Chapter IX: Part 9

MOD.--The absolute sway which Brahminism has over the mind of the Hindus, is perhaps attributable to its being the oldest of all known religions? its priests have the advantage of a prodigious antiquity, through which they have matured it to serve their own ends, and established a despotic power over their debased votaries.

LUCIAN.--No conceivable power over the mind can exceed that refined delusion which causes millions of human beings voluntarily to throw themselves under the wheels of the Juggernaut car, to be crushed to death on earth, in order to attain some one of those heavens which their villainous priests have invented. This astonishing power is perhaps shown still more in the effects of that religious rite, which makes it incumbent on widows to burn themselves alive on the death of their husbands. The horrible wickedness of this sacerdotal injunction requires that these victims must sacrifice themselves by this excruciating death, dressed out in all the jewels and precious stones they are possessed of; and after the dreadful immolation, these valuables become the perquisite of the priests, whose emissaries carefully sift the ashes of the funeral pile where all the gold and gems are found, with little or no injury done them by the fire. This is either the usage now, or was so in former times, and seems to be the acme of priestcraft.

MOD.--Whether the belief in supernatural powers, which, in all ages and countries, a certain order of men has been maintained to inculcate and enforce, has contributed most to human happiness or misery, is not for me to decide; but while a vast majority of mankind are unfitted to think for themselves, advantage will be taken of that ignorance, and combinations formed between the rulers of states and churches for the more effectual government of the many, who, if oppressed on earth by supporting these institutions, will be remunerated by a supernatural promotion in heaven.

LUCIAN,--Just so; under such governments, man is a mere puppet moved at the pleasures of his oppressors, who keep him ignorant, and work him thoroughly: promising him a post mortem happiness in another life, provided he bears the yoke of misery quietly in this:--

"Then the mind's independence insensibly sinks
The taint of one portion enfeebling the whole,
Till oppression, preparing the doubled-twined links,
King and priests draw their victim down--body and soul."

But you forget the immensely different degrees of evil occasioned by the inventions of theology; in England, Ireland, and Wales,* alone, the enormous sum of nine millions nine hundred and twenty thousand pounds is annually squandered in pampering and enriching the dignitaries, and maintaining the rest of a body of ecclesiastics, about thirty thousand in number. This sum is considerably more than half of all the clerical revenues of Christendom; and cannot possibly have any other source than the industry of the people, who, in return for their toil and starvation, are robbed of their senses, their judgments, and their liberties. That religion which attempts, through the aid of civil tyranny, to enforce the belief or acquiescence in the truth of its dogmas, virtually gives a premium to falsehood--renders truth injurious in society, and, by these very actions, proves itself false.

MOD.--The religions of antiquity must have been a down-draught upon industry also, and were used wholly for the purpose of deception. The dominant superstition of a country will always be taken into partnership by the political rulers; not because they think it true,** but as an auxiliary and pillar of government, which confers upon the professors thereof many privileges and immunities, in return for their support.

* To these countries nothing has been more burdensome and
ruinous than the expense of worshipping their gods.

** Wherever truth is compelled to hide her head, there is
necessarily a vicious order of things, both political and
moral. If instructors and governors were themselves
possessed of knowledge and virtue they would govern men more
easily, and much better, by realities than by fables.

LUCIAN.--The Athenians never had an established priesthood, that overwhelming master-curse of modern times; and as for that of the Romans, it did not, from the Pontifex Maximus, down to the lowest priest, exceed from fifty to sixty persons; and as the dignitaries at the head of these were always amongst the first men of the state, their offices were purely honorary. Under these circumstances it was quite impossible that the whole institution could be either oppressive upon industry or dangerous to liberty. As the Roman superstition was supported by the state for no other purpose than that of deception, to serve the ends of political jugglery, or as a means of enabling generals of armies to restrain the rashness of their troops, or excite them to fight with enthusiasm when required; so, in like manner, are the more recently-invented deceptions of theology supported, and from the same motive, by the different nations of Europe, but in a degree, and with effects infinitely more degrading and oppressive to all the real wealth-producers. _Of all deceivers who have plagued the worlds none are so deeply ruinous to human happiness, or so deserving of universal execration, as those impostors who pretend to lead men by a light above Nature_.

