Of all the plagues with which mankind are cursed, Ecclesiastic tyranny’s the worst

Of all the plagues with which mankind are cursed, Ecclesiastic tyranny’s the worst
It is plain, persecution is a thing really odious and hateful to all nations, and therefore most religions in the world most industriously avoid the challenge, and either strive to throw it off from one another, or excuse themselves by charging it upon their neighbours; also thinking to extenuate the crime by having it allowed to be universal. The church of Rome began with this, and Saunders the Jesuit reproaches the church of England with persecuting their fellow heretics... The truth is, no church but that of Rome professes persecution...I refer the reader to the oath of a bishop to the pope, set down at large in my lord bishop of Salisbury's history of the reformation : " Heretics, schismatics, and rebels, to our holy father and his successors, I shall resist and persecute to my power."—' Hist. Reform.,' vol. i, f. I23 So that the church of Rome was bound by oath to persecute those that were deemed schismatics and heretics.”

Spirit - Percy Bysshe Shelley

George Washington - liberty of conscience.

George Washington - liberty of conscience.
George Washington - liberty of conscience.

Washington - Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind.

Washington - Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind.
Washington - Of all the animosities which have existed among mankind those emanating from sacred, organized ignorance are the worst.

Shelley

Heresy is only another word for freedom of thought

Heresy is only another word for freedom of thought
http://tiny.cc/7coa6sw3uq

Every man prefers belief to the exercise of judgment.

Every man prefers belief to the exercise of judgment.
“Every man prefers belief to the exercise of judgment”. Seneca lived during Jesus’ time. He was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero. http://www.egs.edu/resources/seneca.html

Religion and science have a common ancestor – ignorance

Religion and science have a common ancestor – ignorance
The common ancestor of religion and science is ignorance. You can regard the relationship between religion and science as they evolved separately from this common ancestor as somewhat like the relationship between Cro Magnon man, which is us and the Neanderthals, which is them. _ Listen to audio at:_ http://tiny.cc/8clr7 _http://tiny.cc/2kw9q http://tiny.cc/loahk

Click image to view my blog IN THE EAST GOD WON - IN THE WEST, SCIENCE

Click image to view my blog IN THE EAST GOD WON - IN THE WEST, SCIENCE
Click image to view my blog: IN THE MUSLIM WORLD GOD WON - IN THE WEST, SCIENCE.

Is addiction to sacred dogma a good thing?

THE TRIUMPH OF EVOLUTION

THE TRIUMPH OF EVOLUTION
http://holocausthagaddah.blogspot.com/

Belief Breeds Intolerance

serving God was equated with serving the living - 1a

serving God was equated with serving the living - 1b

serving God was equated with serving the living - 1b
Albert Einstein on the Jews: IN THIS CASE, AS IN MANY MENTAL DISORDERS, THE CURE LIES IN A CLEAR KNOWLEDGE OF ONE'S CONDITION AND ITS CAUSES. We must be conscious of our alien race and draw the logical conclusions from it. IT IS NO USE TRYING TO CONVINCE THE OTHERS OF OUR SPIRITUAL AND INTELLECTUAL EQUALITY BY ARGUMENTS ADDRESSED TO THE REASON, WHEN THE ATTITUDE OF THESE OTHERS DOES NOT ORIGINATE IN THEIR INTELLECTS AT ALL. (Albert Einstein, 1934) http://tiny.cc/smceu http://tiny.cc/66g7y

the concept of a soul without a body

For Einstein, the greatest Jew ever, the Word God was Devoid of the Divine

What Do Buddhists Believe

If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism

If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism
God in Buddhism: The refutation of the notion of a supreme God or a prime mover is seen as a key distinction between Buddhism and other views. Hence, Buddhism is often aptly described as a "spiritual philosophy" whose sole aim is the complete alleviation of stress in samsara, called nirvana. The Buddha explicitly rejects a creator, denies endorsing any views on creation[5] and states that questions on the origin of the world are worthless. Some theists beginning Buddhist meditation believe that the notion of divinity is not incompatible with Buddhism, but belief in a Supreme God is eminently considered to pose a hindrance to the attainment of nirvana, the highest goal of Buddhist practice. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_in_Buddhism _ _ _ In Theravada Buddhism there can be no divine salvation or forgiveness for one's karma, since it is a purely impersonal process that is a part of the makeup of the universe. _ _ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism _ _ _ _ http://tiny.cc/pz3dd Albert Einstein Quotes on Philosophy of Religion, Theology, God

