesus has not been proven by the evidence thus far taken in4 ,this does not mean that there is no evidence whatever that ,jesus was a real existence1 but that the evidence is not enough to prove it4 ,to condemn or to acquit a man in a court of law1 there must not only be evidence1 but enough of it to justify a decision4 ,there is some evidence for almost any imaginable proposition2 but that is not enough4 ,not only does the evidence offered to prove ,jesus' historicity1 already examined1 fail to give this assurance1 but1 on the contrary1 it lends much support to the opposite supposition1 namely1 that in all probability1 ,jesus was a myth--even as ,mithra1 ,osiris1 ,isis1 ,hercules1 ,sampson1 ,adonis1 ,moses1 ,attis1 ,hermes1 ,heracles1 ,apollo of ,tyanna1 ,chrishna1 and ,indra1 were myths4 ,the story of ,jesus1 we are constrained to say1 possesses all the characteristics of the religious drama1 full of startling episodes1 thrilling situations1 dramatic action and denouement4 ,it reads more like a play than plain history4 ,from such evidence as the gospels themselves furnish1 the conclusion that he was no more than the principal character in a religious play receives much support4 ,mystery and morality plays are of a very ancient origin4 ,in earlier times1 almost all popular instruction was by means of ,tableaux vivant4 ,as a great scenic or dramatic performance1 with ,jesus as the hero1 ,judas as the villain--with conspiracy as its plot1 and the trial1 the resurrection and ascension as its finale1 the story is intelligent enough4 ,for instance1 as the curtain rises1 it discloses upon the stage shepherds tending their flocks in the green fields under the moonlit sky2 again1 as the scene shifts1 the clouds break1 the heavens open1 and voices are heard from above1 with a white-winged chorus chanting an anthem4 ,the next scene suggests a stable with the cattle in their stalls1 munching hay4 ,in a corner of the stable1 close to a manger1 imagine a young woman1 stooping to kiss a newly born babe4 ,anon appear three bearded and richly costumed men1 with presents in their hands1 bowing their heads in ecstatic adoration4 ,surely enough this is not history3 ,it does not read like history4 ,the element of fiction runs through the entire ,gospels1 and is its warp and woof4 ,a careful analysis of the various incidents in this ensemble will not fail to convince the unprejudiced reader that while they possess all the essentials for dramatic presentation1 they lack the requirements of real history4 ,the opened-heavens1 angel-choirs1 grazing flocks1 watchful shepherds1 worshiping magicians1 the stable crib1 the mother and child1 the wonderful star1 the presents1 the anthem--all these1 while they fit admirably as stage setting1 are questionable material for history4 ,no historical person was ever born in so spectacular a manner4 ,the ,gospel account of ,jesus is an embellished1 ornamental1 even sensationally dramatic creation to serve as an introduction for a legendary hero4 ,similar theatrical furniture has been used thousands of times to introduce other legendary characters4 ,all the ,savior ,gods were born supernaturally4 ,they were all half god1 half man4 ,they were all of royal descent4 ,miracles and wonders attended their birth4 ,jesus was not an exception4 ,we reject as mythical the birth-stories about ,mithra1 and ,apollo4 ,why accept as history those about ,jesus8 ,it rests with the preachers of ,christianity to show that while the god-man of ,persia1 or of ,greece1 for example1 was a myth1 the god-man of ,palestine is historical4 ,the dramatic element is again plainly seen in the account of the betrayal of ,jesus4 ,jesus1 who preaches daily in the temples1 and in the public places2 who talks to the multitude on the mountain and at the seaside2 who feeds thousands by miracle2 the report of whose wonderful cures has reached the ends of the earth1 and who is often followed by such a crush that to reach him an opening has to be made in the ceiling of the house where he is stopping2 who goes in and out before the people and is constantly disputing with the elders and leaders of the nation--is1 nevertheless1 represented as being so unknown that his enemies have to resort to the device of bribing with thirty silver coins one of his disciples to point him out to them1 and which is to be done by a kiss4 ,this might make a great scene upon the stage1 but it is not the way things happen in life4 ,then read how ,jesus is carried before ,pilate the ,roman governor1 and how while he is being tried a courier rushes in with a letter from ,pilate's wife which is dramatically torn open and read aloud in the presence of the crowded court4 ,the letter1 it is said1 was about a dream of ,pilate's wife1 in which some ghost tells her that ,jesus is innocent1 and that her husband should not proceed against him4 ,is this history8 ,roman jurisprudence had not degenerated to that extent as to permit the dreams of a woman or of a man to influence the course of justice4 ,but this letter episode was invented by the playwright--if ,i may use the phrase--to prolong the dramatic suspense1 to complicate the situation1 to twist the plot1 and thereby render the impression produced by his piece more lasting4 ,the letter and the dream did not save ,jesus4 ,pilate was not influenced by his dreaming wife4 ,she dreamed in vain4 ,in the next place we hear ,pilate pronouncing ,jesus guiltless2 but1 forthwith1 he hands him over to the ,jews to be killed4 ,does this read like history8 ,did ever a ,roman court witness such a trial8 ,to pronounce a man innocent and then to say to his prosecutors3 ,if you wish to kill him1 you may do so1 is extraordinary conduct4 ,then1 proceeding1 ,pilate takes water and ostentatiously washes his hands1 a proceeding introduced by a ,greek or ,latin scribe1 who wished1 in all probability1 to throw the blame of the crucifixion entirely upon the ,jews4 ,pilate1 representing the ,gentile world1 washes his hands of the responsibility for the death of ,jesus1 while the ,jews are made to say1 ,his blood be upon us and our children4 ,imagine the clamoring1 howling ,jews1 trampling on one another1 gesticulating furiously1 gnashing their teeth1 foaming at the mouth1 and spitting in one another's face as they shout1 ,crucify him6 ,crucify him6 ,a very powerful stage setting1 to be sure--but it is impossible to imagine that such disorder1 such anarchy could be permitted in any court of justice4 ,but think once more of those terrible words placed in the mouths of the ,jews1 ,his blood be upon us and our children4 ,think of a people openly cursing themselves and asking the whole ,christian world to persecute them forever--,his blood be upon us and our children4 ,next1 the composers of the gospels conduct us to the ,garden of ,gethsemane1 that we may see there the hero of the play in his agony1 fighting the great battle of his life alone1 with neither help nor sympathy from his distracted followers4 ,he is shown to us there1 on his knees1 crying tears of blood--sobbing and groaning under the shadow of an almost crushing fear4 ,tremblingly he prays1 ,let this cup pass from me--if it be possible2 and then1 yielding to the terror crowding in upon him1 he sighs in the hearing of all the ages1 ,the spirit is willing1 but the flesh is weak1 precisely the excuse given by everybody for not doing what they would do if they could4 ,now1 we ask in all seriousness1 is it likely that a ,god who had come down from heaven purposely to drink that cup and to be the martyr-,savior of humanity--would seek to be spared the fate for which he was ordained from all eternity8 ,the objection that ,jesus' hesitation on the eve of the crucifixion1 as well as his cry of despair on the cross1 were meant to show that he was as human as he was divine1 does not solve the difficulty4 ,in that event ,jesus1 then1 was merely acting--feigning a fear which he did not feel1 and pretending to dread a death which he knew could not hurt him4 ,if1 however1 ,jesus really felt alarmed at the approach of death1 how much braver1 then1 were many of his followers who afterwards faced dangers and tortures far more cruel than his own6 ,we honestly think that to have put in ,jesus' mouth the words above quoted1 and also to have represented him as closing his public career with a shriek on the cross3 ,my ,god1 my ,god1 why hast thou forsaken me8 was tantamount to an admission by the writers that they were dealing with a symbolic ,christ1 an ideal figure1 the hero of a play1 and not a historical character4 ,it is highly dramatic1 to be sure1 to see the sun darkened1 to feel the whole earth quaking1 to behold the graves ripped open and the dead reappear in their shrouds--to hear the hero himself tearing his own heart with that cry of shuddering anguish1 ,my ,god6 my ,god6--but it is not history4 ,if such a man as ,jesus really lived1 then his biographers have only given us a caricature of him4 ,however beautiful some of the sayings attributed to ,jesus1 and whatever the source they may have been borrowed from1 they are not enough to prove his historicity4 ,but even as the ,ten ,commandments do not prove ,moses to have been a historical personage or the author of the books and deeds attributed to him1 neither do the parables and miracles of ,jesus prove him to have once visited this earth as a god1 or to have even existed as a man4 ,socrates and ,jesus6 ,compare the quite natural behavior of ,socrates in prison with that of ,jesus in the ,garden of ,gethsemane4 ,the ,greek sage is serene4 ,jesus is alarmed4 ,the night agony of his soul1 his tears of blood1 his pitiful collapse when he prays1 if it be possible let this cup pass from me1--all this would be very impressive on the boards1 but they seem incredible of a real man engaged in saving a world4 ,once more we say that the defense that it was the man in ,jesus and not the god in him that broke down1 would be unjust to the memory of thousands of martyrs who died by a more terrible death than that of ,jesus4 ,as elsewhere stated1 but which cannot be too often emphasized1 what man would not have embraced death with enthusiasm1--without a moment's misgiving1 did he think that by his death1 death and sin would be no more6 ,who would shrink from a cross which is going to save millions to millions added from eternal burnings4 ,he must be a phantom1 indeed1 who trembles and cries like a frightened child because he cannot have the crown without the cross6 ,what a spectacle for the real heroes crowding the galleries of history6 ,it is difficult to see the shrinking and shuddering ,savior of the world1 his face bathed in perspiration1 blood oozing out of his forehead1 his lips pale1 his voice breaking into a shriek1 ,my ,god1 my ,god1 why hast thou forsaken me6--it is difficult to witness all this and not to pity him4 ,poor ,jesus6 he is going to save the world1 but who is going to save him8 ,if we compare the trial of ,jesus with that of ,socrates1 the fictitious nature of the former cannot possibly escape detection4 ,socrates was so well known in ,athens1 that it was not necessary for his accusers to bribe one of his disciples to betray him4 ,jesus should have been even better known in ,jerusalem than ,socrates was in ,athens4 ,he was daily preaching in the synagogues1 and his miracles had given him an eclat which ,socrates did not enjoy4 ,socrates is not taken to court at night1 bound hand and feet4 ,jesus is arrested in the glare of torchlights1 after he is betrayed by ,judas with a kiss2 then he is bound and forced into the high priest's presence4 ,all this is admirable setting for a stage1 but they are no more than that4 ,the disciples of ,socrates behave like real men1 those of ,jesus are actors4 ,they run away2 they hide and follow at a distance4 ,one of them curses him4 ,the cock crows1 the apostate repents4 ,this reads like a play4 ,in the presence of his judges1 ,socrates makes his own defense4 ,one by one he meets the charges4 ,jesus refused1 according to two of the evangelists1 to open his mouth at his trial4 ,this is dramatic1 but it is not history4 ,it is not conceivable that a real person accused as ,jesus was1 would have refused a great opportunity to disprove the charges against him4 ,socrates' defense of himself is one of the classics4 ,jesus' silence is a conundrum4 ,but he answered nothing1 ,but ,jesus as yet answered nothing1 ,and he answered him never a word1 is the report of two of his biographers4 ,the other two evangelists1 as is usual1 contradict the former and produce the following dialogues between ,jesus and his judges1 which from beginning to end possess all the marks of unreality3 ,pilate4--,art thou the ,king of the ,jews8 ,jesus4--,sayest thou this thing of thyself1 or did others tell it thee of me8 ,pilate--,art thou a ,king8 ,jesus4--,thou sayest that ,i am a ,king4 ,is it possible that a real man1 not to say the ,savior of the world1 would give such unmeaning and evasive replies to straightforward questions8 ,does it not read like a page from fiction8 ,in the presence of the priests of his own race ,jesus is as indefinite and sophistical as he is before the ,roman ,pilate4 ,the ,priests--,art thou the ,christ--tell us8 ,jesus4--,if ,i tell you ye will not believe me4 ,the ,priests4--,art thou the ,son of ,god8 ,jesus4--,ye say that ,i am4 ,in the first answer he refuses to reveal himself because he does not think he can command belief in himself2 in his second answer he either blames them for saying he was the ,son of ,god1 or quotes their own testimony to prove that he is the ,son of ,god4 ,but if they believed he was ,god1 would they try to kill him8 ,is it not unthinkable8 ,he intimates that the priests believe he is the ,son of ,god--,ye say that ,i am4 ,surely1 it is more probable that these dialogues were invented by his anonymous biographers than that they really represent an actual conversation between ,jesus and his judges4 ,compare in the next place the manner in which the public trials of ,socrates and ,jesus are conducted4 ,there is order in the ,athenian court2 there is anarchy in the ,jerusalem court4 ,witnesses and accusers walk up to ,jesus and slap him on the face1 and the judge does not reprove them for it4 ,the court is in the hands of rowdies and hoodlums1 who shout ,crucify him1 and again1 ,crucify him4 ,a ,roman judge1 while admitting that he finds no guilt in ,jesus deserving of death1 is nevertheless represented as handing him over to the mob to be killed1 after he has himself scourged him4 ,no ,roman judge could have behaved as this ,pilate is reported to have behaved toward an accused person on trial for his life4 ,all that we know of civilized government1 all that we know of the jurisprudence of ,rome1 contradicts this inspired account of a pretended historical event4 ,if ,jesus was ever tried and condemned to death in a ,roman court1 an account of it that can command belief has yet to be written4 ,again1 when we come to consider the random1 disconnected and fragmentary form in which the teachings of ,jesus are presented1 we cannot avoid the conclusion that he is a dramatis persona brought upon the stage to give expression not to a consistent1 connected and carefully worked-out thought1 but to voice with many breaks and interruptions1 the ideas of his changing managers4 ,he is made to play a number of contradictory roles1 and appears in the same story in totally different characters4 ,one editor or compiler of the ,gospel describes ,jesus as an ascetic and a mendicant1 wandering from place to place1 without a roof over his head1 and crawling at eventide into his cave in the ,mount of ,olives4 ,he introduces him as the ,man of ,sorrows1 fasting in the wilderness1 counseling people to part with their riches1 and promising the ,kingdom of ,heaven to ,lazarus1 the beggar4 ,another redactor announces him as eating and drinking at the banquets of publicans and sinners1--a wine-bibbing ,son of ,man4 ,john the ,baptist came neither eating nor drinking1 but the ,son of ,man came both eating and drinking1 which1 if it means anything1 means that ,jesus was the very opposite of the ascetic ,john4 ,a partisan of the doctrine of non-resistance puts in ,jesus' mouth the words3 ,resist not evil2 ,the meek shall inherit the earth1 etc41 and counsels that he who smites us on the one cheek should be permitted to strike us also on the other1 and that to him who robs us of an undergarment1 we should also hand over our outer garments4 ,another draws the picture of a militant ,jesus who could never endorse such precepts of indolence and resignation4 ,the kingdom of heaven is taken by violence1 cries this new ,jesus1 and intimates that no such beggar like ,lazarus1 sitting all day long with the dogs and his sores1 can ever earn so great a prize4 ,with a scourge in his hands this ,jesus rushes upon the traders in the temple-court1 upturns their tables and whips their owners into the streets4 ,surely this was resistance of the most pronounced type4 ,the right to use physical force could not have been given a better endorsement than by this example of ,jesus4 ,it will not help matters to say that these money-changers were violating a divine law1 and needed chastisement with a whip4 ,is not the man who smites us upon the cheek1 or robs us of our clothing1 equally guilty8 ,moreover1 these traders in the outer courts of the synagogue were rendering the worshipers a useful service4 ,just as candles1 rosaries1 images and literature are sold in church vestibules for the accommodation of ,catholics1 so were doves1 pigeons and ,hebrew coins1 necessary to the ,jewish sacrifices1 sold in the temple-courts for the ,jewish worshiper4 ,the money changer who supplied the pious ,jew with the only sacred coin which the priests would accept was not very much less important to the ,jewish religion than the rabbi4 ,to have fallen upon these traders with a weapon1 and to have caused them the loss of their property1 was certainly the most inconsistent thing that a meek and lowly ,jesus preaching non-resistance could have done4 ,again2 one writer makes ,jesus the teacher par excellence of peace4 ,he counsels forgiveness of injuries not seven times1 but seventy times that number--meaning unlimited love and charity4 ,love your enemies1 ,bless them that curse you1 is his unusual advice4 ,but another hand retouches this picture1 and we have a ,jesus who breaks his own golden rule4 ,this other ,jesus heaps abuse upon the people who displease him2 calls his enemies vipers1 serpents1 devils1 and predicts for them eternal burnings in sulphur and brimstone4 ,how could he who said1 ,come unto me all ye that are heavy laden1 say also1 ,depart from me ye cursed8 ,who curses them8 ,how can there be an everlasting hell in a universe whose author advises us to love our enemies1 to bless them that curse us1 and to forgive seventy times seven8 ,how could the same ,jesus who said1 ,blessed are the peacemakers1 say also1 ,i came not to bring peace1 but a sword8 ,is it possible that the same ,jesus who commands us to love our enemies1 commands us also to hate father1 mother1 wife and child1 for his name's sake8 ,yes6 the same ,jesus who said1 ,put up thy sword in its sheath1 also commands us to sell our effects and buy a sword4 ,once more3 ,a believer in the divinity of ,jesus--,i am going to say--invents the following text3 ,the ,father and ,i are one4 ,an opponent to this ,trinitarian dogma introduces a correction which robs the above text of its authority3 ,the ,father is greater than ,i1 and makes ,jesus admit openly that there are some things known to the father only4 ,it is difficult not to see in these passages the beginnings of the terrible controversies which1 starting with ,peter and ,paul1 have come down to our day1 and which will not end until ,jesus shall take his place among the mythical saviors of the world4 ,to harmonize these many and different ,jesuses into something like unity or consistency a thousand books have been written by the clergy4 ,they have not succeeded4 ,how can a ,jesus represented at one time as the image of divine perfection1 and at another as protesting against being called good1 for none is good1 save one1 ,god1--how can these two conceptions be reconciled except by a resort to artificial and arbitrary interpretations8 ,if such insurmountable contradictions in the teachings and character of another would weaken our faith in his historicity1 then we are justified in inferring that in all probability ,jesus was only a name--the name of an imaginary stage hero1 uttering the conflicting thoughts of his prompters4 ,again1 such phrases as1 and he was caught up in a cloud1--describing the ascension and consequent disappearance of ,jesus1 betray the anxiety of the authors of the ,gospels to bring their marvelous story to a close4 ,not knowing how to terminate the career of an imaginary ,messiah1 his creators invented the above method of dispatching him4 ,he was caught up in a cloud1--but for that1 the narrators would have been obliged to continue their story indefinitely4 ,in tragedy the play ends with the death of the hero1 but if the biographers of ,jesus had given a similar excuse for bringing their narrative to a finale1 there would have been the danger of their being asked to point out his grave4 ,he was caught up in a cloud1 relieved them of all responsibility to produce his remains if called upon to do so1 and1 at the same time1 furnished them with an excuse to bring their story to a close4 ,it would hardly be necessary1 were we all unbiased1 to look for any further proofs of the mythical and fanciful nature of the ,gospel narratives than this expedient to which the writers resorted4 ,to questions1 ,where is ,jesus8 ,what became of his body8 etc41 they could answer1 ,he was caught up in a cloud4 ,but a career that ends in the clouds was never begun on the earth4 ,illustration3 ,coin of the ,,xii ,century1 ,showing ,halo ,around ,lamb's ,head4 ,let us imagine ourselves in ,jerusalem in the year ,one1 of the ,christian era1 when the apostles1 as it is claimed1 were proclaiming ,jesus as the ,messiah1 crucified and risen4 ,desiring to be convinced before believing in the strange story1 let us suppose the following conversation between the apostles and ourselves4 ,we ask3 ,how long have you known ,jesus8 ,i have known him for one year4 ,and ,i for two4 ,and ,i for three4 ,has any of you known him for more than three years8 ,no4 ,was he with his apostles for one year or for three8 ,for one4 ,no1 for three4 ,you are not certain1 then1 how long ,jesus was with his apostles4 ,no4 ,how old was ,jesus when crucified8 ,about thirty-one4 ,no1 about thirty-three4 ,no1 he was much older1 about fifty4 ,you cannot tell with any certainty1 then1 his age at the time of his death4 ,no4 ,you say he was tried and crucified in ,jerusalem before your own eyes1 can you remember the date of this great event8 ,we cannot4 ,were you present when ,jesus was taken down from the cross8 ,we were not4 ,you cannot tell1 then1 whether he was dead when taken down4 ,we have no personal knowledge4 ,were you present when he was buried8 ,we were not1 because we were in hiding for our lives4 ,you do not know1 therefore1 whether he was actually buried1 or where he was buried4 ,we do not4 ,were any of you present when ,jesus came forth from the grave8 ,not one of us was present1 ,then1 you were not with him when he was taken down from the cross2 you were not with him when he was interred1 and you were not present when he rose from the grave4 ,we were not4 ,when1 therefore1 you say1 he was dead1 buried and rose again1 you are relying upon the testimony of others8 ,we are4 ,will you mention the names of some of the witnesses who saw ,jesus come forth from the tomb8 ,mary ,magdalene1 and she is here and may be questioned4 ,were you present1 ,mary1 when the angels rolled away the stone1 and when ,jesus came forth from the dead8 ,no1 when ,i reached the burying place early in the morning1 the grave had already been vacated1 and there was no one sleeping in it4 ,you saw him1 then1 as the apostles did1 after he had risen8 ,yes4 ,but you did not see anybody rise out of the grave4 ,i did not4 ,are there any witnesses who saw the resurrection8 ,there are many who saw him after the resurrection4 ,but if neither they nor you saw him dead1 and buried1 and did not see him rise1 either1 how can you tell that a most astounding and supposedly impossible miracle had taken place between the time you saw him last and when you saw him again two or three days after8 ,is it not more natural to suppose that1 being in a hurry on account of the approaching ,sabbath1 ,jesus1 if ever crucified1 was taken down from the cross before he had really died1 and that he was not buried1 as rumor states1 but remained in hiding2 and his showing himself to you under cover of darkness and in secluded spots and in the dead of night only1 would seem to confirm this explanation4 ,you admit also that the risen ,jesus did not present himself at the synagogues of the people1 in the public streets1 or at the palace of the ,high ,priest to convince them of his ,messiahship4 ,do you not think that if he had done this1 it would then have been impossible to deny his resurrection8 ,why1 then1 did ,jesus hide himself after he came out of the grave8 ,why did he not show himself also to his enemies8 ,was he still afraid of them1 or did he not care whether they believed or not8 ,if so1 why are you trying to convert them8 ,the question waits for a reasonable answer2 ,why did not ,jesus challenge the whole world with the evidence of his resurrection8 ,you say you saw him occasionally1 a few moments at a time1 now here1 and now there1 and finally on the top of a mountain whence he was caught up in a cloud and disappeared altogether4 ,but that cloud has melted away1 the sky is clear1 and there is no ,jesus visible there4 ,the cloud1 then1 had nothing to hide4 ,it was unnecessary to call in a cloud to close the career of your ,christ4 ,the grave is empty1 the cloud has vanished4 ,where is ,christ8 ,in heaven6 ,ah1 you have at last removed him to a world unknown1 to the undiscovered country4 ,leave him there6 ,criticism1 doubt1 investigation1 the light of day1 cannot cross its shores4 ,leave him there6 ,illustration3 ,st4 ,margaret of the ,catholic ,church1 ,westminster1 ,england4 ,illustration3 ,the ,goddess ,astarte ,carrying a ,cross1 ,british ,museum4 ,,the ,,jesus ,,of ,,paul ,the central figure of the ,new ,testament is ,jesus1 and the question we are trying to answer is1 whether we have sufficient evidence to prove to the unbiased mind that he is historical4 ,an idea of the intellectual caliber of the average churchman may be had by the nature of the evidence he offers to justify his faith in the historical ,jesus4 ,the whole world celebrates annually the nativity of ,jesus2 how could there be a ,christmas celebration if there never was a ,christ8 asks a ,chicago clergyman4 ,the simplicity of this plea would be touching were it not that it calls attention to the painful inefficiency of the pulpit as an educator4 ,the church goer is trained to believe1 not to think4 ,the truth is withheld from him under the pious pretense that faith1 and not knowledge1 is the essential thing4 ,a habit of untruthfulness is cultivated by systematically sacrificing everything to orthodoxy4 ,this habit in the end destroys one's conscience for any truths which are prejudicial to one's interest4 ,but is it true that the ,christmas celebration proves a historical ,jesus8 ,we can only offer a few additional remarks to what we have already said elsewhere in these pages on the ,pagan origin of ,christmas4 ,it will make us grateful to remember that just as we have to go to the ,pagans for the origins of our civilized institutions--our courts of justice1 our art and literature1 and our political and religious liberties--we must thank them also for our merry festivals1 such as ,christmas and ,easter4 ,the ignorant1 of course1 do not know anything about the value and wealth of the legacy bequeathed to us by our glorious ancestors of ,greek and ,roman times1 but the educated can have no excuse for any failure to own their everlasting indebtedness to the ,pagans4 ,it will be impossible today to write the history of civilization without giving to the classical world the leading role4 ,but while accepting the gifts of the ,pagan peoples we have abused the givers4 ,a beneficiary who will defame a bounteous benefactor is unworthy of his good fortune4 ,i regret to say that the ,christian church1 notwithstanding that it owes many of its most precious privileges to the ,pagans1 has returned for service rendered insolence and vituperation4 ,no generous or just institution would treat a rival as ,christianity has treated ,paganism4 ,both ,christmas and ,easter are ,pagan festivals4 ,we do not know1 no one knows1 when ,jesus was born2 but we know the time of the winter solstice when the sun begins to retrace his steps1 turning his radiant face toward our earth once more4 ,it was this event1 a natural1 demonstrable1 universal1 event1 that our ,european ancestors celebrated with song and dance--with green branches1 through which twinkled a thousand lighted candles1 and with the exchange of good wishes and gifts4 ,has the church had the courage to tell its people that ,christmas is a ,pagan festival which was adopted and adapted by the ,christian world1 reluctantly at first1 and in the end as a measure of compromise only8 ,the ,protestants1 especially1 conveniently forget the severe ,puritanic legislation against the observance of this ,pagan festival1 both in ,england