Ingersollia Part 39

Christianity has always opposed every forward movement of the human race. Across the highway of progress it has always been building breastworks of bibles, tracts, commentaries, prayer-books, creeds, dogmas and platforms, and at every advance the Christians have gathered together behind these heaps of rubbish and shot the poisoned arrows of malice at the soldiers of freedom.

504. Where is the New Eden?

You may be laughed at in this world for insisting that G.o.d put Adam into a deep sleep and made a woman out of one of his ribs, but you will be crowned and glorified in the next. You will also have the pleasure of hearing the gentlemen howl there, who laughed at you here. While you will not be permitted to take any revenge, you will be allowed to smilingly express your entire acquiescence in the will of G.o.d. But where is the new Eden? No one knows. The one was lost, and the other has not been found.

505. The Real Eden is Beyond

Nations and individuals fail and die, and make room for higher forms.

The intellectual horizon of the world widens as the centuries pa.s.s.

Ideals grow grander and purer; the difference between justice and mercy becomes less and less; liberty enlarges, and love intensifies as the years sweep on. The ages of force and fear, of cruelty and wrong, are behind us and the real Eden is beyond. It is said that a desire for knowledge lost us the Eden of the past; but whether that is true or not, it will certainly give us the Eden of the future.

506. Party Names Belittle Men

Let us forget that we are Baptists, Methodists, Catholics, Presbyterians, or Free-thinkers, and remember only that we are men and women. After all, man and woman are the highest possible t.i.tles. All other names belittle us, and show that we have, to a certain extent, given up our individuality.

A FEW PLAIN QUESTIONS

507. Where Did the Serpent Come From?

Where did the serpent come from? On which of the six days was he created? Who made him? Is it possible that G.o.d would make a successful rival? He must have known that Adam and Eve would fall. He knew what a snake with a "spotted, dappled skin" could do with an inexperienced woman. Why did he not defend his children? He knew that if the serpent got into the garden, Adam and Eve would sin, that he would have to drive them out, that afterwards the world would be destroyed, and that he himself would die upon the cross.

508. Must We Believe Fables to be Good and True? Must we, in order to be good, gentle and loving in our lives, believe that the creation of woman was a second thought? That Jehovah really endeavored to induce Adam to take one of the lower animals as an helpmeet for him? After all, is it not possible to live honest and courageous lives without believing these fables?

509. Why Did Not G.o.d Kill the Serpent?

Why was not the serpent kept out of the garden? Why did not the Lord G.o.d take him by the tail and snap his head off? Why did he not put Adam and Eve on their guard about this serpent? They, of course, were not acquainted in the neighborhood, and knew nothing about the serpent's reputation.

510. Questions About the Ark

How was the ark kept clean? We know how it was ventilated; but what was done with the filth? How were the animals watered? How were some portions of the ark heated for animals from the tropics, and others kept cool for the polar bears? How did the animals get back to their respective countries? Some had to creep back about six thousand miles, and they could only go a few feet a day. Some of the creeping things must have started for the ark just as soon as they were made, and kept up a steady jog for sixteen hundred years. Think of a couple of the slowest snails leaving a point opposite the ark and starting for the plains of s.h.i.+nar, a distance of twelve thousand miles. Going at the rate rate of a mile a month, it would take them a thousand years. How did they get there? Polar bears must have gone several thousand miles, and so sudden a change in climate must have been exceedingly trying upon their health. How did they know the way to go? Of course, all the polar bears did not go. Only two were required. Who selected these?

511. Was Language Confounded at Babel.

How could language be confounded? It could be confounded only by the destruction of memory. Did G.o.d destroy the memory of mankind at that time, and if so, how? Did he paralyze that portion of the brain presiding over the organs of articulation, so that they could not speak the words, although they remembered them clearly, or did he so touch the brain that they could not hear? Will some theologian, versed in the machinery of the miraculous, tell us in what way G.o.d confounded the language of mankind?

512. Would G.o.d Kill a Man for Making Ointment?

Can we believe that the real G.o.d, if there is one, ever ordered a man to be killed simply for making hair oil, or ointment? We are told in the thirtieth chapter of Exodus, that the Lord commanded Moses to take myrrh, cinnamon, sweet calamus, ca.s.sia, and olive oil, and make a holy ointment for the purpose of anointing the tabernacle, tables, candlesticks and other utensils, as well as Aaron and his sons; saying, at the same time, that whosoever compounded any like it, or whoever put any of it on a stranger, should be put to death. In the same chapter, the Lord furnishes Moses with a recipe for making a perfume, saying, that whoever should make any which smelled like it, should be cut off from his people. This, to me, sounds so unreasonable that I cannot believe it.

513. How Did Water run up Hill?

Some Christians say that the fountains of the great deep were broken up.

Will they be kind enough to tell us what the fountains of the great deep are? Others say that G.o.d had vast stores of water in the center of the earth that he used on the occasion of the flood. How did these waters happen to run up hill?

514. Would a Real G.o.d Uphold Slavery?

Must we believe that G.o.d called some of his children the money of others? Can we believe that G.o.d made lashes upon the naked back, a legal tender for labor performed? Must we regard the auction block as an altar? Were blood hounds, apostles? Was the slave-pen a temple? Were the stealers and whippers of babes and women the justified children of G.o.d?

515. Will There Be an Eternal Auto da Fe?

Will some minister, who now believes in religious liberty, and eloquently denounces the intolerance of Catholicism, explain these things; will he tell us why he wors.h.i.+ps an intolerant G.o.d? Is a G.o.d who will burn a soul forever in another world, better than a christian who burns the body for a few hours in this? Is there no intellectual liberty in heaven?

Do the angels all discuss questions on the same side? Are all the investigators in perdition? Will the penitent thief, winged and crowned, laugh at the honest folks in h.e.l.l? Will the agony of the d.a.m.ned increase or decrease the happiness of G.o.d? Will there be, in the universe, an eternal _auto da fe_?

516. Why Hate an Atheist?

Why should a believer in G.o.d hate an atheist? Surely the atheist has not injured G.o.d, and surely he is human, capable of joy and pain, and ent.i.tled to all the rights of man. Would it not be far better to treat this atheist, at least, as well as he treats us?