(2) We may assume that no one was present at the time of creation, because man and woman were made the last thing on the sixth day.
(3) Who was the first man that received this information? After how many generations or centuries was this news published, and to whom?
(4) We are not informed, even by the holy book, of the man’s name who was the fortunate recipient of this valuable information.
(5) Is it not highly probable that the man who first told this story might also have invented it? We have no proof to the contrary, except the mere say-so of somebody.
The statement, as written, is well enough as a fable; that’s all. As to fact, there is not a particle of truth to sustain it. But if men are determined to believe it, and are not open to conviction, if they are willfully blind to the truth, they must remain the slaves to a powerful ecclesiastical organization.
The 14th verse, however, betrays its origin. When the sun and moon were made for seasons, days, and years, as also for signs, that shows a high degree of civilization. These divisions did not take place before man was created? Were really these divisions made before a living creature inhabited this earth? For whom? For whose use? Writing had not been invented. Athates, or Hermes, the Egyptian, is supposed to be the founder of hieroglyphics, 2,136 B.C. And we do not hear of writing until 1,494 B.C. It is claimed that writing was taught to the Latins by Europa, daughter of Agenar, king of Phœnicia. The doctrine of the solar system as it is now accepted was first taught by Pythagoras of Samos about 529 B.C. Copernicus proved it in the sixteenth century, and Newton demonstrated the truth fully in the year 1695. History claims for the Egyptians that they were the first who fixed the length of the year. The Chaldeans and Persians had adopted the lunar year before Abraham ever dreamed of being exiled by his countrymen, the Chaldeans. Can any man be so silly as to believe that an almanac was made before man was created? There is not an intelligent priest living who is ass big enough to believe any such nonsense.
[1] Aristotle, 343 B.C., logician and philosopher, founder of the Peripatetics. [↑]