Religion in the Heavens; Or, Mythology Unveiled in a Series of Lectures

by Logan Mitchell

From the works of Plutarch, which are now lost, Eusebius quoted a fragment in which that wise Grecian says: "It clearly results from the verses of Orpheus, and the sacred books of the Egyptians and Phrygians, that the ancient theology, not only of the Greeks, but of all nations, was nothing more than a system of physics—a picture of the operations of Nature, wrapped up in mysteries, allegories, enigmatical symbols, in a manner that the ignorant multitude attended rather to their apparent than to their hidden meaning: and even what they understood of the latter, led them to suppose there was still something more than they perceived." When the lost works of Plutarch contained such disclosures, their destruction by Christian priests is anything but wonderful.

When all these circumstances are duly weighed in the mind that dares to look truth in the face, the conviction flashes upon it instantly, that all our gospels, and everything else that is said about Jesus Christ in the New Testament, has no reference whatever to any event that ever did in reality take place upon this globe; or to any personages that ever in truth existed: and that the whole is an astronomical allegory, or parable, having invariably a primary and sacred allusion to the sun, and his passage through the signs of the zodiac: or a verbal representation of the phaenomena of the solar year and seasons. A belief in the literal or ostensible meaning of these parables, shows the sottish credulity into which man sinks after his reason has been mortgaged in youth to the priest, who keeps him in the ignorance that is suitable for mental slavery.

This view of these matters unveils and draws forth good sense and science out of both Testaments; and all our wonder at once ceases in regard to the total absence of even the slightest corroborating historical trace of the miraculous narratives of these books. This revelation of these enigmas also reconciles with truth that apparently false prediction of Jesus, wherein, he tells his auditors that some of them would live to see the coming of the Christ he alluded to; and to do this it was only requisite that they should live until the following year, when the true Christ, the sun would again be "triumphant in the clouds," as he approached the summer solstice. Moreover, we may here notice another similar New Testament prediction, which from the stubborn preciseness of the terms in which it is expressed, can neither be twisted by the priest nor rationally solved without the allegorical interpretation;—it declares—"Ye shall not taste of death" till all these things are accomplished. If Christian priests are not willing that Paul should pass for a notorious cheat and impostor, let them explicate, in any other way than the above, his "Heavenly" enigmas and literally false predictions:—we challenge them to this; and if they cannot or will not do it satisfactorily, to whom will the epithets of cheats and impostors properly belong? The above solution of these astro-allegories forces so irresistible a conviction upon the ingenuous and unprejudiced mind as leaves no room to suppose a possibility of its being otherwise:—it is the physical truths of nature and scientific demonstration, against that which is false in physics, false in analogy, and, consequently, contrary to all experience and reason.

The Jewish sects of Essenes and Therapeutæ,* out of which the Galileans and Christians more immediately sprang, had thus their superstition composed of a mixture of the Egyptian and Persian mysteries, consequently sun worship was common to many of the subsequent branches of Christianity, such as the Mani-chees and others. Tertullian, in the apologetics, makes a broad confession of this, as follows:—"Many think, with more probability, that our god is the Sun;** and they trace our religion to that of the Persians." If this is not an admission, it is the next thing to it, that about the beginning of the third century, the secret object of Christian worship was the Sun; and it would have been well if they had continued in that rational adoration, instead of adopting those midnight rites which were held in horror and detestation by their Gentile neighbors, as being cruel, wicked, and blasphemous;*** and which caused the votaries of the new religion to be branded as atheists. Arnobius who turned Christian, (most probably in view of a bishopric), complains of the Gentiles thus:—"We (the Christians) are called by you ill-omened men, and atheists; you call us impious and irreligious atheists. You are in the habit of exciting the hatred of the mob against us, by calling us atheists."****

* We are told by Philo, that these pious enthusiasts
abandoned father, mother, wife, children, and property, and
devoted themselves to a contemplative life; which are
exactly the injunctions attributed to Christ.
** In another treatise Tertullian alludes to the strong
similarity between the religion of Christ, and that of
Mithra, or the Sun. "The priests of the Persian god had
sacraments. Their baptism procured the remission of sins to
the believers and the faithful."
"Saint Justin also alludes to the mystical consecrations of
these two religions; and to the similarity of the birth of
Christ, and his Persian rival, the Sun."
*** The Agapæ, or love feasts of the early Christians, were
close imitations of the bacchanal orgies; at the latter, it
was a vital principle, that no action whatsoever constituted
a crime, if committed by any of the initiated during their
meetings. It appears that the spirit of this horrible
license was fully entered into by the Christians.—Vide
Gibbon's "Decline and Fall," vol. ii, p. 894.
**** Adv. Gentes.

