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WISDOM REVEALED
The value of this 360K DOS disk is $7.00. This disk, its
printout, or copies of either are to be copied and given away, but
NOT sold.
Bank of Wisdom, Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
**** ****
This essay was written to be delivered as a lecture and is
worded accordingly. It was part of a two day debate with a
Fundamentalist minister. For each evening there are two parts, one
of thirty minuets and a conclusion of ten minuets.
THIS ESSAY TAKES THE NEGATIVE OF
IS THE BIBLE THE WORD OF GOD?
DAY 2 -- PART 1
1983
by Emmett F. Fields
In the Bible, the book of Numbers, chapter 31, verse 15 reads:
"And Moses said unto them, "have you saved all the women alive?"
And verses 17 and 18 reads: "Now therefore kill every male
among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by
lying with him. (18) But all the women children, that have not
known man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves."
I know the Bible is not the word of God because it tells us
God is a murderer; that God killed, or caused to be killed,
millions of innocent people. That God ordered, or approved of, the
murder of civilians, of little children, of helpless old people,
defenseless women, prisoners of war, and even livestock. It tells
us that God approved the instructions to soldiers to keep the
virgins for yourselves. I detest and deny such a book, and I reject
and call blasphemous any book that says such is the nature of God.
The Bible slanders God, and therefore the Bible cannot be the word
of God.
If there is a God, the Bible is a blasphemy. If there is no
God, the Bible is a myth. Either way, the Bible is not the word of
God.
In Exodus 29:45-46, God is said to have said (45): "And I will
dwell among the children of Israel, and will be their God. (46) and
they shall know that I am the Lord their God, that brought them
forth out of the land of Egypt, that I may dwell among them: I am
the Lord their God."
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
1
Is the Bible the Word of God?
part 2
The Bible says most clearly that the God of the Old Testament
(Jehovah) is "THE LORD GOD OF THE HEBREWS," the God of "the
children of Israel," the God of Abraham, of Isaac, of Jacob. The
Old Testament is the story of a private tribal god, whose first and
only concern is for his "chosen people." It is a god created by the
priests of that tribe, to justify the atrocities that tribe
committed. It is the story of a simple tribal god, and like all the
other tribal gods in the world at that time, the god always
reflected the people who created him. If the tribe was a warlike
tribe, their god was a warlike god.
The Bible tells us the Hebrew tribes were an aggressive,
hostile people, and so their God reflected their heartless
ferocity. That God, and the books of the Old Testament, literally
drip with innocent blood, with conquered people murdered, with
raped virgins -- mere children, with inhuman cruelties and
unspeakable crimes -- All approved by the Old Testament God! We do
not need such a God in our modern world.
WE ARE INDEED LUCKY THAT THE BIBLE IS NOT THE WORD OF GOD!
The Bible tells us that God is small, that the Bible God is
not the God of the endless Cosmos. He is not even the God of the
entire Earth -- small as that is; but is the God of some remote and
primitive tribe, of some obscure area of our little Earth, during
a limited period of time, long after the evolution of man. Such a
concept of God is an insult, and is absolutely false! I might
believe in a God that is incomprehensibly great, but I could never
believe in a God that is disgustingly small.
It is certain that the true God of the endless Universe could
not be small. The Bible describes a God too insignificant for
intelligent belief.
When I was a Christian the very thought that there could be a
lie in the Bible was repulsive to me, just as it would be to any
believing Christian. I had been taught that the Bible was the word
of God. I had been taught to believe -- to believe blindly and to
worship without question.
Being the word of God, I knew there could not be one single
lie in the Bible, I knew deep within me that God did not lie. I
still believe that! If there is a God that God would not lie. It
never occurred to me that the Bible was not the word of God, that
it might be a forgery, the product of human deception.
There came a time when I determined to read the Bible again,
this time just as I would read the books of some strange and
foreign religion, to see it with the eyes of a thinking infidel.
Would the infidel see our Bible as reasonable, as moral, and as a
force for human good? It was then that I found the lie, and looking
further I found another lie, then other lies and still more. To me
it was a revelation; it was as if a bandage had been taken from my
eyes and I was seeing the truth for the first time. We all know
that a book containing lies cannot be the word of God. We all know
that, regardless of what concept we have of God.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
2
Is the Bible the Word of God?
part 2
The Bible is not the word of God because the Bible contains
lies.
