The Bible of Bibles; Or, Twenty-Seven "Divine" Revelations. Kersey Graves

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      32. A deity who becomes so tired and physically exhausted with six days' labor as to be compelled to stop and rest, physiology teaches would be liable to physical disease; and, if physically diseased, it might terminate in death, and thus leave the world without a God (Godless).

      33. The Bible tells us "the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground" (Gen. ii. 7); but philosophy teaches that dust possesses no vital properties, and that it would have been less difficult to make man of a stone or a stump, owing to their possessing more adhesive properties. One writer suggests that the negro must have been made of coal-dust.

      34. According to the Bible, a serious blunder was made by Jehovah in the work of creation, by exhausting all the materials in the process of world-making and man-making, so that nothing was left to make a "helpmeet" for Adam; and this blunder caused the necessity of robbing Adam of one of his ribs.

      35. But common sense teaches us that a small crooked bone but a few ounces in weight could not furnish half the material necessary to constitute a woman. The Parsees, with a little more show of sense, tell us that the rib was used merely as a back-bone, around which the woman was constructed; which revives in memory Erin's mode of making cannon, which consisted in "taking a round hole, and pouring melted metal around it." The Tonga-Islanders have a tradition about as sensible as that of Moses with respect to the origin of the first woman. Their God made the first man with three legs, and amputated one of them to make a "helpmeet for him?" This is an improvement, as a leg can be better spared when there are three than a rib: it also possesses more material than a rib.

      36. The Bible teaches that man was created upright, but fell. If it means physically, it can be easily accounted for, and must be ascribed to his creator; for depriving him of one of his ribs would leave him in an unbalanced condition, so that he would be liable to fall.

      37. The Bible imparts to us the strange intelligence that "the Lord God brought all the beasts and birds to Adam to see what he would call them" (Gen. ii. 19). What an idea for Omniscience or Infinite Wisdom to engage in the business of chasing bears, lions, tigers, elephants, and hyenas, and all manner of beasts great and small, and all manner of birds, also hissing, crawling, biting reptiles, and every living thing which he had created, and taking them to Adam "to see what he would call them"! Not having sufficient intelligence to find names for them himself (pardon the thought), his curiosity was no doubt aroused to see what an ignorant being of his own creation, who had not sufficient intelligence to clothe himself, would call the innumerable host of beasts, birds, &c., before any language was known, or even a single letter was invented to spell names with. (We are very far from desiring to wound the feelings or encroach upon the reverence that any man or woman may cherish for "a God of infinite love, wisdom, and goodness;" but let it be kept constantly in mind we are not presenting the history of such a being here, but the mere imaginary God of Moses and the Bible.)

      38. As the Bible teaches that Adam named all the beasts, animals, and birds, it must have occupied a great number of years for the Lord God of Moses to have caught and taken the several hundred thousand species to Adam to receive names in all the three thousand languages, and then convey them back to their respective climates.

      39. The question naturally arises, Why should Adam give them names by saying, "This is a horse, that is an ass, the animal yonder shall be called a hippopotamus," &c., when there was nobody present to hear it and be benefited by it? And nobody could have remembered half the names had they been present. Here we wish to call the attention of the reader specially to the fact that all the thoughts and language we have so far cited as being either that of God or Moses sounds like the utterance of ignorant children, and unworthy the dignity of an intelligent and sensible man much less that of a God.

      40. The Bible teaches that "God made man in his own image." The reverse statement would have been true, "Man made God in his own image;" for this is true of all nations who believe in a God.

      41. Here let it be noted the Bible contains two contradictory accounts of creation; one found in the first chapter of Genesis, the other in the second. In the first, animals are created before man; in the second, after man.

      42. The first chapter of Genesis says, "Let the earth bring forth plants" (Gen. i. 11): the second says, "God created every plant... before it was in the earth" (Gen. ii. 9). A contradiction; and neither statement is true, there being no creation.

      43. The first chapter has the earth created several days before the firmament, or heaven: the second chapter has it created on the same day (Gen. ii. 4).

      44. The first represents fowls as originating in the water (Gen. i. 20): the second has them created out of the water.

      45. After the first chapter says "God created man in his own image" (Gen. i. 27), the second says "there was not a man to till the ground" (Gen. ii. 4).

      46. The first chapter represents man and woman as being created at the same time (Gen. i. 27): the second represents the woman as being created after the man.

      47. The first implies that man has dominion over the whole earth: the second restricts his dominion to a garden. Which is the inspired story of creation?

      48. The Mexicans claim that the first man and woman were created in their country. The Hindoos aver that the original progenitors of the race (Adimo and Iva) first made their appearance amongst them. The Chinese claim a similar honor. The Persians contend that God landed the first human pair in the land of Iran. And, finally, the Jews affirm that Jehovah created the first pair in Eden.

THE TREE OF KNOWLEDGE AND THE TREE OF LIFE.

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      Moses tells us God planted two trees in Eden, one of which he called "the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." This tree bore fruit which nobody was allowed to taste (Gen. ii. 9).

      49. Why the tree was planted, or why its fruit was forbidden to be used, are problems which the Bible does not solve, and which set reason at defiance.

      50. And then it looks like a senseless act to create a tree for the purpose of bearing fruit (as we can conceive of no other purpose for which it could have been created), and then decree that it should all go to waste.

      51. It was worse still to create human beings with an appetite for this fruit, and place it in their sight, and then forbid them to taste it on penalty of death. Nothing could be more opposed to our ideas of reason and justice.

      52. Did God create beings in his own image, and then treat them as if he wished to tantalize them and render them unhappy?

      53. It would seem that he created man for no other purpose than to tease and torment him, and quarrel with him.

      54. Common sense would suggest it to be the act of an ignoramus or a tyrant to implant in man the desire to eat fruit which he did not allow him to eat.

      55. And would it not be unjust to punish Adam and Eve for doing what he himself had implanted in them the desire to do?

      56. God must have known they would eat the fruit, if he were omniscient.

      57. If he were not omniscient, he was not a God in a supreme or divine sense.

      58. God must have had the power without the will to prevent the act of disobedience, which would make him an unjust and unmerciful tyrant.

      59. Or else СКАЧАТЬ