Some of the learned, however, have been of opinion that the present version of Christianism is more immediately founded on the writings of Philo Judæus, who speaks much of the "Logos," which in Greek signifies the principle of reason; having the same figurative moral sense as the epithet Christos. The epistle to the Hebrews, and St. John's Gospel, are adduced as complete imitations of Philo's manner and style. The epithet "Logos" is often used by him, but in John's Gospel it is falsely translated, being rendered "the word."* Philo also speaks at large of the Therapeutæ and Essenes, from whom the Christians borrowed so freely in making their collection; and though in his time they existed not as a sect, they might be mainly indebted to his writings for the groundwork of their fabric. This opinion is greatly strengthened, inasmuch as the heads of our church have always kept Philo, as much as possible, in the back ground. He was a much more learned man than Josephus—a better writer; and had arrived at the years of maturity before the period assigned for the birth of Christ.

* The first verse in John's Gospel is literally copied from
Plato. As a play upon words, it is almost worthy of St.
Paul.

The restless and prying zeal of Paul having gained him this knowledge in the Pagan mysteries, which he boasts of, he perceived that the spirit of the mythos in all the polytheisms of the east was essentially the same, that is, the emblematical personification of physical and moral principles; and that the removal of this veil of allegory developed all the mysteries, and was indeed the only rational meaning of the word revelation. He knew, like the Pagan priests, that in order to deceive the multitude, and make their industry maintain idleness and imposture, miracle and mystery were indispensable; and while he dealt largely in the latter article, he showed a peculiar aptitude for rendering mystery doubly mysterious, whereby he became the grand exemplar of all theological quacks, and founder of that school of quibble which has been so eminently useful to his successors in the Christian church: for whenever they cannot escape from contradictions and absurdities of their own raising, they transfer the solving of their enigmas to the regions of Paul's "third heaven," where all are lost in his mysteries and awful "unspeakables;" fooleries which will always captivate the wonder-struck million; while common sense, with persecution before his eyes, dares to venture only a shrug of the shoulders.

Let us now attend to the moral and political effects produced by this new version of the old mythology, to which, with regard to its absurd and unnatural dogmas, St Paul is the principal contributor. After it had grown strong under the protection of the cruel, kin-killing Constantine, and his parasite Eusebius, it soon turned persecutor in its turn, and began to engender legions of other moral and physical evils, which gradually overwhelmed the Roman empire, in proportion as the human mind became debased and emasculated by abject slavery, under an intolerant superstition—the gorgeous demon of Catholic despotism, erected on the ruins of the less degrading and less expensive Paganism.* Each succeeding year and age was marked by the onward degeneracy and baseness of the Roman spirit. The new modelled mystery of a triune godhead, with its accompanying train of chimeras,** sunk all classes into mental imbecility, and such was the infatuation that nothing but the grossest supernatural follies excited their attention; and as these were made up of insignificant mummeries—theological cant and jargon altogether unintelligible, they caused the bitterest disputes and animosities in both the empires; and glorious high-minded Pagan Italy became the land of pious frauds, clerical knavery, and lies,*** in which absurdities the effeminate and contemptible emperors joined, with their trains of monks and eunuchs.

* In the mythology of the Pagans, their Theogony consisted
of full thirty thousand bearded and unbearded divinities. We
have reduced that establishment to three only; yet
nevertheless, (unaccountable as it may appear) it has been
so contrived by our modern hierophants, that the service of
this triune deity, with their hosts of privileged deputies,
holy days, etc., and taxing the people in one-seventh of
their time, and one-tenth of their substance, has entailed
on human industry, a tax of one hundred times the amount of
that which was contributed to regale the nasal senses of the
whole celestial army of antiquity!
** In imitation of the Pagans, the crafty Christian priests
soon perceived the advantages of polytheism, and that it
would tend greatly to their interest to associate some other
subaltern gods along with the deity of Moses; for, by thus
introducing a plurality of gods, they would not only more
effectually embarrass and perplex the minds of the credulous
people; but by multiplying the objects of worship, and
constituting themselves the acting attornies for these
deities, they would increase their stipends and other
exactions, in proportion to the various rites and ceremonies
they invented for each.
*** Where Cicero and Antoninus lived,
A cowled and hypocritical monk
Prays, curses, and deceives.—Shelley.