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                The Works of ROBERT G. INGERSOLL

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                        MYTH AND MIRACLE.

                               1885

                                I

     Happiness is the true end and aim of life. It is the task of
intelligence to ascertain the conditions of happiness, and when
found the truly wise will live in accordance with them. By
happiness is meant not simply the joy of eating and drinking -- the
gratification of the appetite -- but good, well being, in the
highest and noblest form. The joy that springs from obligation
discharged, from duty done, from generous acts, from being true to
the ideal, from a perception of the beautiful in nature, art and
conduct. The happiness that is born of and gives birth to poetry
and music, that follows the gratification of the highest wants.

     Happiness is the result of all that is really right and sane.
But there are many people who regard the desire to he happy as a
very low and degrading ambition. These people call themselves
spiritual. They pretend to care nothing for the pleasures of
"sense." They hold this world, this life, in contempt. They do not
want happiness in this world -- but in another. Here, happiness
degrades -- there, it purifies and ennobles.

     These spiritual people have been known as prophets, apostles,
augurs, hermits, monks, priests, popes, bishops and parsons. They
are devout and useless. They do not cultivate the soil. They
produce nothing. They live on the labor of others. They are pious
and parasitic. They pray for others, if the others will work for
then. They claim to have been selected by the Infinite to instruct
and govern mankind. They are "meek" and arrogant, "long-suffering"
and revengeful.

     They ever have been, now are, and always will be the enemies
of liberty, of investigation and science. They are believers in the
supernatural, the miraculous and the absurd. They have filled the
world with hatred, bigotry and fear. In defence of their creeds
they have committed every crime and practiced every cruelty.

     They denounce as worldly and sensual, those who are gross
enough to love wives and children, to build homes, to fell the
forests, to navigate the seas, to cultivate the earth, to chisel
statues, to paint pictures and fill the world with love and art.



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                        MYTH AND MIRACLE.

     They have denounced and maligned the thinkers, the poets, the
dramatists, the composers, the actors, the orators, the workers -- 
those who have conquered the world for man.

     According to them this world is only the vestibule of the
next, a kind of school, an ordeal, a place of Probation. They have
always insisted that this life should be spent in preparing for the
next; that those who supported and obeyed the "spiritual guides" --
the shepherds. would be rewarded with an eternity of joy, and that
all others would suffer eternal pain.

     These spiritual people have always hated labor. They have
added nothing to the wealth of the world. They have always lived on
alms -- on the labor of others. They have always been the enemies
of innocent pleasure, and of human love.

     These spiritual people have produced a literature. The books
they have written are called sacred. Our sacred books are called
the Bible. The Hindoos have the Vedas and many others, the Persians
the Zend Avesta -- the Egyptians had the Book of the Dead -- the
Aztecs the Popol Vuh, and the Mohammedans have the Koran.

     These books, for the most part, treat of the unknowable. They
describe gods and winged phantoms of the air. They give accounts of
the origin of the universe, the creation of man and the worlds
beyond this. They contain nothing of value. Millions and millions
of people have wasted their lives studying these absurd and
ignorant books.

     The "spiritual people" in each country claimed that their
books had been written by inspired men -- that God was the real
author, and that all men and women who denied this would be, after
death, tormented forever.

     And yet, the worldly people, the uninspired, the wicked, have
produced a far greater literature than the spiritual and the
inspired.

     Not all the sacred books of the world combined equal
Shakespeare's "volume of the brain." A purer philosophy, grander,
nobler, fell from the lips of Shakespeare's clowns than the Old
Testament or the New, contains.

     The Declaration of Independence is nobler far than all the
utterances from Sinai's cloud and flame. "A Man's a Man for a'
That," by Robert Burns, is better than anything the sacred books
contain. For my part, I would rather hear Beethoven's Sixth
Symphony than to read the five books of Moses. Give me the Sixth
Symphony -- this sound-wrought picture of the fields and woods, of
flowering hedge and happy home, where thrushes build and swallows
fly, and mothers sing to babes; this echo of the babbled lullaby of
brooks that, dallying, wind and fall where meadows bare their
daisied bosoms to the sun; this joyous mimicry of summer rain, the
laugh of children, and the rhythmic rustle of the whispering
leaves; this strophe of peasant life; this perfect poem of content
and love.



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                        MYTH AND MIRACLE.

     I would rather listen to Tristan and Isolde -- that
Mississippi of melody -- where the great notes, winged like eagles,
lift the soul above the cares and griefs of this weary world --
than to all the orthodox sermons ever preached. I would rather look
at the Venus de Milo than to read the Presbyterian creed.

     The spiritual have endeavored to civilize the world through
fear and faith -- by the promise of reward and the threat of pain
in other worlds. They taught men to hate and persecute their
fellow-men. In all ages they have appealed to force. During all the
years they have practiced fraud. They have pretended to have
influence with the gods -- that their prayers gave rain, sunshine
and harvest -- that their curses brought pestilence and famine, and
that their blessings filled the world with plenty. They have
subsisted on the fears their falsehoods created. Like poisonous
vines, they have lived on the oak of labor. They have praised
charity, but they never gave. They have denounced revenge, but they
never forgave.

     Whenever the spiritual have had power, art has died, learning
has languished, science has been despised, liberty destroyed, the
thinkers have been imprisoned, the intelligent and honest have been
outcasts, and the brave have been murdered.

     The "spiritual" have been, are, and always will be the enemies
of the human race.

     For all the blessings that we now enjoy -- for progress in
every form, for science and art -- for all that has lengthened
life, that has conquered disease, that has lessened pain, for
raiment, roof and food, for music in its highest forms -- for the
poetry that has ennobled and enriched our lives -- for the
marvelous machines now working for the world -- for all this we are
indebted to the worldly -- to those who turned their attention to
the affairs of this life. They have been the only benefactors of
our race.

                               II

     And yet all of these religions -- these "sacred books," these
priests, have been naturally produced. From the dens and caves of
savagery to the palaces of civilization men have traveled by the
necessary paths and roads. Back of every step has been the
efficient cause. In the history of the world there has been no
chance, no interference from without, nothing miraculous.
Everything in accordance with and produced by the facts in nature.

     We need not blame the hypocritical and cruel. They thought and
acted as they were compelled to think and act.

     In all ages man has tried to account for himself and his
surroundings. He did the best he could. He wondered why the water
ran, why the trees grew, why the clouds floated, why the stars
shone, why the sun and moon journeyed through the heavens. He was
troubled about life and death, about darkness and dreams. The seas,
the volcanoes, the lightning and thunder, the earthquake and
cyclone, filled him with fear. Behind all life and growth and 


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                        MYTH AND MIRACLE.

motion, and even inanimate things, he placed a spirit -- an
intelligent being -- a fetich, person, something like himself -- a
god, controlled by love and hate. To him causes and effects became
gods -- supernatural beings. The Dawn was a maiden, wondrously
fair, the Sun, a warrior and lover; the Night, a serpent, a wolf --
the Wind, a musician; Winter, a wild beast; Autumn, Proserpine
gathering flowers.