Einstein stamps

CLICK FOR MY BLASPHEMOUS BLOG: Holy Heretics

CLICK FOR MY BLASPHEMOUS BLOG:  Holy Heretics
"THE HISTORY OF INTELLECTUAL PROGRESS IS WRITTEN IN THE LIVES OF INFIDELS”, Ingersoll, The works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Volume 3 By Robert Green Ingersoll, page 308 http://tiny.cc/smhr6 CLICK IMAGE FOR MY BLASPHEMOUS BLOG: Holy Heretics

Click image to view my blasphemous blog: Holocaust Haggada

Click image to view my blasphemous blog: Holocaust Haggada
Click image to view my blasphemous blog: Holocaust Haggada

Click to view my blasphemous blog: Sacred, Organized, Ignorance.

Click to view my blasphemous blog: Sacred, Organized, Ignorance.
Click image to view my blasphemous blog: Sacred, Organized, Ignorance.

Karl Marx wanted to dedicate his masterpiece Capital, to Charles Darwin

Karl Marx wanted to dedicate his masterpiece Capital, to Charles Darwin
According to Marx, religion is an expression of material realities and economic injustice. Thus, problems in religion are ultimately problems in society. Religion is not the disease, but merely a symptom. It is used by oppressors to make people feel better about the distress they experience due to being poor and exploited. This is the origin of his comment that religion is the “opium of the masses” - but as shall see, his thoughts are much more complex than commonly portrayed. http://tiny.cc/7yre1

Postal stamps Karl Marx

Postal stamps Karl Marx
Click for my blasphemous blog HOLY COWS AND CALVES

Darwin

Darwin
Click photo for my blasphemous blog GODLESS GIANTS

DISBELIEF CREPT OVER ME AT A VERY SLOW RATE, BUT WAS AT LAST COMPLETE

DISBELIEF CREPT OVER ME AT A VERY SLOW RATE, BUT WAS AT LAST COMPLETE
Charles Darwin in his Autobiography of Charles Darwin, Dover Publications, 1992, p. 62.

I can indeed hardly see how anyone ought to wish Christianity to be true

Nor must we overlook the probability of the constant inculcation in a belief in God

How a Hatred of Slavery Shaped Darwin's Views on Human Evolution

Postage stamps Charles Darwin

Postage stamps Charles Darwin

Freud, Sigmund

Freud on religion

Freud on religion
Freud on religion

Click image to view my blasphemous blog: Bible Belt

Click image to view my blasphemous blog: Bible Belt
Click image to view my blasphemous blog: Bible Belt

The United States is exceptionally high in religiosity

The United States is exceptionally high in religiosity
http://tiny.cc/fen3c

Affluence and loss of religion

Affluence and loss of religion
Why the United States is so much more religious

Michel de Montaigne

Sir Francis Bacon

Sir Francis Bacon
http://tiny.cc/ft6u3

Thomas Hobbes

Thomas Hobbes
http://tiny.cc/cc1gp

less a religion than a priestly tyranny

less a religion than a priestly tyranny
Romanism was a word used as a derogatory term for Roman Catholicism.

Men never commit evil so fully and joyfully.

Priests can lie, and the mob believe, all over the world.

Priests can lie, and the mob believe, all over the world.
Letters from the Right Honourable Lady Mary Wortley Montagu 1709 to 1762 By Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

No nations are more warlike than those which profess Christianity

No nations are more warlike than those which profess Christianity
In matters of religion, it is very easy to deceive a man, and very hard to undeceive him.

No kingdom has ever suffered as many civil wars as the kingdom of Christ

No kingdom has ever suffered as many civil wars as the kingdom of Christ
History is full of religious wars ; but, we must take care to observe, it was not the multiplicity of religions that produce these wars, it was the intolerating spirit which animated that one which thought she had the power of governing.

the most absurd and bloody religion

the most absurd and bloody religion
For 1700 years, the Christian sect has done nothing but harm; Christians have been the most intolerant of all men; Ehasez l’infâme! [crush the infamous thing – Christianity] ; Atheism is the vice of a few intelligent people ; God is always on the side of the heaviest battalions ; Evil came into the world through the sin of Adam. If that idiot had not sinned, we should not have been afflicted with the smallpox, nor the itch, nor theology, nor the faith which alone can save us.; The word of God is the word of the priests ; the glory of god is the pride of the priests ; the will of god is the will of the priests ; to offend god is to offend the priests; to believe in god is to believe in all that the priests tell us.

