CREATION AND FALL.
The one great differential mark between man and the brutes is his higher development of brain power, by which he is enabled to discriminate between right and wrong, or good and evil, and thus to improve his bodily and social condition. The individual who obstinately refuses to avail himself of the great mental power within him not only deprives himself of the greatest pleasure in life, but also allows himself to sink to the level of the brutes from which he evolved, exhibiting at the same time a gross want of gratitude to the being who endowed him with so lofty an attribute. On the other hand, he who cultivates his mental faculties, and uses them for his own improvement and advancement, and also that of his fellows, fulfils the highest mission of man, and continually shows his deep gratitude to his mysterious benefactor.
To think is the grandest faculty of man. To think logically and well ought to be his noblest aspiration. To prevent, by any means whatever, the individual from exercising his right to think, and from giving expression to his thoughts, is a direct outrage upon the great author of us all, upon the individual himself, and also upon the whole human race. The greatest thinker of modern times, John Stuart Mill, says, “The peculiar evil of silencing the expression of an opinion is that it is robbing the human race, posterity as well as the existing generation; those who dissent from the opinion still more than those who hold it. If the opinion is right they are deprived of the opportunity of exchanging error for truth; if wrong, they lose what is almost as great a benefit, the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error. No one can be a great thinker who does not recognise that, as a thinker, it is his first duty to follow his intellect to whatever conclusions it may lead. Truth gains more even by the errors of one who with due study and preparation thinks for himself, than by the true opinions of those who only hold them because they do not suffer themselves to think ... complete liberty of contradicting and disproving our opinion is the very condition which justifies us in assuming its truth for purposes of action; and on no other terms can a being with human faculties have any rational assurance of being right.”
We claim the right to think upon any and every subject, and also to express our thoughts before the world, in spite of the menace held out to us by those whose interests conflict with any honest expression of opinion. There is no tribunal but that of reason to which we possibly can submit any theory or proposition. To talk of faith as opposed to reason is to speak without seriously thinking. Such faith is but a weird phantom that haunts the irresolute and credulous unthinker, but which really has no existence at all. A man may say that he believes something entirely opposed to reason, but he deceives himself, for it is quite impossible to believe what does not appear to the mind to be in accordance with reason. Such a man accepts, but does not believe. We have faith in the existence of the island of Otaheite, although we have never been there ourselves. Geographers tell us that such an island exists on the other side of the world; and we have full faith in such an existence, because it is in accordance with reason. But if we were told that the king of Otaheite had never been born, but had, like Topsy, ‘grow’d,’ or that he and his subjects, instead of talking, crowed like cocks, or brayed like donkeys, we should not believe it, because it would be contrary to reason. Sensible and thoughtful people will, therefore, not accept anything as truth that does not accord with reason and I ask you tonight to follow me in my endeavour to submit the two important dogmas of my lecture to the test of reason, in the full belief that you are as anxious as myself to arrive at a reasonable and true conclusion regarding them.
The doctrines of the creation and fall are, as it were, the foundations upon which the huge superstructure of Christianity has been founded. Take away these fundamental doctrines, and the whole fabric totters to the ground; for without a fall there can be no possible need for a redemption, and the etceteras of the religion, such as the miraculous conception and ascension, baptism, and the eucharistic feast, vanish into thin air as vain imaginations and things of naught.
It cannot be too clearly and forcibly insisted upon that no fall necessitates no redemption, for the proposition is self-evident, and thus incapable of contradiction. If, therefore, we find the story of the creation and fall, as given to us in the first three chapters of Genesis, to be credible and reasonable, then our duty, upon another occasion, will be to examine the evidence for and against the subsequent theories of the religion, in order to discover whether they also are credible and reasonable. If, on the other hand, we find the story to be incredible and absurd, it will be our duty to reject the whole Christian scheme that has emanated from it. Our business at the present time is with these fundamental doctrines of creation and the fall, and our sole object is the elucidation of the truth, no matter whether it should be palatable or not to our minds. No sensible man can desire to retain that which is not true, for no system that is not founded on truth can be of any permanent service to the human race, but must on the contrary produce most pernicious results.
Having thus clearly explained my premisses, I shall now proceed to the examination of the first three chapters of Genesis, and shall divide my text into the two natural divisions suggested in the authorised version. The first chapter and first three verses of the second chapter contain what is known as the Elohistic narrative, so called on account of the deity being throughout designated Elohim—אלהים, the plural of Eloh (אלוה), or Elyah (אליה), a compound word made up of El (אל), a ram, and Yah (יה), an abbreviation of Yahouh (יהוה), the future tense of the verb Hahouh (הוה), to be. Eloh literally means ‘the ram will be,’ and is used to signify the ram-sun, the sun-god, or the sun in the zodiacal sign Aries, at the vernal equinox; the plural form, Elohim, being used to signify the ram-suns, or the six summer months of the year, in which the ram and the sun are together, from equinox to equinox. El signifies ram, or god, alone, or without the sun, in the winter period, and is always used to designate the evil principle, the wicked god, or the winter period, in contradistinction to Eloh, the ram-sun of the vernal equinox, and Elohim, the ram-suns of the summer months, the good principle, or the good gods. In this first narrative of the creation Elohim is rendered ‘God’ in the authorised version, though in other parts of the Bible it is rendered ‘gods,’ ‘men,’ or ‘angels.’ The remainder of the second and the third chapters contain the second, or Jehovistic narrative, so called on account of the deity being designated throughout, Yahouh, or Jehovah (so pronounced by Christians) Elohim (יהוה אלהים), rendered in the authorised version ‘the Lord God.’ That these two accounts were not written by one person will become clear enough as we proceed in our examination, in which the rendering of the authorised version will be strictly adhered to.
According to the first narrative, god (Elohim) created the heavens and the earth and all they contain in six ordinary days, and rested from his work on the seventh day. It has been asserted by some zealous but not over scrupulous Christians that days of twenty four hours’ duration were not meant by the writer, but that the word יום (day) signifies an enormous lapse of time; but it is quite clear to anyone with average intelligence that an ordinary day was meant, or else there would have been no use in saying that the evening and the morning were the first day. Moreover, we are distinctly told in Exodus XX. 10, 11, that we are to keep the seventh day as a holiday, “for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.” We therefore have here the creation of the world, with day and night, but no sun, in one day, which we must admit at once is an absurdity, for it is beyond all doubt scientifically proved that this world could never have existed for one moment without the sun round which it revolves, and our common sense tells us plainly that without a sun there could never have been days and nights, or evenings and mornings.