     Poets were the makers of these myths. They were the first to
account for what they saw and felt. The great multitude mistook
these fancies for facts. Myths strangely alike, were produced by
most nations, and gradually took possession of the world.

     The Sleeping Beauty, a myth of the year, has been found among
most peoples. In this myth, the Earth was a maiden -- the Sun was
her lover. She had fallen asleep in winter. Her blood was still and
her breath had gone. In the Spring the lover came, clasped her in
his arms, covered her lips and cheeks with kisses. She was
thrilled, her heart began to beat, she breathed, her blood flowed,
and she awoke to love and joy. This myth has made the circuit of
the globe.

     So, Red Riding-Hood is the history of a day. Little Red
Riding-Hood -- the morning, touched with red, goes to visit her
kindred, a day that is past. She is attacked by the wolf of night
and is rescued by the hunter, Apollo, who pierces the heart of the
beast with an arrow of light.

     The beautiful myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is the story of the
year. Eurydice has been captured and carried to the infernal world.
Orpheus, playing upon his harp, goes after her. Such is the effect
of his music when he reaches the realm of Pluto, the laughterless,
that Tantalus ceases his efforts to slake his thirst. He listens
and forgets his withered lips, the daughters of the Danaides cease
their vain efforts to fill the sieve with water, Sisyphus sits down
on the stone that he so often had heaved against the mountain's
misty side, Ixion pauses upon his wheel of fire, even Pluto smiles,
and for the first time in the history of hell the cheeks of the
Furies are wet with tears.

     "Give me back Eurydice," cried Orpheus, and Pluto said: "Take
her, but look not back." Orpheus led the way and Eurydice followed.
Just as he reached the upper world, he missed her footsteps,
turned, looked, and she vanished.

     And thus the summer comes, is lost, and comes again through
all the years.

     So, our ancestors believed in the Garden of Eden, in the
Golden Age, in the blessed time when all were good and pure -- when
nature satisfied the wants of all. The race, like the old man, has
golden dreams of youth. The morning was filled with light and life
and joy, and the evening is always sad. When the old man was young,
girls were beautiful and men were honest. He remembers his Eden.
And so the whole world has had its age of gold.


 

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                        MYTH AND MIRACLE.

     Our fathers were believers in the Elysian Fields. They were in
the far, far West. They saw them at the setting of the sun. They
saw the floating isles of gold in sapphire seas; the templed mist
with spires and domes of emerald and amethyst: the magic caverns of
the clouds, resplendent with the rays of every gem. And as they
looked, they thought the curtain had been drawn aside and that
their eyes had for a moment feasted on the glories of another
world.

     The myth of the Flood has also been universal. Finding shells
of the seas on plain and mountain, and everywhere some traces of
the waves, they thought the world had been submerged -- that God in
wrath had drowned the race, except a few his mercy saved.

     The Hindus say that Menu, a holy man, dipped from the Ganges
some water, and in the basin saw a little fish. The fish begged him
to throw him back into the river, and Menu, having pity, cast him
back. The fish then told Menu that there was to be a flood -- told
him to build an ark, to take on board, people, animals and food,
and that when the flood came, he, the fish, would save him. The
saint did as he was told, the flood came, the fish returned. By
that time he had grown to be a whale with a horn in his head. About
this horn Menu fastened a rope, attached the other end to the ark,
and the fish towed the boat across the raging waves to a mountain's
top, where it rested until the waters subsided. The name of this
wonderful fish was Matsaya.

     Many other nations told similar stories of floods and arks and
the sending forth of doves.

     In all these myths and legends of the past we find
philosophies and dreams and efforts, stained with tears, of great
and tender souls who tried to pierce the mysteries of life and
death, to answer the questions of the whence and whither, and who
vainly sought with bits of shattered glass to make a mirror that
would in very truth reflect the face and form of Nature's perfect
self. These myths were born of hopes and fears, of tears and
smiles, and they were touched and colored by all there is of joy
and grief between the rosy dawn of birth and deaths sad night. They
clothed even the stars with passion, and gave to gods the faults
and frailties of the sons of men. In them the winds and waves were
music, and all the springs, the mountains, woods and perfumed dells
were haunted by a thousand fairy forms. They thrilled the veins of
Spring with tremulous desire, made tawny Summer's billowy breast
the throne and home of love, filled Autumn's arms with sun-kissed
grapes and gathered sheaves, and pictured Winter as a weak old
king, who felt, like Lear, upon his withered face, Cordelia's
tears.

     These myths, though false in fact, are beautiful and true in
thought, and have for many ages and in countless ways enriched the
heart and kindled thought.







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                        MYTH AND MIRACLE.

                               III

     In all probability the first religion was Sun-worship. Nothing
could have been more natural. Light was life and warmth and love. 
The sun was the fireside of the world. The sun was the "all-seeing"
-- the "Sky Father." Darkness was grief and death, and in the
shadows crawled the serpents of despair and fear.

     The sun was a great warrior, fighting the hosts of Night.
Apollo was the sun, and he fought and conquered the serpent of
Night. Agni, the generous, who loved the lowliest and visited the
humblest, was the sun. He was the god of fire, and the crossed
sticks that by friction leaped into flame were his emblem. It was
said that, in spite of his goodness, he devoured his father and
mother, the two pieces of wood being his parents. Baldur was the
sun. He was in love with the Dawn -- a maiden -- he deserted her
and traveled through the heavens alone. At the twilight they met,
were reconciled, and the drops of dew were the tears of joy they
shed.

     Chrishna was the sun. At his birth the Ganges thrilled from
its source to the sea. All the trees, the dead as well as the
living, burst into leaf and bud and flower.

     Hercules was a sun-god.

     Jonah the same, rescued from the fiends of Night and carried
by the fish through the under world. Samson was a sun-god. His
strength was in his hair -- in his beams. He was shorn of his
strength by Delilah, the shadow -- the darkness. So, Osiris,
Bacchus, Mithra, Hermes, Buddha, Quelzalcoatle, Prometheus,
Zoroaster, Perseus, Codom Lao-tsze Fo-hi, Horus and Rameses were
all sun-gods.

     All these gods had gods for fathers and all their mothers were
virgins.

     The births of nearly all were announced by stars.

     When they were born there was celestial music, voices declared
that a blessing had come upon the earth.

     When Buddha was born, the celestial choir sang: "This day is
born for the good of men Buddha, and to dispel the darkness of
their ignorance -- to give joy and peace to the world."

     Chrishna was born in a cave, and protected by shepherds.
Bacchus, Apollo, Mithra and Hermes were all born in caves. Buddha
was born in an inn -- according to some, under a tree.

     Tyrants sought to kill all of these gods when they were babes.

     When Chrishna was born, a tyrant killed the babes of the
neighborhood.