and ,america4 ,it is the return to ,paganism which has given to ,christmas and ,easter their great popularity1 as it is the revival of ,paganism which is everywhere replacing the ,bible ideas of monarchic government with republicanism4 ,and yet1 repeatedly1 and without any scruples of conscience1 preacher and people claim these festivals as the gifts of their creed to humanity1 and quote them further to prove the historical existence of their god-man1 ,jesus4 ,it was this open and persistent perversion of history by the church1 the manufacture of evidence on the one hand1 the suppression of witnesses prejudiced to her interests on the other1 and the deliberate forging of documents1 which provoked ,carlyle into referring to one of its branches as the great lying ,church4 ,we have said enough to show that1 in all probability--for let us not be dogmatic--the story of ,jesus1--his birth and betrayal by one of his own disciples1 his trial in a ,roman court1 his crucifixion1 resurrection and ascension1--belongs to the order of imaginative literature4 ,conceived at first as a religious drama1 it received many new accretions as it traveled from country to country and from age to age4 ,the piece shows signs of having been touched and retouched to make it acceptable to the different countries in which it was played4 ,the hand of the adapter1 the interpolator and the reviser is unmistakably present4 ,as an allegory1 or as a dramatic composition1 meant for the religious stage1 it proved one of the strongest productions of ,pagan or ,christian times4 ,but as real history1 it lacks the fundamental requisite--probability4 ,as a play1 it is stirring and strong2 as history1 it lacks naturalness and consistency4 ,the miraculous is ever outside the province of history4 ,jesus was a miracle1 and as such1 at least1 we are safe in declaring him un- historical4 ,we pass on now to the presentation of evidence which we venture to think demonstrates with an almost mathematic precision1 that the ,jesus of the four gospels is a legendary hero1 as unhistorical as ,william ,tell of ,switzerland4 ,this evidence is furnished by the epistles bearing the signature of ,paul4 ,he has been accepted as not only the greatest apostle of ,christianity1 but in a sense also the author of its theology4 ,it is generally admitted that the epistles bearing the name of ,paul are among the oldest apostolical writings4 ,they are older than the gospels4 ,this is very important information4 ,when ,paul was preaching1 the four gospels had not yet been written4 ,from the epistles of ,paul1 of which there are about thirteen in the ,bible--making the ,new ,testament largely the work of this one apostle--we learn that there were in different parts of ,asia1 a number of ,christian churches already established4 ,not only ,paul1 then1 but also the ,christian church was in existence before the gospels were composed4 ,it would be natural to infer that it was not the gospels which created the church1 but the church which produced the gospels4 ,do not lose sight of the fact that when ,paul was preaching to the ,christians there was no written biography of ,jesus in existence4 ,there was a church without a book4 ,in comparing the ,jesus of ,paul with the ,jesus whose portrait is drawn for us in the gospels1 we find that they are not the same persons at all4 ,this is decisive4 ,paul knows nothing about a miraculously born savior4 ,he does not mention a single time1 in all his thirteen epistles1 that ,jesus was born of a virgin1 or that his birth was accompanied with heavenly signs and wonders4 ,he knew nothing of a ,jesus born after the manner of the gospel writers4 ,it is not imaginable that he knew the facts1 but suppressed them1 or that he considered them unimportant1 or that he forgot to refer to them in any of his public utterances4 ,today1 a preacher is expelled from his denomination if he suppresses or ignores the miraculous conception of the ,son of ,god2 but ,paul was guilty of that very heresy4 ,how explain it8 ,it is quite simple3 ,the virgin-born ,jesus was not yet invented when ,paul was preaching ,christianity4 ,neither he1 nor the churches he had organized1 had ever heard of such a person4 ,the virgin-born ,jesus was of later origin than the ,apostle ,paul4 ,let the meaning of this discrepancy between the ,jesus of ,paul1 that is to say1 the earliest portrait of ,jesus1 and the ,jesus of the four evangelists1 be fully grasped by the student1 and it should prove beyond a doubt that in ,paul's time the story of ,jesus' birth from the virgin-mother and the ,holy ,ghost1 which has since become a cardinal dogma of the ,christian church1 was not yet in circulation4 ,jesus had not yet been ,hellenized2 he was still a ,jewish ,messiah whose coming was foretold in the ,old ,testament1 and who was to be a prophet like unto ,moses1 without the remotest suggestion of a supernatural origin4 ,no proposition in ,euclid is safer from contradiction than that1 if ,paul knew what the gospels tell about ,jesus1 he would have1 at least once or twice during his long ministry1 given evidence of his knowledge of it4 ,the conclusion is inevitable that the gospel ,jesus is later than ,paul and his churches4 ,paul stood nearest to the time of ,jesus4 ,of those whose writings are supposed to have come down to us1 he is the most representative1 and his epistles are the first literature of the new religion4 ,and yet there is absolutely not a single hint or suggestion in them of such a ,jesus as is depicted in the gospels4 ,the gospel ,jesus was not yet put together or compiled1 when ,paul was preaching4 ,once more2 if we peruse carefully and critically the writings of ,paul1 the earliest and greatest ,christian apostle and missionary1 we find that he is not only ignorant of the gospel stories about the birth and miracles of ,jesus1 but he is equally and just as innocently ignorant of the teachings of ,jesus4 ,in the gospels ,jesus is the author of the ,sermon on the ,mount1 the ,lord's ,prayer1 the ,parable of the ,prodigal ,son1 the ,story of ,dives1 the ,good ,samaritan1 etc4 ,is it conceivable that a preacher of ,jesus could go throughout the world to convert people to the teachings of ,jesus1 as ,paul did1 without ever quoting a single one of his sayings8 ,had ,paul known that ,jesus had preached a sermon1 or formulated a prayer1 or said many inspired things about the here and the hereafter1 he could not have helped quoting1 now and then1 from the words of his master4 ,if ,christianity could have been established without a knowledge of the teachings of ,jesus1 why1 then1 did ,jesus come to teach1 and why were his teachings preserved by divine inspiration8 ,but if a knowledge of these teachings of ,jesus is indispensable to making converts1 ,paul gives not the least evidence that he possessed such knowledge4 ,but the ,apostle ,paul1 judging from his many epistles to the earliest converts to ,christianity1 which are really his testimony1 supposed to have been sealed by his blood1 appears to be quite as ignorant of a ,jesus who went about working miracles1--opening the eyes of the blind1 giving health to the sick1 hearing to the deaf1 and life to the dead1--as he is of a ,jesus born of a virgin woman and the ,holy ,ghost4 ,is not this remarkable8 ,does it not lend strong confirmation to the idea that the miracle-working ,jesus of the gospels was not known in ,paul's time1 that is to say1 the earliest ,jesus known to the churches was a person altogether different from his namesake in the four evangelists4 ,if ,paul knew of a miracle-working ,jesus1 one who could feed the multitude with a few loaves and fishes--who could command the grave to open1 who could cast out devils1 and cleanse the land of the foulest disease of leprosy1 who could1 and did1 perform many other wonderful works to convince the unbelieving generation of his divinity1--is it conceivable that either intentionally or inadvertently he would have never once referred to them in all his preaching8 ,is it not almost certain that1 if the earliest ,christians knew of the miracles of ,jesus1 they would have been greatly surprised at the failure of ,paul to refer to them a single time8 ,and would not ,paul have told them of the promise of ,jesus to give them power to work even greater miracles than his own1 had he known of such a promise4 ,could ,paul really have left out of his ministry so essential a chapter from the life of ,jesus1 had he been acquainted with it8 ,the miraculous fills up the greater portion of the four gospels1 and if these documents were dictated by the ,holy ,ghost1 it means that they were too important to be left out4 ,why1 then1 does not ,paul speak of them at all8 ,there is only one reasonable answer3 ,a miracle-working ,jesus was unknown to ,paul4 ,what would we say of a disciple of ,tolstoi1 for example1 who came to ,america to make converts to ,count ,tolstoi and never once quoted anything that ,tolstoi had said8 ,or what would we think of the ,christian missionaries who go to ,india1 ,china1 ,japan and ,africa to preach the gospel1 if they never mentioned to the people of these countries the ,sermon on the ,mount1 the ,parable of the ,prodigal ,son1 the ,lord's ,prayer--nor quoted a single text from the gospels8 ,yet ,paul1 the first missionary1 did the very thing which would be inexplicable in a modern missionary4 ,there is only one rational explanation for this3 ,the ,jesus of ,paul was not born of a virgin2 he did not work miracles2 and he was not a teacher4 ,it was after his day that such a ,jesus was--,i have to use again a strong word--invented4 ,it has been hinted by certain professional defenders of ,christianity that ,paul's specific mission was to introduce ,christianity among the ,gentiles1 and not to call attention to the miraculous element in the life of his ,master4 ,but this is a very lame defense4 ,what is ,christianity1 but the life and teachings of ,jesus8 ,and how can it be introduced among the ,gentiles without a knowledge of the doctrines and works of its founder8 ,paul gives no evidence of possessing any knowledge of the teachings of ,jesus1 how could he1 then1 be a missionary of ,christianity to the heathen8 ,there is no other answer which can be given than that the ,christianity of ,paul was something radically different from the ,christianity of the later gospel writers1 who in all probability were ,greeks and not ,jews4 ,moreover1 it is known that ,paul was reprimanded by his fellow-apostles for carrying ,christianity to the ,gentiles4 ,what better defense could ,paul have given for his conduct than to have quoted the commandment of ,jesus-- ,go ye into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature4 ,and he would have quoted the divine text had he been familiar with it4 ,nay1 the other apostles would not have taken him to task for obeying the commandment of ,jesus had they been familiar with such a commandment4 ,it all goes to support the proposition that the gospel ,jesus was of a date later than the apostolic times4 ,that the authorities of the church realize how damaging to the reality of the gospel ,jesus is the inexplicable silence of ,paul concerning him1 may be seen in their vain effort to find in a passage put in ,paul's mouth by the unknown author of the book of ,acts1 evidence that ,paul does quote the sayings of ,jesus4 ,the passage referred to is the following3 ,it is more blessed to give than to receive4 ,paul is made to state that this was a saying of ,jesus4 ,in the first place1 this quotation is not in the epistles of ,paul1 but in the ,acts1 of which ,paul was not the author2 in the second place1 there is no such quotation in the gospels4 ,the position1 then1 that there is not a single saying of ,jesus in the gospels which is quoted by ,paul in his many epistles is unassailable1 and certainly fatal to the historicity of the gospel ,jesus4 ,again1 from ,paul himself we learn that he was a zealous ,hebrew1 a ,pharisee of ,pharisees1 studying with ,gamaliel in ,jerusalem1 presumably to become a rabbi4 ,is it possible that such a man could remain totally ignorant of a miracle worker and teacher like ,jesus1 living in the same city with him8 ,if ,jesus really raised ,lazarus from the grave1 and entered ,jerusalem at the head of a procession1 waving branches and shouting1 hosanna--if he was really crucified in ,jerusalem1 and ascended from one of its environs--is it possible that ,paul neither saw ,jesus nor heard anything about these miracles8 ,but if he knew all these things about ,jesus1 is it possible that he could go through the world preaching ,christ without ever once referring to them8 ,it is more likely that when ,paul was studying in ,jerusalem there was no miraculous ,jesus living or teaching in any part of ,judea4 ,if men make their gods they also make their ,christs4 ,footnote3 ,christianity and ,mythology4 ,j4 ,m4 ,robertson1 to whom the author acknowledges his indebtedness1 for the difference between ,paul's ,jesus and that of the ,gospels4 ,it is frequently urged that it was impossible for a band of illiterate fishermen to have created out of their own fancy so glorious a character as that of ,jesus1 and that it would be more miraculous to suppose that the unique sayings of ,jesus and his incomparably perfect life were invented by a few plain people than to believe in his actual existence4 ,but it is not honest to throw the question into that form4 ,we do not know who were the authors of the gospels4 ,it is pure assumption that they were written by plain fishermen4 ,the authors of the gospels do not disclose their identity4 ,the words1 according to ,matthew1 ,mark1 etc41 represent only the guesses or opinions of translators and copyists4 ,both in the gospels and in ,christian history the apostles are represented as illiterate men4 ,but if they spoke ,greek1 and could also write in ,greek1 they could not have been just plain fishermen4 ,that they were ,greeks1 not ,jews1 and more or less educated1 may be safely inferred from the fact that they all write in ,greek1 and one of them at least seems to be acquainted with the ,alexandrian school of philosophy4 ,jesus was supposedly a ,jew1 his twelve apostles all ,jews--how is it1 then1 that the only biographies of him extant are all in ,greek8 ,if his fishermen disciples were capable of composition in ,greek1 they could not have been illiterate men1 if they could not have written in ,greek--which was a rare accomplishment for a ,jew1 according to what ,josephus says--then the gospels were not written by the apostles of ,jesus4 ,but the fact that though these documents are in a language alien both to ,jesus and his disciples1 they are unsigned and undated1 goes to prove1 we think1 that their editors or authors wished to conceal their identity that they may be taken for the apostles themselves4 ,in the next place it is equally an assumption that the portrait of ,jesus is incomparable4 ,it is now proven beyond a doubt that there is not a single saying of ,jesus1 ,i say this deliberately1 which had not already been known both among the ,jews and ,pagans4 ,footnote3 ,sometimes it is urged by pettifogging clergymen that1 while it is true that ,confucius gave the ,golden ,rule six hundred years before ,jesus1 it was in a negative form4 ,confucius said1 ,do not unto another what you would not another to do unto you4 ,jesus said1 ,do unto others1 etc4 ,but every negative has its corresponding affirmation4 ,moreover1 are not the ,ten ,commandments in the negative8 ,but the ,greek sages gave the ,golden ,rule in as positive a form as we find it in the ,gospels4 ,and may ,i do to others as ,i would that others should do to me1 said ,plato4--,jowett ,trans41 ,v4--#dhc4 ,p4 ,besides1 if the only difference between ,jesus and ,confucius1 the one a ,god1 the other a mere man1 was that they both said the same thing1 the one in the negative1 the other in the positive1 it is not enough to prove ,jesus infinitely superior to ,confucius4 ,many of ,jesus' own commandments are in the negative3 ,resist not evil1 for instance4 ,and as to his life2 it is in no sense superior or even as large and as many sided as that of ,socrates4 ,i know some consider it blasphemy to compare ,jesus with ,socrates1 but that must be attributed to prejudice rather than to reason4 ,and to the question that if ,jesus be mythical1 we cannot account for the rise and progress of the ,christian church1 we answer that the ,pagan gods who occupied ,mount ,olympus were all mythical beings--mere shadows1 and yet ,paganism was the religion of the most advanced and cultured nations of antiquity4 ,how could an imaginary ,zeus1 or ,jupiter1 draw to his temple the elite of ,greece and ,rome8 ,and if there is nothing strange in the rise and spread of the ,pagan church2 in the rapid progress of the worship of ,osiris1 who never existed2 in the wonderful success of the religion of ,mithra1 who is but a name2 if the worship of ,adonis1 of ,attis1 of ,isis1 and the legends of ,heracles1 ,prometheus1 ,hercules1 and the ,hindoo trinity1--,brahma1 ,shiva1 ,chrishna1--with their rock-hewn temples1 can be explained without believing in the actual existence of these gods--why not ,christianity8 ,religions1 like everything else1 are born1 they grow old and die4 ,they show the handiwork of whole races1 and of different epochs1 rather than of one man or of one age4 ,time gives them birth1 and changing environments determine their career4 ,just as the portrait of ,jesus we see in shops and churches is an invention1 so is his character4 ,the artist gave him his features1 the theologian his attributes4 ,what are the elements out of which the ,jesus story was evolved8 ,the ,jewish people were in constant expectation of a ,messiah4 ,the belief prevailed that his name would be ,joshua1 which in ,english is ,jesus4 ,the meaning of the word is savior4 ,in ancient ,syrian mythology1 ,joshua was a ,sun ,god4 ,the ,old-,testament ,joshua1 who stopped the ,sun1 was in all probability this same ,syrian divinity4 ,according to tradition this ,joshua1 or ,jesus1 was the son of ,mary1 a name which with slight variations is found in nearly all the old mythologies4 ,greek and ,hindoo divinities were mothered by either a ,mary1 ,meriam1 ,myrrah1 or ,merri4 ,maria or ,mares is the oldest word for sea--the earliest source of life4 ,the ancients looked upon the sea-water as the mother of every living thing4 ,joshua 7or ,jesus71 son of ,mary1 was already a part of the religious outfit of the ,asiatic world when ,paul began his missionary tours4 ,his ,jesus1 or anointed one1 crucified or slain1 did in no sense represent a new or original message4 ,it is no more strange that ,paul's mythological savior should loom into prominence and cast a spell over all the world1 than that a mythical ,apollo or ,jupiter should rule for thousands of years over the fairest portions of the earth4 ,it is also well known that there is in the ,talmud the story of a ,jesus1 ,ben1 or son1 of ,pandira1 who lived about a hundred years before the ,gospel ,jesus1 and who was hanged from a tree4 ,i believe this ,jesus is quite as legendary as the ,syrian ,hesous1 or ,joshua4 ,but may it not be that such a legend accepted as true--to the ancients all legends were true--contributed its share toward marking the outlines of the later ,jesus1 hanged on a cross8 ,my idea has been to show that the materials for a ,jesus myth were at hand1 and that1 therefore1 to account for the rise and progress of the ,christian cult is no more difficult than to explain the widely spread religion of the ,indian ,chrishna1 or of the ,persian ,mithra4 ,footnote3 ,for a fuller discussion of the various christs in mythology read ,robertson's ,christianity and ,mythology and his ,pagan ,christs4 ,now1 why have ,i given these conclusions to the world8 ,would ,i not have made more friends--provoked a warmer response from the public at large--had ,i repeated in pleasant accents the familiar phrases about the glory and beauty and sweetness of the ,savior ,god1 the ,virgin-born ,christ8 ,instead of that1 ,i have run the risk of alienating the sympathies of my fellows by intimating that this ,jesus whom ,christendom worships today as a god1 this ,jesus at whose altar the ,christian world bends its knees and bows its head1 is as much of an idol as was ,apollo of the ,greeks2 and that we--we ,americans of the twentieth century--are an idolatrous people1 inasmuch as we worship a name1 or at most1 a man of whom we know nothing provable4 ,illustration3 ,italian ,sculpture of the ,x ,century4 ,,is ,,christianity ,,real8 ,it is assumed1 without foundation1 as ,i hope to show1 that the religion of ,jesus alone can save the world4 ,we are not surprised at the claim1 because there has never been a religion which has been too modest to make a similar claim4 ,no religion has ever been satisfied to be one of the saviors of man4 ,each religion wants to be the only savior of man4 ,there is no monopoly like religious monopoly4 ,the industrial corporations with all their greed are less exacting than the ,catholic church1 for instance1 which keeps heaven itself under lock and key4 ,but what is meant by salvation8 ,let us consider its religious meaning first4 ,an unbiased investigation of the dogmas and their supposed historical foundations will prove that the salvation which ,christianity offers1 and the means by which it proposes to effect the world's salvation1 are extremely fanciful in nature4 ,if this point could be made clear1 there will be less reluctance on the part of the public to listen to the evidence on the un-historicity of the founder of ,christianity4 ,we are told that ,god1 who is perfect1 created this world about half a hundred centuries ago4 ,of course1 being perfect himself the world which he created was perfect1 too4 ,but the world did not stay perfect very long4 ,nay1 from the heights it fell1 not slowly1 but suddenly1 into the lowest depths of degradation4 ,how a world which ,god had created perfect1 could in the twinkling of an eye become so vile as to be cursed by the same being who a moment before had pronounced it good1 and besides be handed over to the devil as fuel for eternal burnings1 only credulity can explain4 ,i am giving the story of what is called the plan of salvation1 in order to show its mythical nature4 ,in the preceding pages we have discussed the question1 ,is ,jesus a ,myth1 but ,i believe that when we have reflected upon the story of man's fall and his supposed subsequent salvation by the blood of ,jesus1 we shall conclude that the function1 or the office1 which ,jesus is said to perform1 is as mythical as his person4 ,the story of ,eden possesses all the marks of an allegory4 ,adam and ,eve1 and a perfect world suddenly plunged from a snowy whiteness into the blackness of hell1 are the thoughts of a child who exaggerates because of an as yet undisciplined fancy4 ,yet1 if ,adam and ,eve are unreal1 theologically speaking1 ,jesus is unreal4 ,if they are allegory and myth1 so is ,jesus4 ,it is claimed that it was the fall of ,adam which necessitated the death of ,jesus1 but if ,adam's fall be a fiction1 as we know it is1 ,jesus' death as an atonement must also be a fiction4 ,in the fall of ,adam1 we are told1 humanity itself fell4 ,could anything be more fanciful than that8 ,and what was ,adam's sin8 ,he coveted knowledge4 ,he wished to improve his mind4 ,he experimented with forbidden things4 ,he dared to take the initiative4 ,and for that imaginary crime1 even the generations not yet born are to be forever blighted4 ,even the animals1 the flowers and vegetables were cursed for it4 ,can you conceive of anything more mythical than that8 ,one of the ,english divines of the age of ,calvin declared that original sin1--,adam's sin imputed to us1--was so awful1 that if a man had never been born he would yet have been damned for it4 ,it is from this mythical sin that a mythical ,savior saves us4 ,and how does he do it8 ,in a very mythical way1 as we shall see4 ,when the world fell1 it fell into the devil's hands4 ,to redeem a part of it1 at least1 the deity concludes to give up his only son for a ransom4 ,this is interesting4 ,god is represented as being greatly offended1 because the world which he had created perfect was all in a heap before him4 ,to placate himself he sacrificed his son--not himself4 ,but1 as intimated above1 he does not intend to restore the whole world to its pristine purity1 but only a part of it4 ,this is alarming4 ,he creates the whole world perfect1 but now he is satisfied to have only a portion of it redeemed from the devil4 ,if he can save at all1 pray1 why not save all8 ,this is not an irrelevant question when it is remembered that the whole world was created perfect in the first place4 ,the refusal of the deity to save all of his world from the devil would lead one to believe that even when ,god created the world perfect he did not mean to keep all of it to himself1 but meant that some of it1 the greater part of it1 as some theologians contend1 should go to the devil6 ,surely this is nothing but myth4 ,let us hope for the sake of our ideals that all this is no more than the childish prattle of primitive man4 ,but let us return to the story of the fall of man2 ,god decides to save a part of his ruined perfect world by the sacrifice of his son4 ,the latter is supposed to have said to his father3 ,punish me1 kill me1 accept my blood1 and let it pay for the sins of man4 ,he thus interceded for the elect1 and the deity was mollified4 ,as ,jesus is also ,god1 it follows that one ,god tried to pacify another1 which is pure myth4 ,some theologians have another theory--there is room here for many theories4 ,according to these1 ,god gave up his son as a ransom1 not to himself1 but to the devil1 who now claimed the world as his own4 ,i heard a distinguished minister explain this in the following manner3 ,a poor man whose house is mortgaged hears that some philanthropist has redeemed the property by paying off the mortgage4 ,the soul of man was by the fall of ,adam mortgaged to the devil4 ,god has raised the mortgage by abandoning his son to be killed to satisfy the devil who held the mortgage4 ,the debt which we owed has been paid by ,jesus4 ,by this arrangement the devil loses his legal right to our souls and we are saved4 ,all we need to do is to believe in this story and we'll be sure to go to heaven4 ,and to think that intelligent ,americans not only accept all this as inspired1 but denounce the man who ventures to intimate modestly that it might be a myth1 as a blasphemer6 ,o1 judgment6 cries ,shakespeare1 thou hast fled to brutish beasts1 and men have lost their reason4 ,the morality which the ,christian church teaches is of as mythical a nature as the story of the fall1 and the blood-atonement4 ,it is not natural morality1 but something quite unintelligible and fictitious4 ,for instance1 we are told that we cannot of ourselves be righteous4 ,we must first have the grace of ,god4 ,then we are told that we cannot have the grace of ,god unless he gives it to us4 ,and he will not give it to us unless we ask for it4 ,but we cannot ask for it1 unless he moves us to ask for it4 ,and there we are4 ,we shall be damned if we do not come to ,god1 and we cannot come to ,god unless he calls us4 ,besides1 could anything be more mythical than a righteousness which can only be imputed to us1--any righteousness of our own being but filthy rags8 ,the ,christian religion has the appearance of being one great myth1 constructed out of many minor myths4 ,it is the same with ,mohammedanism1 or ,judaism1 which latter is the mischievous parent of both the ,mohammedan and the ,christian faiths4 ,it is the same with all supernatural creeds4 ,myth is the dominating element in them all4 ,compared with these ,asiatic religions how glorious is science6 ,how wholesome1 helpful1 and luminous1 are her commandments6 ,if ,i were to command you to believe that ,mount ,olympus was once tenanted by blue-eyed gods and their consorts1--sipping nectar and ambrosia the live-long day1--you will answer1 ,oh1 that is only mythology4 ,if ,i were to tell you that you cannot be saved unless you believe that ,minerva was born full-fledged from the brain of ,jupiter1 you will laugh at me4 ,if ,i were to tell you that you must punish your innocent sons for the guilt of their brothers and sisters1 you will answer that ,i insult your moral sense4 ,and yet1 every ,sunday1 the preacher repeats the myth of ,adam and ,eve1 and how ,god killed his innocent son to please himself1 or to satisfy the devil1 and with bated breath1 and on your knees1 you whisper1 ,amen4 ,how is it that when you read the literature of the ,greeks1 the literature of the ,persians1 the literature of ,hindoostan1 or of the ,mohammedan world1 you discriminate between fact and fiction1 between history and myth1 but when it comes to the literature of the ,jews1 you stammer1 you stutter1 you bite your lips1 you turn pale1 and fall upon your face before it as the savage before his fetish8 ,you would consider it unreasonable to believe that everything a ,greek1 or a ,roman1 or an ,arab ever said was inspired4 ,and yet1 men have been hounded to death for not believing that everything that a ,jew ever said in olden times was inspired4 ,i do not have to use arguments1 ,i hope1 to prove to an intelligent public that an infallible book is as much a myth as the ,garden of ,eden1 or the ,star of ,bethlehem4 ,a mythical ,savior1 a mythical ,bible1 a mythical plan of salvation6 ,when we subject what are called religious truths to the same tests by which we determine scientific or historical truths1 