The Bible says in Exodus 10, verse 27, "But the Lord hardened
Pharaoh's heart, and he would not let them go." Then in verse 29;
we read "And it came to pass, that at midnight the Lord smote all
the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the firstborn of the
Pharaoh that sat on his throne unto the firstborn of the captive
that was in the dungeon; and all the firstborn of cattle."
That is a lie!
The God of the endless Universe would not murder innocent
children. It is a lie that God "hardened Pharaoh's heart" so God
would have an excuse to murder little babies. That is a lie and a
blasphemy!
In the Bible (Deut. 28, verse 16) God is made to say: "But of
the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth give thee
for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth."
That is a lie!
The God of the endless cosmos never told savages to slaughter
defenseless, defeated people, "to save alive nothing that
breatheth." It is the lie of savages to justify their robbing and
murdering their neighbors.
The Bible is not the word of God.
In the Bible (Josh. 10, verse 12-13) "Then spoke Joshua to the
Lord in the day when the Lord delivered up the Amorites before the
children of Israel, and said in the sight of Israel, sun, stand
thou still upon Gideon; and thou, moon, in the valley of Ajalon.
(13) and the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people
had avenged themselves upon their enemies."
That is a lie!
The God of our endless universe never stopped the sun (That is
to say, stopped the turning of the Earth) so one bunch of savages
could slaughter another bunch of savages.
It is a lie!
In the Bible (1 Samuel 6, verse 19) "And He smote the men of
Bethsemesh, because they had looked into the ark of the Lord, even
he smote of the people fifty thousand and threescore and ten men:
and the people lamented, because the Lord had smitten many of the
people with great slaughter."
That is a lie!
The God of the endless universe would not slaughter the men of
one savage tribe because they peeped at the superstitious
paraphernalia of another savage tribe.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
3
Is the Bible the Word of God?
part 2
We could go on and on quoting these primitive lies from the
Bible, all of which prove but one thing: The Bible is not the word
of God.
All I ask is that you read the Bible. Read it with an open
mind, and you will be amazed that you ever, for one moment,
believed the Bible was the word of God.
Even some believers have seen the bad that is in the Old
Testament. I know they have sworn not to think about the Bible, not
to judge -- but only to believe. Yet they have moved, some of them,
a little, ever so little, away from the Old Testament. They won't
admit it but some Christian believers wish the Old Testament had
not been written. They are ashamed of it; they are ashamed of the
old God -- and the slaughter.
There they were, on their knees, eyes closed tight, hands
clasped, head bowed, brain off. But, with innocent blood rushing
by, the screams of women being murdered, of little children being
raped, something slipped. They thought, just a little, but they
thought. Evolution and natural morality had built an over-ride
switch into their brain and, in spite of themselves, in spite of
their religion, they thought.
Somehow they knew there was something wrong about the Old
Testament! They didn't know just what, but there seemed to be
something that was not just right. And so they moved. In spite of
themselves, they moved -- they created a new God: Jesus!
A-Men, there is yet hope for mankind!
We now come to the New Testament, and although the New
Testament has Jesus say, in Matthew 5, verse 17-18; "Think not that
I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to
destroy, but to fulfill. (18) For verily I say unto you, till
heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass
from the law, till all be fulfilled." In spite of such claims, the
New Testament is the religious philosopher's attempt to create a
new God idea, and to escape the evil bloody God Tyrant of the Old
Testament.
What kind of God is this new God? We know the oldest gospel in
the New Testament was written after 78 A.D., and the other gospels
are even more recent. So we know that the quotes of the new God,
Jesus, were only legends for at least one generation, and in most
cases for several generations.
Let us see 'what it is said' this new God said according to
the New Testament.
Jesus is said to have said: (Luke 14:26) "If any man come to
me and hate not his father, his mother, and wife, and children, and
brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my
disciple."
That cannot be the words of God!
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
4
Is the Bible the Word of God?
part 2
Jesus is said to have said: (Matthew 10:34-37) "Think not that
I am come to send peace to earth: I come not to send peace, but a
sword. (35) For I am come to set a man at variance against his
father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-
law against her mother-in-law. (36) And a man's foes shall be they
of his own household. (37) He that loveth father or mother more
than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter
more than me is not worthy of me."