Benjamin Franklin

They therefore persecute all of us who have the temerity to unveil the truth

They therefore persecute all of us who have the temerity to unveil the truth
http://tiny.cc/19oaf

Man will never be free until

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg - I thank the Lord a thousand times that he let me become an atheist

Georg Christoph Lichtenberg -  I thank the Lord a thousand times that he let me become an atheist
Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1 July 1742 – 24 February 1799) was a German scientist, satirist and Anglophile. As a scientist, he was the first to hold a professorship explicitly dedicated to experimental physics in Germany. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georg_Christoph_Lichtenberg

Arthur Schopenhauer

Arthur Schopenhauer
Arthur Schopenhauer (22 February 1788 – 21 September 1860) was a German philosopher known for his atheistic pessimism and philosophical clarity. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Schopenhauer

John Stuart Mill

Civilization will not attain perfection

Civilization will not attain perfection
Émile François Zola (French pronunciation: [emil zɔˈla]; 2 April 1840 – 29 September 1902) was an influential French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. He was a major figure in the political liberalization of France and in the exoneration of the falsely accused and convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, which is encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline J'Accuse.

TO A PHILOSOPHIC EYE

TO A PHILOSOPHIC EYE
Edward Gibbon (April 27, 1737[notes 1] – January 16, 1794) was an English historian and Member of Parliament. His most important work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, was published in six volumes between 1776 and 1788. The Decline and Fall is known for the quality and irony of its prose, its use of primary sources, and its open denigration of organised religion.....-* * *..... The most serious charges were suppressed ; the Vicar of Christ (Pope John XXIII, 1414) was accused only of piracy, murder, rape, sodomy, and incest. http://tiny.cc/19oaf )

Thomas Paine

THE MONSTER MUST FINALLY DIE

Christian engine of grief - the cross

Christian engine of grief - the cross
Click image to view my blog Holy Heretics

The most bloody religion ever

The most bloody religion ever
The most bloody religion ever

In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty

In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty
Thomas Jefferson to John Adams: If by religion we are to understand sectarian dogmas, in which no two of them agree, then your exclamation on that hypothesis is just, ' that this would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it". http://tiny.cc/hn7e3

The Christian God

The Christian God
The Christian God

Abraham is "tested" by God - told to slaughter his Isaac.

Abraham is "tested" by God - told to slaughter  his Isaac.
Abraham is "tested" by God - told to slaughter his son, Isaac.

BELIEF IN A CRUEL GOD MAKES A CRUEL MAN

Religions Promote Peace Is an Oxymoron

Religions Promote Peace Is an Oxymoron
James Madison, "The Father of the Constitution" - The fourth President of the United States (1809-1817)

Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind

Religious bondage shackles and debilitates the mind
Rulers who wished to subvert the public liberty, may have found an established Clergy convenient auxiliaries. A just Government instituted to secure & perpetuate it needs them not.

Experience witnesseth that ecclesiastical establishments.

Religious freedom only for themselves

Religious freedom only for themselves
http://www.beliefnet.com/resourcelib/docs/12/Letter_from_James_Madison_to_William_Bradford_1.html

Abraham Lincoln

Charles Darwin

Charles Darwin
http://tiny.cc/r0ro0

Charles Dickens

Thomas Henry Huxley

Leo Tolstoy

Robert G. Ingersoll

Superstition has detested every effort of reason

Superstition has detested every effort of reason
Robert Green "Bob" Ingersoll (August 11, 1833 – July 21, 1899) was a Civil War veteran, American political leader, and orator during the Golden Age of Freethought.

William E. H. Lecky

August Bebel

Alexandre Dumas

Victor Hugo

Victor Hugo
http://tiny.cc/0iozo

Giuseppe Garibaldi

Giuseppe Garibaldi
Giuseppe Garibaldi (July 4, 1807 – June 2, 1882) was an Italian military and political figure. In his twenties, he joined the Carbonari Italian patriot revolutionaries, and had to flee Italy after a failed insurrection. Garibaldi took part in the War of the Farrapos and the Uruguayan Civil War leading the Italian Legion, and afterwards returned to Italy as a commander in the conflicts of the Risorgimento. He has been dubbed the "Hero of the Two Worlds" in tribute to his military expeditions in both South America and Europe. He is considered an Italian national hero.

