The Martyrdom of Man by Winwood Reade (mini ebook reader .TXT) π
The Egyptians were islanders, cut off from the rest of the world by sand and sea. They were rooted in their valley; they lived entirely upon its fruits, and happily these fruits sometimes failed. Had they always been able to obtain enough to eat, they would have remained always in the semi-savage state.
It may appear strange that Egypt should have suffered from famine, for there was no country in the ancient world where food was so abundant and so cheap. Not only did the land produce enormous crops of corn; the ditches and hollows which were filled by the overflowing Nile supplied a harvest of wholesome and nourishing aquatic plants, and on the borders of the des
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of a man-like but ideal Being must have, through the law of
imitation, an ennobling effect on the mind of the idolater, but
only so long as the belief in such a Being harmonises with the
intellect. It has been shown that this theory of a benignant
God is contradicted by the laws of Nature. We must judge of the
tree by its fruits; we must judge of the maker by that which he
has made. The Author of the world invented not only the good
but also the evil in the world; he invented cruelty; he
invented sin. If he invented sin how can he be otherwise than
sinful? And if he invented cruelty how can he be otherwise than
cruel? From this inexorable logic we can only escape by giving
up the hypothesis of a personal Creator. Those who believe in a
God of Love must close their eyes to the phenomena of life, or
garble the universe to suit their theory. This, it is needless
to say, is injurious to the intellect; whatever is injurious to
the intellect is injurious to morality; and, therefore, the
belief in a God of Love is injurious to morality. God-worship
must be classed with those provisional expedients, Famine, War,
Slavery, the Inequality of Conditions, the Desire of Gain,
which Nature employs for the development of man, and which she
throws aside when they have served her turn, as a carpenter
changes his tools at the various stages of his work.
The abolition of this ancient and elevated faith; the
dethronement of God; the extinction of piety as a personal
feeling; the destruction of an Image made of golden thoughts in
the exquisite form of an Ideal Man, and tenderly enshrined in
the human heart β these appear to be evils, and such
undoubtedly they are. But the conduct of life is a choice of
evils. We can do nothing that is exclusively and absolutely
good. Le genre humain nβest pas place entre le bien et le mal,
mais entre le mal et le pire. No useful inventions can be
introduced without some branch of industry being killed and
hundreds of worthy men being cast, without an occupation, on
the world. All mental revolutions are attended by catastrophe.
The mummeries and massacres of the German Reformation, though
known only to scholars, were scarcely less horrible than those
of Paris in 1793, and both periods illustrate the same law. I
have facts in my possession which would enable me to show that
the abolition of the slave-trade, that immortal and glorious
event, caused the death of many thousand slaves, who were
therefore actually killed by Sharp, Clarkson, Wilberforce, and
their adherents. But by means of abolition millions of lives
have since been saved. The first generation suffered; prisoners
were captured to be sold, and the market having been
suppressed, were killed. This was undoubtedly an evil. But then
the slave-making wars came to an end, and there was peace. In
the same manner I maintain that even should the present
generation be injured by the abolition of existing faiths, yet
abolition would be justified. Succeeding generations would
breathe an atmosphere of truth instead of being reared in an
atmosphere of falsehood, and we who are so deeply indebted to
our ancestors have incurred obligations towards our posterity.
Let us therefore purify the air, and if the light kills a few
sickly plants which have become acclimatised to impurity and
darkness, we must console ourselves with the reflection that in
Nature it is always so, and that of two evils we have chosen
that which is the least.
But the dangers of the Truth are not so great as is commonly
supposed. It is often said that if the fears of hell-fire were suddenly
removed men would abandon themselves with out restraint to their
propensities and appetites; that recklessness and despair would take
possession of the human race, and society would be dissolved. But I
believe that the fears of hell-fire have scarcely any power upon earth at
all, and that when they do act upon the human mind it is to
make it pious, not to make it good. A metaphysical theory
cannot restrain the fury of the passions: as well attempt to
bind a lion with a cobweb. Prevention of crime it is well known
depends not on the severity but on the certainty of
retribution. Just as a criminal is often acquitted by the jury
because the penalties of the law are disproportione to the
magnitude of the offence, so the diabolic laws which inflict an
eternal punishment for transitory sins have been tempered by a
system of free pardons which deprive them of any efficiency
they might have once possessed. What would be the use of laws
against murder if the condemned criminal could obtain his
liberty by apologising to the Queen? Yet such is the Christian
system, which, though in one sense beautiful on account of its
mercy, is also immoral on account of its indulgence. The
supposition that the terrors of hell-fire are essential or even
conducive to good morals is contradicted by the facts of
history. In the Dark Ages there was not a man or a woman, from
Scotland to Naples, who doubted that sinners were sent to hell.
The religion which they had was the same as ours, with this
exception, that everyone believed in it. The state of Europe in
that pious epoch need not be described.