we discover that they are not truths at all2 they are only opinions4 ,any statement which snaps under the strain of reason is unworthy of credence4 ,but it is claimed that religious truth is discovered by intuition and not by investigation4 ,the believer1 it is claimed1 feels in his own soul--he has the witness of the spirit1 that the ,bible is infallible1 and that ,jesus is the ,savior of man4 ,the ,christian does not have to look into the arguments for or against his religion1 it is said1 before he makes up his mind2 he knows by an inward assurance2 he has proved it to his own deepermost being that ,jesus is real and that he is the only ,savior4 ,but what is that but another kind of argument8 ,the argument is quite inadequate to inspire assurance1 as you will presently see1 but it is an argument nevertheless4 ,to say that we must believe and not reason is a kind of reasoning1 ,this device of reasoning against reasoning is resorted to by people who have been compelled by modern thought to give up1 one after another1 the strongholds of their position4 ,they run under shelter of what they call faith1 or the inward witness of the spirit1 or the intuitive argument1 hoping thereby to escape the enemy's fire1 if ,i may use so objectionable a phrase4 ,what is called faith1 then1 or an intuitive spiritual assurance1 is a species of reasoning2 let its worth be tested honestly4 ,in the first place1 faith or the intuitive argument would prove too much4 ,if ,jesus is real1 notwithstanding that there is no reliable historical data to warrant the belief1 because the believer feels in his own soul that ,he is real and divine1 ,i answer that1 the same mode of reasoning--and let us not forget1 it is a kind of reasoning--would prove ,mohammed a divine savior1 and the wooden idol of the savage a god4 ,the ,african ,bushman trembles before an image1 because he feels in his own soul that the thing is real4 ,does that make it real8 ,the ,moslem cries unto ,mohammed1 because he believes in his innermost heart that ,mohammed is near and can hear him4 ,he will risk his life on that assurance4 ,to quote to him history and science to prove that ,mohammed is dead and unable to save1 would be of no avail1 for he has the witness of the spirit in him1 an intuitive assurance1 that the great prophet sits on the right hand of ,allah4 ,an argument which proves too much1 proves nothing4 ,in the second place1 an intuition is not communicable4 ,i may have an intuition that ,i see spirits all about me this morning4 ,they come1 they go1 they nod1 they brush my forehead with their wings4 ,but do you see them1 too1 because ,i see them8 ,there is the difference between a scientific demonstration and a purely metaphysical assumption4 ,i could go to the blackboard and assure you1 as ,i am myself assured1 that two parallel lines running in the same direction will not and cannot meet4 ,that is demonstration4 ,a fever patient when in a state of delirium1 and a frightened child in the dark1 see things4 ,we do not deny that they do1 but their testimony does not prove that the things they see are real4 ,what is this ,i see before me8 cries ,macbeth1 the murderer1 and he shrieks and shakes from head to foot--he draws his sword and rushes upon ,banquo's ghost1 which he sees coldly staring at him4 ,but is that any proof that what he saw we could see also8 ,yes1 we could1 if we were in the same frenzy6 ,and it is the revivalist's aim1 by creating a general excitement1 to make everybody see things4 ,doctor1 ,doctor1 help6 they are coming to kill me2 there they are--the assassins1--one1 two1 three--oh1 help1 and the patient jumps out of bed to escape the banditti crowding in upon him4 ,but is that any reason why the attending physician1 his pulse normal and his brow cool1 should believe that the room is filling up with assassins8 ,i observe people jump up and down1 as they do in holiness meetings2 ,i hear them say they see angels1 they see ,jesus1 they feel his presence4 ,but is that any evidence for you or me8 ,an intuitive argument is not communicable1 and1 therefore1 it is no argument at all4 ,our orthodox friends are finally driven by modern thought1 which is growing bolder every day1 to the only refuge left for them4 ,it is the one already mentioned4 ,granted that ,jesus was an imaginary character1 even then1 as an ideal1 they argue1 he is an inspiration1 and the most effective moral force the world has ever known4 ,we do not care1 they say1 whether the story of his birth1 trial1 death1 and resurrection is myth or actual history2 such a man as ,jesus may never have existed1 the things he is reported as saying may have been put in his mouth by others1 but what of that--is not the picture of his character perfect8 ,are not the ,beatitudes beautiful--no matter who said them8 ,to strengthen this position they call our attention to ,shakespeare's creations1 the majority of whom--,hamlet1 ,othello1 ,lear1 ,portia1 ,imogen1 ,desdemona1 are fictitious4 ,yet where are there grander men1 or finer women8 ,these children of ,shakespeare may never have lived1 but1 surely1 they will never die4 ,in the same sense1 ,jesus may be just as ideal a character as those of ,shakespeare1 they say1 and still be the light of the world4 ,a ,new ,york preacher is reported as saying that if ,christianity is a lie1 it is a glorious lie4 ,my answer to the above is that such an argument evades instead of facing the question4 ,it is receding from a position under cover of a rhetorical manoeuvre4 ,it is a retreat in disguise4 ,if ,christianity is a glorious lie1 then call it such4 ,the question under discussion is1 ,is ,jesus ,historical8 ,to answer that it is immaterial whether or not he is historical1 is to admit that there is no evidence that he is historical4 ,to urge that1 unhistorical though he be1 he is1 nevertheless1 the only savior of the world1 is1 ,i regret to say1 not only evasive1--not only does it beg the question1 but it is also clearly dishonest4 ,how long will the tremendous ecclesiastical machinery last1 if it were candidly avowed that it is doubtful whether there ever was such a historical character as ,jesus1 or that in all probability he is no more real than one of ,shakespeare's creations8 ,what6 all these prayers1 these churches1 these denominations1 these sectarian wars which have shed oceans of human blood--these unfortunate persecutions which have blackened the face of man--the fear of hell and the devil which has blasted millions of lives--all these for a ,christ who may1 after all1 be only a picture6 ,neither is it true that this pictorial ,jesus saved the world4 ,he has had two thousand years to do it in1 but as missionaries are still being sent out1 it follows that the world is yet to be saved4 ,the argument presented elsewhere in these pages may here be recapitulated4 ,there was war before ,christianity2 has ,jesus abolished war8 ,there was poverty and misery in the world before ,christianity2 has ,jesus removed these evils8 ,there was ignorance in the world before ,christianity2 has ,jesus destroyed ignorance8 ,there were disease1 crime1 persecution1 oppression1 slavery1 massacres1 and bloodshed in the world before ,christianity2 alas1 are they not still with us8 ,when ,jesus shall succeed in pacifying his own disciples2 in healing the sectarian world of its endless and bitter quarrels1 then it will be time to ask what else ,jesus has done for humanity4 ,if the world is improving at all1 and we believe it is1 the progress is due to the fact that man pays now more attention to this life than formerly4 ,he is thinking less of the other world and more of this4 ,he no longer sings with the believer3 ,the world is all a fleeting show ,for man's delusion given4 ,its smiles of joy1 its tears of woe1 ,deceitful shine1 deceitful flow1 ,there's nothing true but heaven4 ,how could people with such feelings labor to improve a world they hated8 ,how could they be in the least interested in social or political reforms when they were constantly repeating to themselves-- ,i'm a pilgrim1 and ,i'm a stranger-- ,i can tarry1 ,i can tarry1 but a night4 ,that these same people should now claim not only a part of the credit for the many improvements1 but all of it--saying that1 but for their religion the world would now have been a hell1 ,footnote3 ,rev4 ,frank ,gunsaulus1 of the ,central ,church1 ,chicago4 ,see ,a ,new ,catechism4--,m4 ,m4 ,mangasarian4 is really a little too much for even the most serene temperament4 ,which of the religions has persecuted as long and as relentlessly as ,christianity8 ,which of the many faiths of the world has opposed ,science as stubbornly and as bitterly as ,christianity8 ,in the name of what other prophets have more people been burned at the stake than in the names of ,jesus and ,moses8 ,what other revelation has given rise to so many sects1 hostile and irreconcilable1 as the ,christian8 ,which religion has furnished as many effective texts for political oppression1 polygamy1 slavery1 and the subjection of woman as the religion of ,jesus and ,paul8 ,is there1--has there ever been another creed which makes salvation dependent on belief1--thereby encouraging hypocrisy1 and making honest inquiry a crime8 ,to send a thief to heaven from the gallows because he believes1 and an honest man to hell because he doubts1 is that the virtue which is going to save the world8 ,the claim that ,jesus has saved the world is another myth4 ,a pictorial ,christ1 then1 has not done anything for humanity to deserve the tremendous expenditure of time1 energy1 love1 and devotion1 which has for two thousand years taxed the resources of civilization4 ,the passing away of this imaginary savior will relieve the world of an unproductive investment4 ,we conclude3 ,honesty1 like charity1 must begin at home4 ,unless we can tell the truth in our churches we will never tell the truth in our shops4 ,unless our teachers1 the ministers of ,god1 are honest1 our insurance companies and corporations will have to be watched4 ,permit sham in your religious life1 and the disease will spread to every member of the social body4 ,if you may keep religion in the dark1 and cry hush1 hush1 when people ask that it be brought out into the light1 why may not politics or business cultivate a similar partiality for darkness8 ,if the king cries1 rebel1 when a citizen asks for justice1 it is because he has heard the priest cry1 infidel1 when a member of his church asked for evidence4 ,religious hypocrisy is the mother of all hypocrisies4 ,cure a man of that1 and the human world will recover its health4 ,not so long ago1 nearly everybody believed in the existence of a personal devil4 ,people saw him1 heard him1 described him1 danced with him1 and claimed1 besides1 to have whipped him4 ,luther hurled his inkstand at him1 and ,american women accused as witches were put to death in the name of the devil4 ,yet all this evidence has not saved the devil from passing out of existence4 ,what has happened to the devil will happen to the gods4 ,man is the only real savior4 ,if he is not a savior1 there is no other4 ,illustration3 ,the ,hindu ,trinity4 ,,part ,,ii4 ,,is ,,the ,,world ,,indebted ,,to ,,christianity8 ,but1 says the believer1 again1 as a last resort1 ,jesus1 whether real or mythical1 has certainly saved the world1 and is its only hope4 ,if this assertion can be supported with facts1 then surely it would matter very little whether ,jesus really lived and taught1 or whether he is a mere picture4 ,although even then it would be more truthful to say we have no satisfactory evidence that such a teacher as ,jesus ever lived1 than to affirm dogmatically his existence1 as it is now done4 ,whatever ,jesus may have done for the world1 he has certainly not freed us from the obligation of telling the truth4 ,i call special attention to this point4 ,because ,jesus has saved the world1 granting for the moment that he has1 is no reason why we should be indifferent to the truth4 ,nay1 it would show that ,jesus has not saved the world1 if we can go on and speak of him as an actual existence1 born of a virgin and risen from the dead1 and in his name persecute one another--oppose the advance of science1 deny freedom of thought1 terrorize children and women with pictures of hell-fire and seek to establish a spiritual monopoly in the world1 when the evidence in hand seems clearly to indicate that such a person never existed4 ,we shall quote a chapter from ,christian history to give our readers an idea of how much the religion of ,jesus1 when implicitly believed in1 can do for the world4 ,we have gone to the earliest centuries for our examples of the influence exerted by ,christianity upon the ambitions and passions of human nature1 because it is generally supposed that ,christianity was then at its best4 ,let us1 then1 present a picture of the world1 strictly speaking1 of the ,roman ,empire1 during the first four or five hundred years after its conversion to ,christianity4 ,we select this specific period1 because ,christianity was at this time fifteen hundred years nearer to its source1 and was more virile and aggressive than it has ever been since4 ,shakespeare speaks of the uses of adversity2 but the uses of prosperity are even greater4 ,the proverb says that adversity tries a man4 ,while there is considerable truth in this1 the fact is that prosperity is a much surer criterion of character4 ,it is impossible to tell1 for instance1 what a man will do who has neither the power nor the opportunity to do anything4 ,opportunity1 says a ,french writer1 is the cleverest devil4 ,both our good and bad qualities wait upon opportunity to show themselves4 ,it is quite easy to be virtuous when the opportunity to do evil is lacking4 ,behind the prison bars1 every criminal is a penitent1 but the credit belongs to the iron bars and not to the criminal4 ,to be good when one cannot be bad1 is an indifferent virtue4 ,it is with institutions and religions as with individuals--they should be judged not by what they pretend in their weakness1 but by what they do when they are strong4 ,christianity1 ,mohammedanism and ,judaism1 the three kindred religions--we call them kindred because they are related in blood and are the offspring of the same soil and climate--these three kindred religions must be interpreted not by what they profess today1 but by what they did when they had both the power and the opportunity to do as they wished4 ,when ,christianity1 or ,mohammedanism1 was professed only by a small handful of men--twelve fishermen1 or a dozen camel-drivers of the desert--neither party advocated persecution4 ,the worst punishment which either religion held out was a distant and a future punishment2 but as soon as ,christianity converted an ,emperor1 or ,mohammed became the victorious warrior1--that is to say1 as soon as1 springing forth1 they picked up the sword and felt their grip sure upon its hilt1 this future and distant punishment materialized into a present and persistent persecution of their opponents4 ,is not that suggestive8 ,then1 again1 when in the course of human evolution1 both ,christianity and ,mohammedanism lost the secular support--the throne1 the favor of the courts1 the imperial treasury--they fell back once more upon future penalties as the sole menace against an unbelieving world4 ,as religion grows1 secularly speaking1 weaker1 and is more completely divorced from the temporal1 even the future penalties1 from being both literal and frightful1 pale into harmless figures of speech4 ,it was but a short time after the conversion of the ,emperor ,constantine1 that the following edict was published throughout the provinces of the ,roman ,empire3 ,o ye enemies of truth1 authors and counsellors of death--we enact by this law that none of you dare hereafter to meet at your conventicles444nor keep any meetings either in public buildings or private houses4 ,we have commanded that all your places of meeting--your temples--be pulled down or confiscated to the ,catholic ,church4 ,the man who affixed his signature to this edict was a monarch1 that is to say1 a man who had the power to do as he liked4 ,the man and monarch1 then1 who affixed his imperial signature to this first document of persecution in ,europe--the first1 because1 as ,renan has beautifully remarked1 ,we may search in vain the whole ,roman law before ,constantine for a single passage against freedom of thought1 and the history of the imperial government furnishes no instance of a prosecution for entertaining an abstract doctrine1--this is glory enough for the civilization 'which we call ,pagan and which was replaced by the ,asiatic religion--the man and the monarch who fathered the first instrument of persecution in our ,europe1 who introduced into our midst the crazed hounds of religious wars1 unknown either in ,greece or ,rome1 ,constantine1 has been held up by ,cardinal ,newman as a pattern to all succeeding monarchs4 ,only an ,englishman1 a ,european1 infected with the malady of the ,east1 could hold up the author of such an edict1--an edict which prostitutes the ,state to the service of a fad--as a pattern4 ,if we asked for a modern illustration of what a church will do when it has the power1 there is the example of ,russia4 ,russia is today centuries behind the other ,european nations4 ,she is the most unfortunate1 the most ignorant1 the most poverty-pinched country1 with the most orthodox type of ,christianity4 ,what is the difference between ,greek ,christianity1 such as prevails in ,russia1 and ,american ,christianity6 ,only this3 ,the ,christian ,church in ,russia has both the power and the opportunity to do things1 while the ,christian church in ,america or in ,france has not4 ,we must judge ,christianity as a religion by what it does in ,russia1 more than by what it does not do in ,france or ,america4 ,there was a time when the church did in ,france and in ,england what it is doing now in ,russia1 which is a further confirmation of the fact that a religion must be judged not by what it pretends in its weakness1 but by what it does when it can4 ,in ,russia1 the priest can tie a man's hands and feet and deliver him up to the government2 and it does so4 ,in ,protestant countries1 the church1 being deprived of all its badges and prerogatives1 is more modest and humble4 ,the poet ,heine gives eloquent expression to this idea when he says3 ,religion comes begging to us1 when it can no longer burn us4 ,there will be no revolution in ,russia1 nor even any radical improvement of existing conditions1 so long as the ,greek ,church has the education of the masses in charge4 ,to become politically free1 men must first be intellectually emancipated4 ,if a ,russian is not permitted to choose his own religion1 will he be permitted to choose his own form of government8 ,if he will allow a priest to impose his religion upon him1 why may he not permit the ,czar to impose despotism upon him8 ,if it is wrong for him to question the tenets of his religion1 is it not equally wrong for him to discuss the laws of his government8 ,if a slave of the church1 why may he not be also a slave of the state8 ,if there is room upon his neck for the yoke of the church1 there will be room1 also1 for the yoke of the autocracy4 ,if he is in the habit of bending his knees1 what difference does it make to how many or to whom he bends them8 ,not until ,russia has become religiously emancipated1 will she conquer political freedom4 ,she must first cast out of her mind the fear of the church1 before she can enter into the glorious fellowship of the free4 ,in ,turkey1 all the misery of the people will not so much as cause a ripple of discontent1 because the ,moslem has been brought up to submit to the ,sultan as to the shadow on earth of ,allah4 ,both in ,russia and ,turkey1 the protestants are the heretics4 ,the orthodox ,turk and the orthodox ,christian permit without a murmur both the priest and the king to impose upon them at the point of a bayonet1 the one his religion1 and the other his government4 ,it is only by taking the education of the masses out of the hands of the clergy that either country can enjoy any prosperity4 ,orthodoxy and autocracy are twins4 ,let me now try to present to you a picture of the world under ,christianity about the year #djj of the present era4 ,let us discuss this phase of the subject in a liberal spirit1 extenuating nothing1 nor setting down aught in malice4 ,please interpret what ,i say in the next few minutes metaphorically1 and pardon me if my picture is a repellant one4 ,we are in the year of our ,lord1 #djj3 ,i rose up early this morning to go to church4 ,as ,i approached the building1 ,i saw there a great multitude of people unable to secure admission into the edifice4 ,the huge iron doors were closed1 and upon them was affixed a notice from the authorities1 to the effect that all who worshiped in this church would1 by the authority of the state1 be known and treated hereafter as infamous heretics1 and be exposed to the extreme penalty of the law if they persisted in holding services there4 ,but the party to which ,i belonged heeded not the prohibition1 but beat against the doors furiously and effected an entrance into the church4 ,the excitement ran high2 men and leaders shouted1 gesticulated and came to blows4 ,the ,archbishop was urged to ascend his episcopal throne and officiate at the altar in spite of the formal interdiction against him4 ,he consented4 ,but he had not proceeded far when soldiers1 with a wild rush1 poured into the building and began to discharge arrows at the panic-stricken people4 ,instantly pandemonium was let loose4 ,the officers commanding the soldiers demanded the head of the offending ,archbishop4 ,the worshipers made an attempt to resist2 then blood was shed1 the sight of which reeled people's heads1 and1 in an instant1 the sanctuary was turned into a house of murder4 ,taking advantage of the uproar1 the ,archbishop1 assisted by his secretaries1 escaped through a secret door behind the altar4 ,illustration3 ,engraving of ,,xv ,century ,representing the ,trinity4 ,on my way home from this terrible scene1 ,i fell upon a procession of monks4 ,they were carrying images and relics1 and a banner upon which were inscribed these words3 ,the ,virgin ,mary1 ,mother of ,god4 ,as they marched on1 their number increased by new additions4 ,but suddenly they encountered another band of monks1 carrying a different banner1 bearing the same words which were on the other party's banner1 but instead of ,the ,virgin ,mary1 ,mother of ,god1 their banner read3 ,the ,virgin ,mary1 ,mother of ,jesus ,christ4 ,the two processions clashed1 and a bloody encounter followed2 in an instant images1 relics and banners were all in an indiscriminate heap4 ,the troops were called out again1 but such was the zeal of the conflicting parties that not until the majority of them were disabled and exhausted1 was tranquility restored4 ,looking about me1 ,i saw the spire of a neighboring church4 ,my curiosity prompted me to wend my steps thither4 ,as soon as ,i entered1 ,i was recognized as belonging to the forbidden sect1 and in an instant a hundred fists rained down blows upon my head4 ,he has polluted the sanctuary1 they cried4 ,he has committed sacrilege4 ,no quarter to the enemies of the true church1 cried others1 and it was a miracle that1 beaten1 bruised1 my clothes torn from my back1 ,i regained the street4 ,a few seconds later1 looking up the streets1 ,i saw another troop of soldiers1 rushing down toward this church at full speed4 ,it seems that while ,i was being beaten in the main auditorium1 in the baptistry of the church they were killing1 in cold blood1 the ,archbishop1 who was suspected of a predilection for the opposite party1 and who had refused to retract or resign from his office4 ,the next day ,i heard that one hundred and thirty-seven bodies were taken out of this building4 ,seized with terror1 ,i now began to run1 but1 alas1 ,i had worse experiences in store for me4 ,i was compelled to pass the principal square in the center of the city before ,i could reach a place of safety4 ,when ,i reached this square1 it had the appearance of a veritable battlefield4 ,it was ,sunday morning1 and the partisans of rival bishops1 differing in their interpretation of theological doctrines1 were fighting each other like maddened1 malignant creatures4 ,one could hear1 over the babel of discordant yells1 scriptural phrases4 ,the words1 ,the ,son is equal to the ,father1 ,the ,father is greater than the ,son1 ,he is begotten of the same substance as the ,father1 ,he is of like substance1 but not of the same substance1 ,you are a heretic1 ,you are an atheist1 were invariably accompanied with blows1 stabs and sword thrusts1 until1 as an eye- witness1 ,i can take an oath that ,i saw the streets leading out of the square deluged with palpitating human blood4 ,suddenly the commander of the cavalry1 ,hermogenes1 rode upon the scene of feud and bloodshed4 ,he ordered the followers of the rival bishops to disperse1 but instead of minding his authority1 the zealots of both sides rushed upon his horse1 tore the rider from the saddle and began to beat him with clubs and stones which they picked up from the street4 ,he managed to escape into a house close by1 but the religious rabble surrounded the house and set fire to it4 ,hermogenes appeared at the window1 begging for his life4 ,he was attacked again1 and killed1 and his mangled body dragged through the streets and rushed into a ditch4 ,the spectacle inflamed me1 being a sectarian myself4 ,i felt ashamed that ,i was not showing an equal zeal for my party4 ,i1 too1 longed to fight1 to kill1 to be killed1 for my religion4 ,and1 anon6 the opportunity presented itself4 ,i saw1 looking up the street to my right1 a group of my fellow-believers1 who1 like myself1 shut out of their own church by the orthodox authorities1 armed with whips loaded with lead and with clubs1 were entering a house4 ,i followed them4 ,as we went in1 we commanded the head of the family and his wife to appear4 ,when they did1 we asked them if it was true that in their prayers to ,mary they had refrained from the use of the words1 ,the mother of ,god4 ,they hesitated to give a direct answer1 whereupon we used the club1 and then1 the scourge4 ,then they said they believed in and revered the blessed virgin1 but would not1 even if we killed them1 say that she was the mother of ,god4 ,this obstinacy exasperated us and we felt it to be our religious duty1 for the honor of our divine ,queen1 to perpetrate such cruelties upon them as would shock your gentle ears to hear4 ,we held them over slowly burning fires1 flung lime into their eyes1 applied roasted eggs and hot irons to the sensitive parts of their bodies1 and even gagged them to force the sacrament into their mouths44444,as we went from house to house1 bent upon our mission1 ,i remember an expression of one of the party who said to the poor woman who was begging for mercy3 ,what6 shall ,i be guilty of defrauding the vengeance of ,god of its victims8 ,a sudden chill ran down my back4 ,i felt my flesh creep4 ,like a drop of poison the thought embodied in those words perverted whatever of pity or humanity was left in me1 and ,i felt that ,i was only helping to secure victims with which to feed the vengeance of ,god6 ,illustration3 ,trinity in ,,xiii ,century4 ,i was willing to be a monster for the glory of ,god6 ,the ,christian sect to which ,i belonged was one of the oldest in ,christendom4 ,our ancestors were called the ,puritans of the fourth and fifth centuries4 ,we believe that no one can be saved outside of our communion4 ,when a ,christian of another church joins us1 we re-baptize him1 for we do not believe in the validity of other baptisms4 ,we are so particular that we deny our cemeteries to any other ,christians than our own members4 ,if we find that we have1 by mistake1 buried a member of another church in our cemetery1 we dig up his bones1 that he may not pollute the soil4 ,when one of the churches of another denomination falls into our hands1 we first fumigate the building1 and with a sharp knife we scrape the wood off the altars upon which other ,christian priests have offered prayers4 ,we will1 under no consideration1 allow a brother ,christian from another church to commune with us2 if by stealth anyone does1 we spare not his life4 ,but we are persecuted just as severely as we persecute1 ourselves4 ,footnote3 ,this sect 7,donatist7 and others1 lasted for a long time1 and made ,asia and ,africa a hornet's nest1--a blood-stained arena1 of feud and riot and massacre1 until ,mohammedanism put an end1 in these parts of the world1 not only to these sects1 but to ,christianity itself4 ,as the sun was setting1 fatigued with the holy ,sabbath's religious duties1 ,i started to go home4 ,on my way back1 ,i saw even wilder1 bloodier scenes1 between rival ecclesiastical factions1 streets even redder with blood1 if possible1 yea1 certain sections of the city seemed as if a storm of hail1 or tongues of flame had swept over them4 ,churches were on fire1 cowled monks attacking bishops' residences1 rival prelates holding uproarious debates1 which almost always terminated in bloodshed1 and1 to cap the day of many vicissitudes1 ,i saw a bear on exhibition which had been given its freedom by the ruler1 as a reward for his faithful services in devouring heretics4 ,the ,christian ruler kept two fierce bears by his own chamber1 to which those who did not hold the orthodox faith were thrown in his presence while he listened with delight to their groans4 ,when ,i reached home1 ,i was panting for breath4 ,i had lived through