That cannot be the words of God!
How can we ever find peace with gods like that running around
in people's minds? Jesus is said to have said: (Matthew 19:29 and
Mark 10:29) "And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren,
or sisters; or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands,
for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit
everlasting life."
These are not the words of God!
Jesus is said to have said: (Mark 9:43-48) "And if thy hand
offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life
maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that
never shall be quenched: (44) Where their worm dieth not, and the
fire is not quenched. (45) And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off;
it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet
be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: (46)
Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. (47) And
if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to
enter into the Kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to
be cast into hell fire: (48) Where their worm dieth not, and the
fire is not quenched."
Those are not the words of God: Those are words of insanity!
Jesus is said to have said: (Luke 12:5) "But I will forewarn
you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath
power to cast into hell; I say unto you, fear him." Christianity is
founded upon fear -- and is perpetuated by fear. That would not be
the way of the true God, the great God of this endless universe.
In the New Testament, as in the Old Testament, we could go on
and on quoting cruel, foolish, un-Godlike sayings from the new God.
Sayings that we know are the words of men -- of cruel, mean,
heartless, small minded men. Words of hate and vengeance! words to
frighten and oppress! They are words to give power to the priest,
the church and the religion. They are words to destroy reason and
to make the human mind a slave.
We now know that the Jesus myth of the New Testament was taken
from the story of the founder of the Essene cult. The founder of
the Essenes was named Jesus, he was crucified in 88 B.C.E. and
everything good that Jesus of Nazareth is said to have said was
written almost a hundred years before Jesus of Nazareth is said to
have lived.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
5
Is the Bible the Word of God?
part 2
From the Essenian cult of the old Jewish religion, has evolved
a new God, a new myth, a new religion and a New Testament.
But the good work of the religious philosophers who created
the New Testament God has been corrupted by organized religion. The
Jesus myth of the New Testament no longer resembles the kind and
just leader of the Essenes who lived, suffered and died just a
little over two thousand years ago.
In the New Testament we find a God that evolved during the
first few hundred years of the Christian era. Christianity
developed through religious hate. The weak were called heretics and
their teachings were brutally suppressed, and so the Christianity
that survived is the orthodoxy of the strong and the ruthless.
Orthodoxy destroyed the meek and filled Christianity with hate,
fire and fury.
The Christian layman and the unscholarly T.V. preachers, who
have so much influence and emotional appeal today, are unaware of
the deterioration that occurred in Christianity during its
formation. The good in the original story was pushed aside and the
bad took hold. The idea of eternal torment, as well as the idea of
easy forgiveness of sins became established and soon fossilized
into dogma and doctrine.
In the New Testament there evolved a God much worse than the
Old Testament God. As much worse in fact, as endless torture is
worse than endless sleep, as much worse as eternal burning is worse
than simple annihilation.
Unlike the God of the Old Testament, the God of the New
Testament was not happy when his victims lay dead and broken before
him. The Son of God has not only carried on the family tradition,
but has exceeded the wildest expectations of the father.
If we are heartless enough to believe the Bible, we must
believe the God of the New Testament pursues the dead into death.
This God, we are told, has found a way to torture even those who
have paid "the final penalty."
The New Testament God has set up his torture chamber where
there can be no escape, where death cannot be a welcome release.
Everlasting torture, eternal burning; this terrible belief, this
evil everlasting injustice, has become the heart and foundation of
the Christian religion. People believe, NOT through reason, NOT
through any desire to goodness or piety, NOT through any hope of
making the world better, or mankind better, or themselves better,
but through FEAR -- simple, devastating, mind-numbing FEAR. They
believe because they are afraid to think, afraid to question. They
keep their minds as little children -- afraid to be adult men and
women. They believe simply because they are afraid not to believe!
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
6
Is the Bible the Word of God?
part 2
Those who believe in hell can never know truth, for they are
blinded by fear. The idea of hell was invented to establish a
religious dictatorship and those who believe live under a tyranny
far greater than any human tyrant could ever establish. They
believe they are always under the eye of the tyrant! They believe
their every word is recorded, their every action noted, even their
innermost thoughts are known and judged by their cruel master of
endless, unmerciful punishment. To such believers every act and
thought is the result of fear. They are to be pitied.
