Category: Philosophy & Ethics

God and My Neighbour

Infidel! "The notorious infidel editor of the _Clarion_" is the form used by one True Believer. The words recurred to my mind suddenly, while I was taking my favourite black pipe for a walk along "the pleasant Strand," and I felt a smile glimmer within as I repeated them.

Chapters

1. Chapter 1

Infidel! "The notorious infidel editor of the _Clarion_" is the form used by one True Believer. The words recurred to my mind suddenly, while I was taking my favourite black pip...

2. Chapter 2

I cannot believe that the Bible version of the relations of man and God is correct. For that version, and all other religious versions known to me, represents man as sinning aga...

3. Chapter 3

That such is the fact with respect to the structure of these ancient writings is now beyond question. And our theory of inspiration must be adjusted to this fact. Evidently neit...

4. Chapter 4

I have been challenged for saying that the story of Moses and the floating basket is a variant of the myth of Horos and the floating island (_Herod_ ii. 156). But this seems suf...

5. Chapter 5

But the bacteriologists further discovered that the typhoid bacillus was present in water which was not infectious, and in persons who were not ill, or had never been ill, with...

6. Chapter 6

They shall be burnt with hunger, and devoured with burning heat, and with bitter destruction: I will also send the teeth of beasts upon them, with the poison of serpents of the...

7. Chapter 7

The historical books of the Old Testament are largely pernicious, and often obscene. These books describe, without disapproval, polygamy, slavery, concubinage, lying and deceit,...

8. Chapter 8

Now this man Denver leaves London by a fast train for Liverpool. Between London and Rugby he jumps out of the train, and, after limping many miles, goes to an inn, orders dinner...

9. Chapter 9

To be sure, the Apostle John reports that a soldier pierced Christ's side with a spear. But the authors of the three synoptic Gospels do not mention this wounding with the spear...

10. Chapter 10

The very large part that must be assigned to deliberate forgeries in the early apologetic literature of the Church we have already seen; and no impartial reader can, I think, in...

11. Chapter 11

The Christians martyred or murdered millions, many millions, of innocent men and women. Does _that_ prove that Christ was divine? No: it only proves that Christians could be fan...

12. Chapter 12

Christians say a man has a will to choose. So he has. But that is only saying that one human thought will outweigh another. A man thinks with his brain: his brain was made by God.

13. Chapter 13

But that parallel is not a true one. Let us suppose that the follies of astrology and the discoveries of astronomy were bound up in one book, and called the Word of God. Let us...

14. Chapter 14

This advance has been made in defiance of Christian envy, hatred, and malice, and in defiance of Christian tyranny and persecution. After fighting fiercely to defeat the advance...

15. Chapter 15

To him says John: "You are a fellow of no delicacy. You lack spiritual discernment. You are disqualified for the expression of any opinion on spiritual truths." This is what Joh...

16. Chapter 16

But there is a holiness so transcendent that the angels veil their faces in the presence of God. I have known a good many men who have rejected Christ, and men who are living wi...