     Buddha was the child of Maya, a virgin, in the kingdom of
Madura. The king arrested Maya before the child was born; 


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                        MYTH AND MIRACLE.

imprisoned her in a tower. During the night when the child was
born, a great wind wrecked the tower, and carried mother and child
to a place of safety. The next morning the king sent his soldiers
to kill the babes, and when they came to Buddha and his mother, the
babe appeared to be about twelve years of age, and the soldiers
passed on.

     So Typhon sought in many ways to destroy the babe Horus. The
king pursued the infant Zoroaster. Cadmus tried to kill the infant
Bacchus.

     All of these gods were born on the 25th of December.

     Nearly all were worshiped by "wise men."

     All of them fasted for forty days.

     All met with a violent death.

     All rose from the dead.

     The history of these gods is the history of our Christ. He had
a god for a father, a virgin for a mother. He was born in a manger,
or a cave -- on the 25th of December. His birth was announced by
angels. He was worshiped by wise men, guided by a star. Herod,
seeking his life, caused the death of many babes. Christ fasted for
forty days. So, it rained for forty days before the flood -- Moses
was on Mt. Sinai for forty days. The temple had forty pillars and
the Jews wandered in the wilderness for forty years. Christ met
with a violent death, and rose from the dead.

     These things are not accidents -- not coincidences. Christ was
a sun-god. All religions have been born of sun-worship. To-day,
when priests pray, they shut their eyes. This is a survival of sun-
worship. When men worshiped the sun, they had to shut their eyes.
afterwards, to flatter idols, they pretended that the glory of
their faces was more than the eyes could bear.

     In the religion of our day there is nothing original. All of
its doctrines, its symbols and ceremonies are but the survivals of
creeds that perished long ago. Baptism is far older than
Christianity -- than Judaism. The Hindus, the Egyptians, the Greeks
and Romans had holy water. The eucharist was borrowed from the
Pagans. Ceres was the goddess of the fields, Bacchus the god of the
vine. At the harvest festival they made cakes of wheat and said:
"These are the flesh of the goddess." They drank wine and cried:
"This is the blood of our god."

     The cross has been a symbol for many thousands of years. It
was a symbol of immortality -- of life, of the god Agni, the form
of the grave of a man. An ancient people of Italy, who lived long
before the Romans, long before the Etruscans, so long that not one
word of their language is known, used the cross, and beneath that
emblem, carved on stone, their dead still rest. In the forests of
Central America, ruined temples have been found, and on the walls
the cross with the bleeding victim. On Babylonian cylinders is the
impression of the cross. The Trinity came from Egypt. Osiris, Isis 


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                        MYTH AND MIRACLE.

and Horus were worshiped thousands of years before our Father, Son
and Holy Ghost were thought of. So the Tree of Life grew in India,
China and among the Aztecs long before the Garden of Eden was
planted. Long before our Bible was known, other nations had their
sacred books, temples and altars, sacrifices, ceremonies and
priests. The "Fall of Man" is far older than our religion, and so
are the "Atonement" and the Scheme of Redemption.

     In our blessed religion there is nothing new, nothing
original.

     Among the Egyptians the cross was a symbol of the life to
come. And yet the first religion was, and all religions growing out
of that, were naturally produced. Every brain was a field in which
Nature sowed the seeds of thought. The rise and set of sun, the
birth and death of day, the dawns of silver and the dusks of gold,
the wonders of the rain and snow, the shroud of Winter and the many
colored robe of Spring, the lonely moon with nightly loss or gain,
the serpent lightning and the thunder's voice, the tempest's fury
and the zephyr's sigh, the threat of storm and promise of the bow,
cathedral clouds with dome and spire, earthquake and strange
eclipse, frost and fire, the snow-crowned mountains with their
tongues of flame, the fields of space sown thick with stars, the
wandering comets hurrying past the fixed and sleepless sentinels of
night, the marvels of the earth and air, the perfumed flower, the
painted wing, the waveless pool that held within its magic breast
the image of the startled face, the mimic echo that made a record
in the viewless air, the pathless forests and the boundless seas,
the ebb and flow of tides -- the slow, deep breathing of some vague
and monstrous life -- the miracle of birth, the mystery of dream
and death, and over all the silent and immeasurable dome. These
were the warp and woof, and at the loom sat Love and Fancy, Hope
and Fear, and wove the wondrous tapestries whereon we find pictures
of gods and fairy lands and all the legends that were told when
Nature rocked the cradle of the infant world,

                               IV

     We must remember that there is a great difference between a
myth and a miracle. A myth is the idealization of a fact. A miracle
is the counterfeit of a fact. There is the same difference between
a myth and a miracle that there is between fiction and falsehood --
between poetry and perjury. Miracles belong to the far past and the
far future. The little line of sand, called the present, between
the seas, belongs to common sense, to the natural.

     If you should tell a man that the dead were raised two
thousand years ago, he would probably say: "Yes, I know that." If
you should say that a hundred thousand years from now all the dead
will be raised, he might say: "Probably they will." But if you
should tell him that you saw a dead man raised and given life that
day, he would likely ask the name of the insane asylum from which
you had escaped.

     Our Bible is filled with accounts of miracles and yet they
always fail to convince.



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                        MYTH AND MIRACLE.

     Jehovah, according to the Scriptures, wrought hundreds of
miracles for the benefit of the Jews. With many miracles he rescued
them from slavery, guided them on their journey with a miraculous
cloud by day and a miraculous pillar of fire by night -- divided
the sea that they might escape from the Egyptians, fed them with
miraculous manna and supernatural quails, raised up hornets to
attack their enemies, caused water to follow them wherever they
wandered and in countless ways manifested his power, and yet the
Jews cared nothing for these wonders. Not one of them seems to have
been convinced that Jehovah had done anything for the people.

     In spite of all these miracles, the Jews had more confidence
in a golden calf, made by themselves, than in Jehovah. The reason
of this is, that the miracles were never performed, and never
invented until hundreds of years after those, who had wandered over
the desert of Sinai, were dust.

     The miracles attributed to Christ had no effect. No human
being seems to have been convinced by them. Those whom he raised
front the dead, cured of leprosy, or blindness, failed to become
his followers. Not one of them appeared at his trial. Not one
offered to bear witness of his miraculous power. To this there is
but one explanation: The miracles were never performed. These
stories were the growth of centuries. The casting out of devils,
the changing of water into wine, feeding the multitude with a few
loaves and fishes, resisting the devil, using a fish for a
pocketbook, curing the blind with clay and saliva, stilling the
tempest, walking on the water, the resurrection and ascension,
happened and only happened, in the imaginations of men, who were
not born until several generations after Christ was dead.

     In those days the world was filled with ignorance and fear.
Miracles happened every day. The supernatural was expected. Gods
were continually interfering with the affairs of this world.
Everything was told except the truth, everything believed except
the facts. History was a circumstantial account of occurrences that
never occurred. Devils and goblins and ghosts were as plentiful as
saints. The bones of the dead were used to cure the living.
Cemeteries were hospitals and corpses were physicians. The saints
practiced magic, the pious communed with God in dreams, and the
course of events was changed by prayer. The credulous demanded the
marvelous, the miraculous, and the priests supplied the demand. The
sky was full of signs, omens of death and disaster, and the
darkness thick with devils endeavoring to mislead and enslave the
souls of men.