That terrible dogma of hell has destroyed the very foundations
of morality. The basic force of morality is "the power of
sympathy"; feeling the hurt of others -- and caring. The dogma of
hell has destroyed that foundation. The mother, it is believed,
could sit joyfully in heaven for all eternity and watch her wayward
son or daughter burning and suffering in hell.
I detest a belief that can make people so heartless. I could
never be a Christian! I could never be happy in a heaven knowing
there are people suffering in a hell. I have great sympathy for
people, their pain, their suffering, their feelings, their losses,
and their hopes.
I deny that hell exists! I deny that a vengeful God exists!
And I deny that any book that tells the lie that such a gross,
everlasting injustice as hell exists could be the word of God!
About the turn of this century there were over a hundred
studies made, and published, which questioned the historicalness of
Jesus. Was Jesus a real historic person or was he a myth? One of
the most famous books on the subject was Albert Schweitzer's "The
Quest of the Historical Jesus." The book was first published in
1906. Schweitzer concluded that, "The Jesus of Nazareth who came
forward as the Messiah, who preached the ethic of the Kingdom of
God, who founded the Kingdom of Heaven upon earth, and died to give
His work its final consecration, never had any existence." (p.
398).
History and scholarship tell us that Jesus was not a god but
a myth; a Jesus of Nazareth did not live at the time that Jesus is
said to have lived, and no one at that time did the things that
Jesus is said to have done. We now know where the myth of Jesus
came from and how it originated.
The discovery of the truth about the New Testament is one of
the greatest miracles of the modern world. It is as if there were
a God and that God had said: "Enough of this myth that has caused
so much hate and trouble, so much war and persecution, so much
torture and suffering in the world! I will put a stop to it before
it destroys the entire earth."
What were the "miracles" that revealed the truth about the
origin of the myth of Jesus, of Christianity and of the New
Testament?
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
7
Is the Bible the Word of God?
part 2
In December, 1945, there was discovered in upper Egypt a group
of 52 Gnostic scrolls that dated from about 148 A.D. These first
scrolls tell about the conflicting doctrines and the uncertainty in
early Christianity.
In 1947 there was another unbelievable discovery. In Qumran,
on the shore of the Dead Sea about 15 miles from Jerusalem, another
great number of ancient scrolls were discovered. These scrolls are
known as "the Dead Sea Scrolls." The impression given the public
was that there were only a few scrolls found, just those found in
the first cave. But there have been discovered hundreds of scrolls,
these scrolls are about a thousand years older than any previously
known copy of the Bible, and they contain all of the books of the
Old Testament except Esther. There are also other scrolls that date
almost a hundred years before Jesus of Nazareth is said to have
lived. They contain almost every myth in the New Testament; they
contain "The sermon on the Mount", and other bits of goodness and
wisdom attributed to Jesus. They do not contain the evil sayings of
Jesus. Those have been added later.
These old scrolls simply destroy the credibility of the
historical foundations of Christianity by proving the New Testament
evolved from the uninspired, historical, writings of man.
These scrolls have not been honestly presented to the public.
It is strange that what God seeks so forcefully to reveal, the men
of God are so determined to conceal!
Religion is big business, and those who hold positions of
profit and prestige in that business will not allow mere truth to
become a threat to religion.
What kind of a God do you think there would be if there were
a God? A God would be just, kind, good, helpful, intelligent and
wise. In short, God would be all the things the Bible God is not.
A true God would be better than the best of us, not worse than
the worst of us.
If there were a God there would not be war, there would not be
evil, there would not be starvation, overpopulation, pollution,
misery, religion, plague and disease; there would not be dogmas and
doctrines and creeds. There would be no need to believe foolishness
and there would be no fear of thinking. Why even science,
philosophy and reason would be respectable -- if there were a God.
Honestly now! Who could worship a God like the God of the
Bible? Not a thinking person! Certainly not a kind and gentle
person, not a just person nor a loving person. It would have to be
a frightened person. A person so afraid that he doesn't think, he
just falls down and grovels before a tyrant. Only a coward could
blindly worship the murderous, bloody, vengeful tyrant that the
Bible describes as "God."
I will NOT worship such a God!
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
8
Is the Bible the Word of God?
part 2
I cannot and will not believe in such a God. It is a lie. It
is a blasphemy and a slander against the very idea of God.
