The Bible of Bibles; Or, Twenty-Seven "Divine" Revelations. Kersey Graves
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Название: The Bible of Bibles; Or, Twenty-Seven "Divine" Revelations
Автор: Kersey Graves
Издательство: Bookwire
Жанр: Языкознание
isbn: 4057664621603
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2. After innumerable ages this fiery liquid mass began to cool, and finally formed a crust upon its surface.
3. As its interior elements began to evolve or emanate from its bosom, it formed a dense, heavy, murky atmosphere, almost as heavy as water, in which no living thing could have breathed or lived for a moment.
4. This atmosphere contained moisture, which in the course of time became condensed into globules forming drops, which descended to the earth in the shape of rain.
5. This rain, descending to the earth, cooled its surface, and eventually filled its vast cavities with water, and thus formed lakes, seas, and oceans. The boiling, heaving mass in the bowels of the earth made it very irregular in shape.
6. As soon as the surface of the earth became sufficiently cool, small swellings began to appear upon its surface, presenting the appearance of blisters, or boils. These outgrowths finally began to exhibit vegetable life; but for a long period of time they presented the appearance of rocks or stones.
7. In the mean time the washings from the surface of the earth were deposited in the seas and oceans, and, sinking to the bottom, in the course of time formed rocks.
8. These rocks, as they hardened, gave off an element of life, which in the course of time supplied the waters with various forms of animal or finny life, and thus originated mollusks, fishes, &c.
9. As the surface of the earth cooled and grew thicker, the elements of life diffused through the liquid mass finally made their appearance on the surface in the character of the lowest forms of vegetable life? such as mosses, lichens, ferns, &c.
10. As the surface of the earth thickened, and consequently accumulated the elements of vitality gave forth higher and still higher forms of vegetable life, finally the most matured forms of matter began to exhibit animal life.
11. The first species was the zoophite, a compound of vegetable and animal life, but possessing scarcely any of the functions of animal life except those of absorption and respiration, and these functions were but slightly manifested.
12. Succeeding the zoophite came the mollusks and various hard-shelled animal forms, which at first clung to the rocks, then fed on seaweeds and other vegetable substances, absorbing also from the atmosphere.
13. In this way various species of animals and birds and reptiles sprang up, ran their course, and then perished, to give place to higher forms.
14. And finally, when all the elements of life became sufficiently matured, they formed a combination, and turned loose upon the earth the animal man, who at first was nearly as ugly, clumsy, and awkward as a baboon, possessed of but little more sense or intelligence.
15. Each one of these changes and outgrowths of the new forms of vegetable and animal life constituted an epoch of innumerable ages, thus showing the age of our planet to be beyond computation. We submit to the reader whether this is not a more rational, beautiful, and satisfactory solution of the great problem of mineral, vegetable, animal, and human existence, than the jumbled-up medley presented by Moses.
CHAPTER XVI.—ABSURDITIES IN THE ARK AND FLOOD STORY.
If there were no other errors or absurdities in the Bible, our faith in it would diminish at every step in the investigation of the ark and flood story as related in the sixth chapter of Genesis. The avowed purpose of the flood, the means employed, and their failure to accomplish the end desired, are all at war with our reason and our moral sense.
1. The first question that naturally arises in considering this story is, Why should so many millions of innocent beings—men, women, children, animals; birds, &c.—perish as a penalty for the sins of a few thousand people?
2. The reason given for this wholesale destruction was the wickedness and moral depravity of the human race. But is it true that the whole human race was in that state at that period? According to Manetho and Herodotus, Egypt was in a state of high civilization and moral culture at the time; and, according to Dr. Hulde, China was also far advanced in the arts of civilization and in morality. Col. Dow and other writers represent India as being in a similar condition. There could, therefore, be no justice in drowning all these nations in order to punish a few thousand rambling Jews: it was too much like "burning the barn to destroy the rats."
3. An enlightened moralist of the present day would decide that it was a species of injustice to destroy all the land animals, and let the fishes and aquatic animals live. It looks like partiality.
4. But God, having discovered that he made a signal failure in the work of creation, acknowledged that it "grieved him at his heart," and that he "repented" having undertaken it. However, he issued a proclamation, stating that "the end of all flesh is come: every thing that is in the earth shall die."
5. "I, even I, do bring a flood of water upon the earth to destroy all flesh" (Gen. xi. 6). The language seems to imply that somebody else had undertaken, or was about to undertake, the business.
6. But "Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord," and was placed at the head of this grand scheme; being, as was assumed, although a drunkard, the most righteous man that could be found.
7. The Lord instructed him to build an ark five hundred and fifty feet long, twenty feet wide, and fifty-five feet high,—about the size of an eastern warehouse. Think of putting into this two of every species of animal, and seven of every species of clean beast, and fowls of the air!—there being one hundred and fifty thousand or, as some make it, five hundred thousand species of animal, one hundred and twelve thousand kinds of bird, and fifty thousand species of insect.
8. And God ordered to be taken into this ark food sufficient to supply these millions of mouths. This alone would have required forty such vessels.
9. As it was declared that God destroyed every living thing from the face of the earth, it would have been necessary to have food enough stored away to last several years, until the earth could have time to be replenished with a new crop of grass and vegetables to serve as food for the granivorous and herbivorous species, and animals for the carnivorous tribes. The weight of such a cargo would have been sufficient to sink the whole British navy!
10. Consider for a moment what amount of food would be required for each species of animal. The four elephants (two of each species) would consume a ton of hay in two days, making more than one hundred and fifty tons in twelve months. The fourteen rhinoceroses would consume one thousand and fifty tons. And then the horses, cattle, sheep, goats, asses, zebras, antelopes, and other mammalia, would require at least two thousand tons more; making in the aggregate three thousand two hundred tons. This alone would have filled every inch of the vessel.
11. The seven hundred and eighty-four thousand birds (one hundred and twelve thousand species) would require grain, which would make it necessary to store several thousand bushels.
12. The three thousand flesh-eating animals, including lions (one lion could eat fifteen pounds a day), cats, dogs, jackals, hyenas, skunks, weasels, crocodiles, snakes, eagles, hawks, buzzards, &c., would require about forty wagon-loads to be slaughtered and fed to them each day; for all would require fresh meat СКАЧАТЬ