     Our fathers thought that everything had been made for man, and
that demons and gods gave their entire attention to this world. The
people believed that they were the sport and prey, the favorites or
victims, of these phantoms. And they also believed that the
Creator, the God, could be influenced by sacrifice, by prayers and
ceremonies.

     This has been the mistake of the world. All the temples have
been reared, all the altars erected, all the sacrifices offered,
all the prayers uttered in vain. No god has interfered, no prayer
has been answered, no help received from heaven. Nothing was 


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                        MYTH AND MIRACLE.

created, nothing has happened for, or with reference to man. If not
a human being lived, -- if all were in their graves, the sun would
continue to shine, the wheeling world would still pursue its
flight, violets would spread their velvet bosoms to the day, the
spendthrift roses give their perfume to the air, the climbing vines
would hide with leaf and flower the fallen and the dead, the
changing seasons would come and go, time would repeat the poem of
the year, storms would wreck and whispering rains repair, Spring
with deft and unseen hands would weave her robes of green, life
with countless lips would seek fair Summer's swelling breasts,
Autumn would reap the wealth of leaf and fruit and seed, Winter,
the artist, would etch in frost the pines and ferns, while Wind and
Wave and Fire, old architects, with ceaseless toil would still
destroy and build, still wreck and change, and from the dust of
death produce again the throb and breath of life.

                                V

     A few years ago a few men began to think, to investigate, to
reason. They began to doubt the legends of the church, the miracles
of the past. They began to notice what happened. They found that
eclipses came at certain intervals and that their coming could be
foretold. They became satisfied that the conduct of men had nothing
to do with eclipses -- and that the stars moved in their orbits
unconscious of the sons of men. Galileo, Copernicus, and Kepler
destroyed the astronomy of the Bible, and demonstrated that the
"inspired" story of creation could not be true, and that the church
was as ignorant as the priests were dishonest.

     They found that the myth-makers were mistaken, that the sun
and stars did not revolve about the earth, that the firmament was
not solid, that the earth was not flat, and that the so-called
philosophy of the theologians was absurd and idiotic.

     The stars became witnesses against the creeds of superstition.

     With the telescope the heavens were explored. The New
Jerusalem could not be found.

     It had faded away.

     The church persecuted the astronomers and denied the facts. In
February, in the year of grace sixteen hundred, the Catholic
Church, the "Triumphant Beast," having in her hands, her paws, the
keys of heaven and hell, accused Giordano Bruno of having declared
that there were other worlds than this, He was tried, convicted,
imprisoned in a dungeon for seven years. He was offered his liberty
if he would recant. Bruno, the atheist, the philosopher, refused to
stain his soul by denying what he believed to be true. He was taken
from his cell by the priests, by those who loved their enemies, led
to the place of execution. He was clad in a robe on which
representations of devils had been painted -- the devils that were
soon to claim his soul. He was chained to a stake and about his
body the wood was piled. Then priests, followers of Christ, lighted
the fagots and flames consumed the greatest, the most perfect
martyr, that ever suffered death.



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                        MYTH AND MIRACLE.

     And yet the Italian agent of God, the infallible Leo XIII.,
only a few years ago, denounced Bruno, the "bravest of the brave,"
as a coward. The church murdered him, and the pope maligned his
memory. Fagot and falsehood -- two weapons of the church.

     A little while ago a few men began to examine rocks and soils,
mountains, islands, reefs and seas. They noticed the valleys and
deltas that had been formed by rivers, the many strata of lava that
had been changed to soil, the vast deposits of metals and coal, the
immense reefs that the coral had formed, the work of glaciers in
the far past, the production of soil by the disintegration of rock,
by the growth and decay of vegetation and the countless evidences
of the countless ages through which the Earth has passed. The
geologists read the history of the world written by wave and flame,
attested by fossils, by the formation of rocks, by mountain ranges,
by volcanoes, by rivers, islands, continents and seas.

     The geology of the Bible -- of the "divinely inspired" church,
of the "infallible" pope, was found to be utterly false and
foolish.

     The Earth became a witness against the creeds of superstition.

     Then came Watt and Galvani with the miracles of steam and
electricity, while countless inventors created the wonderful
machines that do the work of the world. Investigation took the
place of credulity. Men became dissatisfied with huts and rags,
with crusts and creeds. They longed for the comforts, the luxuries
of life. The intellectual horizon enlarged, new truths were
discovered, old ideas were thrown aside, the brain was developed,
the heart civilized and science was born. Humboldt, Laplace and
hundreds of others explained the phenomena of nature, called
attention to the ancient and venerable mistakes of sanctified
ignorance and added to the sum of knowledge. Darwin and Haeckel
gave their conclusions to the world. Men began to really think, the
myths began to fade, the miracles to grow mean and small, and the
great structure, known as theology, fell with a crash.

     Science denies the truth of myth and miracle, denies that
human testimony can substantiate the miraculous, denies the
existence of the supernatural. Science asserts the absolute, the
unvarying uniformity of nature. Science insists that the present is
the child of all the past, -- that no power can change the past,
and that nature is forever the same.

     The chemist has found that just so many atoms of one kind
unite with just so many of another -- no more, no less, always the
same. No caprice in chemistry; no interference from without.

     The astronomers know that the planets remain in their orbits
-- that their forces are constant. They know that light is forever
the same, always obeying the angle of incidence, traveling with the
same rapidity, -- casting the same shadow, under the same
circumstances in all worlds. They know that the eclipses will occur
at the times foretold -- neither hastening nor delaying. They know
that the attraction of gravitation is always the same. always in
perfect proportion to mass and distance, neither weaker nor 


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                        MYTH AND MIRACLE.

stronger, unvarying forever. They know that the facts in nature
cannot be changed or be destroyed, and that the qualities of all
things are eternal.

     The men of science know that the atomic integrity of the
metals is always the same, that each metal is true to its nature
and that the particles cling to each other with the same tenacity,
-- the same force. They have demonstrated the persistence of force,
that it is forever active, forever the same, and that it cannot be
destroyed.

     These great truths have revolutionized the thought of the
world.

     Every art, every employment, all study, all experiment, the
value of experience, of judgment, of hope, all rest on a belief in
the uniformity of nature, on the eternal persistence and
indestructibility of force.

     Break one link in the infinite chain of cause and effect, and
the Master of Nature appears. The broken link would become the
throne of a god.

     The uniformity of Nature denies the supernatural and
demonstrates that there is no interference from without. There is
no place, no office left for gods. Ghosts fade from the brain and
the shrivelled deities fall palsied from their thrones.

     The uniformity of Nature renders a belief in "special
providence" impossible. Prayer becomes a useless agitation of the
air, and religious ceremonies are but motions, pantomimes, mindless
and meaningless.