another ,sabbath day4 ,footnote3 ,if the reader will take the pains to read ,dean ,milman's ,history of ,christianity1 and his ,history of ,latin ,christianity2 also ,gibbon's ,downfall of the ,roman ,empire1 and ,mosheim's ,history of ,christianity1 he will see that we have exaggerated nothing4 ,the ,athanasian and the ,arian1 the ,donatist and ,sabellian1 the ,nestorian and ,alexandrian factions converted the early centuries into a long reign of terror4 ,i feel like covering my face for telling you so grewsome a tale4 ,but if this were the fourth or the fifth century1 instead of the twentieth1 and this were ,constantinople1 or ,alexandria1 or ,antioch1 instead of ,chicago1 ,i would have spent just such a ,sunday as ,i have described to you4 ,in giving you this concentrated view of human society in the great capitals of ,christendom in the year #djj1 ,i have restrained1 rather than spurred1 my imagination4 ,remember1 also1 that ,i have confined my remarks to a specific and short period in history1 and have excluded from my generalization all reference to the centuries of religious wars which tore ,europe limb from limb1--the wholesale exterminations1 the crusades1 which represented one of the maddest spells of misguided and costly zeal which ever struck our earth1 the persecution of the ,huguenots1 the extermination of the ,albigenses and of the ,waldenses1--the massacre of ,st4 ,bartholomew1 the ,inquisition with its red hand upon the intellect of ,europe1 the ,anabaptist outrages in ,germany1 the ,smithfield fires in ,england1 the religious outrages in ,scotland1 the ,puritan excesses in ,america1--the reign of witchcraft and superstition throughout the twenty centuries--,i have not touched my picture with any colors borrowed from these terrible chapters in the history of our unfortunate earth4 ,i have also left out all reference to ,papal ,rome1 with its dungeons1 its stakes1 its massacres and its burnings4 ,i have said nothing of ,galileo1 ,vanini1 ,campanella or ,bruno4 ,i have passed over all this in silence4 ,you can imagine1 now1 how much more repellant and appalling this representation of the ,roman world under ,christianity would have been had ,i stretched my canvas to include also these later centuries4 ,but ,i tremble to be one-sided or unjust1 and so ,i hasten to say that during the twenty centuries' reign of our religion1 the world has also seen some of the fairest flowers spring out of the soil of our earth4 ,during the past twenty centuries there have been men and women1 calling themselves ,christians1 who have been as generous1 as heroic and as deeply consecrated to high ideals as any the world has ever produced4 ,christianity has1 in many instances1 softened the manners of barbarians and elevated the moral tone of primitive peoples4 ,it gives us more pleasure to speak of the good which religions have accomplished than to call attention to the evil they have caused4 ,but this raises a very important question4 ,why do you not confine yourself1 we are often asked1 to the virtues you find in ,christianity or ,mohammedanism1 instead of discussing so frequently their short-comings8 ,is it not better to praise than to blame1 to recommend than to find fault8 ,this is a fair question1 and we may just as well meet it now as at any other time4 ,such is the economy of nature that no man1 or institution or religion1 can be altogether evil4 ,the poet spoke the truth when he said3 ,there is a soul of goodness in things evil4 ,evil1 in a large sense1 is the raw material of the good4 ,all things contribute to the education of man4 ,the question1 then1 whether an institution is helpful or hurtful1 is a relative one4 ,the character of an institution1 as that of an individual1 is determined by its ruling passion4 ,despotism1 for instance1 is generally considered to be an evil4 ,and yet1 a hundred good things can be said of despotism4 ,the ,french people1 over a hundred years ago1 overthrew the monarchy4 ,and yet the monarchy had rendered a thousand services to ,france4 ,it was the monarchy that created ,france1 that extended her territory1 developed her commerce1 built her great cities1 defended her frontiers against foreign invasion1 and gave her a place among the first-class nations of ,europe4 ,was it just1 then1 to pull down an institution that had done so much for ,france8 ,why did the ,americans overthrow ,british rule in this country8 ,had not ,england rendered innumerable services to the colony8 ,was she not one of the most progressive1 most civilizing influences in the modern world8 ,was it just1 then1 that we should have beaten out of the land a government that had performed for us so many friendly acts8 ,referring once more to the case of ,russia3 ,why do the awakened people in that country demand the overthrow of the autocracy8 ,is there nothing good to be said of ,russian autocracy8 ,have not the ,czars loved their country and fought for her prosperity8 ,have they not brought ,russia up to her present size1 population and political influence in ,europe8 ,have they not beautified her cities and enacted laws for the protection of their subjects8 ,is it right1 then1 in spite of all these things that autocracy has done for ,russia1 to seek to overthrow it8 ,once more3 ,why do the missionaries go into ,india and ,china and ,japan trying to replace the ancestral religion of these people with the ,christian faith8 ,why does the missionary labor to overthrow the worship of ,buddha1 ,confucius and ,zoroaster8 ,have not these great teachers helped humanity8 ,have they not rendered any services to their countrymen8 ,are there no truths in their teachings8 ,are there no virtues in their lives8 ,is it right1 then1 that the missionary should criticise these ancient faiths8 ,illustration3 ,conception of ,trinity1 ,ninth ,century4 ,let us take an example from nearer home4 ,we were talking some years ago with a gentleman who had just returned from ,dowie's ,zion4 ,he was surprised to find there a clean1 orderly and well-behaved people1 apparently quite happy4 ,he said that after his experiences there1 he would rather do business with ,dowie and his men than with the average member of other religious bodies4 ,he found the ,dowieites honest1 reliable and peaceful4 ,now1 all this may be true1 and ,i hope it is2 but what of it8 ,dowieism is an evil1 notwithstanding this recital of its virtues4 ,it is an evil1 because it arrests the intellectual development of man1 because it makes dwarfs of the people it converts1 because it pinches the forehead of each convert into that of either a charlatan or an idiot4 ,we regret to have to use these harsh terms4 ,but ,dowieism is denounced1 because it brings up human beings as if they were sheep1 because it robs them of the most glorious gift of life1 the freedom to grow1 ,dowieism is an evil1 because it makes the human race mediocre by contracting its intellect down to the measure of a creed4 ,we would much rather that the ,dowieites smoked and drank and swore1 than that they should fear to think4 ,there is hope for a bad man4 ,there is no hope for the stupid4 ,in the case of an institution or a religion1 then1 it is not by adding up the debit and credit columns and striking a balance sheet that the question whether it has helped or hurt mankind is to be determined4 ,we cannot1 for instance1 place ninety-nine vices in one column1 and a hundred virtues in another1 and conclude therefrom that the institution or the religion should be preserved4 ,nor1 conversely speaking1 can we place a hundred vices against ninety-nine virtues1 and1 therefore1 condemn1 the institution4 ,even as a man is hanged for one act in his life1 in spite of the thousand good acts which may be quoted against the one evil deed1 so an institution or a religion is honored or condemned1 as we said above1 for its ruling passion4 ,mohammedanism1 ,judaism and ,christianity have done much good1 just as other religions have1 but they are condemned today by modern thought1 because they are a conspiracy against reason--because they combat progress1 as if it were a crime6 ,another criticism frequently advanced against us is that we fail to realize that all the evil of which ,christianity is said to have been the cause1 is only the result of human ignorance and passion4 ,when attention is called1 for instance1 to the intolerance and stubborn opposition to science1 of ,christianity1 the answer given is1 that this conduct is not only not inspired by the spirit of ,christianity1 but that it is in direct contradiction to its teachings4 ,the ,christians claim that all the luminous chapters in history have been inspired by their religion1 all its sorrowful and black pages have been written by the passions of men4 ,but this apology1 which1 we regret to say1 is in every preacher's mouth1 is not an honest one4 ,in our opinion1 both ,mohammedanism and ,christianity1 as also ,judaism1 are responsible for the evil as well as the good they have accomplished in the world4 ,they are responsible for the lives they have destroyed1 as for the lives they have saved4 ,they are responsible for the passions they have aroused1--for the hatred1 the persecutions and the religious wars of the centuries1 as for the piety and charity they have encouraged4 ,the central idea in all the three religions mentioned above1 is that ,god has revealed his will to man4 ,there is1 we say frankly1 the root of all the evil which religion has inflicted upon our unfortunate earth4 ,the poison is in both the flower and the fruit which that idea brings forth4 ,if it be true that ,god has revealed his will1 that he has told us1 for instance1 to believe in the ,trinity1 the atonement1 the fall of man1 and the dogma of eternal punishment1 and we refuse to do so1 will we not1 then1 be regarded as the most odious1 the most heinous1 the most rebellious1 the most sacrilegious1 the most stiff- necked1 the most criminal people in the world8 ,think of refusing to believe as ,god has dictated to us6 ,think of saying no6 to one's ,creator and ,father in ,heaven6 ,think of the consequences of differing with ,god1 and tempting others to do the same6 ,is it at all strange that during the early centuries of ,christianity1 the people who hesitated to agree with the deity1 or to believe as he wanted them to1 were looked upon as incarnate fiends1 as the accomplices of the devil and the enemies of the human race1 and were treated accordingly8 ,the doctrine of salvation by faith makes persecution inevitable4 ,if to refuse to believe in the ,trinity1 or in the divinity of ,christ1 is a crime against ,god and will be punished by an eternity of hell in the next world1 and if such a man endangers the eternal salvation of his fellows1 is it not the duty of all religious people to endeavor to exterminate him and his race1 now arid here8 ,how can ,christian people tolerate the rebel against their ,god1 when ,god himself has pronounced sentence of death against him8 ,why not follow the example of the deity1 as set forth in the persecutions of the ,old ,testament8 ,when we have a ,god for a teacher1 the highest and surest virtue is unconditional acquiescence4 ,judaism1 ,mohammedanism and ,christianity1 in giving us a ,god for a teacher1 have taken away from us the liberty to think for ourselves4 ,each one of these three religions makes unconditional obedience the price of the salvation it offers1 but do you know what other word in the ,english language unconditional obedience is a synonym of8--,silence6 ,a dumb world1 a tongue-tied humanity alone can be saved6 ,the good man is the man on his knees with his mouth in the dust4 ,but silence is sterility6 ,silence is slavery6 ,think1 then1 of the character of a religion which makes free speech1 free thought1 a crime--which hurls hell against the ,protestant6 ,there is a third question to be answered3 ,it is true1 they say to us1 that there are many things in the ,koran1 the ,old ,testament and the ,new1 which are really injurious1 and which ought to be discarded1 but there are also many beautiful principles1 noble sentiments and high educational maxims in these scriptures4 ,why not1 then1 dwell upon these1 and pass in silence over the objectionable teachings of these religions8 ,it is not necessary to repeat again that in all so-called sacred scriptures1 there are glorious truths4 ,it could not have been otherwise4 ,all literature1 whether secular or religious1 is the voice of man and sweeps the whole compass of human love and hope4 ,we have no objection to quoting from the ,veddas1 the ,avestas1 the ,koran or the ,bible2 nor do we hesitate to admire and enjoy and praise generously the ravishingly beautiful utterances of the poets and prophets of all times and climes4 ,nevertheless1 it remains true that the modern world finds more practical help and inspiration in secular authors1 in the books of science and philosophy1 than in these so-called inspired scriptures4 ,jesus1 who is popularly believed to have preached the ,sermon on the ,mount1 has said little or nothing which can help the modern world as much as the scientific revelations of a student like ,darwin1 or of a philosopher like ,herbert ,spencer1 or of a poet like ,goethe or ,shakespeare4 ,we know this will sound like blasphemy to the believer1 but a moment's honest and fearless reflection will convince everyone of the fact that neither ,mohammed nor ,jesus had in view modern conditions when they delivered their sermons4 ,jesus could have had no idea of a world outside of his little ,palestine4 ,the thought of the many races of the world mingling together in one country could never have occurred to him4 ,his vision did not embrace the vista of two thousand years1 nor did his mind rise to the level of the problems which today tax the brain and heart of man4 ,jesus believed implicitly that the world would speedily come to an end1 that the sun and the moon would soon fall from the face of the sky1 and that people living then in ,palestine would not taste of death before they saw the ,son of ,man return upon the clouds4 ,jesus had no idea of a progressive evolution of humanity4 ,it was beyond him to conceive the consolidation of the nations into one fellowship1 the new resources which science would tap1 or the new energies which human industry would challenge4 ,jesus was in peaceful ignorance of the social and international problems which confront the world of today4 ,the ,sermon on the ,mount1 then1 which is said to be the best in our gospels1 can be of little help to us1 for it could not have been meant for us4 ,and it is very easy to show that the modern world ignores1 not out of disrespect to ,jesus1 but by the force of circumstances and the evolution of society1 the principles contained in that renowned sermon4 ,i was waiting for transportation at the corner of one of the principal streets of ,chicago1 the other day1 when1 looking about me1 ,i saw the tremendous buildings which commerce and wealth have reared in our midst4 ,on one hand was a savings bank1 on the other a colossal national bank1 and up and down the street a thousand equally solid and substantial buildings1 devoted to the interests of commerce and civilization4 ,to bring out and emphasize the wide breach between the man who preached the ,sermon on the ,mount1 and progressive and aggressive1 busy and wealthy1 modern ,chicago1 ,i took the words of ,jesus and mentally inscribed them upon the walls of these buildings4 ,upon the savings bank--and a savings bank represents economy1 frugality1 self-sacrifice1 self-restraint1--the desire of the people to provide for the uncertainties of the future1 to lay by something for the education of their children1 for the maintenance of their families when they themselves have ceased to live1--,i printed upon the facade of this institution1 figuratively speaking1 these words of the ,oriental ,jesus3 ,take no thought of the morrow1 for the morrow will take care of itself4 ,and upon the imposing front of the national bank1 ,i wrote3 ,lay not up for yourselves treasures on earth4 ,if we followed these teachings1 would not our industrial and social life sink at once to the level of the stagnating ,asiatics8 ,pursuing this comparison between ,jesus and modern life1 ,i inscribed upon the handsome churches whose pews bring enormous incomes1 and on the palatial residences of ,bishops1 with salaries of from twenty-five to a hundred thousand dollars1 these words3 ,how hardly shall a rich man enter into the kingdom of ,heaven1 and1 ,it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of ,heaven4 ,in plain words1 the gospel condemns wealth1 and cries1 ,woe unto you rich1 and ,sell all thou hast and give it to the poor1 which1 by the way1 would only be shifting the temptation of wealth from one class to another4 ,buckle was nearer the truth1 and more modern in spirit1 when he ascribed the progress of man to the pursuit of truth and the acquisition of wealth4 ,but let us apply the teachings of ,jesus to still other phases of modern life4 ,some years ago our ,cuban neighbors appealed to the ,united ,states for protection against the cruelty and tyranny of ,spanish rule4 ,we sent soldiers over to aid the oppressed and down-trodden people in the ,island4 ,now1 suppose1 instead of sending iron-clads and admirals1--,schley1 ,sampson and ,dewey1--we had advised the ,cubans to resist not evil1 and to submit to the powers that be1 or suppose the ,general of our army1 or the ,secretary of our navy1 had counseled seriously our soldiers to remember the words of ,jesus when fighting the ,spaniards3 ,if a man smite thee on one cheek1 etc4 ,write upon our halls of justice and courthouses and statute books1 and on every lawyer's desk1 these solemn words of ,jesus3 ,he that taketh away thy coat1 let him have thy cloak also4 ,introduce into our ,constitution1 the pride and bulwark of our liberties1 guaranteeing religious freedom unto all1--these words of ,paul3 ,if any man preach any other gospel than that which ,i have preached unto you1 let him be accursed4 ,think of placing nearly fifty millions of our ,american population under a curse6 ,tell this to the workers in organized charities3 ,give to every man that asketh of thee1 which1 if followed1 would make a science of charity impossible4 ,to the workingmen1 or the oppressed seeking redress and protesting against evil1 tell this3 ,blessed are they that are persecuted1 which is equivalent to encouraging them to submit to1 rather than to resist1 oppression4 ,or upon our colleges and universities1 our libraries and laboratories consecrated to science1 write the words3 ,the wisdom of this world is foolishness with ,god1 and ,god has chosen the foolish to confound the wise4 ,ah1 yes1 the foolish of ,asia1 it is true1 succeeded in confounding the philosophers of ,europe4 ,abraham1 ,isaac1 ,jacob1 ,moses1 ,jesus1 did replace ,socrates1 ,plato1 ,aristotle1 ,seneca1 ,cicero1 ,caesar and the ,antonines6 ,but it was a trance1 a spell1 a delirium only1 and it did not last1--it could not last4 ,the charm is at last broken4 ,europe is forever free from the exorcism of ,asia4 ,i believe the health and sanity and virtue of our ,europe would increase a hundred fold1 if we could1 from this day forth1 cease to pretend professing by word of mouth what in our own hearts and lives we have completely outgrown4 ,if we could be sincere and brave2 if our leaders and teachers would only be honest with themselves and honest with the modern world1 there would1 indeed1 be a new earth and a new humanity4 ,but the past is past4 ,it is for us to sow the seeds which in the day of their fruition shall emancipate humanity from the pressing yoke of a stubborn ,asiatic superstition1 and push the future even beyond the beauty and liberty of the old ,pagan world6 ,illustration3 ,figures on a ,phoenician ,vase1 ,showing the ,use of the ,cross1 ,evidently in ,some ,ceremony of a ,religious ,nature4 ,,christianity ,,and ,,paganism ,christianity as an ,asiatic cult is not suitable to ,european races4 ,to prove this1 let us make a careful comparison between ,paganism and ,christianity4 ,there are many foolish things1 and many excellent things1 in both the ,pagan and the ,christian religions4 ,we are not concerned with particular beliefs and rites2 it is ,paganism as a philosophy of life1 and ,christianity as a philosophy of life1 that we desire to investigate4 ,and at the threshold of our investigation we must bear in mind that ,paganism was born and grew into maturity in ,europe1 while ,asia was the cradle of ,christianity4 ,it would be superfluous to undertake to prove that in politics1 in government1 in literature1 in art1 in science1 in the general culture of the people1 ,europe was always in advance of ,asia4 ,do we know of any good reason1 when it comes to religion1 why ,asia should be incomparably superior to anything ,europe has produced in that line8 ,unless we believe in miracles1 the natural inference would be that a people who were better educated in every way than the ,asiatics should have also possessed the better religion4 ,i admit that this is only inferential1 or a priori reasoning1 and that it still remains to be shown by the recital of facts1 that ,europe not only ought to have produced a better religion than ,asia1 but that she did4 ,in my opinion1 between the ,pagan and ,christian view of life there is the same difference that there is between a ,european and an ,asiatic4 ,what makes a ,roman a ,roman1 a ,greek a ,greek1 and a ,persian a ,persian8 ,that is a very interesting1 but also a very difficult question4 ,why are not all nations alike8 ,why is the oak more robust than the spruce8 ,what are the subtle influences which operate in the womb of nature1 where the embryos of races are nourished into form and individuality8 ,i cannot answer that question satisfactorily1 and ,i am not going to attempt to answer it at all4 ,we know there is a radical difference between the ,european and the ,asiatic2 we know that ,oriental and ,occidental culture are the antitheses of each other1 and nowhere else is this seen more clearly than in their interpretations of the universe1 that is to say1 in their religions4 ,in order to understand the ,oriental races1 we must discover the standpoint from which they take their observations4 ,but first1 it is admitted1 of course1 that there are ,europeans who are more ,asiatic in their habits of life and thought than the ,asiatics themselves1 and1 conversely1 there are ,asiatics who in spirit1 energy and progressiveness are abreast of the most advanced representatives of ,european culture4 ,nor has ,asia been altogether barren2 she has blossomed in many spots1 and she nursed the flame of civilization at a time when ,europe was not yet even cradled4 ,to show the intellectual point of view of the ,asiatic1 let me quote a passage from the ,book of ,job1 which certainly is an ,oriental composition1 and one of the finest3 ,how1 then1 can man be justified with ,god1 or how can he be clean that is born of a woman8 ,man that is a worm1 and the son of man1 which is a worm4 ,this1 then1 is the standpoint of the ,oriental4 ,he believes he is a poor little worm4 ,his philosophy must necessarily trail in the dust4 ,a worm cannot have the thoughts of an eagle2 a worm cannot have the imagination of a ,titan2 a worm sees the world only as a worm may4 ,this is the angle of vision of the ,asiatic4 ,he calls himself a worm1 and naturally his view of life shrinks to the limits of his standpoint4 ,to he perfectly fair1 however1 we must admit there are passages in all the bibles of the ,orient which are as daring as those found in any ,european book1 but they represent only the strayings of the ,oriental mind1 not its normal pulse4 ,the habitual accent of the ,oriental is that man1 calling a woman his mother1 is a worm4 ,in the ,psalms of ,david1 or whoever wrote the book1 we read these words3 ,i am a worm1 and not a man4 ,what did the ,oriental see in the worm1 which induced him to select it out of all things as the original1 so to speak1 of man8 ,the worm crawls and creeps and writhes4 ,nothing is so distressing as to see its helpless wiggling--and its home is in the dust2 dirt is its daily food4 ,moreover1 it is in danger of being stamped or trampled into annihilation at any instant4 ,a worm represents the minimum of worth1--the dregs in the cup of existence2 it is the scum or the froth of life1 which one may blow into the air4 ,it is impossible to descend lower than this in self-abasement4 ,when the ,oriental1 therefore1 says that man is a worm or ,i am a worm1 he is just as much obeying the cumulative pressure of his ,asiatic ancestry1 and voicing the inherited submission of the ,oriental mind1 as ,prometheus1 with the vulture at his breast1 and shaking his hand in the face of the gods1 expresses the revolt of the ,european mind4 ,the normal state for the ,asiatic is submission2 for the ,european it is independence4 ,slavery has a fascination for the children of the east4 ,the air of independence is too sharp for them4 ,they crave a master1 a ,sultan or a ,czar1 who shall own them body and soul4 ,through long practice1 they have acquired the art of servility and flattery1 of salaams and prostrations--an art in which they have become so efficient that it would be to them like throwing away so much capital to abandon its practice4 ,they expect to go to ,heaven on their knees4 ,this is not said to hurt the feelings of the races of the ,orient4 ,we are explaining the influence of absolutism upon the products and tendencies of the human mind4 ,the religion of the ,orient1 then1 notwithstanding its many beautiful features like its politics1 is a product of the suppressed mind1 which finds in the creeping worm of the dust the measure of its own worth4 ,how different is the ,european from the ,asiatic in this respect6 ,the latter crawls upon the stage of this magnificent universe with the timidity1 hesitancy and tremblings of a worm4 ,true to his bringing up1 he falls prostrate1 overwhelmed by the marvelous immensities opening before him and the abysses yawning at his feet4 ,he contracts and dwindles in size1 imploring with outstretched hands to be spared because he is a poor worm4 ,it is a part of his religion or philosophy that if he admits he is nothing but a worm1 the dread powers will not consider him a rival or a rebel1 but will look upon him as a confirmed subject1 and permit him to live4 ,this is his art1 the strategy by which he hopes to secure his salvation4 ,there has never been a republic in ,asia1 which is another way of saying that the ,asiatic mind has never asserted its independence4 ,hence its thought smacks of slavery4 ,in politics1 as in religion1 the ,asiatic has always been passive4 ,he has never been an actor1 but only a spectator4 ,it is his to nod the head1 fold the arms and bend the knee4 ,on earth he must have a king and a pope1 and in heaven an ,allah or a ,jehovah4 ,he has not been created for himself1 but for the glory of his earthly and heavenly ,lords4 ,this radical difference between ,european self-appreciation and ,asiatic self-depreciation furnishes the key to the problem under discussion4 ,paganism is the religion of a self-governing race4 ,buddhism1 ,judaism1 ,mohammedanism1 and ,christianity are religions born on a soil where man is owned by another4 ,it will be impossible to imagine ,marcus ,aurelius1 for instance1 crawling upon his knees before any being1 or calling himself a worm4 ,one must have in his blood the taint of a thousand years of slavery1 before he can stoop so low4 ,marcus ,aurelius was a gentleman4 ,the ,european conception of a gentleman implies self-respect and independence2 the ,oriental conception of a gentleman implies self- abasement and acquiescence4 ,the ,oriental gentleman is a man who serves his king as though he were his slave4 ,but observe now how the ,oriental proceeds to pull down his mind to the level of his body1 which he has likened to a worm4 ,when ,i was still a ,presbyterian minister1 ,i was invited to address a ,sunday-school camp- meeting at ,asbury ,park in ,new ,jersey4 ,there were other speakers besides myself2 one of them1 known as a ,sunday-school leader1 had brought with him a chart of the human heart1 which1 when he arose to address the children1 he spread on a blackboard before them3 ,this is a picture of your heart before you have accepted ,jesus4 ,what do you think of it8 he asked the school4 ,it is all black1 was the answer2 and it was4 ,he had drawn a totally black picture to represent the heart of the child before conversion4 ,in all the literature of ,pagandom1 there is not the least intimation of so fearful an idea as the total depravity of human nature4 ,the ,pagans never thought1 spoke1 or heard of such a thing4 ,it was inconceivable to them2 they would have recoiled from it as from a species of barbarism4 ,how radically different1 then1 must ,european culture have been from the ,asiatic4 ,there is a gulf well-nigh impassible between the thought of a free-born citizen and that of the oppressed and enslaved ,oriental4 ,but let us continue4 ,not satisfied with thinking of himself as a worm1 and of his intellectual and moral nature as totally degraded1 the ,oriental strikes with the same paralyzing stroke1 at the world in which he lives1 until it1 too1 withers and becomes an ugly and heinous thing4 ,he calls the world a vale of tears1 ruled by the powers of darkness1 and groaning under a primeval curse4 ,the world1 the flesh and the devil become a trio of iniquity and sin4 ,some of you in your earlier days must have sung that ,methodist hymn which represents the world as a snare and a delusion3 ,the