Sir James Paget

Friedrich Nietzche

Sigmund Freud

George Santayana

George Santayana
http://tiny.cc/qhm9f

Bertrand Russell

Albert Einstein

H. L. Mencken

Alfred North Whitehead

Edgar Lee Masters

H. G. Wells

Culbert Olson

Steve Allen

Steve Allen
It is not hardness of heart or evil passions that drive certain individuals to atheism, but rather a scrupulous intellectual honesty. –Steve Allen, Reflections

Carl Sagan

theologian Karl Barth

theologian Karl Barth - the most important theologian since Thomas Aquinas

theologian Karl Barth - Family, Nation, State, Church and Fatherland

the criminal arrogance of religion

Hitler's religious beliefs as a Christian

Hitler

it regards Christianity as the foundation of national morality -2

it regards Christianity as the foundation of national morality -2
http://tinyurl.com/24ozf4m

The Preacher and the Presidents

the Protestant Pope

The Prince of War - Billy Graham's Crusade for a Wholly Christian Empire

Billy Graham’s Crusade for a Wholly Christian Empire

Nixon, Billy Graham make derogatory comments about Jews on tapes

Billy Graham’s Jewish problem

Pastor-in-Chief

Pastor-in-Chief
WASHINGTON -- These days, when we think of George W. Bush, we think mostly of what a horrible mess he made of the economy. But his even more tragic legacy is the loss of our moral authority, and the transformation of the United States of America from global champion of human rights into an outlaw nation. History is likely to judge Bush most harshly for two things in particular: Launching a war against a country that had not attacked us, and approving the use of cruel and inhumane interrogation techniques. http://tiny.cc/w7e3e

Only Christians have a place in heaven

Match Made in Heaven - American Jews, Christian Zionists

Hitler Was fulfilling God's will to create Israel - Hagee

The Right Hand of God

God in the Corridors of Power - Christian Conservatives, the Media, and Politics in America

God in the Corridors of Power - Christian Conservatives, the Media, and Politics in America
"Hence today I believe that I am acting in accordance with the will of the Almighty Creator". http://tiny.cc/2t65x

The Holy Vote

Senate Republican candidate ignorant about the first amendmant - no establishment of official Churc

Senate Republican candidate ignorant about the first amendmant - no establishment of official Churc
Senate Republican candidate ignorant about the first amendmant - no establishment of official Church

I Disagree Strongly With The Concept Of Separtion Of Church And State

Palin - Iraq war is a task from God

Palin - Iraq war is a task from God
http://tiny.cc/iy1k2

a task that is from God

George Bush believes he is on a mission from God

George Bush believes he is on a mission from God
http://tiny.cc/iy1k2

George W. Bush and the G-Word

One faith should not try to exercise control or claim greater privilege of citizenship over another

One faith should not try to exercise control or claim greater privilege of citizenship over another
"ALL RELIGIONS ARE ANCIENT MONUMENTS TO SUPERSTITIONS, IGNORANCE, FEROCITY; AND MODERN RELIGIONS ARE ONLY ANCIENT FOLLIES REJUVENATED". Baron d'Holbach

Protestants aren't proper Christians

Protestants aren't proper Christians
VIDEOS: PROTESTANTS VS CATHOLICS RIOTS http://tiny.cc/svf46 --- --- "I would have the Pope throw away his tiara, take off his sacred vestments, and admit that he is not acting for God—is not infallible—but is just an ordinary Italian. I would have all the cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests and clergymen admit that they know nothing about theology, nothing about hell or heaven, nothing about the destiny of the human race, nothing about devils or ghosts, gods or angels. I would like to see the whole world free—free from injustice—free from superstition". Robert Green Ingersoll

Faith is not static. It has evolved.