The Bible is not the word of God!
With a God like the God in the Bible we don't need a Devil.
When we look at the Bible we must seriously question if we have not
been misled into worshiping the evil elements of nature instead of
the good. We must seriously question if belief is not the wrong
end, and doubt the right end, of religion. After all, it has always
been the kindest, the gentlest, the most moral and the most
respectable people who have eaten deeply of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil -- the very tree the Bible demands that
we avoid.
Or, has the world advanced so far that what seemed good to
those who wrote the Bible is seen as evil now? Let's think about
that! If the Bible is not the word of God, and of course it is not,
then let us consider who did write the Bible and why.
The Bible was written by primitive priests, but those
primitive priests were the learned men of that day. They were the
thinkers and the law-givers. They derived their authority by
claiming to speak for God. Primitive people are easily fooled, and
often the old priests fooled themselves -- just as honest ministers
fool themselves today.
The priests who wrote the Bible stood upon their tippy-toes
and reaching just as high as they could reach, they drove their
spike. That spike is the Bible. It represents their best knowledge,
their best morals, their most advanced understanding and world
view. It was as high as they could think! And they thought it was
as high as anyone would ever be able to think. So they drove the
spike of their knowledge just as high as they could reach and they
called it "The word of God."
That spike, that was as high as those old priests could reach,
is less than knee high to modern man. Humanity has advanced during
the thousands of years since the Bible was written and our modern
knowledge and higher moral understanding, tells us that the spike,
the Bible, is not "the word of God."
Today we desperately need a new God -- a God that is NOT an
insult to our intelligence -- a God that is as great as the endless
cosmos. We need a just God that does not have chosen galaxies and
a preferred life form -- a life form that is told to slaughter
other life forms. We desperately need a God that commands that we
think, instead of believe and worship. We need a God to civilize
us, not one that makes us savages.
But we must not be as foolish as the old Bible priests. We
must not drive another spike, create another Bible, and say
"believe." How soon would future generations find our highest
morality brutish, our best intellect childish, and our world view
primitive? How soon would our children's children again be divided,
with future orthodox preachers insisting that our book is "the word
of God," and some future heretic saying; "it is the ravings of
ignorance."
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
9
Is the Bible the Word of God?
part 2
We must not hold back future generations at our level. Let us
stand upon our tippy-toes and make our mark, but beside that mark
write "Question and Grow." Our best knowledge today is NOT the word
of God, and the best wisdom of people who lived and thought
thousands of years ago is not "the word of God."
There is one fact which wise men and heretics have always
known, which philosophers and scholars have known for generations,
a fact that even theologians know today, a fact that frees the mind
and drives away the awful fear. The time has come for the victims
to know that fact also:
The Bible is not the word of God!
**** ****
CONCLUSION #2
DAY 2 -- PART 2
For two thousand years Christianity and the Bible has failed
to bring peace and harmony to our world. The Bible has, in fact,
been responsible for some of the most diabolical massacres and
persecutions known to man. Today those historic facts are kept out
of our history books.
Humanity now stands between the past and the future as it has
never done before. We all know there is a great possibility that
humanity will not have a future; that we will destroy ourselves.
If we are to survive this atomic age we must find a new way of
thinking, we can no longer believe blindly, and hate those who
believe differently. Instead we must find ways to unite mankind,
ways to remove unnecessary boundaries and barriers. We must find
ways to remove the causes of hate.
Much of our hate and trouble in the world is founded upon the
delusion that the Bible is "the word of God." There has never been
a greater source of hate than the assumption that we are doing
God's work, that we have the "word of God" to guide us and that our
task is to destroy some "center of evil" in the world. Throughout
history that delusion has been responsible for the most terrible
wars and atrocities. That delusion may destroy our world!
There is not a conflict in the world today that does not have
at its roots a different of religious opinion. The Jews, Christians
and Moslems are murdering each other in Lebanon, Catholics and
Protestants murder each other in Ireland. And how much of our
hatred for Russia, and Communism, springs from the fact that they
have chosen to establish Atheism.
When we read that Moslem terrorists will drive a truck load of
explosives into a building and die to kill others in their "holy
war," we recognize that as a form of insanity.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
10
Is the Bible the Word of God?
part 2
When we hear a Christian fundamentalist preaching "no
coexistence with Godless Communism" we should know that is equally
insane in our atomic age.
