The World's Sixteen Crucified Saviors
Kersey
Graves
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Chapter 44: The Moral Lessons of Religious History
- THE most important lesson deducible from all the religious
systems, commemorated in history, and noticed in this work, is,
that all religious conceptions, whether in the shape of doctrine,
precept, prophecy, prayer, religious devotion, or a belief in
miracles, are a spontaneous outgrowth of the moral and religious
elements of the human mind. And to assign them a higher origin is
to ignore the developments of modern science, and insult the
highest intelligence of the age.
- From the elevated scientific plane occupied by the most
enlightened portion of the present age, there is no difficulty in
finding a satisfactory solution for every event, every occurrence,
and every performance recorded in any of the numerous bibles which
have long been afloat in the world, and which have always
constituted the sole basis for the claim to a divine origin of all
the religious systems of the past; so that such a claim can be no
longer vindicated by historically intelligent people.
- We have shown in this work that all the miraculous
incidents related in the history of Jesus Christ as a proof of his
divinity can find a more rational explanation than that which
assigns them to divine agency. Some of them are now known to be
within the natural capacity of the human mind to achieve, others
are explained by recently discovered natural laws. Another class
are now well understood mental or nervous phenomena. Other stories
now regarded by the Christian world as referring to miraculous
achievements, were probably designed by the writer as mere fable or
metaphor. All the events in Christ's history, we have shown, are
susceptible of a hundred fold more rational explanation than that
which regards them as the feats of a God in violation of his own
laws.
- We have also shown that the same marvelous incidents now
found incorporated in the Gospel history of Jesus Christ were
related long previously as a part of the sacred history of other
Gods; such as being miraculously conceived and born of a virgin;
born on the 25th of December; visited in infancy by angels and
shepherds; threatened by the ruler of the country; being of royal
lineage; receiving the same divine titles; performing the same
miracles, &c.
In a word, we have shown that various heathen Gods and Demigods had, long before Christ's advent, filled the same chapter in history now reported of him in the Christian New Testament. All these stories of the heathen Gods prove as conclusively as any scientific problem can be demonstrated by figures, that the same stories related of Jesus Christ have no other foundation than that of heathen tradition. And will the Christian world, then, hereafter stultify their common sense by ignoring these facts of history so fatal to their claims? Past history points to an affirmative answer to this question, as we will illustrate.
In the early history of this country, several reports were published of showers of blood being seen to fall in some of the sea-coast states, which were regarded as a divine judgment. But the use of the telescope revealed the fact that it was the ordure of butterflies, as those insects were seen at the time in vast swarms. But the devout Christian, whose faith in his religion has always been proof against the demonstrations of science, would not give it up. He would not accept the butterfly explanation, but continued to teach his children that it came from God out of heaven as a manifestation of displeasure toward the sins of the people. And it now remains to be seen whether Christian professors at the present day will manifest a similar folly by standing out against the demonstrated truths and facts of this work.
- We here cite it as the last and most sorrowful lesson of
history, that no facts, no proofs, no demonstrations of science can
eradicate religious errors from the human mind, if instilled in
early life, and never disturbed till the possessor arrives at
mature age or middle life.
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