     The naked savage, worshiping a wooden god, is the religious
equal of the robed pope kneeling before an image of the Virgin. The
poor African who carries roots and bark to protect himself from
evil spirits is on the same intellectual plane of one who sprinkles
his body with "holy water."

     All the creeds of Christendom, all the religions of the
heathen world are equally absurd. The cathedral, the mosque and the
joss house have the same foundation. Their builders do not believe
in the uniformity of Nature, and the business of all priests is to
induce a so-called infinite being to change the order of events, to
make causes barren of effects and to produce effects without, and
in spite of, natural causes. They all believe in the unthinkable
and pray for the impossible.

     Science teaches us that there was no creation and that there
can be no destruction. The infinite denies creation and defies
destruction. An infinite person, an "infinite being" is an infinite
impossibility. To conceive of such a being is beyond the power of
the mind. Yet all religions rest upon the supposed existence of the
unthinkable, the inconceivable. And the priests of these religions
pretend to be perfectly familiar with the designs, will, and wishes
of this unthinkable, this inconceivable.



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                        MYTH AND MIRACLE.

     Science teaches that that which really is has always been,
that behind every effect is the efficient and necessary cause, that
there is in the universe neither chance nor interference, and that
energy is eternal. Day by day the authority of the theologian grows
weaker and weaker. As the people become intelligent they care less
for preachers and more for teachers. Their confidence in knowledge,
in thought and investigation increases. They are eager to know the
discoveries, the useful truths, the important facts made,
ascertained and demonstrated by the explorers in the domain of the
natural. They are no longer satisfied with the platitudes of the
pulpit, and the assertions of theologians. They are losing
confidence in the "sacred Scriptures" and in the protecting power
and goodness of the supernatural. They are satisfied that credulity
is not a virtue and that investigation is not a crime.

     Science is the providence of man, the worker of true miracles,
of real wonders. Science has "read a little in Nature's infinite
book of secrecy." Science knows the circuits of the winds, the
courses of the stars. Fire is his servant, and lightning his
messenger. Science freed the slaves and gave liberty to their
masters. Science taught man to enchain, not his fellows, but the
forces of nature, forces that have no backs to be scarred, no limbs
for chains to chill and eat, forces that have no hearts to break,
forces that never know fatigue, forces that shed no tears. Science
is the great physician. His touch has given sight. He has made the
lame to leap, the deaf to hear, the dumb to speak, and in the
pallid face his hand has set the rose of health. Science has given
his beloved sleep and wrapped in happy dreams the throbbing nerves
of pain. Science is the destroyer of disease, builder of happy
homes, the preserver of life and love. Science is the teacher of
every virtue, the enemy of every vice. Science has given the true
basis of morals, the origin and office of conscience, revealed the
nature of obligation, of duty, of virtue in its highest, noblest
forms, and has demonstrated that true happiness is the only
possible good. Science has slain the monsters of superstition, and
destroyed the authority of inspired books. Science has read the
records of the rocks, records that priestcraft cannot change. and
on his wondrous scales has weighed the atom and the star.

     Science has founded the only true religion. Science is the
only Savior of this world.

                               VI

     For many ages religion has been tried. For countless centuries
man has sought for help from heaven. To soften the heart of God,
mothers sacrificed their babes! but the God did not hear, did not
see, and did not help. Naked savages were devoured by beasts,
bitten by serpents, killed by flood and frost. They prayed for
help, but their God was deaf. They built temples and altars,
employed priests and gave of their substance, but the volcano
destroyed and the famine came. For the sake of God millions
murdered their fellow-men, but the God was silent. Millions of
martyrs died for the honor of God, but the God was blind. He did
not see the flames, the scaffolds. He did not hear the prayers, the
groans. Thousands of priests in the name of God tortured their
fellow-men, stretched them on racks, crushed their feet in iron 


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                        MYTH AND MIRACLE.

boots, tore out their tongues, extinguished their eyes. The victims
implored the protection of God, but their god did not hear, did not
see. He was deaf and blind. He was willing that his enemies should
torture his friends.

     Nations tried to destroy each other for the sake of God, and
the banner of the cross dripping with blood floated over a thousand
fields -- but the god was silent. He neither knew nor cared.
Pestilence covered the earth with dead, the priests prayed, the
altars were heaped with sacrifices, but the god did not see, did
not hear. The miseries of the world did not lessen the joys of
heaven. The clouds gave no rain, the famine came, withered babes
with pallid lips sought the breasts of dead mothers, while starving
fathers knelt and prayed, but the god did not hear. Through many
centuries millions were enslaved, babes were sold from mothers,
husbands from wives, backs were scarred with the lash. The poor
wretches lifted their clasped hands toward heaven and prayed for
justice, for liberty -- but their god did not hear. He cared
nothing for the sufferings of slaves, nothing for the tears of
wives and mothers, nothing for the agony of men. He answered no
prayers. He broke no chains. He freed no slaves.

     The miserable wretches appealed to the priests of God, but
they were on the other side. They defended the masters. The slaves
had nothing to give.

     During all these years it was claimed by the theologians that
their God was governing the world, that he was infinitely powerful,
wise and good -- and that the "powers" of the earth were "ordained"
by him. During all these years the church was the enemy of
progress. It hated all physicians and told the people to rely on
prayer, amulets and relics. It persecuted the astronomers and
geologists, denounced them as infidels and atheists, as enemies of
the human race. It poisoned the fountains of learning and insisted
that teachers should distort the facts in nature to the end that
they might harmonize with the "inspired" book. During all these
years the church misdirected the energies of man, and when it
reached the zenith of its power, darkness fell upon the world.

     In all nations and in all ages, religion has failed. The gods
have never interfered. Nature has produced and destroyed without
mercy and without hatred. She has cared no more for man than for
the leaves of the forest, no more for nations than for hills of
ants, cared nothing for right or wrong, for life or death, for pain
or joy.

     Man through his intelligence must protect himself. He gets no
help from any other world. The church has always claimed and still
claims that it is the only reforming power, that it makes men
honest, virtuous and merciful, that it prevents violence and war,
and that without its influence the race would return to barbarism.

     Nothing can exceed the absurdity of these claims. If we wish
to improve the condition of mankind -- if we wish for nobler men
and women we must develop the brain, we must encourage thought and
investigation. We must convince the world that credulity is a vice,
-- that there is no virtue in believing without, or against 


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                        MYTH AND MIRACLE.

evidence, and that the really honest man is true to himself. We
must fill the world with intellectual light. We must applaud mental
courage. We must educate the children, rescue them from ignorance
and crime. School-houses are the real temples, and teachers are the
true priests. We must supply the wants of the mind, satisfy the
hunger of the brain. The people should be familiar with the great
poets, with the tragedies of AEschylus, the dramas of Shakespeare,
with the poetry of Homer and Virgil. Shakespeare should be taught
in every school, found in every house.

     Through photography the whole world may become acquainted with
the great statues, the great paintings, the victories of art. In
this way the mind is enlarged, the sympathies quickened, the
appreciation of the beautiful intensified, the taste refined and
the character ennobled.