world is a fleeting show ,for man's illusion given4 ,given6 ,think of believing that the world has been purposely given us to lead us astray4 ,the thought staggers the mind4 ,it suggests a terrible conspiracy against man4 ,for his ruin1 sun1 moon and stars co- operate with the devil4 ,help6 we cry1 as we realize our inability to cope with the tremendous powers hurling themselves against us like billows of the raging sea1 and taking our breath away4 ,it suggests that we are placed in a world which has been made purposely beautiful1 in order to tempt us into sin4 ,think of such a belief6 ,it is that of a slave4 ,it is ,asiatic2 it is not ,european4 ,neither you nor ,i1 in all our readings1 have ever come across any such attitude toward nature in ,pagan literature4 ,the ,greeks and the ,romans loved nature and made lovely gods out of4 every running brook1 caressing zephyr1 dancing wave1 glistening dew1 sailing cloud1 beaming star1 beautiful woman1 or brave man4 ,the ,oriental suspects nature and regards her smiles--the shining of the sun1 the perfume of the meadows1 the swell of the sea1 the fluttering of the branches tipped with blossoms1 the emerald grass1 the sapphire sky--looks upon all these as the seductive advances of a prostitute in whose embrace lurks death6 ,but1 once more2 not satisfied with dragging the world down to the plane of his totally depraved nature1 and that again to the level of the worm1 the ,asiatic projects his fatal thought into the next world and1 crossing the grave1 that silent and painless home of a tired race1 he crowds the beyond with a thousand thousand pains and aches and horrors and fires--with sulphur and brimstone and burning hells4 ,his frightened imagination invokes dark and infernal beings without number1 fanning with their dark wings the very air he breathes4 ,this is too revolting to think of4 ,poor slave6 ,inured to suffering1--to the lash1 to oppression's crushing heel1--he dare not dream of a painless future1 of a quiet1 peaceful sleep at life's end1 nor has he the divine audacity to invent a new world wherein the misery and slavery of his present existence will be impossible1--where all his tyrants will be dead1 where he shall taste of sweet freedom and become himself a god4 ,in his timidity and shrinking submission1 with the spring of his heart broken1 his spirit crushed1 all independence strangled in his soul1--he puts in the biggest corner of his heaven even1--a hell6 ,nor does he pause there1 but1 stinging his slave imagination once more1 he declares that this future of torture and hell-fire is everlasting4 ,he cannot improve upon that4 ,deeper in degradation he cannot descend4 ,that is the darkest thought he can have1 and1 strange to say1 he hugs it to his bosom as a mother would her child4 ,the doctrine of hell is the thought of a slave and of a coward4 ,no free-horn man1 no brave soul could ever have invented so abhorrent an idea4 ,only under a regime of absolutism1 only under an ,oriental ,sultan whose caprice is law1 whose vengeance is terrible1 whose favors are fickle1 whose power is crushing1 whose greed is insatiable1 whose torture instruments are without number1 and whose dark dungeons always resound with the rattling of chains and the groans of martyrs--only under such a regime could man have invented an unending hell4 ,but we were mistaken when we said that hell was the darkest that the ,asiatic was capable of4 ,he has grafted upon the ,european mind a belief which is darker still4 ,is there anything more precious in human life than children8 ,the sternest heart melts1 the fiercest features relax1 at the sight of an innocent1 sweet1 laughing1 frolicking babe in its mother's arms4 ,look at its glorious eyes1 so full of surprises1 so deep1 so appealing6 ,look at the soft round hands1 the little feet1 the exquisite mouth1 opening like a bud6 ,hear its prattle1 which is nothing but the mind beginning to stir6 ,watch its gestures1 the first language of the child6 ,see it with its tiny arms about its mother's neck4 ,mark its joy when it is kissed4 ,what else in our human world is more beautiful1 more divine8 ,and yet1 and yet1 the slave creed of ,asia has drawn into its burning net of damnation even the cradle4 ,john ,burroughs describes how in a ,catholic cemetery near where he lives he was shown a neglected1 unkept corner1 used for the burial of unbaptized children4 ,consecrated ground is denied to them1 and so their poor bodies are huddled together in this profane plot1 unblessed and unsaved4 ,i do not wish to live in a world where such absurdities are not only countenanced1 but where they are exalted even to the dignity of a religion6 ,o holy children6 ,o sweet children6 huddled together in unconsecrated ground1 and thus exposed to the cruelty of indescribable demons6 ,can you hear me8 ,i am a man of compassion4 ,i can forgive the murderer4 ,i can pardon and pity the meanest wretch and take him into my arms1 but ,i confess that even if ,i had a heart as big as the ocean1 ,i could not1 ,i would not1 forgive the creed that can be guilty of such inhumanity against you1--dear1 innocent ones1 who were born to breathe but for a moment the harsh air of this world6 ,when such gloom overpowers me and wrings from my lips such hard words1 ,i find some little respite in contemplating the old ,pagan world in its best days4 ,i hasten for consolation to my ,pagan friends1 and in their sanity find healing for my bruised heart4 ,in one of his letters1 the ,greek ,plutarch says this about children1 which ,i want you to compare with what ,st4 ,augustine1 the representative of the ,asiatic creed1 says on the same subject4 ,it is irreligious1 writes ,plutarch1 to lament for those pure souls 7the children7 who have passed into a better life and a happier dwelling place4 ,footnote3 ,plutarch ,ad ,uxorem4 ,comp4 ,lecky's ,history of ,european ,morals4 ,vol4 ,i4 ,compare this ,pagan tenderness for children with the ,asiatic doctrine of infant damnation but recently thrown out of the ,presbyterian creed4 ,yet1 if ,st4 ,augustine is to be believed1 it is a heresy to reject the damnation of unbaptized infants3 ,whosoever shall tell1 writes this ,father of the church1 that infants shall be quickened in ,christ who died without partaking in his sacrament1 does both contradict the apostles' teaching and condemn the whole church4 ,footnote3 ,st4 ,augustine ,epist4 #aff4 ,it is infinitely more religious to disagree with the apostles and the church1 if that is their teaching4 ,the ,pagan view of children is the holier view4 ,the doctrine of the damnation of children could only find lodgment in the brain of a slave or a madman4 ,it is ,asiatic and altogether foreign to the culture of ,europe4 ,all that we have advanced thus far may be summed up in one phrase3 ,asia invented the idea that man is a fallen being4 ,this idea1 which is the dors espinal1--the backbone--of ,christianity1 never for once entered the mind of the ,european4 ,we have already quoted from ,job and the ,psalms2 the following is from the book of ,jeremiah3 ,the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked4 ,this is one of the texts upon which the doctrine of the fall of man is based4 ,we repeat that only under a religion of slavery1 where one slave vies with another to abase himself before his lords and masters1 could such an idea have been invented4 ,there is not a man in all our sacred scriptures who could stand before the deity erect and unabashed1 or who could speak in the accents of a ,cicero who said1 ,we boast justly of our own virtue1 which we could not do if we derived it from the deity and not from ourselves1 or this from ,epictetus1 ,it is characteristic of a wise man that he looks for all his good and evil from himself4 ,such independence was foreign to a race that believed itself fallen4 ,in further confirmation of our position1 it may be said that the models which the ,pagans set up for emulation were men like themselves1 only nobler4 ,the models which the ,orientals set up for imitation1 on the other hand1 were supernatural beings1 or men who were supposed to possess supernatural powers4 ,the great men for the ,oriental are men who can work miracles1 who possess magical powers1 who possess secrets and can know how to influence the deity1--,moses1 ,joshua1 ,david1 ,joseph1 ,isaiah1 ,jesus1 ,paul1--all demi-divinities4 ,the ,pagans1 on the other hand1 selected natural men1 men like themselves1 who had earned the admiration of their fellows4 ,let me quote to you ,plutarch's eloquent sentence relative to this subject3 ,whenever we begin an enterprise or take possession of a charge1 or experience a calamity1 we place before our eyes the examples of the greatest men of our own or of bygone ages1 and we ask ourselves how ,plato1 or ,epaminondas1 or ,lycurgus1 or ,agesilaus1 would have acted4 ,looking into these personages1 as into a faithful mirror1 we can remedy our defects in word or deed4 ,the ,westminster ,catechism1 which in its essentials is a resume of our ,asiatic religion1 emphasizes the doctrine of the fall of man1 of which the ,pagan world knew nothing1 and refused to believe it until priests succeeded in dominating the mind of ,europe3 ,the catechism following the ,scripture teaches that444we are not only a disinherited family1 but we are personally depraved and demoralized4 ,footnote3 ,westminster ,catechism1 ,comments4 ,goodness6 the ,oriental imagination1 abused by slavery1 cannot rid itself of the idea of being disinherited1 turned out into the cold1 orphaned and smitten with moral sores from head to foot4 ,to the ,pagan1 such a description of man would have been the acme of absurdity4 ,again3 ,it 7the fall7 affirms that he 7man7 is all wrong1 in all things and all the time4 ,footnote3 ,westminster ,catechism1 ,comments4 ,if this was comforting news to the ,asiatic1 the ,pagan world would have rejected the idea as unworthy of men in their senses4 ,once more3 ,all mankind by their fall lost communion with ,god1 are under his wrath and curse1 and so made liable to all miseries in this life and to the pains of hell forever4 ,footnote3 ,westminster ,catechism1 ,comments4 ,and this is the ,gospel we have imported from ,asia6 ,is it not pathetic8 ,could slavery ever strike a deeper bottom than that8 ,standing before his owner1 the ,asiatic1 of his own choice1 hands himself over to be degraded1 to be placed in chains and delivered up to the torments of hell forever4 ,i despair of man4 ,i would cry my heart out if ,i permitted myself to dwell upon the folly and stupidity and slavery of which man voluntarily makes himself the victim4 ,think of it6 ,a man and a woman1 nobody knows where or when1 are supposed to have tasted of the fruit of a tree2 the ,oriental mind1 with its crouching imagination1 pounces upon this flimsy1 fanciful tale with the appetite of a carrion crow1 and exalts it to the dignity of an excuse for the eternal damnation of a whole world4 ,i am dazed6 ,i can say no more6 ,let us recapitulate4 ,the ,oriental distrust of the natural man1 born of self-depreciation1 which is the fruit of prolonged slavery1 develops into a sort of mental canker spreading at a raging pace until the whole universe1 with its glorious sun and stars1 becomes an object of horror and loathing4 ,not satisfied with thinking of himself as a worm1 of his intellectual and moral nature as totally depraved1 he communicates his disease to the world in which he lives until it1 too1 shrinks and wastes away4 ,then the disease1 finding no more on this side of the grave to feed upon1 leaps over the grave and converts the beyond1 the virgin worlds1 into an inferno with which to satiate its fear4 ,indeed frightful are the thoughts of a slave people6 ,let me now1 in conclusion1 call your attention to another difference between the ,occidental and the ,oriental mind4 ,when the body is feeble or ill-nourished1 it is less liable to resist disease2 likewise when the mind is alarmed1 cowed1 or pinched with fear1 it becomes more exposed to superstition4 ,superstition is the disease of the mind4 ,it will keep away from robust minds1 as physical disease from a body in health4 ,now1 the ,asiatic mind1 scared into silence and subjection1--starved to a mere shadow of what it should be1 falls an easy prey to all the maladies that mind is heir to4 ,the ,european mind1 on the other hand1 with room and air to move and grow in1 develops a vitality which offers resistance to all attacks of mental disease4 ,that explains why superstition thrives with ignorance and slavery1 and expires when science and liberty gain the ascendency4 ,sanitary precautions prevent physical disease2 knowledge and liberty constitute the therapeutics of the mind4 ,why is the ,oriental so prone or partial to miracle and mystery8 ,his mind is sick4 ,to believe is easier to him than to reason4 ,he follows the line of the least resistance3 he has invented faith that he may not have to think4 ,the mental cells in his brain are so starved1 so devitalized1 that they have to be whipped into movement4 ,only the bizarre1 the monstrous1 the supernatural1--demons1 ghosts1 dream worlds1 miracles and mysteries1--can hold his attention4 ,not science1 but metaphysics1 barren speculation1--is the product of the ,oriental mind4 ,the philosopher ,bacon describes the ,asiatic when he speaks of men who have hitherto dwelt but little1 or rather only slightly touched upon experience1 whilst they have wasted much time on theories and fictions of the imagination4 ,again3 ,i sometimes think that if it be true that monotheism1 the idea of one ,god1 was first discovered in ,asia1 it must have been suggested to them by the regime of ,absolutism1 under which they lived4 ,unlike ,asia1 democratic ,europe believed in a republic of gods4 ,polytheism is more consonant with the republican idea1 than monotheism4 ,if we would let the ,american ,president rule the land without the aid of the two houses of congress or his cabinet ministers1 his power would be infinitely more than it is now1 but his gain would be the people's loss4 ,his increased power would only represent so much more power taken away from the people4 ,one ,god means not only more slaves1 but more abject1 more helpless ones4 ,one ,god is a centralization which reduces man's liberty to a minimum4 ,with more gods1 and gods at times disagreeing among themselves1 and all bidding for man's support1 man would count for more4 ,the ,greeks could not tolerate a ,jehovah1 or an ,allah1 before whom the ,oriental rabble bent the knee4 ,allah knows1 exclaims the ,moslem2 that is why the ,mohammedans continue in ignorance4 ,allah is great1 cries again the ,turk4 ,that is why he himself is small4 ,the more powerful the sovereign1 the smaller the subject4 ,now this leads us to a final reflection upon the difference between the mind brought up under restraint1--in slavery1--and the mind of the free4 ,the ,pagan1 to quote ,lecky1 believed that to become acceptable to the deity1 one must be virtuous2 the ,asiatic doctrine1 on the contrary1 taught that the most heroic efforts of human virtue are insufficient to avert a sentence of eternal condemnation1 unless united with an implicit belief in the dogmas of religion4 ,in other words1 the noblest of men cannot be saved by his own merits of character alone1 for even when we have done our best1 we are but unprofitable slaves1 quoting a ,bible text4 ,only by the merits of ,christ1 or by the grace of ,god1 can any man be saved4 ,have you ever paused to think of the purport of this piece of ,orientalism8 ,it wipes out every imaginable claim or right of man4 ,even when he is just and great and good1 he has no rights1 he is as vile as the vilest4 ,only the favor of the king can save1--only the grace of ,god1 who can save the thief on the cross if he so pleases4 ,is he not absolute8 ,if he extends his scepter1 you live2 if he smiles you are spared2 if he patronizes you1 you are fortunate4 ,he says1 live6 you live4 ,he says1 die6 you die4 ,this is the apotheosis of despotism exalted into a revelation4 ,what1 then1 is our creed1 but the thoughts of an eastern slave population1 cringing before the throne of a ,sultan1 and one by one signing away their liberties8 ,the foundation of all real grandeur is a spirit of proud and lofty independence1 says ,buckle2 but that is not the spirit of ,asia1 or of its religion4 ,it is1 and we ought to try to keep it1 the spirit of the ,western world4 ,i cannot imagine how we in this country1 born of sturdy parents1 born of the freedom-loving ,pagans of ,rome and ,greece1 born of men who shook their hands in the face of heaven1 and pulled the gods off their thrones when they violated the rights of man1--,i cannot understand how we have thrown overboard the proud1 lofty spirit of independence of the ,pagans1--our forefathers1 and taken upon our necks the strangling yoke of the slave-thought of ,asia6 ,illustration3 ,christ1 ,half ,woman1 at ,baptism in ,jordan4 ,cathedral of ,chartres1 ,france4 ,,part ,,iii4 ,,some ,,modern ,,opinions ,,about ,,jesus4 ,christianity dwells with noxious exaggeration about the person of ,jesus4--,emerson4 ,christmas is the season in the year when pulpit and press dwell1 with what ,emerson calls noxious exaggeration1 about the work and life1 as well as the person of ,jesus4 ,we have1 lying before us1 the ,christmas sermon of so progressive a teacher as the ,rev4 ,jenkin ,lloyd ,jones4 ,footnote3 ,unitarian-,independent preacher of ,all ,souls ,church1 ,chicago4 ,here is his text3 ,and the ,word became flesh and dwelt among us1 and we beheld his glory1 glory as of the only begotten from the ,father4--,john #a3ad4 ,how our educated neighbor can find food for sober reflection in so mystical and metaphysical an effusion1 is more than we can tell4 ,who is the ,word that became flesh8 ,and when did the event take place8 ,what does it mean to be the only begotten from the ,father8 ,we know what it means in the orthodox sense1 but what does it mean from the ,unitarian standpoint of ,mr4 ,jones8 ,but the text faithfully reflects the discourse which follows4 ,it is replete with unlimited compliments to this ,word which became flesh and assumed the name of ,jesus4 ,the following is a fair sample3 ,i am compelled to think of ,jesus of ,nazareth as an epoch-making soul1 an era-forming spirit1 a character in whom the light of an illustrious race and a holy ancestry was focalized1 a personality from which radiated that subtle1 creative power of the spirit which defies all analysis1 which baffles definition1 which overflows all words4 ,goodness6 this is strong rhetoric1 and we regret that the evidence justifying so sweeping an appreciation has been withheld from us4 ,although the doctor says that ,jesus defies all analysis1 baffles definition and overflows all words1 he nevertheless proceeds to devote fifteen pages to the impossible task4 ,i am compelled to think of him as one who won the right of preeminence in the world's history1 continues ,mr4 ,jones1 as if he had not said enough4 ,that is a definite claim1 and personally1 we would be glad to see it made good4 ,but truth compels us to state that the claim is unjust4 ,without entering into the question of the authenticity of the gospels1 a question which we have discussed at some length in our pamphlet on the ,worship of ,jesus1 we beg to submit that there is nothing in the gospels1--the only records which speak of him1--to entitle him to the right of preeminence in the world's history4 ,no one knows better than ,mr4 ,jones that the sayings attributed to ,jesus--the finest of them--are to be found in the writings of ,jewish and ,pagan teachers antedating the birth of ,jesus by many centuries4 ,was it1 then1 for his works1 if not for his words1 that ,jesus won the right of preeminence in the world's history8 ,what did he do that was not done by his predecessors8 ,was he the only one who worked miracles8 ,had the dead never been raised before8 ,had the blind1 and the lame1 and the deaf1 remained altogether neglected before ,jesus took compassion upon them8 ,moreover1 what credit is there in opening the eyes of the blind or in raising the dead by miracle8 ,did it cost ,jesus any effort to perform miracles8 ,did it imply a sacrifice on his part to utilize a small measure of his infinite power for the good of man8 ,who1 if he could by miracle feed the hungry1 clothe the naked and give light and sound to the blind and deaf1 would be selfish enough not to do so8 ,if ,mr4 ,jones does not believe in miracles1 then ,jesus contributed even less than many a doctor contributes today to the welfare of the world4 ,more poor and diseased people are visited and medicined gratuitously by a modern physician in one month1 than ,jesus cured miraculously in the two or three years of his career4 ,jesus1 if he was the only begotten of ,god1 as ,mr4 ,jones' text states1 was not in any danger of contracting disease himself1 which is not the case with the doctors and nurses who extend their services to people afflicted with contagious and abhorrent diseases4 ,moreover1 ,jesus' power must have come to him divinely1 while we have to study1 labor1 and conquer with the sweat of our brow any power for good that we may possess4 ,if ,jesus as a ,god opened the eyes of the blind1 would it not have been kinder if he had prevented blindness altogether8 ,if ,jesus can open the eyes of the blind1 then1 why is there blindness in the world8 ,how many of the world's multitude of sufferers did ,jesus help8 ,which of us1 if he had the divine power1 would not have extended it unto every suffering child of man8 ,of what benefit is it to open the eyes of a few blind people1 two thousand years ago1 in one country1 when he could1 by his unique divinity1 have done so much more8 ,mr4 ,jones falls into the orthodox habit of not applying to ,jesus the same canons of criticism by which human beings are judged4 ,but perhaps the preeminence of ,jesus lay in his willingness to give his life for us4 ,noble is every soul who prefers truth and duty to life4 ,but was ,jesus the only one1 or even the first to offer himself as a sacrifice upon the altar of humanity8 ,if ,jesus died for us1 how many thousands have died for him--and by infinitely more cruel deaths8 ,it is easier for an only begotten of ,god1 himself a ,god--who knows death can have no power over him--who sees a throne prepared for him in heaven--who is sure of rising from the dead on the third day--to face death1 than for an ordinary mortal4 ,yet ,jesus showed less courage1 if his reporters are reliable1 than almost any martyr whose name shines upon memory's golden page4 ,the ,european churches are full of pictures showing ,jesus suffering indescribable agonies as the critical hour draws nigh4 ,we saw1 in ,paris1 a painting called ,the ,holy ,face1 ,la ,sainte ,face1 which was1 truly1 too horrible to look upon2 big tears of blood trickling down his cheeks1 his head almost drooping over his chest1 an expression of excruciating pain upon his features1 his eyes fairly imploring for help1--he is really breaking down under the weight of his cross4 ,compare this picture with the serenity of ,socrates drinking the hemlock in prison6 ,nor would it do to say that this is only the ,catholic way of representing ,jesus in his passion4 ,the picture is in the gospels1 it may be seen in the ,garden of ,gethsemane and on the cross with all its realism4 ,far be it from us to withhold from ,jesus1 if he really suffered as the gospels report1 one iota of the love and sympathy he deserves1 but why convert the whole world into a black canvas upon which to throw the sole figure of ,jesus8 ,which of us1 poor1 weak1 sinful though we are1 would not be glad to give his life1 if thereby he could save a world8 ,do you think we would mourn and groan and weep tears of blood1 or collapse1 just when we should be the bravest1 if we thought that by our death we would become the divine ,savior of all mankind8 ,would we stammer1 ,let this cup pass from me1 if it be possible1 or tear our hearts with a cry of despair3 ,my ,god1 my ,god1 why hast thou forsaken me1 if we knew that the eternal welfare of the human race depended upon our death8 ,if the ,russian or ,japanese soldier can take his home and wife and children1--his hopes and loves1 his life1--his all1--and throw them into the mouth of the cannon1 dying with a shout upon his lips1--who would hesitate to do the same1 when not the salvation of one country alone1 but of the whole world1 depended upon it8 ,there are examples of heroism in the annals of man which would bring the blush to the cheeks of ,jesus1 if his biographers have not abused his memory4 ,wherein1 then1 was the preeminence of ,jesus8 ,upon what grounds does ,mr4 ,jones claim1 with unlimited rhetoric1 to use his own expression1 for ,jesus the right of preeminence in the world's history8 ,while there is neither a commendable saying nor an act attributed to ,jesus in our gospels which teachers older than himself had not already said or done1 there are some things in which his seniors clearly outshine him4 ,king ,asoka1 for instance1 the ,buddhist sovereign of ,india1 #bej years before ,jesus1 in one of his edicts chiseled on the rocks of ,india1 declared against human slavery and offered the sweet gift of liberty to all in captivity4 ,jesus used the word slave in one of his parables 7improperly translated servant71 without expressing himself on the subject1 except to intimate that when a slave does all his duty faithfully1 even then he is only an unprofitable slave1 unworthy of the thanks of his master4 ,there was slavery of the worst kind in the world of ,jesus1 and yet he never opened his mouth to denounce the awful curse4 ,it is claimed that ,jesus' doctrine of love was indirectly a condemnation of slavery4 ,even then1 inasmuch as other and earlier teachers did more than strike only indirectly at the ancient evil1--for they not only taught the brotherhood of man1 too1 but expressed themselves1 besides1 positively on the subject of slavery1--they have a prior claim to the right of preeminence in the world's history1 if they cared anything about ranks and titles4 ,the doctrine of humanity to animals1 our dumb neighbors1 is a positive tenet in ,buddhism2 is it in ,christianity8 ,two and a half centuries before ,jesus1 under the influence of ,buddha's teaching1 ,king ,asoka convened a religious ,parliament1 offering to each and every representative of other religions1 absolute religious liberty4 ,is there any trace of such tolerance in any of the sayings of ,jesus8 ,on the contrary1 the claim of ,jesus that he is the light1 the way1 the truth1 and that no man can come to the father except through him1 leaves no room for the greatest of all boons--liberty1 without which every promise of religion is only a mockery and a cheat4 ,not even heaven and eternal life can be accepted as a consideration for the loss of liberty4 ,the liberty of teaching is alien to a teacher who claims1 as ,jesus did1 that he alone is infallible1 and that all who came before him were thieves and robbers4 ,of course1 ,mr4 ,jones will deny that ,jesus ever said any of the things ascribed to him which spoil his ideal picture of him4 ,but he finds his ideal ,jesus1 whose personality defies analysis1 baffles definition and overflows all words1 in the gospels2 if these are not reliable1 what becomes of his argument8 ,if the writers of our gospels bear false witness against ,jesus when they represent him as cursing the fig tree1 as calling his enemies liars and devils1 as calling the ,gentiles dogs1 as claiming equality with ,god1 as menacing with damnation all who disagree with him1--what security have we that they speak truthfully when they put the beatitudes in his mouth8 ,we have no more reliable authority for attributing to ,jesus the beatitudes than we have for holding him responsible for the curses attributed to him in the gospels4 ,to return to our comparison between ,jesus and his illustrious colleagues4 ,it is with cheerful praise and generous pleasure that we express our admiration for many of the sayings1 parables1 and precepts attributed to ,jesus4 ,the fact that they are much older than ,jesus1 more universal than ,christianity1 only enhances their value and reflects glory upon the human race1 a glory of which ,jesus1 too1 as a brother1 if he ever existed1 has his share4 ,we love and admire every teacher who has a message for humanity2 we feel our indebtedness to them and would deem ourselves fortunate if we could contribute to the advancement of their noble influence2 but we have no idols1 and in our pantheon1 truth is above all4 ,we have no hesitation to sacrifice even ,jesus to the ,truth4 ,if we were in ,india1 and some ,hindoo preacher spoke of ,buddha1 as ,mr4 ,jones does of ,jesus1 as a personality defying all analysis1 baffling definition and overflowing all words--one who has won the right to preeminence in the world's history1--we would protest against it1 in the interest of ,jesus and other teachers1 as we now protest against ,mr4 ,jones' ,jesus1 in the interest of truth4 ,we have a suspicion1 however1 that if ,mr4 ,jones1 or preachers of his style1 were ,hindoos1 they would speak of ,buddha1 as they now1 being ,christians1 speak of ,jesus--echoing in both instances the popular opinion4 ,the best way to illustrate ,mr4 ,jones' style of reasoning is to quote a few examples from his sermon3 ,the story of the ,good ,samaritan has had a power beyond the story of the senseless blighting of the fig tree2 the ages have loved to think of ,jesus talking with the woman at the well more than they have loved to think of him as manufacturing wine at ,cana4 ,no man is so orthodox but that he reads more often the ,sermon on the ,mount than he does the story of the drowning of the pigs4 ,but if he did not drown the pigs1 the reporter who says he did might have also collected from ancient sources the texts in the ,sermon on the ,mount and put them in ,jesus' mouth4 ,again3 ,the dauntless crusaders who now in physical armament and again in the more invulnerable armament of the spirit1 went forth1 reckless of danger1 regardless of cost1 to rescue the world from heathen hands or to gather souls into the fold of ,christ4 ,we can hardly believe ,mr4 ,jones speaking of rescuing the world from heathen hands1 etc4 ,who were the heathen8 ,and think of countenancing the craze of the crusades1 which cost a million lives to possess the empty sepulchre of a mythical ,savior6 ,is it one of the merits of ,christianity that it calls other people heathen1 or that it kills them and lays waste their lands for an empty grave8 ,once more3 ,jesus had tremendous expectations4444,he believed mightily in the future1 not as some glory-rimmed heaven after death1 but as a conquering kingdom of love and justice4 ,jesus took large stock in tomorrow2 he laughed at the prudence that never dares1 the mock righteousness of the ledger that presumes to balance the books and pay all accounts up to date4 ,he knew that the prudence of commerce1 the thrift of trade1 the exclusive pride of the synagogue1 must be broken through with a larger hope and a diviner enterprise4 ,he believed there was to be a day after today and recognized his obligation to it2 he acknowledged the debt which can never be paid to the past and which is paid only by enlarging the resources of the future4 ,life1 to ,jesus1 was an open account2 he was a forward looker2 he was honest enough to recognize his obligations to the unborn4 ,perhaps this adventurous spirit in the realms of morals1 even more than his heart of love1 has made him the superlative leader of men4 ,we sincerely wish all this were true1 and would be glad to have ,mr4 ,jones furnish us with the texts or evidences which have led him to his conclusions4 ,would not his adjectives be equally appropriate in describing any other teacher he admires8 ,jesus had tremendous expectations4 ,well1 though this is somewhat vague as a tribute to ,jesus1 we presume the preacher means that ,jesus was an optimist4 ,the reports1 unfortunately1 flatly contradict ,mr4 ,jones4 ,jesus was a man of sorrows4 ,he expressly declared that this earth belonged to the devil1 that the road which led to destruction was crowded1 while few would enter the narrow gates of life4 ,he said3 ,many are called but few are chosen2 he told his disciples to confine their good work to the lost sheep of the ,house of ,israel1 and intimated that it were not wise to take the bread of children 7his people7 and give it to the dogs 7other people74 ,the ,go ye into all the world is a post- resurrection interpolation1 and ,mr4 ,jones does not believe in the miracle of the resurrection4 ,jesus looked forward to the speedy ending and destruction of the world1 when the sun and moon would turn black1 and the stars would fall2 and he doubted whether he would find any faith in the world when the son of man cometh2 and it was ,jesus who expected to say to the people on his left1 depart from me1 ye cursed1 into everlasting punishment4 ,this is the teacher1 whose pessimism is generally admitted1 of whom ,mr4 ,jones says that1 he had tremendous expectations4 ,he believed there was to be a day after today1 and recognized his obligation to it1 writes ,mr4 ,jones in his indiscriminate laudation of ,jesus4 ,is that why he said ,take no thought of the morrow1 and predicted the speedy destruction of the world8 ,he acknowledged the debt which can never be paid to the past4 ,a sentence like this has all the ear-marks of a glittering generality4 ,did ,jesus show gratitude to the past when he denounced all who had preceded him in the field of love and labor as thieves and robbers8 ,equally uncertain is the following3 ,he was honest enough to recognize his obligations to the unborn4 ,how does our clerical neighbor arrive at such a conclusion8 ,from what teaching or saying of ,jesus does he infer his respect for the rights of posterity8 ,indeed1 how could a teacher who said1 ,he that believeth not shall be damned1 he described as recognizing the rights of future generations8 ,to menace with damnation the future inquirer or doubter is to seek to enslave as well as to insult the generations yet to be born1 instead of recognizing his obligations to them4 ,the ,jesus ,mr4 ,jones is writing about is not in the gospels4 ,do you ask me if ,i am a ',christian'8 writes ,mr4 ,jones1 and he answers the question thus3 ,i do not know4 ,are you8 ,if anyone is inclined to give me that high name1 with the spiritual and ethical connotation in mind1 ,i am complimented and will try to merit it4 ,as our excellent neighbor is still in the dark1 and does not know whether or not1 or in what sense he is a ,christian--unless he is allowed to define the word himself1--and as he also intimates that he would like to be a ,jesus ,christian1 but not a ,church ,christian1 we humbly beg to express this opinion3 ,the ,american churches of today1 notwithstanding all their shortcomings1 are1 on every question of ethics and science1 of charity and the humanities1 far in advance of ,jesus1 and that in these churches there are men and women who in breadth of mind and nobility of spirit are as good1 and even better than ,jesus4 ,does our neighbor grasp our meaning8 ,charging all the bad in a religion to the account of man1 and attributing all the good to ,god1 or to a demi-god1 is1 after all1 only a dodge4 ,had not the disciples of ,jesus been braver than their master1 his religion would not have come down to us4 ,and had the ,christian church lived up to the letter of this ,semitic teacher1 ,europe would never have embraced ,christianity4 ,by modernizing ,jesus1 by selecting his more essential teachings1 and relegating his eccentricities to the background1 by making his name synonymous with the best aspirations of humanity1 by idealizing his character and enclosing it with a human halo1 the churches have saved ,jesus from oblivion4 ,jesus was a tribal teacher1 the church universalized him2 ,jesus had no gospel for women1 the church has after much hesitation and wavering converted him to the ,european attitude toward women2 ,jesus was silent on the question of slavery1 the churches have urged him with success to champion the cause of the bondsman2 ,jesus denounced liberty of conscience when he threatened with hell-fire the unbeliever2 but the churches have won him over to the modern secular principle of religious tolerance2 ,jesus believed only in the salvation of the elect1 but the church to a certain extent has succeeded in reconciling him to the larger hope2 ,jesus was an ascetic1 preferring the single life to the joys of the home1 and fasting and praying to the duty and privilege of labor1 but the church in ,america and ,protestant ,europe at least has made ,jesus a lover and a seeker of wealth and knowledge1 the two great forces of civilization4 ,no longer does ,jesus say1 hate your father and mother2 no longer does he cry in our great thoroughfares1 blessed are the poor2 no longer is his voice heard denouncing this world as belonging to the devil4 ,the modern church1 modernized by science1 has in turn modernized the gospels4 ,and yet ,mr4 ,jones prefers to be a ,christian such as ,jesus was4 ,he is repeating one of those phrases which apologists use when they give ,god all the praise and man all the blame4 ,in conclusion3 ,mr4 ,jones admits that ,christianity is not unique1 that ,buddha conquered greater tyrannies than ,christ2 that humility and self-sacrifice444have world-wide foundations2 but he draws no conclusions from these important facts1 but returns in a hurry to say that ,jesus is the finest and dearest stream swelling the mighty tide of history4 ,the only objection we have to ,mr4 ,jones' ,jesus is that he is not real4 ,,another ,,rhetorical ,,jesus ,the ,rev4 ,w4 ,h4 ,h4 ,boyle1 of ,st4 ,paul1 improves even on ,mr4 ,jones' superlative tribute to ,jesus4 ,he says3 ,can you imagine such a thing as a black sun1 or the reversal of creation or the annihilation of primal light8 ,then1 give rest to imagination and soberly think what it would mean to have the spiritual processes of two millenniums reversed1 to have the light of life in the unique personally of ,jesus forever eclipsed4 ,here is an idolator1 indeed4 ,to make an idol of his ,jesus he takes a sponge1 and without a twinge of conscience1 wipes out all the beauty and grandeur of the ancient world4 ,has this gentleman never heard of ,greece8 ,during a short existence1 in only two centuries and a half1 that little land of ,greece achieved triumphs in the life of the mind so unparalleled as to bring all the subsequent centuries upon their knees before it4 ,in philosophy1 in poetry1--lyrical1 epical1 dramatic1--in sculpture1 in statesmanship1 in ethics1 in literature1 in civilization1--where is there another ,greece8 ,oh1 land of ,sophocles6 whose poetry is the most perfect flower the earth has ever borne1--of ,phidias and ,praxiteles6 whose immortal children time cannot destroy1 though the gods are dead--whose masterpieces the earth wears as the best gem upon her brow1--of ,aristotle6 the intellect of the world1--of ,socrates6 the parens philosophiae1 and its first martyr6--of ,aristides6 the ,just--of ,phocion and ,epaminondas6--of ,chillon and ,anarcharchis6 whose devotion to duty and beauty have perfumed the centuries6 ,o1 ,athens1 the bloom of the world6 ,hear this sectarian clergyman1 in his black ,sunday robes1 closing his eyes upon all thine immortal contributions1 pulling down like a vandal1 as did the early ,christians1 the libraries and temples1 the culture and civilization of the ancient world--the monuments of thy unfading glory--to build therewith a pedestal for his mythical ,christ6 ,i can imagine the reverend advocate saying3 ,but there was slavery in ,greece1 and immorality1 too1--of course1 and is the ,christian world free from them8 ,has ,christ after two thousand years abolished war8 ,indeed1 he came to bring1 as he says1 not peace1 but a sword6 ,has ,jesus healed the world of the maladies for which we blame the ,pagan world8 ,has he made humanity free8 ,has he saved the world from the fear of hell8 ,has he redeemed man from the blight of ignorance8 ,has he broken the yoke of superstition and priest-craft8 ,has he even succeeded in uniting into one loving fold his own disciples8 ,how1 then1 can this clergyman1 with any conscience for truth1 compare a world deprived of the god of his sect1 to a tomb--to a blind man groping under a blackened sun8 ,must a man rob the long past in order to provide clothing for his idol8 ,must he close his eyes upon all history before he can behold the beauty of his own cult8 ,but let us quote again3 ,to efface from the statute books of ,christendom every law which has its basal principle in ,christian ethics2 to abolish every institution which ministers to human need and misfortune in the name of ,him whose sympathy is the heart of the divine2 to lower every sense of moral obligation between man and man to the old level of ,paganism to silence the great oratorios which have made music the echo of the divine2 to take down from the galleries of the world the sacred canvases with which genius has sanctified them2 to obliterate from memorial symbolism the cross of sublime renunciation which has been the rebuke of human selfishness2 to disband every organization which makes prayer1 through the merit of one great name1 the hand of man upon the arm of ,god--you may be able to think of an ocean without a harbor1 of a sky without a sun1 of a garden without a flower1 of a face without a smile1 of a home without a mother2 but1 can you think of a world with holiness and happiness in it and ,jesus gone out of it8 ,you cannot1 ',then1 come1 let us adore him1' etc41 etc4 ,observe how this special pleader avoids breathing so much as a word about any of the many evils which may be laid at the door of his religion with as much show of reason as the benefits he enumerates4 ,what about the dark ages which held all ,europe for the space of a thousand years in the clutches of an ignorance the like of which no other religion in the world had known8 ,what about the atrocious inquisition to which no other religion in the world had ever been able to give the swing that ,christianity did8 ,what about the persecution and burning of helpless women as witches8 ,is there anything as infamous as that in any religion outside of ours8 ,what about the wholesale massacres in the name of the true faith8 ,what about the centuries of religious wars1 the most imbecile as well as the most bloody1 from the effects of which ,germany1 ,france1 ,italy and ,england are still suffering today8 ,and need we also call attention to that obstinate resistance to science and progress1 which rewarded every discoverer of a new power for man1 with the halter or the stake1 which filled the dungeons with the elite of ,europe1--which even dug open graves to punish the bones of the dead savants and illuminators of man8 ,the ,pagans1 in their gladitorial games1 sacrificed the lives of slaves3 ,christianity made a holocaust of the noblest intellects of ,europe4 ,and shall we speak of the bigotry1 the fanaticism1 the bitter sectarian prejudices which to this day embitter the life of the world8 ,are not these1 too1 the fruits of ,christianity8 ,we know the answer which the reverend gentleman would make to this3 ,all the evils you speak of are chargeable1 not to ,christianity1 but to its abuse4 ,but we have already shown that that argument won't do4 ,we might as well say that all the evil of ,paganism was due to its abuse4 ,the mere fact that ,christianity lent itself to such fearful distortions1 and was capable of arousing the worst passions in man on such a fearful scale1 is condemnation enough4 ,it shows that there was in it a potentiality for evil beyond compare4 ,moreover1 wherein does a divine religion differ from a man-made cult1 if it is equally powerless to protect itself against perversion8 ,in what sense is ,jesus a god1 while all his rivals were mere men1 if he is as helpless to prevent the abuse of his teachings as they were8 ,but it would not be difficult to show that the characteristic crimes we have scheduled are the direct inspiration of a religion claiming exclusiveness and infallibility4 ,such texts as1 there is no other named given under heaven by which men can be saved2 ,let such an one 7the man who will not be converted7 be like a heathen and a publican to you2 ,john's advice to refrain from saying ,god speed to the alien in faith2 the bible command not to suffer a witch to live2 and many of the dogmas which might be cited1--corrupted the sympathies1 perverted the judgment of the noblest1 while at the same time they stung the evil- minded into something like madness4 ,the world knew nothing of the tyranny of dogma1 or religious oppression and persecution1 comparatively speaking1 until the advent of the ,jewish-,christian ,church4 ,verily ,i say unto you1 it shall be more tolerable for the land of ,sodom and of ,gomorrah1 in the day of judgment1 than for that city1 said ,jesus1 speaking of the people who might not accept his teachings4 ,how can ,christianity be a religion of love1 and how can it believe in tolerance1 when it threatens the unbeliever with a fate worse than that of ,sodom and ,gomorrah8 ,the benefits which the ,rev4 ,boyle parades as the direct fruit of his cult1 did not appear until after the ,renaissance1 that is to say1--the return to ,pagan culture and ideals4 ,the art and science and the humanities which he praises1 followed upon the gradual decline of the ,jewish-,christian religion which had already destroyed two civilizations4 ,but ,greece and ,rome triumphed4 ,to this day1 if we need models in poetry1 in art1 in philosophy1 in literature1 in politics1 in patriotism1 in service to the public1 in heroism and devotion to ideals--we must go to the ,greeks and the ,romans4 ,not that these nations were by any means perfect1 but because they have not been surpassed4 ,in our colleges and schools1 when we wish to bring up our children in the ways of wisdom and beauty1 we do not give them the ,christian fathers to read1 we give them the ,pagan classics4 ,we ask this ,st4 ,paul clergyman to read ,gibbons' tribute to ,pagan ,rome3 ,if a man was called upon to fix a period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous1 he would without hesitation name that which elapsed from the death of ,domitian to the accession of ,commodus4 ,this period included such men and rulers as ,nerva1 ,trajan1 ,adrian1 ,antoninus ,pius1 and above all1 the greatest of them all--the greatest ruler our earth has ever owned--,marcus ,aurelius ,antoninus4 ,let the ,rev4 ,w4 ,h4 ,h4 ,boyle look over the names of the kings of ,israel and of ,christian ,france1 ,spain1 ,italy and ,england1 and find among them any one that can come up to the stature of these ,pagan monarchs4 ,,we ,,owe ,,everything ,,to ,,jesus ,but1 behold6 another clergyman with the claim that the modern world owes all its joy and cheer1 during the ,christmas season1 to the babe in ,bethlehem4 ,what was it that brought about such a condition that crowds the stores1 that overflows the mails1 and loads the express with packages of every description8 ,the little babe in ,bethlehem set all this in motion1--the wreath1 the holly1 are all from him4 ,when we read the above and more to the same effect1 we wrote to the ,rev4 ,w4 ,a4 ,bartlett1 ,footnote3 ,pastor ,first ,congregational ,church1 ,chicago4 the author of the words quoted1 asking him if he was correctly reported4 ,we reproduce herewith a copy of our letter3 ,,dec1 #bj1 #aijd4 ,rev4 ,w4 ,a4 ,bartlett1 ,washington ,boul4 and ,ann ,st41 ,chicago ,,dear ,,mr4 ,,bartlett3 ,in the report of your sermon of last ,sunday you are represented as claiming that it is to the babe in ,bethlehem we owe the ,christmas festival1 the giving of presents1 etc41 etc4 ,i write to ascertain whether this report has stated your position correctly8 ,i am sure you know that ,christmas is only a recomposition of an old ,pagan festival1 and that giving presents at this season is a much older practice than ,christianity4 ,of course1 you do not believe that ,christmas is celebrated in ,december and on the #beth of the month because ,jesus was born on that day4 ,you know as well as ,i do of the ,pagan festivals celebrated in the month of ,december throughout the ,roman ,empire--celebrations which were accompanied with the giving and receiving of presents4 ,moreover1 you know also1 as every student does1 that in the ,latin countries of ,europe it is not on ,christmas day1 but on ,new ,year's day1 that presents are exchanged4 ,surely you would not claim that for ,new ,year's day1 too1 the world is indebted to the ,bethlehem babe4 ,you must also have known that the use of the evergreen and the holy was in vogue among the ,druids of ,pagan times4 ,be kind enough1 therefore1 to give me1 if ,i am not asking too much1 the facts which led you to make the statement to which ,i have called your attention1 and believe me1 with great respect1 etc4 ,to this neighborly letter the reverend gentleman did not condescend to send an acknowledgment4 ,we knocked at his door1 as it were1 and he1 a minister of the ,gospel1 declined to open it unto us4 ,clergymen1 as a rule1 say that they are happy when people will let them preach the gospel to them4 ,in our case1 we saved the clergyman from calling upon us1 we called upon him--that is to say1 we wrote and gave him an opportunity to enlighten us1 to bring his influence to bear upon us1 to open our eyes to the error of our ways1--and he would have nothing to do with us4 ,was not our soul worth saving8 ,did the ,rev4 ,w4 ,a4 ,bartlett consider us beyond hope8 ,we ask this clergyman to place his hand upon his conscience and ask himself whether he did the brotherly thing in not returning a friendly and kindly answer to our honest inquiry for truth4 ,but he did not answer us1 because he had no real faith in his gospel4 ,it was not good enough for an inquirer4 ,but the clergyman1 according to reports1 made an attempt on the ,sunday following the receipt of our letter1 before his congregation1 to answer indirectly our question4 ,he denied that ,christmas was a recomposition of an old ,pagan festival1 and said that the early ,christians fasted and wept because of these ,pagan festivals1 and that as early as the second century1 the birth of ,jesus was commemorated4 ,in short1 he pronounced it a distortion of history to assign to the ,christmas festival a ,pagan origin4 ,in his great work on the ,history of ,civilization1 ,buckle says this1 to which we call ,dr4 ,bartlett's attention3 ,as soon as eminent men grown unwilling to enter any profession1 the luster of that profession will be tarnished2 first its reputation will be lessened1 then its power abridged4 ,we fear this is true of ,mr4 ,bartlett's profession4 ,how can ,christian ministers hope to engage the interest of the reading public if they themselves abstain from reading8 ,ask a secular newspaper about the origin of the ,christmas celebration1 and it will tell you the truth4 ,on the very ,sunday that ,dr4 ,bartlett was denouncing1 in his church1 our claim that the ,pagans gave us the ,december season of joy and merry-making1 as a distortion of history1 and editorial in the ,chicago ,tribune said this3 ,but the festive character of the celebration1 the giving of presents1 the feasting and merriment1 the use of evergreen and holly and mistletoe1 are all remnants of ,pagan rites4 ,continuing1 the same editorial called attention to the antiquity of the institution3 ,long before the shepherds on the ,judean plains saw the star rise in the east and heard the tidings of ,peace on earth1 good will to man1 the ,roman populace surged through the streets at the feast of ,saturn1 giving themselves up to wild license and boisterous merry making4 ,they exchanged presents1 they decorated their dwellings and temples with green boughs2 slaves were given special privileges1 and the spirit of good will was abroad among men4 ,this ,roman ,saturnalia came at the winter solstice1 the same as does our ,christmas day1 while the birth of ,christ is widely believed to have taken place at some other season of the year4 ,but ,dr4 ,bartlett may have had in mind the quotation from ,anastasius3 ,our ,lord1 ,jesus ,christ1 was born of the ,holy ,virgin1 ,mary1 in ,bethlehem1 at one o'clock in the afternoon of ,december #beth1--appearing to quote from some old manuscript which1 unfortunately1 is not to be found anywhere4 ,but ,clement of ,alexandria1 in the year #baj ,a4 ,d41 dismisses all guesses as to when ,jesus was born1--the #ahth of ,april1 #aith of ,may1 etc41--as products of reckless speculation4 ,march #bhth is given as ,jesus' birthday in ,de ,pascha ,computius1 in the year #bdc4 ,jan4 #eth is the date defended by ,epiphanius4 ,baradaens1 ,bishop of ,odessa1 says3 ,no one knows exactly the day of the nativity of our ,lord3 this only is certain from what ,luke writes1 that he was born in the night4 ,poor ,dr4 ,bartlett1 his ,december #beth does not receive support from the ,fathers4 ,for our clerical brother's sake1 we quote some more from the ,tribune editorial3 ,primeval man looked upon the sun as the revelation of divinity4 ,when the shortest day of the year was passed1 when the sun began his march northward1 the primitive man rejoiced in the thought of the coming seedtime and summer1 and he made feasts and revelry the mode of expressing the gladness of his heart4 ,among the sun worshipers of ,persia1 among the ,druids of the far north1 among the ,phoenicians1 among the ,romans1 and among the ancient ,goths and ,saxons the winter solstice was the occasion of festivities4 ,many of them were rude and barbarous1 but they were all distinguished by hearty and profuse hospitality4 ,and yet our neighbor calls it distortion of history to connect ,christmas with the ,pagan festival1 celebrated about this time4 ,we quote once more from the ,secular press3 ,the ,christian church did not abolish these heathen ceremonies1 but grafted upon them a deeper spiritual meaning4 ,for this reason ,christmas is an institution which memorializes the best there was in ,pagan man4 ,its good cheer1 its charity1 its sports1 its feasting1 and the features which most endear it to children are all the heritage of our ,pagan ancestors4 ,how refreshing this1 compared with the clergyman's silence1 or cry of distortion4 ,but in one thing the doctor is correct4 ,the early ,christians did bewail the ,pagan festivals1 as they did everything else that was ,pagan4 ,but it did not help them at all2 they were compelled to acquiesce4 ,the ,christians have fasted and prayed also against science1 progress1 and modern thought1 but what good has it done8 ,they asked ,god to hook ,theodore ,parker's tongue2 to overthrow ,darwin1 and to confound the wisdom of this world1 but the prayer remains unanswered4 ,yes1 the doctor is right1 the church has fasted and prayed against religious tolerance1 against the use of ,sunday as a day of recreation1--the opening of galleries and libraries on that day1 the advancement of women1 the emancipation of the negro1 the secularization of education1 the revision of old creeds1 and a thousand other things4 ,but their opposition has only damaged their own cause4 ,they did try to suppress the ,pagan festival1 which we call ,christmas1 and the ,puritans in this country1 until recently1 abstained from all recognition of the day1 and called it ,popery1 and ,paganism1 but their efforts bore no fruit4 ,dr4 ,bartlett1 if he will read1 will learn that for many years1 in ,england and in this country1 the observance of ,christmas was forbidden by law under severe penalties4 ,as to our being indebted for the cheer and merriment of the ,december festival to the ,bethlehem babe1 the doctor must inform himself of those acts of ,parliament which1 under the ,puritan regime1 compelled people to mourn on ,christmas day and to abstain from merrymaking4 ,in ,christian ,connecticut1 for a man to have a sprig of holly in his house on ,christmas day was a finable crime4 ,in ,massachusetts1 any ,christian detected celebrating ,christmas was fined five shillings and costs4 ,but1 see1 having failed to suppress these good institutions1 they now turn about and claim that they have always believed in them1 and that1 in fact1 we would not now be enjoying any one of these benefits but for the ,christian ,church4 ,in conclusion1 we have one other word to say to the three clerical teachers from whose writings we have quoted4 ,against them we are constrained to bring the charge of looseness in thought4 ,they seem to have little conscience for evidence4 ,mr4 ,jones says1 for instance3 ,in short1 ,i am compelled to think that this ,light of ,souls1 this saving and redeeming spirit1 was the loved and loving child of ,joseph1 the carpenter1 and the loyal wife ,mary4 ,i believe this1 notwithstanding the stories of immaculate conceptions1 star-guided magi1 choiring angels and adoring shepards that gathered around the birth-night4 ,which is another way of saying that he is compelled to believe against the evidence1 merely because it is his pleasure or interest to do so4 ,this is not very edifying1 to be sure4 ,mr4 ,jones takes all his information about ,joseph and ,mary and ,jesus from the gospels1 and yet the gospels clearly contradict his conclusions4 ,mary1 the mother of ,jesus1 gives her word of honor that ,joseph was not the father of her child1 and ,joseph himself testifies that he is not ,jesus' father1 but ,mr4 ,jones pays no attention to their testimony2 he wishes ,joseph to be the father of ,jesus1 and that ought to be sufficient evidence1 he thinks4 ,we quote from the gospel3 ,now the birth of ,jesus ,christ was on this wise3 ,when his mother ,mary had been betrothed to ,joseph1 before they came together she was found with child of the ,holy ,ghost4 ,and ,joseph1 her husband1 being a righteous man1 and not willing to make her a public example1 was minded to put her away privily4 ,but when he thought on these things1 behold1 an angel of the ,lord appeared unto him in a dream1 saying1 ,joseph1 thou son of ,david1 fear not to take unto thee ,mary thy wife2 for that which is conceived in her is of the ,holy ,ghost4 ,now1 if ,joseph admits he was not ,jesus' father1 and ,mary corroborates his testimony 7,see ,luke1 #ast chapter71 ,jesus was1 if he ever lived1 and the records which give ,mr4 ,jones his ideal ,jesus are reliable1 the son of a man who has succeeded in concealing his identity1 unless1 of course1 we believe in the virgin birth4 ,if the real father of ,jesus had come forth and owned his son1 and ,mary had acknowledged that he was the father of her child1 what would have become of ,christianity8 ,we hope these clergymen who have dwelt1 as ,emerson says1 with noxious exaggeration about the person of ,jesus1 will reflect upon this1 and while doing so1 will they not also remember this other saying of the ,concord philosopher3 ,the vice of our theology is seen in the claim444that ,jesus was something different from a man4 ,we take our leave of the three clergymen1 assuring them that in what we have said we have not been actuated1 in the least1 by any personal motive whatever1 and that we have only done to them what we