Faith is not static. It has evolved.
"AS LONG AS MAN BELIEVES THE BIBLE TO BE INFALLIBLE, THAT BOOK IS HIS MASTER. THE CIVILIZATION OF THIS CENTURY IS NOT THE CHILD OF FAITH, BUT OF UNBELIEF, THE RESULT OF FREE THOUGHT." Conflict of the Nineteenth Century---The Bible and Free Thought; Ingersoll's lecture on the gods... By Thomas Mitchell Page 189

Pope - Condoms Can Be Justified In Some Cases

Pope - Condoms Can Be Justified In Some Cases
"RELIGION HAS EVER FILLED THE MIND OF MAN WITH DARKNESS, AND KEPT HIM IN IGNORANCE OF HIS REAL DUTIES AND TRUE INTEREST. IT IS ONLY BY DISPELLING THE CLOUDS AND PHANTOMS OF RELIGION, THAT WE SHALL DISCOVER TRUTH, REASON, AND MORALITY. RELIGION DIVERTS US FROM THE CAUSES OF EVILS, AND FROM THE REMEDIES WHICH NATURE PRESCRIBES; FAR FROM CURING, IT ONLY AGGRAVATES, MULTIPLIES, AND PERPETUATES THEM". Baron d'Holbach

We need to discourage faith where it is defined as a badge of identity in opposition to others.

We need to discourage faith where it is defined as a badge of identity in opposition to others.
Click image: ONLY A FOOL WOULD FOLLOW A FALSE RELIGION: http://tiny.cc/d1iiv

Blair: 'God will be my judge on Iraq'

Blair: 'God will be my judge on Iraq'
Tony Blair, Christopher Hitchens Debate Religion CHARMAINE NORONHA | 11/27/10 TORONTO — Former British prime minister Tony Blair said Friday his religious beliefs did not play a role in his decision to support the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq during a debate about the merits of religion in Toronto. Blair attempted to persuade his verbal sparring opponent, writer Christopher Hitchens, that religion is a force for global good when he was asked by an audience member how religion influenced his decision to stand with the United States against Iraq. "Religion doesn't do policy. All my decisions were based on policy and so they should be, and you may disagree with those decisions but they were made because I genuinely believed them to be right," said Blair before the audience of more than 2,600 at Toronto's Roy Thompson Hall. Blair, 57, converted to Catholicism after leaving office in 2007. Since then he has started the Tony Blair Faith Foundation to promote understanding between religions. ...Blair incited a sarcastic response from Hitchens when he argued the Northern Ireland peace process is an example of how people of different faiths can bridge their differences. "It's very touching for Tony to say that he recently went to a meeting to bridge the religious divide in Northern Ireland, where does the religious divide come from?" Hitchens asked. "Four-hundred years and more in my own country of birth of people killing each other's children depending on what kind of Christian they were." Although a lot of conflicts have religious roots, it's futile to try to drive religion out, Blair said. "In the end, it's for politics and religion to try and work out a way in which religion in a world of globalization that is pushing people together can play a positive rather than negative role," he added. Audience members voted on the debate and preliminary results posted on the Munk Debates website sided with Hitchens, with 68 percent saying that religion is more of a destructive than benign force in the world. http://tiny.cc/bsomm

TOTAL IRAQI CASUALTIES

TOTAL IRAQI CASUALTIES
http://antiwar.com/casualties/

Sam Harris- Science can answer moral questions

Christianity is worse than a defective imitation

Christianity is worse than a defective imitation
Christianity is worse than a defective imitation of Judaism, according to Maimonides, the preeminent medieval Jewish philosopher and one of the greatest Torah scholars and physicians of the Middle Ages. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maimonides

virus of faith replicates itself

virus of faith replicates itself
In his brilliant new book, The Evolution of God, Robert Wright tells the story of how God grew up. He starts with the deities of hunter-gatherer tribes, moves to those of chiefdoms and nations, then on to the polytheism of the early Israelites and the monotheism that followed, and then to the New Testament and the Koran, before finishing off with the modern multinational Gods of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Wright’s tone is reasoned and careful, even hesitant, throughout, and it is nice to read about issues like the morality of Christ and the meaning of jihad without getting the feeling that you are being shouted at. His views, though, are provocative and controversial. There is something here to annoy almost everyone. http://evolutionofgod.net/

The virus of faith spreads

The Root of All Evil

The Root of All Evil
The Virus of Faith (video 2 of 2) http://tiny.cc/xspkh

Provide for yourself a teacher

To take those fools

I am a deeply religious nonbeliever

I am a deeply religious nonbeliever
http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/quotes_einstein.html

Einstein Letter on God Sells for $404,000

Einstein Letter on God Sells for $404,000
http://www.lettersofnote.com/2009/10/word-god-is-product-of-human-weakness.html

Einstein Google logo and Apple billboard

Einstein Google logo and Apple billboard
Click for my blog: BEWILDERING BIBLE LEGENDS