MOD.--The ignorant fears and inquisitiveness of mankind seems to require such leaders; they cannot account for the phaenomena of Nature, and therefore they keep a class of men in pay who pretend to explain to them certain personified existences superior to Nature, who work the machinery behind the scenes; and in whom is inherent, they say, the sole power to cause and control all such phaenomena. But if the hopes and fears of an ignorant populace impel them to keep such teachers, it is true that those alone who require their services should contribute to their support; yet as riches is power, confederate political rulers make their adopted priesthoods wealthy, by the exaction of tithes and other imposts upon industry; in all of which they are borne out and justified by god's old will.

LUCIAN.--That was one of the reasons why Jahouh, when he ceased to be a Jew, was not made to revoke his old will, which, like his new one, was the word and will of his priests, who were not likely to permit him to forget tithes. The present condition of the English and Irish churches shows that the legal robbery of this exaction has been sadly aggravated since its first introduction into Christianity. For the first eight hundred years of our era tithes were given as alms. We are informed by Sts. Jerome, Bernard, Chrysostom, Wickliffe, Huss, and many other writers who uniformly agree, that tithes were purely voluntary. St. Augustine says: "If we (the priests) do possess anything privately which doth suffice us, the tithes, or alms, are not ours, but the goods of the poor, whose stewards we are; _except we do challenge to ourselves a property by some damnable usurpation_." Blackstone says that at first tithes were distributed in a fourfold division; one for the share of the Bishop, another for maintaining the fabric of the church, a third for the poor, and a fourth to provide for the incumbent. When the sees of the bishops became otherwise amply endowed, they were prohibited from demanding their usual share; so that the poor became entitled to one-third. As the clergy now eat up the whole, the "usurpation" of St, Augustine has grown more and more "damnable." St. Jerome asserted that, according to St. Paul, it was "_by the instigation of the devil_" that distinctions of rank in religion were made, by the creation of bishops and other dignitaries.

MOD.--All this serves only to show that human beings, so far as we know their history, have always paid priests to lead or mislead them, through the medium of supematurals, whether these be real or fanciful. In denying any first cause, or creation of matter, I suppose you must allow that man cannot be a spontaneous production of the earth, and therefore the admission of his origin is unavoidable.

LUCIAN.--It is in vain that we see the human species propagated exactly as are all the mammalia classes:--theology prevents a correct view of everything; and it is its business to trample upon analogy and experience, and to feed man with fables about his first production. You ask, how came man into existence? But it would be quite as philosophical to ask how the first tree, worm, or oyster, came into being.* All organised life arises from some energy in the affinities and motions of matter, that is altogether unknown to us, and which gives rise to vegetable and animal life; so that the production of man is nothing more wonderful than that of any shell fish. All generation is motion. But the rational probability is, that the various species of homo found on this globe, were always upon it; Nature propagating each upon that part of its surface that is congenial to the particular species; and that in the almost inconceivably slow process of the change, by which portions of the globe's surface become alternately sea and land, they migrated in succession, as old lands were wasted by the sea, and as new lands afforded asylums.

* "Let us view man when within the shell, and when out of
it; let us take a microscope and examine the youngest
embryos, those of the growth of four, six, eight, or fifteen
days; after this age we may discover them with our naked
eyes. Then we can perceive the head only, a round egg with
two blackish specks, which represent the eyes. Before this
time, all being unformed, we can see nothing but a pulp of
marrow, which is the brain, where the original of the nerves
is first formed, where the principle of feeling is first
seated, and the heart, which begins already to beat in this
soft pulp; this is the punctum saliens of Malpighi, part of
the liveliness of which does, perhaps, already proceed from
the influence of the nerves. Then we see the head by degree
stretch for the neck, which being widened, first forms the
thorax, where the heart immediately descends, and takes up
its situation. The belly is framed next, which is divided
into two parts by a partition, called by anatomists the
diaphragm. These parts being expanded, furnish the arms, the
hands, the fingers, the nails, and the hair; the other gives
the thighs, the legs, the feet, etc., which form the support
and balance of the body. All this is surprising, but not
more so in man than in any other animal, or even in
vegetation; the same luxury of Nature shines throughout."

