Flowers of Freethought (Second Series)

During his lifetime Darwin was the _bete noir_ of the clergy. They hated him with a perfect and very natural hatred, for his scientific doctrines were revolutionary, and if he w...

A choice Hughesean sentence occurs in this connexion. "I very much regret," the preacher says, "that Maud's lover was such a conventional idiot that he should have been guilty o...

Yes, it is an advertising age, and an advertising age is a sensational age. Religion itself--the staid, the demure--shares in the general tendency. She preaches in the style of...

Logic, however, must not be expected of Christians, at least in an age of dissolving views like the present. They will go on quoting Kenan's prize-essay panegyric on Christ, wit...

Even in the case of St. Paul, it is perfectly idle to suppose that his cosmopolitanism extended beyond the Roman empire. A little study and reflection would show Mr. Hughes that...

Mr. Blomfield is angry with me for saying that the books of the Bible are mostly anonymous, yet he declares that "their anonymity is little against them." I leave Mr. Blomfield...

Not long since the Bishop of Chester, backed up by Mr. Waugh, of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, publicly declared that the worst ill-users of little ones...

Professed Atheists may watch this hubbub with serenity, if not with enjoyment. When all is said and done, Atheism remains in possession of the sceptical field. Mr. Harrison's fl...

Chapman's strain is higher than Tennyson's, but they harmonise. Tolstoi's is a harsher note. He vilifies the flesh to exalt the spirit, as though the two never mingled. He would...

Those who still believe in the Devil may conveniently introduce him, it is curious, however, that they never do, except in cases of _moral_ evil. Criminal indictments charge pri...

We have not exhausted our evidence. Far more could be adduced, but we hope this will suffice. It may, of course, be objected that Jehovah has reformed, that he is too old for mi...

I am disposed to regard your "Savior" as a purely mythical personage, like all other Saviors and sun-gods of antiquity, who were generally, if not always, born miraculously of v...

Long before there were any kings there were chiefs, Even in the early Feudal days the king was only the chief of the barons, and many centuries elapsed before the supremacy of t...

We notice the frequent recurrence of the phrase "liberal theology." Naturally we like everybody to be liberal, but we cannot see the appropriateness of the epithet in this insta...

Erasmus calls the monks "a sort of brainsick fools," who "seem confident of becoming greater proficients in divine mysteries the less they are poisoned with any human learning."...

Now, for our second instance. Bruno was betrayed to the Venetian Inquisition by Count Mocenigo while he was that nobleman's guest. Mocenigo had invited him to Venice in order th...

The working classes at present are simply humbugged by the Churches. The day of rest is secure enough without lies or fictions. What the masses want is an opportunity to make us...

PREFACE. LUSCIOUS PIETY. THE JEWISH SABBATH. PROFESSOR STOKES ON IMMORTALITY. PAUL BERT * BRADLAUGH'S GHOST. CHRIST AND BROTHERHOOD. THE SONS OF GOD. MELCHIZEDEK. S'W'ELP ME GOD...

Besides, although the text in Mark is the most striking piece of impudent bigotry, there are many passages of Holy Writ that display the same spirit. The Jews were expressly ord...

Jewish traditions say that Melchizedek was the son of Shem, and set apart for the purpose of watching and burying Adam's carcase when it was unshipped from the Ark. Some, howeve...

William Godwin is the next Freethinker whom Mr. Watkinson calls up for judgment. All the brave efforts of the author of _Political Justice_ in behalf of freedom and progress are...

When Jesus Christ came from heaven to give mankind a new revelation he had a fine opportunity to correct the brutalities of the Mosaic Law. Yet Mr. Henson allows that he "did no...

When we first criticised Mrs. Besant's newly-found Theosophy, and thereby incurred her severe displeasure, we predicted that her enthusiastic nature would carry her far on the r...

Dr. Hitchens preached from the text, "The earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord"--a statement which, after the lapse of so many centuries, has still to be couched in...

Mr. Le Gallienne's god is the old celestial despot of theology in a new costume. On the question of a future life, however, we are pleased to find a vein of heterodoxy and commo...