would have them do to us4 ,illustration3 ,head of a ,god with ,horns4 ,museum of ,st4 ,germain4 ,a ,,liberal ,,jew ,,on ,,jesus ,,felix ,,adler1 ,,praises ,,jesus ,that it is very easy for scholars to follow the people instead of leading them1 and to side with the view that commands the majority1 receives fresh confirmation from the recent utterances of the founder of the ,ethical ,culture ,society in ,new ,york4 ,professor ,adler1 the son of a rabbi1 and at one time a freethinker1 has slowly drifted into orthodox waters1 after having tried for a period of years the open seas1 and has become a more enthusiastic champion of the god of the ,christians than many a ,christian scholar whom we could name4 ,the pendulum in the ,adler case has swung clear to the opposite side4 ,we do not find fault with a man because he changes his views1 we only ask for reasons for the change4 ,it will be seen by the following extracts from ,adler's printed lectures that he has made absolutely no critical study of the sources of the ,jesus story1 but has merely1 and hurriedly at that1 accepted the conventional estimate of ,jesus and enlarged upon it4 ,jesus is entitled to all the praise which is due him1 but it must first be shown that in praising him we are not sacrificing the truth4 ,praising any man at such a cost is merely flattering the masses and bowing to the fashion of the day4 ,let us hear what ,professor ,adler has to say about ,jesus4 ,he writes3 ,it has been said that if ,christ came to ,new ,york or ,chicago1 they would stone him in the very churches4 ,it is not so6 ,if ,christ came to ,new ,york or ,chicago1 the publicans and sinners would sit at his feet6 ,for they would know that he cared for them better than they in their darkness knew how to care for themselves1 and they would love him as they loved him in the days of yore4 ,this would sound pious in the mouth of a ,moody or a ,torrey1 but1 we confess1 it sounds like affectation in the mouth of the free thinking son of a rabbi4 ,that ,prof4 ,adler enters here into a field for which his early ,jewish training has not fitted him1 is apparent from the hasty way in which he has put his sentences together4 ,it has been said1 he writes1 that if ,christ came to ,new ,york or ,chicago1 they would stone him in the very churches4 ,it is not so4 ,why is it not so8 ,and he answers3 ,if ,christ came to ,new ,york or ,chicago1 the publicans and sinners would sit at his feet4 ,but what has the reception which publicans and sinners might give ,jesus to do with how the churches would receive him8 ,he proves that ,jesus would not be stoned in the churches of ,new ,york and ,chicago by saying that the publicans and sinners would sit at his feet4 ,does he mean that ,new ,york and ,chicago churches and publicans and sinners are the same thing8 ,publicans and sinners might welcome him1 and still the churches might stone him1 which in fact1 according to ,adler's own admission1 was the case in ,jerusalem1 where the synagogues conspired against ,jesus1 while ,mary ,magdalene sat at his feet4 ,nor are his words about the publicans and sinners loving ,jesus as they loved him in the days of yore edifying4 ,who does he mean by the publicans and sinners1 and how many of them loved ,jesus in the days of yore1 and why should this class of people have felt a special love for him8 ,on the question of the resurrection of ,jesus1 ,prof4 ,adler says this3 ,it is sometimes insinuated that the entire ,christian doctrine depends on the accounts contained in the ,new ,testament1 purporting that ,jesus actually rose on the third day and was seen by his followers2 and that if these reports are found to be contradictory1 unsupported by sufficient evidence1 and in themselves incredible1 then the bottom falls out of the belief in immortality as represented by ,christianity4 ,it was the ,apostle ,paul himself who said that if ,jesus has not risen from the dead1 then is our faith in vain1--and we are1 of all men1 most miserable4 ,so1 you see1 friend ,adler1 it is not sometimes insinuated1 as you say1 but it is openly1 and to our thinking1 logically asserted1 that if ,jesus did not rise from the dead1 the whole fabric of ,christian eschatology falls to the ground4 ,but we must remember that ,prof4 ,adler has not been brought up a ,christian4 ,he has acquired his ,christian predilections only recently1 so to speak1 hence his unfamiliarity with its ,scriptures4 ,continuing1 the ,professor says3 ,but similar reports have arisen in the world time and again1 apparitions of the dead have been seen and have been taken for real2 and yet such stories1 after being current for a time1 invariably have passed into oblivion4 ,why did this particular story persist1 despite the paucity and the insufficiency of the evidence8 ,why did it get itself believed and take root8 ,what shall we think of such reasoning from the platform of a presumable rationalist movement8 ,does not the ,professor know that the story of the resurrection of ,jesus is not original1 but a repetition of older stories of the kind8 ,had the world never heard of such after- death apparitions before ,jesus' day1 it would never have invented the story of his resurrection4 ,and how does the ,professor know that the story of ,jesus' resurrection is not going to meet the same fate which has overtaken all other similar stories8 ,is it not already passing into the shade of neglect8 ,are not the intelligent among the ,christians themselves beginning to explain the resurrection of ,jesus allegorically1 denying altogether that he rose from the dead in a literal sense8 ,moreover1 the pre-,christian stories of similar resurrections lived to an old age1--two or three thousand years--before they died1 and the story of ,jesus' resurrection has yet to prove its ability to live longer4 ,all miraculous beliefs are disappearing1 and the story of the ,christian resurrection will not be an exception4 ,but ,prof4 ,adler's motive in believing that the story of the resurrection of ,jesus shall live1 is to offer it as an argument for immortality1 and in so doing he strains the ,english language in lauding ,jesus4 ,he says3 ,in my opinion1 people believed in the resurrection of ,jesus because of the precedent conviction in the minds of the disciples that such a man as ,jesus could not die1 because of the conviction that a personality of such superlative excellence1 so radiant1 so incomparably lofty in mien and port and speech and intercourse with others1 could not pass away like a forgotten wind1 that such a star could not be quenched4 ,we regret to say that there are as many assumptions in the above sentence as there are lines in it4 ,of course1 if we are for emotionalism and not for exact and accurate conclusions1 ,adler's estimate of ,jesus is as rhetorical as that of ,jones or ,boyle1 but if we have any love for historical truth1 there is not even the shadow of evidence1 for instance1 that the disciples could not believe that such a man as ,jesus could die4 ,on the contrary1 the disciples left him at the cross and fled1 and believed him dead1 until it was reported to them that he had been seen alive1 and even then some doubted1 and one wished to feel the flesh with his fingers before he would credit his eyes4 ,jesus had to eat and drink with them1 he had to open their eyes1 and perform various miracles before they would believe that he was not dead4 ,the text which says that the apostles hesitated to believe in the resurrection because as yet they knew not the scripture1 that he would rise from the dead1 shows conclusively how imaginary is the idea that there was a precedent conviction in the minds of the disciples that such a man as ,jesus could not die4 ,apparently it was all a matter of prophecy1 not of moral character at all4 ,yet in the face of all the evidence to the contrary1 ,prof4 ,adler tells his ,carnegie ,hall audience1 who unfortunately are even less informed in ,christian doctrine than their leader1 that there was a precedent conviction in the minds of the disciples that such a man as ,jesus could not die4 ,and what gave the disciples this supposed precedent conviction8 ,that a personality of such superlative excellence1 so radiant1 so incomparably lofty in mien and port and speech and intercourse with others1 could not pass away like a forgotten wind1 that such a star could not be quenched4 ,we are simply astonished1 and grieved as well1 to see the use which so enlightened a man as ,prof4 ,adler makes of his gifts4 ,will this ,jewish admirer of the god of ,christendom kindly tell us wherein ,jesus was superlatively excellent1 or incomparably lofty in mien and port and speech and intercourse with others8 ,was there a weakness found in men like ,buddha1 ,confucius1 ,socrates1 etc41 from which ,jesus was free8 ,that ,jesus created no such ideal impression upon his disciples1 is shown by the fact that they represented him as a sectarian and an egotist who denounced all who had preceded him as unworthy of respect and to be despised4 ,and how could a man whose public life did not cover more than two or three years of time1 and who lived as a celibate and a monk1 returning every night to his cave in the ,mount of ,olives1 taking no active part in the business life--supporting no family or parents1 assuming no civil or social duties--how can such a man1 we ask1 be held up as a model for the men and women of today8 ,jesus1 according to his biographers1 believed he could raise the dead1 and announced himself the equal of ,god4 ,i and my father are one1 he is reported to have said2 and one of his apostles writes3 ,he 7,jesus7 thought it no robbery to be equal to ,god4 ,either this report is true1 or it is not4 ,if it is1 what shall we think of a man who thought he was a god and could raise the dead8 ,if the report is not true1 what reliance can we place in his biographers when the things which they affirm with the greatest confidence are to be rejected8 ,yet ,prof4 ,adler1 swept off his feet by the popular and conventional enthusiasm about ,jesus1 describes him as a personality of such superlative excellence1 so radiant1 so incomparably lofty in mien and port and speech and intercourse with others1 that his followers could not believe he was a mere mortal4 ,but where is the ,jesus to correspond to this rhetorical language8 ,he is not in the anonymous gospels4 ,there we find only a fragmentary character patched or pieced together1 as it were1 by various contributors--a character made up of the most contradictory elements1 as we have tried to show in the preceding pages4 ,the ,jesus of ,adler is not in history1 he is not even in mythology4 ,there is no one of that name and answering that description in the four gospels4 ,that a loose way of speaking grows upon one if one is not careful1 and that sounding phrases and honest historical criticism are not the same thing1 will be seen by ,prof4 ,adler's lavish praise of ,john ,calvin4 ,he speaks of him in terms almost as glowing as he does of ,jesus4 ,he calls ,calvin that mighty and noble man4 ,that ,calvin ruled ,geneva like a ,russian autocrat2 that he was mighty in a community in which ,jacques ,gruet was beheaded because he had danced1 and also because he had committed the grave offense of saying that ,moses was only a man and no one knows what ,god said to him1 and in which ,michael ,servetus was burned alive for holding opinions contrary to those which the ,genevan pope was interested in1--is readily conceded4 ,but was ,calvin mighty in a beneficent sense8 ,did his power save people from the ,protestant inquisition8 ,was not the ,geneva of his day called the ,protestant ,rome8 ,and if he did not use his powerful influence to further religious tolerance and intellectual honesty2 if he did not use his position to save men from the grip of superstition and the fear of hell1 how can ,prof4 ,adler refer to him as that mighty and noble man--,john ,calvin8 ,it is not our purpose to grudge ,calvin any compliments which ,felix ,adler wishes to pay him4 ,what we grieve to see is1 that he should1 indirectly at least1 recommend to the admiration of his readers a man who1 if he existed today and acted as he did in the ,geneva of the sixteenth century1 would be regarded by every morally and intellectually awakened man1 as a criminal4 ,has not ,felix ,adler examined the evidence which incriminates ,calvin and proves him beyond doubt as the murderer of ,servetus8 ,if he 7,servetus7 comes to ,geneva1 ,i shall see that he does not escape alive1 wrote ,john ,calvin to ,theodore ,beza4 ,and he carried out his fearful menace2 ,servetus was put to death by the most horrible punishment ever invented--he was burned alive in a smoking fire4 ,what did this mighty and noble man do to save a stranger and a scholar from so atrocious a fate8 ,let his eulogist1 ,prof4 ,adler1 answer4 ,it will not do to say that those were different times4 ,a thousand voices were raised against the wanton and cruel murder of ,servetus1 but ,calvin's was not among them4 ,in fact1 when ,calvin himself was a fugitive and a wanderer1 he had written in favor of religious tolerance1 but no sooner did he become the ,protestant pope of ,geneva1 than he developed into an exterminator of heresy by fire4 ,such is the mighty and noble man held up for our admiration4 ,mighty he was1 but we ask again1 was he mighty in a noble sense8 ,had ,calvin been considered a mighty and noble man by the reformers who preceded ,prof4 ,adler1 there would have been no ,ethical ,culture societies in ,america today4 ,prof4 ,adler is indebted for the liberties which he enjoys in ,new ,york to the ,voltaires and the ,condorcets1 who regarded ,calvin and his isms as pernicious to the intellectual life of ,europe1 and did all they could to lead the people away from them4 ,think of the leader of the ,ethical ,societies exalting a persecutor1 to say nothing of his abominable theology1 or of his five aliases1 as that mighty and noble man2--,john ,calvin6 ,we feel grateful to ,prof4 ,adler for organizing the ,ethical ,societies in ,american1 but we would be pleased to have him explain in what sense a man of ,calvin's small sympathies and terrible deeds could be called both noble and mighty4 ,footnote3 ,see ,the ,kingdom of ,god in ,geneva ,under ,calvin4--,m4 ,m4 ,mangasarian4 ,it was predicted some years ago that the founder of the ,ethical ,societies will before long return to the ,jewish faith of his fathers4 ,however this may be1 we have seen1 in his estimate of ,jesus and ,john ,calvin1 evidences of his estrangement from rationalism1 of which in his younger days he was so able a champion4 ,in his criticism of the ,russian scientist1 ,metchnikoff1 of the ,pasteur ,institute in ,paris1 ,prof4 ,adler1 endorsing the popular estimate of ,jesus1 accepts also the popular attitude toward science4 ,he appears to prefer the doctrine of special creation to the theory of evolution4 ,we would not have believed this of ,felix ,adler if we did not have the evidence before us4 ,we speak of this to show the relation between an exaggerated praise of a popular idol1 and a denial of the conclusions of modern science4 ,it is the popular view which ,prof4 ,adler champions in both instances4 ,in his criticism of ,metchnikoff's able book1 ,the ,nature of ,man1 ,prof4 ,adler writes3 ,and to account for the reason in man1 this divine spark that has been set ablaze in him1 it is not sufficient to point to an ape as our ancestor4 ,if we are descended from an anthropoid ape on the physical side1 we are not descended from him in any strict sense of the word on our rational side2 for as life is born of life1 so reason is born of reason1 and if the anthropoid ape does not possess reason as we possess it1 it cannot be said that on our rational side we are his progeny4 ,if the above had been written fifty years ago1 when the doctrine of evolution was a heresy1 or by an orthodox clergyman of today1 we would have taken no note of it4 ,but coming as it does from the worthy founder of the ,ethical ,movement in ,america1 it deserves attention4 ,if1 says ,dr4 ,adler1 we are descended from an anthropoid ape on the physical side1 we are not descended from him in any strict sense of the word on our rational side4 ,he is not sure1 evidently1 that even physically man is the successor of the anthropoid ape1 but he is sure that we are not descended from him444on our rational side4 ,is ,dr4 ,adler1 then1 a dualist8 ,does he believe that there are two eternal sources1 from one of which we get our bodies1 and from the other our rational side8 ,and why cannot ,dr4 ,adler be a monist8 ,he answers1 for as life is born of life1 so reason is born of reason1 and if the anthropoid ape does not possess reason as we possess it1 it cannot be said that on our rational side we are his progeny4 ,not so1 good doctor6 ,there is no life without reason4 ,do we mean to say that the jelly-fish1 the creeping worm1 or the bud on the tree has reason8 ,yes2 not as much reason as a horse or a dog1 and certainly not as much as a ,metchnikoff or an ,adler1 but these lower forms of life could not have survived but for the element of rationality in them4 ,we may call this instinct1 sensation1 promptings of nature1 but what's in a name8 ,the difference between a pump and a watch is only a difference of mechanism4 ,the stone and the soul represent different stages of progression1 not different substances4 ,if a charcoal can be transformed into a diamond1 why may not nature1 with the resources of infinity at her command1 refine a stone into a soul8 ,let us not marvel at this2 it is not less thinkable than the proposition of two independent sources of life1 the one physical1 the other rational4 ,if life is born of life1 where did the first life come from8 ,let us have an answer to that question4 ,and if1 as the professor says1 reason is born of reason1 how did the first reason come8 ,is it not very much simpler to think in monistic terms1 than to separate life from reason1 and mind from matter1 as ,prof4 ,adler does in the words quoted above8 ,why cannot mind be a state of matter8 ,what objection is there to thinking that matter1 refined1 elevated1 ripened1 cultured1 becomes both sentient and rational8 ,if matter can feel1 can see1 can hear1 can it not also think8 ,does not the horse see1 hear and think8 ,there is no lowering of the dignity of man to say that he tastes with his palate1 sees with his eyes1 hears with his ears1 and thinks with the gray matter in his brain4 ,remove his optic nerve and he becomes blind1 destroy the ganglia in his brain1 and he becomes mindless4 ,gold is as much matter as the dust1 but it is very much more precious2 so is mind infinitely more precious than the matter which can only feel1 see1 taste or hear4 ,if the anthropoid ape does not possess reason as we possess it1 it cannot be said that on our rational side we are his progeny1 says ,dr4 ,adler3 ,but1 suppose we were to say that if our remote ,african or ,australian savage ancestors did not possess reason as we possess it1 it cannot be said that on our rational side we are their progeny1 ,the child in the cradle does not possess reason as we do1 any more than does the anthropoid ape1 but the beginnings of reason are in both4 ,let the worm climb and he will overtake man4 ,this is a most hopeful1 a most beautiful gospel4 ,its spirit is not one of isolation and exclusiveness from the rest of nature1 but one of fellowship and sympathy4 ,we are all--plants1 trees1 birds1 bugs1 animals--all members of one family1 children at various ages and stages of growth of the same great mother1--,nature4 ,we quote again3 ,when ,i ask him 7,metchnikoff7 whence do ,i come1 he points to the simian stage which we have left behind2 but ,i would look beyond that stage to some ultimate fount of being1 to which all that is highest in me and in the world around me can be traced1 a source of things equal to the best that ,i can conceive4 ,but if there is some ultimate fount of being1 to which our highest nature can be traced1 whence did our lower nature come8 ,is ,prof4 ,adler trying to say ,god8 ,we do not object to the word1 we only ask that he give the word a more intelligible meaning than has yet been given4 ,if ,god is the ultimate fount of being to which all that is highest in us can be traced1 who or what is the ultimate fount to which all that is lowest in us can be traced8 ,let us have the names of the two ultimate founts of being1 and also to what still more ultimate founts these founts may be traced4 ,in our opinion ,dr4 ,adler has failed to do justice to ,prof4 ,metchnikoff4 ,it is no answer to the ,darwinian ,theory1 which the ,russian scientist accepts in earnest1 and in all its fullness1--not fractionally1 as ,adler seems to do--to say that it does not explain everything4 ,no one claims that it does4 ,not all the mystery of life has been cleared4 ,evolution has offered us only a new key1 so to speak1 with which to attempt the doors which have not yielded to metaphysics4 ,and if the key has not opened all the doors1 it has opened many4 ,prof4 ,adler seems to think that the doctrine of evolution explains only the physical descent of man2 for the genesis of the spiritual man1 he looks for some supernatural fount in the skies4 ,well1 that is not science2 that is theology1 and ,adler's estimate of ,jesus is just as theological as his criticism of evolution4 ,,appendix ,the argument in this volume will be better understood if we give to our readers the comments and criticisms which our little pamphlet1 ,jesus a ,myth1 and ,the ,mangasarian-,crapsey ,debate on the ,historicity of ,jesus1 ,footnote3 ,price1 #be;c4 ,independent ,religious ,society1 ,orchestra ,hall1 ,chicago4 called forth from orthodox and liberal clergymen4 ,we shall present these together with our reply as they appeared on the ,sunday ,programs of the ,independent ,religious ,society4 ,criticism is welcome4 ,if the criticism is just1 it prevents us from making the same mistake twice2 if it is unjust1 it gives us an opportunity to correct the error our critic has fallen into4 ,no one's knowledge is perfect4 ,but the question is1 does a teacher suppress the facts8 ,does he insist on remaining ignorant of the facts8 ,,from ,,the ,,sunday ,,programs ,i ,now that the debate on one of the most vital questions of modern religious thought--,the ,historicity of ,jesus--is in print1 a few further reflections on some minor points in ,dr4 ,crapsey's argument may add to the value of the published copy4 ,,rev4 ,,dr4 ,,crapsey3 ,now1 ,i say this is the great law of religious variation1 that in almost every instance1 indeed1 ,i think1 in every single instance in history1 all such movements begin with a single personality4 7,p4 #e1 ,mangasarian-,crapsey ,debate47 ,,answer3 ,the only way this question can be settled is by appealing to history4 ,mithraism is a variant religion1 which at one time spread over the ,roman ,empire and came near outclassing ,christianity4 ,yet1 ,mithra1 represented as a young man1 and worshiped as a god1 is a myth4 ,how1 then1 did ,mithraism arise8 ,religions1 as well as their variations1 appear as new branches do upon an old tree4 ,the new branch is quite as much the product of the soil and climate as the parent tree4 ,like ,brahmanism1 ,judaism1 ,shinto and the ,babylonian and ,egyptian ,cults1 which had no single founders1 ,christianity is a deposit to which ,hellenic1 ,judaic and ,latin tendencies have each contributed its quota4 ,but the popular imagination craves a ,maker for the ,universe1 a founder for ,rome1 a first man for the human race1 and a great chief as the starter of the tribe4 ,in the same way it fancies a divine1 or semi- divine being as the author of its credo4 ,because ,mohammed is historical1 it does not follow that ,moses is also historical4 ,that argument would prove too much4 ,,rev4 ,,dr4 ,,crapsey3 ,we would be in the same position that the astronomers were when they discovered the great planet ,uranus--from their knowledge of the movements of these bodies they were convinced that these perturbations could be occasioned by nothing less than a great planet lying outside of the then view of mankind47,p4 #f1 ,ibid47 ,,answer3 ,but the astronomers did not rest until they converted the probability of a near-by planet into demonstration4 ,jesus is still a probability4 ,,rev4 ,,dr4 ,,crapsey3 ,we have of ,jesus a very distinctly outlined history4 ,there is nothing vague about him4 7,p4 #ab1 ,ibid47 ,,answer3 ,but in the same sentence the doctor takes all this back by adding3 ,there are a great many things in his history that are not historical4 ,if so1 then we do not possess a very distinctly outlined history1 but at best a mixture of fact and fiction4 ,,rev4 ,,dr4 ,,crapsey3 ,we can follow ,jesus' history from the time that he entered upon his public career until the time that career closed1 just as easily as we can follow ,caesar1 etc4 7,p4 #ab1 ,ibid47 ,,answer3 ,how long was the time from the opening of ,jesus' public career until the time that it closed8--,one year6--according to the three gospels4 ,it sounds quite a period to speak of following his public career from beginning to end1 especially when compared with ,caesar's1 until it is remembered that the entire public career of ,jesus covers the space of only one year4 ,this is a most decisive argument against the historicity of ,jesus4 ,with the exception of one year1 his whole life is hid in impenetrable darkness4 ,we know nothing of his childhood1 nothing of his old age1 if he lived to be old1 and of his youth1 we know just enough to fill up a year4 ,under the circumstances1 there is no comparison between the public career of a ,caesar or a ,socrates covering from fifty to seventy years of time1 and that of a ,jesus of whose life only one brief year is thrown upon the canvas4 ,an historical ,jesus who lived only a year6 ,,rev4 ,,dr4 ,,crapsey3 ,the ,christ ,i admit to be purely mythological4444the word ,christ1 you know1 means the anointed one4444they 7the ,hebrews7 expected the coming of that ,christ4444,but that is purely a mythical title4 7,the ,debate--,p4 #ce47 ,,answer3 ,did the ,hebrews then expect the coming of a title8 ,were they looking forward to seeing the ancient throne of ,david restored by a title8 ,by ,messiah or ,christ the ,jews did not mean a name1 but a man--a real flesh and bone savior1 anointed or appointed by heaven4 ,but if the ',christ' which the ,hebrews expected was purely mythical1 what makes the same ',christ' in the supposed ,tacitus passage historical8 ,the ,new ,testament ,jesus is ,jesus ,christ1 and the apostle ,john speaks of those who confess not that ,jesus ,christ is come in the flesh--mark his words--not ,christ1 but ,jesus ,christ4 ,the apostle does not separate the two names4 ,there were those1 then1 in the early church who denied the historicity1 not of a title1--for what meaning would there be in denying that a title is come in the flesh1--but of a person1 known as ,jesus ,christ4 ,and what could the doctor mean when he speaks of a title being mythological8 ,there are no mythological titles4 ,titles are words1 and we do not speak of the historicity or the non-historicity of words4 ,we cannot say of words as we do of men1 that some are historical and others are mythical4 ,william ,tell is a myth--not the name1 but the man the name stands for4 ,william is the name of many real people1 and so is ,tell4 ,there were many anointed kings1 who are historical1 and the question is1 ,is ,jesus ,christ--or ,jesus the ,anointed--also historical8 ,to answer that ,jesus is historical1 but ,the ,anointed is not1 is to evade the question4 ,when ,mosheim declares that ,the prevalent opinion among early ,christians was that ,christ existed in appearance only1 he could not have meant by ',christ' only a title4 ,there is no meaning in saying that a man's title existed in appearance only8 ,we do not speak of a title being born1 or crucified2 and when some early ,christians denied that ,jesus ,christ was ever born or ever crucified1 they had in mind not a title but a person4 ,in conclusion3 ,if the ',christ' by whom the ,hebrews meant1 not a mere name1 but a man1 was purely mythological1 as the reverend debater plainly admits 7see pages #ce1 #cf of ,the ,debate7--that is1 if when the ,hebrews said3 ,christ is coming1 they were under the influence of an illusion1--why may not the ,christians when they say that ',christ' has come1 be also under the influence of an illusion8 ,the ,hebrew illusion said1 ,christ was coming2 the ,christian illusion says1 ,christ has come4 ,the ,hebrews had no evidence that ',christ' was coming1 although that expectation was a great factor in their religion2 and the ,christians have no more evidence for saying ',christ' has come1 although that belief is a great factor in their religion4 ,,ii ,the minister of the ,south ,congregational ,church1 who heard the debate1 has publicly called your lecturer an unscrupulous sophist1 who practices imposition upon a popular audience and who put forth sentence after sentence which every scholar present knew to be a perversion of the facts so outrageous as to be laughable4 ,as one of the leading morning papers said1 the above is not a reply to arguments made by ,mr4 ,mangasarian4 ,invited by several people to prove these charges1 the ,reverend replies3 ,in the absence of any full report of what he 7,m4 ,m4 ,mangasarian7 said1 or of any notes taken at the time1 ,i am unable to furnish you with quotations4 ,when the ,reverend gentleman was addressing the public his memory was strong enough to enable him to say1 sentence after sentence was put forth by ,mr4 ,mangasarian which every