MOD.--Divines have long settled the question against you, that there is no specific difference in the human race, though they allow a great many _accidental_ varieties; but they declare upon Bible authority, that all these varieties sprung from a single pair--one original stock of mankind.

LUCIAN.--The absurd side of a question is the indisputable right of theology.* Wilful blindness or ignorant prejudice alone can raise a doubt, that the Whites, the Negroes, the Albinos, the Hottentots, the Chinese, and the native Americans, are altogether different species, under the genus homo. The white-skinned, bearded native of Northern Asia, could no more beget the copper-colored, beardless native of America, than a bull-dog could beget a f ox; the Negro of Africa, the Laplander; the leopard, the lion; the European, the Ethiopian; the ass, the horse; or an Esquimaux, & Hottentot. Therefore, when theology asserts that America must have been peopled from Asia, it is quite consistent with itself, that is, a tissue of glaring contradictions. When divines can show us how the oak and the ash got to America, and who carried over the dogs, cats, and hogs, the difficulty as to how man got there will be easily solved. Nature did there, as she has done everywhere else, in producing that species of the genus that is proper for the climate. But theology, in its disinterested cares for man, whose folly supports it, shows no kind regard about the migration of other animals, but is, on the contrary, their most deadly enemy; inasmuch as the abominable doctrine that all of them were created solely for his use, has authorised those atrocious cruelties which we daily see exercised upon them.

* The only proper definition of this word is--the science of
priest-craft.

MOD.--Your argument is, that in America, as everywhere else, Nature always produced the animals and plants that were proper for the climate and soil; but according to your theory the surface of this globe is everlastingly undergoing changes, from the motion of the sea and other elements, which unceasing action is alternately making and reducing land; so that the sea becomes the true creator or parent of the land. Now, if this be the case, the best criterion of the age of the child will be its height above the parent; consequently, as Asia has higher land than America, it must be older in its formation by the sea, and might, therefore, furnish the more recent continent with man and other animals.

LUCIAN.--That the sea, by its restless, mighty, and irresistible workings and creations, is the parent of all land, is a fact so demonstrable, from the proofs it has everywhere left behind it, that it is undisputed except by theology; and though it may require many millions of years completely to alternate the surface of our globe, or to make those portions of it sea, which had been land, and vice versa; yet that process and routine, though almost inconceivably slow, is nevertheless sure in endless succession. Man has no doubt migrated from land to land in the way you state; but this would not affect the natural distinction of species, which, however much they may be crossed and mixed for a time, will assert and recur to their primitive distinction ultimately; for Nature positively refuses to perpetuate, within themselves, any of the varieties. This is conclusive proof of the specific difference under the genus homo. Allowing that the height of land is the best criterion of its antiquity, America may by this rule dispute the palm with Asia, as the mountains of the former are nearly as high as those of the latter; and, therefore, the theologian's assertion that the western hemisphere was peopled from Asia, may, with as much truth, be reversed. Whatever may be the respective age of these continents, it seems highly probable, if not certain, that the Andes of South America will be reduced to the fluid state, by the action of the sea and other elements, many hundred thousands of years before the Himmalaya mountains of Asia are levelled by these unsleeping powers; for the former have now the great Pacific Ocean undermining their very foundations, whereas, the latter are still two thousand miles from the sea.

