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

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CHAPTER III.—WHY THIS WORK WAS WRITTEN,

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      There are in this and other Christian countries more than one hundred thousand clergymen who spend a portion of each recurring sabbath in presenting the claims, and dilating upon the beauties and benefits (some real and some imaginary), of the religion of the Christian Bible. They claim that it is the religion for this age, and a religion that should be adopted by the whole human race; but they present but one side of the picture, and but one phase of the argument. A witness before a jury is required to "tell the truth, and the whole truth;" but the priesthood dare not do this with respect to the errors and defects of their religion. They would lose their congregations and their salaries also. But few clergymen possess the moral courage to turn state's evidence against their pockets or their "bread and butter." It is a sad reflection that they are hired, and required to conceal whatever errors may loom up before their moral vision in the investigation of the principles of their religion, or the Bible on which it is founded. They are placed in the position of an attorney who is sworn to be true to his client at any sacrifice of truth and moral manhood. Whatever may be their moral convictions with respect to the sinfulness or evil consequences or demoralizing effects of continuing to preach the intellectually dwarfing and morally poisoning doctrines originated in, and adapted only to, the dark and undeveloped ages of the past, when the race was under the dominion of the animal and blind propensities, yet they must do it. They must continue to preach these errors, to sustain these evils, and maintain their false positions, or lose their salaries and their popular standing in society. It is a very unfortunate position to be placed in; but, self-interest being the ruling principle of the age, we cannot reasonably expect the clergy will do any thing toward enlightening the people on the errors and immoral influences of their religious doctrines, or the substitution of a better system, until human nature has advanced to a higher moral plane. On the contrary, we must expect they will continue to blind the people, pervert the truth, magnify every imaginable good quality of their religious system; while, on the other hand, they will as sedulously attempt to hide every defect which either they or others may discover in their Bible. This state of things in the religious world imposes upon the moral reformer the solemn necessity of employing the most effectual lever, and of adopting every available moral means, to counteract this morally deleterious influence of the clergy, and arrest the tide of evil which follows in their wake as the legitimate fruits of a course of conduct dictated by policy instead of principle.

II. THE MORAL TRUTHS OF THE BIBLE.

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      Some of our readers will doubtless be disposed to ask why we have not occupied a larger portion of this work in exhibiting the beauties and benefits of the religion and system of morals set forth in the Bible. The answer to the question is fully anticipated in the preceding remarks. It is simply because fifty thousand tongues and pens are almost constantly employed in this work. They do it and overdo it. This renders it a work of supererogation on our part; while, on the other hand, we find the errors and evils of the Bible and its religion, which they overlook or neglect to expose, so very numerous, that we can not exhibit them in a single volume, unless we allow but a limited space to a repetition of what is done by them every week. This is our reason for appearing to pursue a one-sided policy.

III. WHY RESORT TO RIDICULE?

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      We hope we shall not be misunderstood or condemned by any reader for appearing to indulge frequently in a spirit of levity in attempting to expose the logical and moral absurdities of the Bible. We have assumed this license more from an apprehended moral necessity than from a natural disposition. Ridicule is now generally acknowledged by moralists to be a most potent weapon for the demolition of error. Moral and religions absurdities, according to Cicero, can be arrested and put down much sooner by "holding them up to the light of ridicule, than by any other means that can be employed." Let no one, then, oppose the use of such means simply because it may disturb a sensitive feeling in his own mind, derived from a false education. A critical investigation of religious history discloses the important fact, that the conviction established in the popular mind that it is wrong to indulge in a feeling of levity when writing or discoursing on religious subjects is the work of the clergy. Having discovered that many of the narrations of their Bible, and likewise many of the tenets of their creeds, are really ridiculous when examined in the light of science, reason, and sound sense, in order to prevent these ridiculous features of their systems from being exposed, they taught the people that ridicule is entirely out of place in matters of religion, and that such feelings, or language expressive of such feelings, should be entirely suppressed. And it is principally by the invention of this expedient, and the establishment of this conviction in the public mind, that the clergy have succeeded in keeping the ridiculous errors of their creeds concealed from age to age. And to continue this policy longer is only to yield to their interests, and prolong those evils still longer which have been perpetuated for centuries by the adoption of this expedient. No other argument or apology is necessary than this as a justification of the limited extent to which the language of ridicule has been employed in this work. It is an egregious error, which is the offspring of an erroneous education and habit, to suppose that ridicule is more out of place on religious subjects than on other subjects. O. S. Fowler has fully established this as a scientific fact on phrenological grounds. We should be quite sorry to wound the feelings of any sensitive mind by any language made use of in this work, and hope this explanation, will prevent such results.

THE PRINCIPAL DESIGN OF THIS WORK.

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      As a critical examination of the Christian Bible discloses the fact that it contains several thousand moral and scientific errors, and as experience proves the tendency of such errors is to corrupt the moral feelings and check the intellectual growth of all who read and believe "the Hoty Book," we have, since arriving at this conviction, considered it to be our duty not only to expose these errors, but also to discourage the habitual reading of the Bible with any other view than to learn its real character. And more especially do we earnestly advise parents not to place the Bible in the hands of their children till they arrive at an age when a more mature judgment can enable them to discriminate between its truths and its errors. And we likewise entreat all moralists and philanthropists, and all lovers of truth and virtue, as they desire the moral growth and moral reformation of the world, to exert their influence to stop the shipment of the Christian Bible to foreign lands to be circulated among the uncultured and credulous heathen. Here is disclosed one of our principal reasons for writing this work. We wish to make it a voice of remonstrance against placing any of those morally defective books called Bibles in the hands of the ignorant and impressible heathen, or the children of Christian countries, until their minds become sufficiently fortified by age and experience to resist or withstand the demoralizing influence of their bad precepts and bad examples СКАЧАТЬ