Popular Questions and Objections.

1. It is objected that Freethought is destructive, not constructive.

(a) It is destructive of error, crime, cruelty, superstition and all kinds of wrong and oppression.

(b) It is constructive in its defense and support of the rights of man, woman, and child.

(d) It is constructive, because it inspires man with a thirst for knowledge, and puts him in sympathy with science.

(e) It is positive and reconstructive in inspiring man with moral courage.

“What will you give us in place of religion?”

(a) We would put in place of religion, liberty, morality, honesty, courage, knowledge, and manliness.

(b) We do not wish to take away the Golden Rule; but we insist that it is not a Christian precept. It was in the world long before Jesus, before Moses, and before Abraham. Long before the pyramids were built mothers called their children to their knees and said to them, “Children be good to each other to-day.” This is the Golden Rule. We see then that it is of human origin, and not a part of Christianity, as Christianity is founded upon the supernatural. It is the old, old way that religions have of borrowing human virtues and ascribing them to the gods.

(c) We do not teach men to despise charity, but to so improve human conditions that charity and charitable institutions shall not be needed.

(d) “What will you give us in place of the Bible?”

We do not propose to take it away. We only ask people to read it as they do other books—accepting the good and rejecting the bad.

“What are we to have in place of the consolation of the gospel?”

The gospel means glad tidings. What are the glad tidings?

1. That man is totally depraved and polluted. Good news!

2. That he deserves eternal torment. Glad tidings!

3. And that nine tenths of the human race will get their deserts. “Many are called, but few are chosen.” Glorious news!

4. That hell is in view,—near at hand. Delightful tidings!

5. That the reprobate cannot escape. Glorious gospel!

6. That God hates the most of the race and has from eternity doomed them to eternal woe.

And all this is the gospel of glad tidings!

Suppose we expose the delusion of eternal torments, what does man want in its place? Does he need a smaller hell to taper off on, before he can give up hell altogether? What does any one want in place of infant damnation? And so also with witchcraft, polygamy, slavery, and many other wrongs—must we have something to take their place? I heard of a kid gloved dude, who put his finger into a bucket of water, and after taking it out looked for the hole in the water. As well might the poor fellow sick in the hospital ask the doctor, who promises to cure him of the small pox, what he will give him in its stead. Does he want the itch or measles in place of the small pox?

“How does the Freethinker come to know so much more than millions of good and great men who for eighteen centuries have believed in Christianity?” (a) Here we have the old question of majorities.

Millions of good and great men once firmly believed in witchcraft.

Luther said: “I would have no compassion on these witches, I would burn them all.”

John Wesley said: “Giving up witchcraft is giving up the Bible.”

Sir Matthew Hale believed in witchcraft.

(b) The good and great men of many ages believed in hell—that is, for somebody else. Practically hell is now in the lower case, if not entirely closed up for repairs.

(c) Millions of good and wise men for many centuries believed that this earth was flat, and that the sun went daily round it. And these good and wise people burned all those who did not agree with them.

(d) Millions of the best of earth at one time believed that it was right and proper to hang a man for stealing a sheep.

(e) At one time almost every body believed that it was well-pleasing to God, for Christians to torture and murder heretics.

(f) Millions of the wisest and best men have at different times believed that the world was speedily coming to an end.

(g) The great men of the past professed to believe in Christianity because they were compelled to do so through fear of persecution, torture, and death. Millions of prominent men in society to-day, have to pretend to believe in the doctrines of the church in order to be respectable.

(h) In every country under the sun people believe in their own religion.—The good and great Mohammedans, believe in Islamism. The good and great Buddhists believe in Buddhism, and the good and great Brahmins, believe in Brahminism.

(i) The wise men of to-day in Europe and America do not believe in Christianity. The men of science do not attempt to prove the claims of Christianity.

It is claimed that Infidelity is demoralizing in its tendency.

(a) With such lives before us as those of Paine, Ingersoll, Palmer, Bennett, Wright, Seaver, and many others this charge proves to be groundless.

(b) Liberal principles are not degrading. Truth, liberty, and justice cannot demoralize, but blind faith does.

“Infidels always repent on their death bed.”

(a) Paine did not. Bennett did not. Dr. T. Brown did not. Courtlandt Palmer, Horace Seaver, Elizur Wright, did not—and millions of other good men have died tranquilly without any belief whatever in another world.

“Can Infidelity save the world?”

One thing is certain, namely, that Christianity cannot do it, as it has been trying to do so for eighteen centuries.

There is no such thing as salvation possible.

The world can be improved most rapidly by allowing everyone to mind his own business—by giving man his natural and equal rights, by inspiring him with liberty, for nothing so fully prepares people for liberty as liberty itself.

“What has Freethought done for the world?”

(a) What has Christianity done for the world? Why it has built schools, churches, and charitable institutions.

(b) It is true that Christianity instituted schools, colleges, and universities; but not for the purpose of educating the people in truth, but in only such knowledge as would not conflict with its own superstitions. Christian schools have been for ages at war with science and liberty.

(c) It is true that the church builds asylums for the poor—but it is the church that is in a large degree responsible for the impoverished condition of the people. And the very money that builds the almshouse was begged from the poor, by the church. The church has nothing of itself to give except preaching. When the church builds an institution it first becomes a beggar.

(d) The church builds insane asylums. And the church has filled them with her own people. There are more people made crazy and insane by religious excitements than by any other one thing.

“What have Infidels given for education, charity, and science?”

We will give the names of six noted Freethinkers, and could give more, but give these six to begin with: Stephen Girard, Robert Owen, James Lick, William Maclure, John Rodman, and Peter Brigham. These gentleman who were all Infidels, gave at least fifteen millions of dollars for education, science, and charity. The vast sum given by Stephen Girard for a secular education of orphan children has been stolen by Christians and put to another use.