scholar present knew to be a perversion of the facts4 ,but when called upon to mention a few of them1 his memory forsakes him4 ,our critic is not careful to make his statements agree with the fact4 ,one instance1 however1 he is able to remember which when it fell upon my ears1 he writes1 it struck me with such amazement1 that it completely drove from my mind a series of most astonishing statements of various sorts which had just preceded it4 ,we refrain from commenting on the excuse given to explain so significant a failure of memory4 ,the instance referred to was about the denial of some in apostolic times that ,jesus ,christ is come in the flesh4 ,but as ,mr4 ,mangasarian had hardly spoken more than twenty minutes when he touched upon this point1 it is not likely that it could have been preceded by a series of most astonishing statements of various sorts4 ,and what was the statement which1 while it crippled his memory1 it did not moderate his zeal8 ,we will let him present it himself2 ,i refer to the use he made of one or two passages in the ,new ,testament1 mentioning some who deny 'that ,jesus ,christ is come in the flesh4' ',so that1' he went on to say1 'there were those even among the early ,christians themselves who denied that ,jesus had come in the flesh4 ,of course1 they were cast out as heretics4' ,here came an impressive pause1 and then without further explanation or qualification1 he proceeded to something else4 ,this is his most serious complaint4 ,does it justify hasty language8 ,st4 ,john writes of those who confessed not that ,jesus ,christ is come in the flesh4 ,the natural meaning of the words is that even in apostolic times some denied the flesh and bone ,jesus1 and regarded him as an idea or an apparition--something like the ,holy ,ghost4 ,all church historians admit the existence of sects that denied the ,new ,testament ,jesus--the ,gnostics1 the ,essenes1 the ,ebionites1 the ,marcionites1 the ,cerinthians1 etc4 ,as the debate is now in print1 further comment on this would not be necessary4 ,incidents like the above1 however1 should change every lukewarm rationalist into a devoted soldier of truth and honor4 ,to us1 more important than anything presented on this subject1 is this evidence of the existence of a very early dispute among the first disciples of ,jesus on the question of whether he was real or merely an apparition4 ,the ,apostle ,john1 in his epistle1 clearly states that even among the faithful there were those who confess not that ,jesus ,christ is come in the flesh4 ,this is very important4 ,as early as ,john's time1 if he is the writer of the epistle1 ,jesus' historicity was questioned4 ,the gospel of ,john also hints at the existence in the primitive church of ,christians who did not accept the reality of ,jesus4 ,when doubting ,thomas is told of the resurrection1 he answers that he must feel the prints of the nails with his fingers before he will believe1 and ,jesus not only grants the wishes of this skeptical apostle1 but he also eats in the presence of them all1 which story is told evidently to silence the critics who maintained that ,jesus was only a spirit1 the ,wisdom of ,god1 an emanation1 a light1 and not real flesh and bones4 ,,iii ,the same clergyman1 to whom a copy of the ,mangasarian-,crapsey ,debate was sent1 has written a five page criticism of it4 ,the strength of a given criticism is determined by asking3 ,does it in any way impair the soundness of the argument against which it is directed8 ,critics have discovered mistakes in ,darwin and ,haeckel1 but are these mistakes of such a nature as to prove fatal to the theory of evolution8 ,to be effective1 criticism must be aimed at the heart of an argument4 ,a man's life is not in his hat1 which could be knocked off1 or in his clothes--which could be torn in places by his assailant without in the least weakening his opponent's position4 ,it is the blow that disables which counts4 ,to charge that we have said ',gospel1' where we should have said ',epistle1' or ',trullum' instead of ',trullo'2 that it was not ,barnabas1 but ,nicholas who denied the ,gospel ,jesus1 and that there were variations of this denial1 does not at all disprove the fact that1 according to the ,christian scriptures themselves1 among the apostolic followers there were those to whom ,jesus ,christ was only a phantom4 ,milman1 the ,christian historian1 states that the belief about ,jesus ,christ adopted by almost all the ,gnostic sects1 was that ,jesus ,christ was but an apparent human being1 an impassive phantom1 7,history of ,christianity4 ,vol4 #b1 ,p4 #fa74 ,was ever such a view entertained of ,caesar1 ,socrates or of any other historical character8 ,on page #bh of ,the ,debate we say3 ,the ,apostle ,john complains of those4444who confess not that ,jesus ,christ is come in the flesh4 ,to this the clergyman replies3 ,the ,apostle ,john never made any such complaint4 ,critical scholarship is pretty well agreed that he did not write the epistles ascribed to him4 ,we have a lecture on ,how the ,bible was ,invented1 and this clergyman's admission that at least parts of the bible are invented is very gratifying4 ,in a former communication1 this same clergyman tried to prove that the ,apostle ,john's complaint does not at all imply a denial of the historical ,jesus4 ,in his recent letter he denies that the apostle ever made such a complaint4 ,john did not write the epistles1 then1 which the ,christian church for two thousand years1 and at a cost of millions of dollars1 and at the greater sacrifice of truth and progress has been proclaiming to the world as the work of the inspired ,john6 ,the strenuous efforts to get around this terrible text in the ,holy ,bible1 show what a decisive argument it is4 ,every exertion to meet it only tightens the text1 like a rope1 around the neck of the belief in the historical ,jesus4 ,our desire1 in engaging in this argument1 is to turn the thought and love of the world from a mythical being1 to humanity1 which is both real and present4 ,on page #bb of ,the ,debate1 we say3 ,st4 ,paul tells us that he lived in ,jerusalem at a time when ,jesus must have been holding the attention of the city2 yet he never met him4 ,to this the clergyman replies3 ,paul tells us nothing of the kind4 ,in a speech which is put into the mouth of ,paul--put into the mouth of ,paul6 ,is this another instance of forgery8 ,john did not write the epistles1 and ,paul's speech in the ,book of ,acts was put into his mouth6 ,will the clergyman tell us which parts of the bible are not invented8 ,let us make a remark3 ,the church people blame us for not believing in the trustworthiness of the bible2 but when we reply that if the bible is trustworthy1 then ,paul must have been in ,jerusalem with ,jesus1 and ,john admits that some denied the historical ,jesus1 we are blamed for not knowing better than to prove anything by quoting ,paul and ,john as if everything they said was trustworthy4 ,in other words1 only those passages in the bible are authentic which the clergy quote2 those which the rationalists quote are spurious4 ,in the meantime1 the authentic as well as the spurious passages together compose the churches' ,word of ,god4 ,,iv ,in a letter of protest to ,mr4 ,mangasarian1 ,rabbi ,hirsch1 of this city1 asks3 ,was it right for you to assume that ,i was correctly reported by the ,news8 ,after stating what he had said in his interview with the reporter1 the ,rabbi continues3 ,but said ,i to the reporter all these possible allusions do not prove that ,jesus existed4444,you see in reality ,i agreed with you4 ,i personally believe ,jesus lived4 ,but ,i have no proof for this beyond my feeling that the movement with which the name is associated could even for ,paul not have taken its nomenclature without a personal substratum4 ,but1 and this ,i told the reporter also1 this does not prove that the ,jesus of the ,gospels is historical4 ,rabbi ,hirsch writes in this same letter that he did not say ,jesus was mentioned in the ,rabbinical ,books4 ,the ,news reports the ,rabbi as saying1 ,but we know through the ,rabbinical ,books that ,jesus lived4 ,a committee from our ,society waited on the editor of the ,daily ,news for an explanation4 ,the editor promised to locate the responsibility for the contradiction4 ,as the report in the ,news was allowed to stand for four days without correction1 and as ,rabbi ,hirsch did not even privately1 by letter or by phone1 disclaim responsibility for the article1 to ,mr4 ,mangasarian1 the latter claims he was justified in assuming that the published report was reliable4 ,but it is with pleasure that the ,independent ,religious ,society gives ,rabbi ,hirsch this opportunity to explain his position4 ,we hope he will also let us know whether he said to the reporter3 ,i do not believe in ,mr4 ,mangasarian's argument that ,christianity has inspired massacres1 wars and inquisitions4 ,it is a stock argument and not to the point4 ,this is extraordinary2 and as the ,rabbi does not question the statement1 we infer that it is a correct report of what he said4 ,though we have room for only one quotation from the ,jewish-,christian ,scriptures1 it will be enough to show the relation of religion to persecution3 ,and thou shalt consume all the people which the ,lord1 thy ,god1 shall deliver thee2 thine eye shall have no pity upon them4 ,why were women put to death as witches8 ,why were ,quakers hanged8 ,for what economic and political reasons1 which the ,rabbi thinks are responsible for persecution1 was the blind ,derby girl who doubted the ,real ,presence1 burned alive at the age of twenty-two8 ,v ,the ,rev4 ,w4 ,e4 ,barton1 of ,oak ,park1 is one of the ablest ,congregational ministers in the ,west4 ,he has recently expressed himself on the ,mangasarian-,crapsey ,debate4 ,let us hear what he has to say on the historicity of ,jesus4 ,the ,reverend gentleman begins by an uncompromising denial of our statements1 and ends by virtually admitting all that we contend for4 ,this morning we will write of his denials2 next ,sunday1 of his admissions4 ,mr4 ,mangasarian1 says ,dr4 ,barton1 has not given evidence of his skill as a logician or of his accuracy in the use of history4 ,then he proceeds to apologize1 in a way1 for the character of his reply to our argument1 by saying that ,mr4 ,mangasarian's arguments1 fortunately1 do not require to be taken very seriously1 for they are not in themselves serious4 ,notwithstanding this protest1 ,dr4 ,barton proceeds to do his best to reply to our position4 ,in ,the ,debate we call attention to the fact that according to the ,new ,testament1 ,paul was in ,jerusalem when ,jesus was teaching and performing his miracles there4 ,yet ,paul never seems to have met ,jesus1 or to have heard of his teachings or miracles4 ,to this ,dr4 ,barton replies3 ,we cannot know and are not bound to explain where ,paul was on the few occasions when ,jesus publicly visited ,jerusalem4 ,the above reply1 we are compelled to say1 much to our regret1 is not even honest4 ,without actually telling any untruths1 it suggests indirectly two falsehoods3 ,first1 that ,jesus was not much in ,jerusalem--that he was there only on a few occasions2 and that1 therefore1 it is not strange that ,paul did not see him or hear of his preaching or miracles2 and second1 that ,paul was absent from the city when ,jesus was there4 ,the question is not how often ,jesus visited ,jerusalem1 but how conspicuous was the part he played there4 ,he may have visited ,jerusalem only once in all his life1 yet if he preached there daily in the synagogues2 if he performed great miracles there2 if he marched through the streets followed by the palm-waving multitude shouting ,hosanna1 etc42 if he attacked the high-priest and the pharisees there1 to which latter class ,paul belonged2 and if he was arrested1 tried and publicly executed there2 and if his teaching stirred the city from center to circumference1--it would not be honest to intimate that the few times ,jesus visited ,jerusalem1 ,paul was engaged elsewhere4 ,the ,reverend debater attempts to belittle the ,jerusalem career of ,jesus1 by suggesting that he was not there much1 when according to the ,gospels1 it was in that city that his ministry began and culminated4 ,again1 to our argument that ,paul never refers to any of the teachings of ,jesus1 the ,reverend replies3 ,nor is it of consequence that ,paul seldom quotes the words of ,jesus4 ,seldom---would imply that ,paul quotes ,jesus sometimes4 ,we say ,paul gives not a single quotation to prove that he knew of a teaching ,jesus4 ,he had heard of a crucified1 risen1 ,christ--one who had also instituted a bread and wine supper1 but of ,jesus as a teacher and of his teaching1 ,paul is absolutely ignorant4 ,but by saying ,paul seldom quotes ,jesus1 ,dr4 ,barton tries to produce the impression that ,paul quotes ,jesus1 though not very often1 which is not true4 ,there is not a single miracle1 parable or moral teaching attributed to ,jesus in the ,gospels of which ,paul seems to possess any knowledge whatever4 ,nor is it true that it is of no consequence that ,paul seldom quotes the words of ,jesus4 ,for it proves that the ,gospel ,jesus was unknown to ,paul1 and that he was created at a later date4 ,once more2 we say that the only ,jesus ,paul knew was the one he met in a trance on his way to ,damascus4 ,to this the pastor of the ,first ,congregational ,church of ,oak ,park replies in the same we-do-not-care- to-explain style4 ,he says3 ,nor is it of consequence that ,paul values comparatively lightly1 having known him in the flesh4 ,the words ,paul valued comparatively lightly are as misleading as the words ,paul seldom quotes ,jesus4 ,paul never quotes ,jesus' teachings1 and he never met ,jesus in the flesh4 ,the clergyman's words1 however1 convey the impression that ,paul knew ,jesus in the flesh1 but he valued that1 knowledge comparatively lightly1 that is to say1 he did not think much of it4 ,and ,dr4 ,barton is one of the foremost divines of the country4 ,and now about his admissions3 ,,vi ,i4 ,the ,gospels1 by whomever written1 says the clergyman1 are reliable4 ,by whomever written6 ,after two thousand years1 it is still uncertain to whom we are indebted for the story of ,jesus4 ,what1 in ,dr4 ,barton's opinion1 could have influenced the framers of the life of ,jesus to suppress their identity8 ,and why does not the church instead of printing the words1 ,the ,gospel according to ,matthew or ,john1 which is not true1--print1 ,the ,gospel by whomever written8 ,,ii4 ,at the very least1 four of ,paul's epistles are genuine1 says the same clergyman4 ,only four8 ,paul has thirteen epistles in the bible1 and of only four of them is ,dr4 ,barton certain4 ,what are the remaining nine doing in the ,holy ,bible8 ,and which 'four' does the clergyman accept as doubtlessly genuine8 ,only yesterday all thirteen of ,paul's letters were infallible1 and they are so still wherever no questions are asked about them4 ,it is only where there is intelligence and inquiry that four of them at least are reliable4 ,as honesty and culture increase1 the number of inspired epistles decreases4 ,what the ,americans are too enlightened to accept1 the church sends to the heathen4 ,,iii4 ,it is true that early a sect grew up which4444held that ,jesus could not have had a body of carnal flesh2 but they did not question that he had really lived4 ,according to ,dr4 ,barton1 these early ,christians did not deny that ,jesus had really lived1--they only denied that ,jesus could have had a body of carnal flesh4 ,we wonder how many kinds of flesh there are according to ,dr4 ,barton4 ,moreover1 does not the bible teach that ,jesus was tempted in all things1 and was a man of like passions1 as ourselves8 ,the good man controls his appetites and passions1 but his flesh is not any different from anybody else's4 ,if ,jesus did not have a body like ours1 then he did not exist as a human being4 ,our point is1 that if the ,new ,testament is reliable1 in the time of the apostles themselves1 the ,gnostics1 an influential body of ,christians1 denied that ,jesus was any more than an imaginary existence4 ,but1 pleads the clergyman1 these sects believed that ,jesus was real1 though not carnal flesh4 ,what kind of flesh was he then8 ,if by carnal the ,gnostics meant 'sensual1' then1 the apostles in denouncing them for rejecting a carnal ,jesus1 must have held that ,jesus was carnal or sensual4 ,how does the ,reverend ,barton like the conclusion to which his own reasoning leads him8 ,,iv4 ,it is true that there were literary fictions in the age following the apostles4 ,this admission is in answer to the charge that even in the first centuries the ,christians were compelled to resort to forgery to prove the historicity of ,jesus4 ,the doctor admits the charge1 except that he calls it by another name4 ,the difference between fiction and forgery is this3 the former is1 what it claims to be2 the latter is a lie parading as a truth4 ,fiction is honest because it does not try to deceive4 ,forgery is dishonest because its object is to deceive4 ,if the ,gospel was a novel1 no one would object to its mythology1 but pretending to be historical1 it must square its claims with the facts1 or be branded as a forgery4 ,v4 ,we may not have the precise words ,jesus uttered2 the portrait may be colored24444tradition may have had its influence2 but ,jesus was real4 ,a most remarkable admission from a clerical6 ,it concedes all that higher criticism contends for4 ,we are not sure either of ,jesus' words or of his character1 intimates the ,reverend preacher4 ,precisely4 ,in commenting on our remark that in the eighth century ,pope ,hadrian called upon the ,christian world to think of ,jesus as a man1 ,dr4 ,barton replies with considerable temper3 ,to date people's right to think of ,jesus as a man from that decree is not to be characterized by any polite term4 ,our neighbor1 in the first place1 misquotes us in his haste4 ,we never presumed to deny anyone the right to think of ,jesus what he pleased1 before or after the eighth century4 7,the ,debate1 p4 #bh47 ,we were calling attention to ,pope ,hadrian's order to replace the lamb on the cross by the figure of a man4 ,but by what polite language is the conduct of the ,christian church--which to this day prints in its bibles ,translated from the ,original ,greek1 when no original manuscripts are in existence--to be characterized8 ,dr4 ,barton's efforts to save his creed remind us of the ,japanese proverb3 ,it is no use mending the lid1 if the pot be broken4 ,,vii ,the most remarkable clerical effort thus far1 which ,the ,mangasarian- ,crapsey ,debate has called forth1 is that of the ,rev4 ,e4 ,v4 ,shayler1 rector of ,grace ,episcopal ,church of ,oak ,park4 ,in answer to your query1 which ,i received1 ,i beg to give the following statement4 ,facts1 not theories4 ,the date of your own letter #aijh tells what8 #aijh years after what8 ,the looking forward of the world to ,him4 ,rev4 ,shayler has an original way of proving the historicity of ,jesus4 ,every time we date our letters1 suggests the clergyman1 we prove that ,jesus lived4 ,the ancient ,greeks reckoned time by the ,olympiads1 which fact1 according to this interesting clergyman1 ought to prove that the ,olympic games were instituted by the ,god ,heracles or ,hercules1 son of ,zeus2 the ,roman ,chronology began with the building of ,rome by ,romulus1 which by the same reasoning would prove that ,romulus and ,remus1 born of ,mars1 and nursed by a she-wolf1 are historical4 ,rev4 ,shayler has forgotten that the ,christian era was not introduced into ,europe until the sixth century1 and ,dionysius1 the monkish author of the era1 did not compute time from the birth of ,jesus1 but from the day on which the ,virgin ,mary met an angel from heaven4 ,this date prevailed in many countries until #agde4 ,would the date on a letter prove that an angel appeared to ,mary and hailed her as the future ,mother of ,god8 ,according to this clergyman1 scientists1 instead of studying the crust of the earth and making geological investigations to ascertain the probable age of the earth1 ought to look at the date in the margin of the bible which tells exactly the world's age4 ,rev4 ,shayler continues3 ,the places where he was born1 labored and died are still extant1 and have no value apart from such testimony4 ,while this is amusing1 we are going to deny ourselves the pleasure of laughing at it2 we will do our best to give it a serious answer4 ,if the existence of such a country as ,palestine proves that ,jesus is real1 the existence of ,switzerland must prove that ,william ,tell is historical2 and the existence of an ,athens must prove that ,athene and ,apollo really lived2 and from the fact that there is an ,england1 ,rev4 ,shayler would prove that ,robin ,hood and his band really lived in #aafj4 ,the ,reverend knows of another 'fact' which he thinks proves ,jesus without a doubt3 ,a line of apostles and bishops coming right down from him by his appointment to ,anderson of ,chicago1 shows that ,jesus is historical4 ,it does1 but only to ,episcopalians4 ,the ,catholics and the other sects do not believe that ,anderson is a descendant of ,jesus4 ,did the priests of ,baal or ,moloch prove that these beings existed8 ,the ,reverend has another argument3 ,the ,christian ,church--when1 why and how did it begin8 ,which ,christian church1 brother8 ,your own church began with ,henry the ,eighth in #aecd1 with persecution and murder1 when the king1 his hands wet with the blood of his own wives and ministers1 made himself the supreme head of the church in ,england4 ,the ,methodist church began with ,john ,wesley not much over a hundred years ago2 the ,presbyterian church began with ,john ,calvin who burned his guest on a slow fire in ,geneva about three hundred years ago2 and the ,lutheran church began with ,martin ,luther in the sixteenth century1 the man who said over his own signature3 ,it was ,i1 ,martin ,luther1 who slew all the peasants in the ,peasants ,war1 for ,i commanded them to be slaughtered4444,but ,i throw the responsibility on our ,lord ,god who instructed me to give this order2 and the ,roman ,catholic church1 the parent of the smaller churches--all chips from the same block--began its real career with the first ,christian ,emperor1 ,constantine1 who hanged his father-in- law1 strangled his brother-in-law1 murdered his nephew1 beheaded his eldest son1 and killed his wife4 ,gibbon writes of ,constantine that the same year of his reign in which he convened the council of ,nice was polluted by the execution1 or rather murder1 of his eldest son4 ,but our clerical neighbor from ,oak ,park has one more argument3 ,why is ,sunday observed instead of ,saturday8 ,well1 why8 ,sun-day is the day of the ,sun1 whose glorious existence in the lovely heavens over our heads has never been doubted2 it was the day which the ,pagans dedicated to the ,sun4 ,sunday existed before the ,jesus story was known1--the anniversary of whose supposed resurrection falls in ,march one year1 and in ,april another4 ,if ,jesus rose at all1 he rose on a certain day1 and the apostles must have known the date4 ,why then is there a different date every year8 ,rev4 ,shayler concludes3 ,haven't time to go deeper now1 and he intimates that to deny his 'facts' is either to be a fool or a liar4 ,we will not comment on this4 ,we are interested in arguments1 not in epithets4 ,,viii ,one of our ,sunday programs1 the other day1 found its way into a church4 ,it went farther2 it made its appearance in the pulpit4 ,in my hand ,i hold the notice of a publication bearing the title ,is ,jesus a ,myth8 said ,dr4 ,boyle4 ,this1 too1 just as though ,paul never bore testimony4 ,this gave the clergyman a splendid opportunity to present in clear and convincing form the evidence for the reality of ,jesus4 ,but one thing prevented him3--the lack of evidence4 ,therefore1 after announcing the subject1 he dismissed it1 by remarking that ,paul's testimony was enough4 ,the ,rev4 ,morton ,culver ,hartzell1 in a letter1 offers the same argument4 ,let ,mr4 ,mangasarian first disprove ,paul1 he writes4 ,the argument in a nutshell is this3 ,jesus is historical because he is guaranteed by ,paul4 ,but who guarantees ,paul8 ,aside from the fact that the ,jesus of ,paul is essentially a different ,jesus from the gospel ,jesus there still remains the question1 ,who is ,paul8 ,let us see how much the church scholars themselves know about ,paul3 ,the place and manner and occasion of his death are not less uncertain than the facts of his later life444,the chronology of the rest of his life is as uncertain444,we have no means of knowing when he was born1 or how long he lived1 or at what dates the several events of his life took place4 ,referring to the epistles of ,paul1 the same authority says3 ,the chief of these preliminary questions is the genuineness of the epistles bearing ,paul's name1 which if they be his--yes1 ,,if-- ,the ,christian scholar whose article on ,paul is printed in the ,britannica1 and from which we are now quoting1 gives further expression to this uncertainty by adding that certain of ,paul's epistles have given rise to disputes which cannot easily be settled in the absence of collateral evidence444,the pastoral epistles444have given rise to still graver questions1 and are probably even less defensible4 ,let the reader remember that the above is not from a rationalist1 but from the ,rev4 ,edwin ,hatch1 ,d4 ,d41 ,vice-,principal1 ,st4 ,mary ,hall1 ,oxford1 ,england4 ,were we disposed to quote rationalist authorities1 the argument against ,paul would be far more decisive4 ,but we are satisfied to rest the case on orthodox admissions alone4 ,the strongest argument then of clergymen who have attempted an answer to our position is something like this3 ,jesus is historical because a man by the name of ,paul says so1 though we do not know much about ,paul4 ,it is just such evidence as the above that led ,prof4 ,goldwin ,smith to exclaim3 ,jesus has flown4 ,i believe the legend of ,jesus was made by many minds working under a great religious impulse--one man adding a parable1 another an exhortation1 another a miracle story2--and ,george ,eliot to write3 ,the materials for a real life of ,christ do not exist4 ,in the effort to untie the ,jesus-knot by ,paul1 the church has increased the number of knots to two4 ,in other words1 the church has proceeded on the theory that two uncertainties make a certainty4 ,we promised to square also with the facts of history our statement that the chief concern of the church1 ,jewish1 ,christian1 or ,mohammedan1 is not righteousness1 but orthodoxy4 ,,ix ,speaking in this city1 ,rev4 ,w4 ,h4 ,wray ,boyle of ,lake ,forest1 declared that unbelief was responsible for the worst crimes in history4 ,he mentioned the placing4 --of a nude woman on a pedestal in the city of ,paris4 --the assassination of ,william ,mc,kinley4 --,the same unbelief sent a murderer down the isle of a church in ,denver to pluck the symbol of the sacrament from the hands of a priest and slay him at the altar4 ,the story of a nude woman1 etc41 is pure fiction1 and that the two murders were caused by unbelief is mere assumption4 ,to help his creed1 the preacher resorts to fable4 ,we shall prove our position by quoting facts3 ,i4 ,,hypatia ,footnote3 ,see ,author's1 ,the ,martyrdom of ,hypatia4 was dragged into a ,christian church by monks in ,alexandria1 and before the altar she was stripped of her clothing and cut in pieces with oyster shells1 and murdered4 ,her innocent blood stained the hands of the clergy1 who also handle the ,holy ,sacraments4 ,she was murdered not by a crazed individual but by the orders of the bishop of ,alexandria4 ,how does the true story of ,hypatia compare with the fable of a nude woman placed on a pedestal in the city of ,paris8 ,the ,reverend must answer1 or never tell an untruth again4 ,hypatia was murdered in church1 and by the clergy1 because she was not orthodox4 ,,ii4 ,,poltrot1 the ,protestant1 in the #afth century assassinated ,francois1 the ,catholic duke of ,guise1 in ,france1 and the leaders of the church1 instead of disclaiming responsibility for the act1 publicly praised the assassin1 and ,theodore ,beza1 the colleague of ,calvin1 promised him a crown in heaven4 7,de l'etat etc1 ,p4 #hb4 ,quoted by ,jules ,simon47 ,,iii4 ,,james ,,clement1 a ,catholic1 assassinated ,henry ,,iii4 ,for this act the clergy placed his portrait on the altar in the churches between two great lighted candle-sticks4 ,because he had killed a heretic prince1 the ,catholics presented the assassin's mother with a purse4 7,esprit de la ,ligue ,i4 ,,iii4 ,p4 #ad47 ,if it was unbelief that inspired the murder of ,mc,kinley1 what inspired the assassins of ,hypatia and ,henry ,,iii8 ,we read in the ,bible that ,gen4 ,sisera1 a heathen1 having lost a battle1 begged for shelter at the tent of ,jael1 a friendly woman1 but of the ,bible faith4 ,jael assured the unfortunate stranger that he was safe in her tent4 ,the tired warrior fell asleep from great weariness4 ,then ,jael picked a tent-peg and with a hammer in her hand walked softly unto him1 and smote the nail into his temples1 and fastened it into the ground444,so he died4 ,the ,,bible calls this assassin blessed above women4 7,judge ,,iv4 #ah1 etc47 ,she had killed a heretic4 ,in each of the instances given above1 the assassin is honored because he committed murder in the interest of the faith4 ,we ask this clergyman and his colleagues who are only too anxious to charge every act of violence to unbelief in their creeds--,what about the crimes of believers8