MOD.--The time required to bring about these and other changes which have relation to the celestial globes is so prodigious, that in giving it admittance we virtually set at nought not only all scripture authority, but turn the extent of human chronology into something inconceivably less than a moment sand-glass. Yet it is quite agreeable to the opinion of a great authority among the ancients;--Ocellus Lucanus says:

The universe admitteth neither creation nor annihilation, for it ever was, and ever shall be; if any man should conceive it to have been made, he would not be able to know from what material it was made. Now, I call universal matter by the name of universe, which appellation it obtaineth in that it comprehendeth all things, being an absolute and perfect collection of all natures; and besides the universe there is nothing. Wherefore, there can be nothing without, or external to that which comprehends all things. After men and other animals finish the progress of their nature, and have passed their several ages, they die, and are dissolved, becoming in the same state they were; quo non nati jacent. There is no such thing as _quies in natura_, all things being in a perpetual circular motion. Nor hath man any original production from the earth, or elsewhere, as some have believed; but hath always been, as he now is, co-existent with the world, whereof he is a part. "Nature and generation govern all things."

LUCIAN.--Such were the opinions of nearly all the wise men of antiquity. Theology, in its ridiculous pretensions to knowledge about the origin of time, has utterly infatuated the minds of its dupes, by instilling false notions concerning it; and limiting, comparatively within the duration of a moment, the existence of the material universe! All discoveries in theology--every appearance in Nature, unite in exposing the absurdity of what is called the Mosaic account of time and creation. So exceeding slow is the resistless innovating progress of the sea, in changing the face of the globe, that millions of years must elapse before a total alternation of land and water takes place on its surface; but as the quantity of water can never immerse the whole, a certain portion of the surface must ever be land, in succession.* This alternate succession of land and water is sure as fate, though imperceptible in the ephemeral life of man.

* Succession no more implies a beginning, than it predicates
an end.

MOD.--This watery theory of yours seems not very objectionable; but I can neither agree in the Mosaic account of the first man, nor in the opinion of Ocellus, who says, "he had no original production from the earth," but was always upon it, his power of propagation existing in himself. Man is an animal so transcendent above all others in his intellectual organisation, and reasoning powers, as to warrant our inference that the supreme ruler of the world had some particular design in his production, such as giving him dominion over all others, none of whom are possessed of immortal souls, that distinguishing proof of excellence which is found in man alone.

LUCIAN.--You may perhaps be able to tell me in what part of him it is to be "found" and what it consists of; but until that is done demonstrably, Nature, experience, reason, and all analogy, will flatly deny that man is possessed of any immortal part that is not common to every other animal. Man is immortal and universal in his materiality alone; as the matter which composes his body belongs to the immortal whole called Nature, or the infinite all-in-all; and he is annihilable in his personal identity only. That which you call design in the production of man, the Materialists, we repeat, ascribe to the energies, adaptations, and affinities in matter, whereby all organic structure in Nature is effected. _We cannot trace the effects which these and other motions of matter produce, to anything above its own powers_; and therefore the deceptive arrogance of the theologian, in pretending to look beyond these powers, has been pernicious in the highest degree, in preventing a more full development of Nature's secret arcanum. The non-existence of the abstract immaterial something, which priests have set up as the supernatural ruler of the universe, is best demonstrated by all they have yet said of it--that all being downright contradiction.

The physical organisation of man is by no means superior to that of many other animals, except in his extraordinary allowance of brain, which, if cultivated for his advantage and happiness, would certainly set him above most of the others, in intellectual qualities; but hitherto these have been developed only to be perverted by a total departure from the laws of his nature, in everything wherein that happiness is concerned. Completely estranged at all points from the salutary paths which the mother of all things intended for his walks, he beggars himself in keeping hireling priests, who conjure up before his bewildered mind's-eye those chimerical nonentities which decoy him, like an ignis fatuus, madly to dance after them through life.

MOD.--With all your hostility to priests, you cannot do without them, as our laws and society are at present constructed: from your birth to the day of your death, the church has got something to do or say in every step you take of importance.