Einstein's universe

Genius

Genius
Click for my blog: GOD AND CORRUPTION

Einstein was at odds with Jewish rabbis

Einstein was at odds with Jewish rabbis
Belief Breeds Intolerance

It was, of course, a lie

My views are near those of Spinoza

My views are near those of Spinoza
http://www.albertmohler.com/2008/05/15/albert-einsteins-god-the-product-of-human-weaknesses/

For me

For me
http://tinyurl.com/3eqomf http://tiny.cc/dhv2q http://tiny.cc/1531t http://tiny.cc/kxpqh

e=mc2: 103 years later, Einstein's proven right

I do not know how the Third World War will be fought, but I can tell you what they will use in the

I do not know how the Third World War will be fought, but I can tell you what they will use in the
I do not know how the Third World War will be fought, but I can tell you what they will use in the Fourth - rocks!

I am by heritage a Jew

Freud and Einstein - Why War

Einstein and peace - Perspective On the moral obligation of the scientist

Einstein and peace - Perspective On the moral obligation of the scientist
http://tiny.cc/ggpb7 Einstein and Schweitzer on Peace in the Atomic Age http://tiny.cc/lznvf

I made one great mistake in my life

I made one great mistake in my life
http://tiny.cc/7oopi Albert Einstein: Pacifism, the bomb, and the social responsibility of scientists

Einstein was a symbol for the peace in a world heading towards war.

Einstein was a symbol for the peace in a world heading towards war.
Einstein was a symbol for the peace in a world heading towards war. Einstein Speaks on Nuclear Weapons and World Peace http://tiny.cc/ri9ts

I should much rather see reasonable agreement with the Arabs than the creation of a Jewish state

I should much rather see reasonable agreement with the Arabs than the creation of a Jewish state
I should much rather see reasonable agreement with the Arabs than the creation of a Jewish state - http://tiny.cc/ev7o6 http://tiny.cc/41k81

Einstein was a victim of Edgar Hoover's FBI

Einstein was a victim of Edgar Hoover's FBI
Einstein was a victim of Edgar Hoover's FBI secret, 23-year campaign to undermine his influence.

Einstein was a victim of Edgar Hoover's FBI

Einstein was a victim of Edgar Hoover's FBI
Einstein Deplores Use of Atom Bomb http://tiny.cc/eefq4

I am afraid of the inner damage Judaism will sustain

Napoleon

Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet - 2

Religion is what keeps the poor man from murdering the rich.

Knowledge and history

THE GREATEST TRAGEDY IN MANKIND'S ENTIRE HISTORY

The principal enemy of moral progress in the world is the Christian religion

I do not find in our particular superstition, Christianity, one redeeming feature

Ignorance is preferable to error.

There is more honor and magnanimity in correcting.

I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free.

If a nation expects to be ignorant and free.
http://tiny.cc/gqmbx

As to the book called the bible, it is blasphemy to call it the Word of God

Best of Robert Ingersoll

Saturday, October 30, 2010

Julian the Apostate


 [Image: R.G. Ingersoll, 19th-century agnostic.]

 

By Robert Green Ingersoll


They say that the Emperor Julian [AD 331-363] was an "apostate"; that he was once a Christian; that he fell from grace, and that in his last moments, throwing some of his own blood into the air, he cried out to Jesus Christ, "Galilean, thou hast conquered!"



[Image: Emperor Flavius Claudius Julianus - Julian the Apostate, Julian the Philosopher]


