“The church can be a kind of a human mutual aid society, and has its place in the world, but nothing more. I must live my own life, die my own death and remain what I make myself; and I cannot see how God, or angels, or men can change this inevitable condition for me.
“If I could sell out, deliver myself over to the church or some body, get rid of life, of myself, but I do not know how it can be done, nor do I know of anyone who could make the purchase and give me a release from all further responsibility.
“The fact is, everything in the world is so desperately human. All humanity is on the same level plane. None can rise higher than the rest. Yes, it is true that some claim to know, to have entered into the secret councils of the Almighty and to understand all His plans, and so are able to dictate to the rest, but when investigated they really know no more than others. They have evolved a lot of theories from their inner consciousness, nothing more; most frequently the less they really know, the more bold and dogmatical they are.
“A young man—and generally they are below the average in natural ability—goes to a school where he is taught some particular belief, how to preach it, defend it; then he is set apart, ordained by the laying on of hands of men little wiser and better than himself, and he goes forth to uphold or disseminate his creed with the voice of an infallible trumpet. By what right does he assume to have the ability or the authority to know all about the purposes of God or dominate over his fellow men?
“I grant his right to bray like an ass if he chooses, but I deny his power to anathematize me for not believing his bray to be the roar of a lion. Many a time have I sat in church and heard a beardless stripling of a youth, just from school, make his statements about Providence with an air of authority as if he had just been appointed prime minister to the Almighty. What did he know more than his audience? Much less than most of them. Take an old priest or clergyman. Who is he? Only a man as I am. What is he? Only a student as I am. Where has he been that I have not gone? What advantages has he had more than I? None. Is God nearer to him than to me? I trust not. We are the same in every way, men. Yet when he takes his place in the pulpit he assumes that he knows everything, and presumes that I know nothing; preaches to me, dictates to me and denounces me for not agreeing with him and accepting all his talk, his sublimated drivel as God’s truth. Charles Kingsley, a most sensible priest, says, ‘Youths who hide their crass ignorance and dullness under the cloak of church infallibility, and having neither tact, manners, learning, humanity or any other dignity whereon to stand, talk loudly pour pis aller about the dignity of the priesthood.’
“The churches assume to be invested by God with power to regulate our belief without taking upon themselves any responsibility for our miscarriage; they teach that the spiritual direction and salvation of a man’s soul is wholly in the power of somebody else than himself.
“The priest declares that the bible says so, and therefore it must be true. Who made the bible? Men, such as we are, and therefore of no final authority. He says the church teaches so and so. But who made the church? Men. So on all through the gamut. We start with man and man made things. We never get away from men and never rise any higher than men can go.
“I put nothing in the place of Almighty God or between Him and myself. I defy the authority of any to impose upon me what they are not willing that I should impose upon them. Why should a man attempt to bind my conscience when he is not willing to allow me to bind his? I refuse to accept pope or priest as having any authority to direct me in religious matters. God is as near to me as to them. If they can get power from Him so can I. If they can presume to use upon me what they assume to have received, why can I not act in the same way toward them? The pope assumes to direct me; why not I in turn direct him? He has his authority, so he says, from heaven; so might I say of mine. What then is the difference? Only this. He is a big pope, inheriting his power by tradition; I am but a little pope, just starting. In himself he is no greater or better a man than I am. He has only power and wealth acquired by other men. A man, as Buddha, Jesus, Muhamed, starts alone as the founder of a new religion. The movement continues until the followers of each are numbered by millions. A priest commences a schismatic, and as the years pass on, one thing after another is assumed, culminating in papal infallibility, and the pope is considered as a god upon earth.
“Religious tyranny is worse than political tyranny. In the one the highest aspirations of the soul are fettered and enslaved, while by the other the body only is in subjugation.
“Charlemagne converted an ecclesiastical fiction into a political fact. The sword compelled the people to acknowledge the pope as the vicegerent of God. The popes were the confederates of cruelty and crime. There was not an enormity so great in the political world but would be consecrated by the popes and priests, if it was for their interest to do so. History tells what this church has done for its own aggrandizement. The Roman has been more bold and defiant, as it had the political power, but the other sects, each in its own way, has sought to dominate the opinions of mankind.