LUCIAN.--That is the chief evil afflicting society. There is hardly a bad law, custom, or institution amongst men, that has not been priest-procured in some age ancient or modern. They have not left even a vestige of the natural rights of women, and very few of those of men; from the water sorcery called baptism, in infancy, to the funeral incantation of the priest, they are misled, abused, and cheated systematically, by the lawgiver and the theologian; whilst every natural right is sacrificed on their altar of oppression. In room of the birthright liberties, of which man is thus robbed from childhood, supernatural excellencies (such as soul), and peculiar favors from a place called heaven, are falsely bestowed upon him, without which he cannot be sufficiently donkified to answer the purposes of priestcraft; and the selfish and contemptible falsehood is palmed upon him, that the ruler of this ideal region ycleped heaven, created everything for his particular use and service. This stupid arrogance would be matchable only in the vegetables declaring that all animals were made for their sustenance.

MOD.--The pride of man will for ever prevent your convincing him that he is not the most favored creature of the Supreme Being, who has fitted him out with a soul, and given him such other qualities of mind and body, as show indisputably his vast superiority over the brute creation, to whom souls have been refused. Your appeal to the miseries of his life, which are greater than those of any other animal, or even the frightful number of chances recorded by his priests against him, on the score of damnation, will not shake his belief in these preternatural distinctions in his favor. You complain that soul-saving in England and Ireland is too expensive; but by a late Transatlantic calculation, the average per head for saving heathen souls, in the Australian Archipelago, by the missionaries of the United States, costs the old women of both sexes, children, and fools of these States, the sum of L82 sterling. Now, reckoning the population of China and India at 450,000,000, which is nearly the half of all the human species on this globe, without including the ourang outang species of homo, in whom souls have not yet been detected (probably owing to their keeping no priests), the total expense of saving the whole, at the rate of L82 per soul, would cost the above description of persons among the Christian godly, the enormous sum of L36,900,000,000. We cannot for a moment suppose that these holy disinterested missionaries would charge a farthing; above the prime cost in pursuing their "glorious work."

LUCIAN.--The grand support of missionaries abroad and of established priesthoods at home, is the female sex of Christendom, without whose sustaining zeal no one of all the great stocks of superstition which now infest the world would stand for another century. Whatever may be the origin or absurdity of any system of theology, set up in any country, the timidity of the female sex stimulates them generally to cling to it with fervor and devotedness, without the slightest examination. And while the priest "harrows up their souls" through the fears of his mysterious futurity, a subtle influence is exercised by them over the weaker and more uninformed portion of the male sex, whose apathy gives a tacit assent to the endless string of inconceiveables, for the sake of domestic quiet. Here the double battery of the wife and priest is irresistible. A learned clergyman, in writing to a female friend, makes this remark:--"if, indeed, your sex should enter into the irreligious notions, which now prevail too much among men, the next generation would be irrecoverably lost." This amounts to a plain confession that, should the priest lose his deep-rooted impulsive power over the female mind, his trade would be "irrecoverably lost." Women have been, in all ages and countries, the upholders of superstition, owing, in the first place, to their nature, which, according to Hippocrates, "is more weak and fearful than the nature and disposition of men"; secondly, to the delusive and mischievous theological dogma about the superintendence of what are called spiritual powers; to which may be added, the gaudy and imposing pomp of ceremonies; all of which, taken together, readily operate upon the female mind, it being, as it were, a softer and more pliant wax than that of man, to receive the unnatural impression of the priest. Before Christianity was known, Strabo made the following strong remark:--"It is a thing universally taken for granted, that women are the ringleaders of superstition; they tease their husbands into all sorts of worship of the gods, into the observation of feasts and fasts; but it is a rare thing that any man, leading a single life, is found to be such a person." I shall close my authorities on this subject, with a quotation from Selden. "When priests come into a family, they do as a man that would set fire to a house,--he does not put fire to the brick wall, but puts it into the thatch; _they work upon the women, and let the men alone_."

THE END.

End of Project Gutenberg's Religion In The Heavens, by Logan Mitchell