It must be remembered that the Christians had persecuted and imprisoned this very Julian; that they had exiled him; that they had threatened him with death. Many of his relatives were murdered by the Christians. He became emperor, and Christians conspired to take his life. The conspirators were discovered and they were pardoned. He did what he could to prevent the Christians from destroying each other. He held pomp and pride and luxury in contempt, and led his army on foot, sharing the privations of the meanest soldier.
Upon ascending the throne he published an edict proclaiming universal religious toleration. He was then a Pagan. It is claimed by some that he never did entirely forget his Christian education. In this I am inclined to think there is some truth, because he revoked his edict of toleration, and for a time was nearly as unjust as though he had been a saint. He was emperor one year and seven months. In a battle with the Persians he was mortally wounded. "Brought back to his tent, and feeling that he had but a short time to live, he spent his last hours in discoursing with his friends on the immortality of the soul. He reviewed his reign and declared that he was satisfied with his conduct, and had neither penitence nor remorse to express for anything that he had done." His last words were: "I submit willingly to the eternal decrees of heaven, convinced that he who is captivated with life, when his last hour has arrived is more weak and pusillanimous than he who would rush to voluntary death when it is his duty still to live."
When we remember that a Christian emperor murdered Julian's father and most of his kindred, and that he narrowly escaped the same fate, we can hardly blame him for having a little prejudice against a church whose members were fierce, ignorant, and bloody -- whose priests were hypocrites, and whose bishops were assassins. If Julian had said he was a Christian -- no matter what he actually was, he would have satisfied the church.
The story that the dying emperor acknowledged that he was conquered by the Galilean was originated by some of the so-called Fathers of the Church, probably by Gregory or Theodoret. They are the same wretches who said that Julian sacrificed a woman to the moon, tearing out her entrails with his own hands. We are also informed by these hypocrites that he endeavored to rebuild the temple of Jerusalem, and that fire came out of the earth and consumed the laborers employed in the sacrilegious undertaking.
I did not suppose that an intelligent man could be found in the world who believed this childish fable, and yet in the January number for 1880, of the Princeton Review, the Rev. Stuart Robinson (whoever he may be) distinctly certifies to the truth of this story. He says: "Throughout the entire era of the planting of the Christian Church, the gospel preached was assailed not only by the malignant fanaticism of the Jew and the violence of Roman statecraft, but also by the intellectual weapons of philosophers, wits, and poets. Now Celsus denounced the new religion as base imposture. Now Tacitus described it as but another phase of theodium generius humani. Now Julian proposed to bring into contempt the prophetic claims of its founder by the practical test of rebuilding the Temple." Here then in the year of grace 1880 is a Presbyterian preacher who really believes that Julian tried to rebuild the Temple, and that God caused fire to issue from the earth and consume the innocent workmen.
All these stories rest upon the same foundation, the mendacity of priests.
Julian changed the religion of the Empire, and diverted the revenues of the church. Whoever steps between a priest and his salary, will find that he has committed every crime. No matter how often the slanders may be refuted, they will be repeated until the last priest has lost his body and found his wings. These falsehoods about Julian were invented some fifteen hundred years ago, and they are repeated to-day by just as honest and just as respectable people as these who told them at first. Whenever the church cannot answer the arguments of an opponent, she attacks his character. She resorts to falsehood, and in the domain of calumny she has stood for fifteen hundred years without a rival.
The great Empire was crumbling to its fall. The literature of the world was being destroyed by priests. The gods and goddesses were driven from the earth and sky. The paintings were torn and defaced. The statues were broken. The walls were left desolate, and the niches empty. Art, like Rachel, wept for her children, and would not be comforted. The streams and forests were deserted by the children of the imagination, and the whole earth was barren, poor and mean.
Christian ignorance, bigotry and hatred, in blind unreasoning zeal, had destroyed the treasures of our race. Art was abhorred, Knowledge was despised, Reason was an outcast. The sun was blotted from the intellectual heaven, every star extinguished, and there fell upon the world that shadow -- that midnight, known as "The Dark Ages."
  
http://tiny.cc/azfik


Giordano Bruno - Religious Heretic, Science Hero, Burned at the Stake

 By Robert Green Ingersoll

This night lasted for a thousand years ...

The first star that enriched the horizon of this universal gloom was Giordano Bruno. He was the herald of the dawn.

He was born in 1550, was educated for a priest, became a Dominican friar. At last his reason revolted against the doctrine of transubstantiation. He could not believe that the entire Trinity was in a wafer, or in a swallow of wine. He could not believe that a man could devour the Creator of the universe by eating a piece of bread. This led him to investigate other dogmas of the Catholic Church, and in every direction he found the same contradictions and impossibilities supported, not by reason, but by faith.




[Image: Giordano Bruno (1550?-1600)]

Those who loved their enemies threatened his life. He was obliged to flee from his native land, and he became a vagabond in nearly every nation of Europe. He declared that he fought, not what priests believed, but what they pretended to believe. He was driven from his native country because of his astronomical opinions. He had lost confidence in the Bible as a scientific work. He was in danger because he had discovered a truth.

He fled to England. He gave some lectures at Oxford. He found that institution controlled by priests. He found that they were teaching nothing of importance -- only the impossible and the hurtful. He called Oxford "the widow of true learning." There were in England, at that time, two men who knew more than the rest of the world. Shakespeare was then alive.