     The great novels should be read by all. All should be
acquainted with the men and women of fiction, with the ideal world.
The imagination should be developed, trained and strengthened.
Superstition has degraded art and literature. It gave us winged
monsters, scenes from heaven and hell, representations of gods and
devils, sculptured the absurd and painted the impossible in the
name of Art. It gave us the dreams of the insane, the lives of
fanatical saints, accounts of miracles and wonders, of cures
wrought by the bones of the dead, descriptions of Paradise,
purgatory and the eternal dungeon, discourses on baptism, on
changing wine and wafers into the blood and flesh of God, on the
forgiveness of sins by priests, on fore-ordination and
accountability, predestination and free will, on devils, ghosts and
goblins, the ministrations of guardian angels, the virtue of belief
and the wickedness of doubt. And this was called "sacred
literature."

     The church taught that those who believed, counted beads,
mumbled prayers, and gave their time or property for the support of
the gospel were the good and that all others were traveling the
"broad road" to eternal pain. According to the theologians, the
best people, the saints, were dead, and real beauty was to be found
only in heaven. They denounced the joys of life as husks and filthy
rags, declared that the world had been cursed, and that it brought
forth thistles and thorns because of the sins of man. They regarded
the earth as a kind of dock, running out into the sea of eternity,
-- on which the pious waited for the ship on which they were to be
transported to another world.

     But the real poets and the real artists clung to this world,
to this life. They described and represented things that exist.
They expressed thoughts of the bran, emotions of the heart, the
griefs and joys, the hope and despair of men and women. They found
strength and beauty on every hand. They found their angels here.
They were true to human experience and they touched the brain and
heart of the world. In the tragedies and comedies of life, in the
smiles and tears, in the ecstasies of love, in the darkness of
death, in the dawn of hope, they found their materials for statue
and song, for poem and painting. Poetry and art are the children of
this world, born and nourished here. They are human. They have left



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                        MYTH AND MIRACLE.

the winged monsters of heaven, the malicious deformities of hell,
and have turned their attention to men and women, to the things of
this life.

     There is a poem called "The Skylark," by Shelley, graceful as
the motions of flames. Another by Robert Burns, called "The Daisy,"
exquisite, perfect as the pearl of virtue in the beautiful breast
of a loving girl. Between this lark and this daisy, neither above
nor below, you will find all the poetry of the world. Eloquence,
sublimity, poetry and art must have the foundation of fact, of
reality. Imaginary worlds and beings are nothing to us.

     At last the old creeds are becoming cruel and vulgar. We now
have imagination enough to put ourselves in the place of others.
Believers in hell, in eternal pain, like murderers, lack
imagination. The murderer has not imagination enough to see his
victim dead. He does not see the sightless and pathetic eyes. He
does not see the widow's arms about the corpse, her lips upon the
dead. He does not hear the sobs of children. He does not see the
funeral. He does not hear the clods as they fall on the coffin. He
does not feel the hand of arrest, the scene of the trial is not
before him. He does not hear the awful verdict, the sentence of the
court, the last words. He does not see the scaffold, nor feel about
his throat the deadly noose.

     Let us develop the brain, civilize the heart, and give wings
to the imagination.

                               VII

     If we abandon myth and miracle, if we discard the supernatural
and the scheme of redemption, how are we to civilize the world?

     Is falsehood a reforming power? Is credulity the mother of
virtue? Is there any saving grace in the impossible and absurd? Did
wisdom perish with the dead? Must the civilized accept the religion
of savages?

     If we wish to reform the world we must rely on truth, on fact,
on reason. We must teach men that they are good or bad for
themselves, that others cannot be good or bad for them, that they
cannot be charged with the crimes, or credited with the virtues of
others. We must discard the doctrine of the atonement, because it
is absurd and immoral. We are not accountable for the sins of
"Adam" and the virtues of Christ cannot be transferred to us. There
can be no vicarious virtue, no vicarious vice. Why should the
sufferings of the innocent atone for the crimes of the guilty.
According to the doctrine of the atonement right and wrong do not
exist in the nature of things, but in the arbitrary will of the
Infinite. This is a subversion of all ideas of justice and mercy.

     An act is good, bad, or indifferent, according to its
consequences. No power can step between an act and its natural
consequences. A governor may pardon the criminal, but the natural
consequences of the crime remain untouched. A god may forgive, but
the consequences of the act forgiven, are still the same. We must 



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                        MYTH AND MIRACLE.

teach the world that the consequences of a bad action cannot be
avoided, that they are the invisible police, the unseen avengers,
that accept no gifts, that hear no prayers, that no cunning can
deceive.

     We do not need the forgiveness of gods, but of ourselves and
the ones we injure. Restitution without repentance is far better
than repentance without restitution.

     We know nothing of any god who rewards, punishes or forgives.

     We must teach our fellow-men that honor comes from within, not
from without, that honor must be earned. that it is not alms, that
even an infinite God could not enrich the beggar's palm with the
gem of honor.

     Teach them also that happiness is the bud, the blossom and the
fruit of good and noble actions, that it is not the gift of any
god; that it must be earned by man -- must be deserved.

     In this world of ours there is no magic, no sleight-of-hand,
by which consequences can be made to punish the good and reward the
bad.

     Teach men not to sacrifice this world for some other, but to
turn their attention to the natural, to the affairs of this life.
Teach them that theology has no known foundation, that it was born
of ignorance and fear, that it has hardened the heart, polluted the
imagination and made fiends of men.

     Theology is not for this world. It is no part of real
religion. It has nothing to do with goodness or virtue. Religion
does not consist in worshiping gods, but in adding to the well-
being, the happiness of man. No human being knows whether any god
exists or not, and all that has been said and written about "our
god," or the gods of other people, has no known fact for a
foundation. Words without thoughts, clouds without rain.

     Let us put theology out of religion.

     Church and state should be absolutely divorced. Priests
pretend that they have been selected by, and that they get their
power from God. Kings occupy their thrones in accordance with the
will of God. The pope declares that he is the agent, the deputy of
God and that by right he should rule the world. All these
pretensions and assertions are perfectly absurd and yet they are
acknowledged and believed by millions. Get theology out of
government and kings will descend from their thrones. All will
admit that governments get their powers from the consent of the
governed, and that all persons in office are the servants of the
people. Get theology out of government and chaplains will be
dismissed from Legislatures, from Congress, from the army and navy.
Get theology out of government and people will be allowed to
express their honest thoughts about "inspired books" and
superstitious creeds. Get theology out of government and priests
will no longer steal a seventh of our time. Get theology out of
government and the clergy will soon take their places with augurs 
and soothsayers, with necromancers and medicine-men.

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                        MYTH AND MIRACLE.