When we read that a powerful Christian leader has reaffirmed
the medieval dogma that birth control and contraceptives are
immoral and against Bible teachings; we should realize that too is
insanity in our overpopulated world.
Such teachings are of the past, a past full of hate, war and
persecution; a past full of blind faith and religious delusions.
Today we are playing for keeps.
Today we must find a new way of thinking.
We can no longer stick our heads into the sands of
superstition and hope "God" will protect us; that hope has failed
too often. Those who study the facts of history know that. Those
who knew the Bible was not "the word of God" brought about the
Renaissance and saved humanity from the Dark Ages;
Those who knew the Bible was not "the word of God" had the
wisdom to establish America as a free nation;
Those who knew the Bible is not "the word of God" have given
us every great advance in science and reason;
And those who know the Bible is not "the word of God" are the
only ones who can lead mankind to peace and human survival.
The Bible and all the other so-called "holy books" are of the
past. If humanity cannot outgrow these barbaric relics that divide
us and cause so much hate, we cannot hope to have a future. We
cannot hope to survive another generation!
If mankind survives, future generations will know this age as
"the age of propaganda," the age of hate for opinion's sake. Future
generations will marvel that our age, with its modern technology
and great wealth of solid scientific learning, could remain rooted
in the primitive fables of past ages; they will marvel that we
could not see the evil and danger of worshipping an historic
failure.
If mankind survives this religious age, future generations
will look upon our instruments of war and doubt our sanity, just as
we look upon the torture instruments of a past religious age and
doubt their sanity.
Already the delusion that the Bible is "the word of God" has
dangerously corrupted America's rightful purpose in the world.
The overabundance of religious propaganda in America today
would lead us to believe that the primary purpose of this nation is
the preservation and expansion of the Christian religion. But that
is not true.
Bank of Wisdom
Box 926, Louisville, KY 40201
11
Is the Bible the Word of God?
part 2
Our nation is not, and must not become, the battleship of the
Christian religion. Our struggle in the world is in defense of
LIBERTY. To preserve our own, and, if possible, to help others gain
and keep theirs.
This nation is not fighting "Godless Atheism" nor "Atheistic
Communism," nor any other group or nation that has had Christian
hate terms applied to them.
We, as a nation, are opposed to Communism because Communism,
like Christianity, is an ideological force that is destructive to
human rights and freedom. It is, in fact, none of our business
whether another nation, or another individual, believes in a God or
not. Our only concern is that every individual must have the
liberty to decide just what he, or she, can and will believe. And
that they have the freedom to express, publish and pursue those
beliefs in perfect safety.
In short, our only concern in the world is exactly those
ideals that this great nation of ours was originally founded upon.
Such a statement is in no way a concession to Communism. It is
a statement of our determination to be, and to remain, a free
people. Those who have tasted real freedom can never return to the
mental slavery of an oppressive belief. It is entirely correct to
say:
"I would rather be dead than Christian or red."
When George Washington was president in 1796 he wrote "a
treaty of peace and friendship" with Tripoli. That treaty reads "As
the government of the United States is not in any sense founded on
the Christian religion; it has, in itself, no character of enmity
against the laws, religion, or tranquillity of the Musselmen
(Muslims) ... no pretext arising from religious opinions shall ever
produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two
countries."
That treaty, signed into law by President John Adams, proves
the Founding Fathers recognized religion to be the source of hate
and war. It also proves the United States was not, is not, and must
not become, a Christian nation.
Why can we not write a treaty today that has the great wisdom
that was put into the treaty with Tripoli? Why can we not say to
Russia: "As the Government of the United States is not in any sense
founded on the Christian religion; it has, in itself, no character
of enmity against the Laws, Religion, or Tranquillity of the
Communists (Atheists) ... no pretext arising from religious
opinions shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing
between the two countries."
Such a treaty today would remove the main source of hate and
we could get on with the business of understanding each other and
establishing a hope for peace and human survival.
The greatest obstacle to our peace and survival is the
foolish, irrational, delusion that the Bible is "the word of God."
If we are to save our children and our world we must accept
the fact that the Bible is not the word of God.
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