Bruno was driven from England. He was regarded as a dangerous man, -- he had opinions, he inquired after reasons, he expressed confidence in facts. He fled to France. He was not allowed to remain in that country. He discussed things -- that was enough. The church said, "move on." He went to Germany. He was not a believer -- he was an investigator. The Germans wanted believers: they regarded the whole Christian system as settled; they wanted witnesses; they wanted men who would assert. So he was driven from Germany.

He returned at last to his native land. He found himself without friends, because he had been true, not only to himself, but to the human race. But the world was false to him because he refused to crucify the Christ of his own soul between the two thieves of hypocrisy and bigotry. He was arrested for teaching that there are other worlds than this; that many of the stars are suns, around which other worlds revolve; that Nature did not exhaust all her energies on this grain of sand called the earth. He believed in a plurality of worlds, in the rotation of this, in the heliocentric theory.

For these crimes, and for these alone, he was imprisoned for six years. He was kept in solitary confinement. He was allowed no books, no friends, no visitors. He was denied pen and paper. In the darkness, in the loneliness, he had time to examine the great questions of origin, of existence, of destiny. He put to the test what is called the goodness of God. He found that he could neither depend upon man nor upon any deity. At last the Inquisition demanded him. He was tried, condemned, excommunicated and sentenced to be burned.
  



[Image: Bronze statue of Bruno in Campo dei Fiori in Rome, erected in 1887 on the site where the philosopher died at the stake in 1600, after being condemned to death by the Inquisition. In the 1920s Mussolini refused to remove the statue, despite intense lobbying from the Vatican.]

According to Professor Draper, he believed that this world is animated by an intelligent soul -- the cause of forms, but not of matter; that it lives in all things, even in such as seem not to live; that everything is ready to become organized; that matter is the mother of forms, and then their grave; that matter and the soul of things, together, constitute God. He was a pantheist -- that is to say, an atheist. He was a lover of Nature, -- a reaction from the asceticism of the church. He was tired of the gloom of the monastery. He loved the fields, the woods, the streams. He said to his brother-priests: Come out of your cells, out of your dungeons: come into the air and light. Throw away your beads and your crosses. Gather flowers; mingle with your fellow-men; have wives and children; scatter the seeds of joy; throw away the thorns and nettles of your creeds; enjoy the, perpetual miracle of life.

On the sixteenth day of February, in the year of grace 1600, by "the triumphant beast," the Church of Rome, this philosopher, this great and splendid man, was burned. He was offered his liberty if he would recant. There was no God to be offended by his recantation, and yet, as an apostle of what he believed to be the truth, he refused this offer. To those who passed the sentence upon him he said: "It is with greater fear that ye pass this sentence upon me than I receive it." This man, greater than any naturalist of his day; grander than the martyr of any religion, died willingly in defence of what he believed to be the sacred truth. He was great enough to know that real religion will not destroy the joy of life on earth; great enough to know that investigation is not a crime -- that the really useful is not hidden in the mysteries of faith. He knew that the Jewish records were below the level of the Greek and Roman myths; that there is no such thing as special providence; that prayer is useless; that liberty and necessity are the same, and that good and evil are but relative.

He was the first real martyr, -- neither frightened by perdition, nor bribed by heaven. He was the first of all the world who died for truth without expectation of reward. He did not anticipate a crown of glory. His imagination had not peopled the heavens with angels waiting for his soul. He had not been promised an eternity of joy if he stood firm, nor had he been threatened with the fires of hell if he wavered and recanted. He expected as his reward an eternal nothing! Death was to him an everlasting end -- nothing beyond but a sleep without a dream, a night without a star, without a dawn -- nothing but extinction, blank, utter, and eternal. No crown, no palm, no "well done, good and faithful servant," no shout of welcome, no song of praise, no smile of God, no kiss of Christ, no mansion in the fair skies -- not even a grave within the earth -- nothing but ashes, wind-blown and priest-scattered, mixed with earth and trampled beneath the feet of men and beasts.

The murder of this man will never be completely and perfectly avenged until from Rome shall be swept every vestige of priest and pope, until over the shapeless ruin of St. Peter's, the crumbled Vatican and the fallen cross, shall rise a monument to Bruno, -- the thinker, philosopher, philanthropist, atheist, martyr.


Robert Ingersoll (1833-1899): scientific rationalist and agnostic, son of a Congregational minister, notable defender of Darwin. The preceding text is a selection from his Great Infidels, published in 1881.