     Get theology out of education. Nothing should be taught in a
school that somebody does not know. There are plenty of things to
be learned about this world, about this life. Every child should be
taught to think, and that it is dangerous not to think. Children
should not be taught the absurdities, the cruelties and
imbecilities of superstition. No church should be allowed to
control the common school, and public money should not be divided
between the hateful and warring sects. The public school should be
secular, and only the useful should be taught. Many of our colleges
are under the control of churches. Presidents and professors are
mostly ministers of the gospel and the result is that all facts
inconsistent with the creeds are either suppressed or denied. Only
those professors who are naturally stupid or mentally dishonest can
retain their places. Those who tell the truth, who teach the facts,
are discharged.

     In every college truth should be a welcome guest. Every
professor should be a finder, and every student a learner, of
facts. Theology and intellectual dishonesty go together. The
teacher of children should be intelligent and perfectly sincere.

     Let us get theology out of education.

     The pious denounce the secular schools as godless. They should
be. The sciences are all secular, all godless. Theology bears the
same relation to science that the black art does to chemistry, that
magic does to mathematics. It is something that cannot be taught,
because it cannot be known. It has no foundation in fact. It
neither produces, nor accords with, any image in the mind. It is
not only unknowable but unthinkable. Through hundreds and thousands
of generations men have been discussing, wrangling and fighting
about theology. No advance has been made. The robed priest has only
reached the point from which the savage tried to start.

     We know that theology always has and always will make enemies.
It sows the seeds of hatred in families and nations. It is selfish,
cruel, revengeful and malicious. It has heaven for the few and
perdition for the many. We now know that credulity is not a virtue
and that intellectual courage is. We must stop rewarding hypocrisy
and bigotry. We must stop persecuting the thinkers, the
investigators, the creators of light, the civilizers of the world.

                              VIII

     Will the unknown, the mysteries of life and death, the world
that lies beyond the limitations of the mind, forever furnish food
for superstition? Will the gods and ghosts perish or simply retreat
before the advancing hosts of science, and continue to crouch and
lurk just beyond the horizon of the known? Will darkness forever be
the womb and mother of the supernatural?

     A little while ago priests told peasants that the New
Jerusalem, the celestial city was just above the clouds. They said
that its walls and domes and spires were just beyond the reach of
human sight. The telescope was invented and those who looked at the
wilderness of stars, saw no city, no throne. They said to the
priests: "Where is your New Jerusalem?" The priests cheerfully and 
confidently replied. "It is just beyond where you see."

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                  Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
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                        MYTH AND MIRACLE.

     At one time it was believed that a race of men existed "with
their heads beneath their shoulders." Returning travelers from
distant lands were asked about these wonderful people and all
replied that they had not seen them. "Oh," said the believers in
the monsters, "the men with heads beneath their shoulders live in
a country that you did not visit." And so the monsters lived and
flourished until all the world was known. We cannot know the
universe. We cannot travel infinite distances, and so, somewhere in
shoreless space there will always be room for gods and ghosts, for
heavens and hells. And so it may be that superstition will live and
linger until the world becomes intelligent enough to build upon the
foundation of the known, to keep the imagination within the domain
of the probable, and to believe in the natural -- until the
supernatural shall have been demonstrated.

     Savages knew all about gods, about heavens and hells before
they knew anything about the world in which they lived. They were
perfectly familiar with evil spirits, with the invisible phantoms
of the air, long before they had any true conception of themselves.
So, they knew all about the origin and destiny of the human race.
They were absolutely certain about the problems, the solution of
which, philosophers know, is beyond the limitations of the mind.
They understood astrology, but not astronomy, knew something of
magic, but nothing about chemistry. They were wise only as to those
things about which nothing can be known.

     The poor Indian believed in the "Great Spirit" and saw
"design" on every hand. -- Trees were made that he might have bows
and arrows, wood for his fire and bark for his wigwam -- rivers and
lakes to give him fish, wild beasts and corn that he might have
food, and the animals had skins that he might have clothes.

     Primitive peoples all reasoned in the same way, and modern
Christians follow their example. They knew but little of the world
and thought that it had been made expressly for the use of man.
They did not know that it was mostly water, that vast regions were
locked in eternal ice and that in most countries the conditions
were unfavorable to human life. They knew nothing of the countless
enemies of man that live unseen in water, food and air. Back of the
little good they knew they put gods and back of the evil, devils.
They thought it of the greatest importance to gain the good will of
the gods, who alone could protect them from the devils. Those who
worshiped these gods, offered sacrifices, and obeyed priests, were
considered loyal members of the tribe or community, and those who
refused to worship were regarded as enemies and traitors. The
believers, in order to protect themselves from the anger of the
gods, exiled or destroyed the infidels.

     Believing as they did, the course they pursued was natural.
They not only wished to protect themselves from disease and death,
from pestilence and famine in this world but the souls of their
children from eternal pain in the next. Their gods were savages who
demanded flattery and worship not only, but the acceptance of a
certain creed. As long as Christians believe in eternal punishment
they will be the enemies of those who investigate and contend for
the authority of reason, of those who demand evidence, who care
nothing for the unsupported assertions of the dead or the illogical
inferences of the living.

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                  Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
                               19

                        MYTH AND MIRACLE.

     Science always has been, is, and always will be modest,
thoughtful, truthful. It has but one object: The ascertainment of
truth. It has no prejudice, no hatred. It is in the realm of the
intellect and cannot be swayed or changed by passion. It does not
try to please God, to gain heaven or avoid hell. It is for this
world, for the use of man. It is perfectly candid. It does not try
to conceal, but to reveal. It is the enemy of mystery, of pretence
and cant. It does not ask people to be solemn, but sensible. It
calls for and insists on the use of all the senses, of all the
faculties of the mind. It does not pretend to be "holy" or
"inspired." It courts investigation, criticism and even denial. It
asks for the application of every test, for trial by every
standard. It knows nothing of blasphemy and does not ask for the
imprisonment of those who ignorantly or knowingly deny the truth.
The good that springs from a knowledge of the truth is the only
reward it offers, and the evil resulting from ignorance is the only
punishment it threatens. Its effort is to reform, the world through
intelligence.

     On the other hand theology is, always has been, and always
will be, ignorant, arrogant, puerile and cruel. When the church had
power, hypocrisy was crowned and honesty imprisoned. Fraud wore the
tiara and truth was a convict. Liberty was in chains, Theology has
always sent the worst to heaven, the best to hell.

     Let me give you a scene from the day of judgment. Christ is
upon his throne, his secretary by his side. A soul appears. This is
what happens --

     "What is your name?

     "Torquemada."

     "Were you a Christian?"

     "I was."

     "Did you endeavor to convert your fellowmen?"

     "I did. I tried to convert them by persuasion, by preaching
and praying and even by force."

     "What did you do?"

     "I put the heretics in prison, in chains. I tore out their
tongues, put out their eyes, crushed their bones, stretched them
upon racks, roasted their feet, and if they remained obdurate I
flayed them alive or burned them at the stake."

     "And did you do all this for my glory?"

     "Yes, all for you. I wanted to save some, I wanted to protect
the young and the weak minded.

     "Did you believe the Bible, the miracles -- that I was God.
that I was born of a virgin and kept money in the mouth of a fish?"