Society is not maintained by the conjectures of theology, but by those
moral sentiments, those gregarious virtues, which elevated men above
the animals, which are now instinctive in our natures, and to
which intellectual culture is propitious. For, as we become
more and more enlightened, we perceive more and more clearly
that it is with the whole human population as it was with the
primeval clan; the welfare of every individual is dependent on
the welfare of the community, and the welfare of the community
depends on the welfare of every individual. Our conscience
teaches us it is right, our reason teaches us it is useful,
that men should live according to the Golden Rule. This conduct
of life is therefore enjoined upon every man by his own
instincts, and also by the voice of popular opinion. Those
cannot be happy who are detested and despised by their fellow-men; and as for those, the outlaws of society, who, like
domestic animals run wild, herd together in secret places, and,
faithful only to their own gang, make war upon mankind, the
Law, which is seldom evaded, the Law, which never forgives,
chases them from den to den, and makes their lives as full of
misery as they are full of crime.
The current religion is indirectly adverse to morals, because
it is adverse to the freedom of the intellect. But it is also
directly adverse to morals by inventing spurious and bastard
virtues. One fact must be familiar to all those who have any
experience of human natureβa sincerely religious man is often
an exceedingly bad man. Piety and vice frequently live together
in the same dwelling, occupying different chambers, but
remaining always on the most amicable terms. Nor is there
anything remarkable in this. Religion is merely loyalty: it is
just as irrational to expect a man to be virtuous because he
goes to church, as it would be to expect him to be virtuous
because he went to court. His king, it is true, forbids
immorality and fraud. But the chief virtues required are of the
lickspittle denomination β what is called βa humble and a
contrite heart.β When a Christian sins as a man, he makes
compensation as a courtier. When he has injured a fellow-creature, he goes to church with more regularity, he offers up
more prayers, he reads a great number of chapters in the Bible,
and so he believes that he has cleared off the sins that are
laid to his account. This, then, is the immorality of religion
as it now exists. It creates artificial virtues and sets them
off against actual vices. Children are taught to do this and
that, not because it is good, but to please the king. When
Christians are informed that not only our physical but our
moral actions are governed by unchangeable law, and that the
evil treatment of the mind, like the evil treatment of the
body, is punished by a loss of happiness and health, they cry
out against a doctrine which is so just and so severe. They are
like the young Roman nobles who complained when the Tarquins
were expelled, saying, that a king was a human being, that he
could be angry and forgive, that there was room for favour and
kindness, but that the law was a deaf and inexorable thing β
leges rem surdam inexorabilem esse; that it allowed of no
relaxation and indulgence β nihil laxa-menti nec veniae
habere, and that it was a dangerous thing for weak and erring
men to live by their integrity alone β periculosum esse in tot
humanis erroribus sola innocentia vivere. Christians believe
themselves to be the aristocracy of heaven upon earth; they are
admitted to the spiritual court, while millions of men in
foreign lands have never been presented. They bow their knees
and say that they are miserable sinners, and their hearts
rankle with abominable pride. Poor infatuated fools! Their
servility is real, and their insolence is real, but their king
is a phantom and their palace is a dream.
Even with Christians of comparatively blameless lives their
religion is injurious. It causes a waste of moral force. There
are passionate desires of virtue, yearnings for the good, which
descend from time to time like a holy spirit upon all
cultivated minds, and from which, strange as it may seem, not
even freethinkers are excluded. When such an impulse animates
the godless man he expends it in the service of mankind; the
Christian wastes it on the air; he fasts, he watches, and he
prays. And what is the object of all his petitions and salaams?
He will tell you that he is trying to save his soul. But the
strangest feature in the case is this. He not only thinks that
it is prudent and wise on his part to improve his prospects of
happiness in a future state; he considers it the noblest of all
virtues. But there is no great merit in taking care of oneβs
own interests whether it be in this world or the next. The man
who leads a truly religious life in order to go to heaven is
not more to be admired than the man who leads a regular and
industrious life in order to make a fortune in the city; and
the man who endeavours to secure a celestial inheritance by
going to church, and by reading chapters in the Bible, and by
having family prayers, and by saying grace in falsetto with
eyes hypocritically closed, is not above the level of those who
fawn and flatter at Oriental courts in order to obtain a
monopoly or an appointment.
The old proverb holds good in religious as in ordinary life,
that self-preservation is the first law of Nature. As long as
men believe that there is a god or king who will listen to
their prayers and who will change his mind at their request; as
long as they believe that they can obtain a mansion in the
heavenly Belgravia, so long they will place the duties of the
courtier above the duties of the man, so long they will believe
that flattery is pleasing to the Most High, so long they will
believe that they can offend against the law and escape the
penalties of the law, so long they will believe that acts of
devotion may be balanced against acts of immorality, so long
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