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                        MYTH AND MIRACLE.

     "Yes, I believed it all. My reason was the slave of faith.

     "Well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the
Joys of thy Lord. I was hungry and you gave me meat, naked and you
clothed me."

     Another soul arises.

     "What is your name?"

     "Giordano Bruno."

     "Were you a Christian?"

     "At one time I was, but for many years I was a philosopher, a
seeker after truth."

     "Did you seek to convert your fellow-men?"

     "Not to Christianity, but to the religion of reason. I tried
to develop their minds, to free them from the slavery of ignorance
and superstition. In my day the church taught the holiness of
credulity -- the virtue of unquestioning obedience, and in your
name tortured and destroyed the intelligent and courageous. I did
what I could to civilize the world, to make men tolerant and
merciful, to soften the hearts of priests, and banish torture from
the world. I expressed my honest thoughts and walked in the light
of reason."

     "Did you believe the Bible, the miracles? Did you believe that
I was God, that I was born of a virgin and that I suffered myself
to be killed to appease the wrath of God -- that is, of myself --
so that God could save the souls of a few?"

     "No, I did not. I did not believe that God was ever born into
my world, or that God learned the trade of a carpenter, or that he
"increased in knowledge," or that he cast devils out of men, or
that his garments could cure diseases, or that he allowed himself
to be murdered, and in the hour of death "forsook" himself. These
things I did not and could not believe. But I did all the good I
could, enlightened the ignorant, comforted the afflicted, defended
the innocent, divided even my poverty with the poor, and did the
best I could to increase the happiness of my fellow-men. I was a
soldier in the army of progress. -- I was arrested, imprisoned,
tried and convicted by the church -- by the "Triumphant Beast." I
was burned at the stake by ignorant and heartless priests and my
ashes given to the winds.

     Then Christ, his face growing dark, his brows contracted with
wrath, with uplifted hands, with half averted face, cries or rather
shrieks: "Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared
for the devil and his angels."

     This is the justice of God -- the mercy of the compassionate
Christ. This is the belief, the dream and hope of the orthodox
theologian -- "the consummation devoutly to be wished."



                         Bank of Wisdom
                  Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
                               21

                        MYTH AND MIRACLE.

     Theology makes God a monster, a tyrant, a savage; makes man a
servant, a serf, a slave; promises heaven to the obedient, the
meek, the frightened, and threatens the self-reliant with the
tortures of hell.

     It denounces reason and appeals to the passions -- to hope and
fear. It does not answer the arguments of those who attack, but
resorts to sophistry, falsehood and slander. It is incapable of
advancement. It keeps its back to the sunrise, lives on myth and
miracle, and guards with a miser's care the "sacred" superstitions
of the past.

     In the great struggle between the supernatural and the
natural, between gods and men, we have passed midnight. All the
forces of civilization, all the facts that have been found, all the
truths that have been discovered are the allies of science -- the
enemies of the supernatural.

     We need no myths, no miracles, no gods, no devils.

                               IX

     For thousands of generations the myths have been taught and
the miracles believed. Every mother was a missionary and told with
loving care the falsehoods of "faith" to her babe. The poison of
superstition was in the mother's milk. She was honest and
affectionate and her character, her goodness, her smiles and
kisses, entered into, mingled with, and became a part of the
superstition that she taught. Fathers, friends and priests united
with the mothers, and the children thus taught, became the teachers
of their children and so the creeds were kept alive.

     Childhood loves the romantic, the mysterious, the monstrous.
It lives in a world where cause has nothing to do with effect,
where the fairy waves her hand and the prince appears. Where wish
creates the thing desired and facts become the slaves of amulet and
charm. The individual lives the life of the race, and the child is
charmed with what the race in its infancy produced.

     There seems to be the same difference between mistakes and
facts that there is between weeds and corn. Mistakes seem to take
care of themselves, while the facts have to be guarded with all
possible care. Falsehoods like weeds flourish without care. Weeds
care nothing for soil or rain. They not only ask no help but they
almost defy destruction. In the minds of children, superstitions,
legends, myths and miracles find a natural, and in most instances
a lasting home. Thrown aside in manhood, forgotten or denied, in
old age they oft return and linger to the end.

     This in part accounts for the longevity of religious lies.
Ministers with clasped hands and uplifted eyes ask the man who is
thinking for himself how he can be wicked and heartless enough to
attack the religion of his mother. This question is regarded by the
clergy as unanswerable. Of course it is not to be asked by the
missionaries, of the Hindus and the Chinese. The heathen are
expected to desert the religion of their mothers as Christ and his
apostles deserted the religion of their mothers. It is right for 
Jews and heathen, but not for thinkers and philosophers.

                         Bank of Wisdom
                  Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
                               22

                        MYTH AND MIRACLE.

     A cannibal was about to kill a missionary for food. The
missionary objected and asked the cannibal how he could be so cruel
and wicked.

     The cannibal replied that he followed the example of his
mother. "My mother," said he, "was good enough for me. Her religion
is my religion. The last time I saw her she was sitting, propped up
against a tree, eating cold missionary."

     But now the mother argument has mostly lost its force, and men
of mind are satisfied with nothing less than truth.

     The phenomena of nature have been investigated and the
supernatural has not been found. The myths have faded from the
imagination, and of them nothing remains but the poetic. The
miraculous has become the absurd, the impossible. Gods and phantoms
have been driven from the earth and sky. We are living in a natural
world.

     Our fathers, some of them, demanded the freedom of religion.
We have taken another step. We demand the Religion of Freedom.

     O Liberty, thou art the god of my idolatry! Thou art the only
deity that hateth bended knees. In thy vast and unwalled temple,
beneath the roofless dome, star-gemmed and luminous with suns, thy
worshipers stand erect! They do not cringe, or crawl, or bend their
foreheads to the earth. The dust has never borne the impress of
their lips. Upon thy altars mothers do not sacrifice their babes,
nor men their rights. Thou askest naught from man except the things
that good men hate -- the whip, the chain, the dungeon key. Thou
hast no popes, no priests, who stand between their fellow men and
thee. Thou carest not for foolish forms, or selfish prayers. At thy
sacred shrine hypocrisy does not bow, virtue does not tremble,
superstition's feeble tapers do not burn, but Reason holds aloft
her inextinguishable torch whose holy light will one day flood the
world.


                          ****     ****

    Reproducible Electronic Publishing can defeat censorship.

   The Bank of Wisdom is a collection of the most thoughtful,
scholarly and factual books. These computer books are reprints of
suppressed books and will cover American and world history; the
Biographies and writings of famous persons, and especially of our
nations Founding Fathers. They will include philosophy and
religion. all these subjects, and more, will be made available to
the public in electronic form, easily copied and distributed, so
that America can again become what its Founders intended --

                 The Free Market-Place of Ideas.

   The Bank of Wisdom is always looking for more of these old,
hidden, suppressed and forgotten books that contain needed facts
and information for today. If you have such books please contact
us, we need to give them back to America.


                         Bank of Wisdom
                  Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
                               23
