{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_30900/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_30900","id":"gutenberg_30900","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30900","summary":null,"tags":["Atheism","Category: Philosophy & Ethics","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Free thought","Rationalism"],"text":"Produced by Marilynda Fraser-Cunliffe, Odessa Paige Turner\nand the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at\nhttp://www.pgdp.net\n\n\n\n\n\nTranscribers Note:\n\nOriginal Text in bold is represented by \"=\", italic\ntext by \"_\". In paragraph XII, line 4 \"myraids\" has been replaced by\n\"myriads\".\n\n\n\n\n          \"THE TYRANNY\n             of GOD\"\n\n               By\n          JOSEPH LEWIS\n\n    The new and daring book on the\n      Philosophy of Atheism\n\n\n          CLARENCE DARROW\n\n  =eminent lawyer, noted philosopher, and humanitarian, says=:\n\n\"Your book, 'The Tyranny of God,' is well done. It is a very clear\nstatement of the question, bold and true beyond dispute. I am glad that\nyou wrote it. It is as plain as the multiplication table, which doesn't\nmean that everyone will believe it. I thank you for writing it. I wish I\nwere the author.\"\n\n[Illustration: JOSEPH LEWIS]\n\n\n\n\n_A special edition of \"The Tyranny of God,\" consists of two hundred and\nfifty copies, printed on Utopian paper, bound in limp leather, gilt top,\nstamped in gold. Each copy is autographed and numbered by the author._\n\n     Second edition, May, 1921\n    Third edition, April, 1922\n   Fourth edition, January, 1928\n    Fifth edition, April, 1930\n   Sixth edition, October, 1939\n  Seventh edition, November, 1943\n\n\n\n\n  THE TYRANNY OF GOD\n\n\n\n\n     THE TYRANNY\n       OF GOD\n\n         BY\n\n    JOSEPH LEWIS\n\n  THE FREETHOUGHT PRESS ASSOCIATION\n\n       NEW YORK\n\n\n\n\n    COPYRIGHTED, 1921, BY\n  FREETHOUGHT PRESS ASSOCIATION\n\n_All Rights Reserved_\n\nPRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA\n\n\n\n\n       DEDICATED\n         TO\n        FAY\n  MY DEAR WIFE AND COMRADE,\n  WHOSE LOYAL AND\n  DEVOTED COMPANIONSHIP\n  HAS MADE LIFE LIVABLE.\n\n\n\n\nFOREWORD\n\n\nGo forth, little book, to destroy fear, prejudice and superstition, and\nhelp to install Reason in the minds of the human race to be its guide in\nthe affairs of life and its living.\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE TO SECOND EDITION\n\n\nThe most eloquent testimony given this little book is the fact that a\nsecond edition is made necessary only a few months after the publication\nof the first edition.\n\nFavorable comments and letters of recommendation from men and women\neminent in literary and scientific realms, and commendatory reviews in\nperiodicals of high standard are, I think, sufficient cause for the\nbelief that \"The Tyranny of God\" forms a necessary cog in the machinery\nof intellectual thought and progress.\n\nEven those who bitterly oppose the book admit that it possesses the\npower to make its readers think.\n\nOf the many opposing reviews and adverse criticism of \"The Tyranny of\nGod,\" not a single one offers an argument in answer to it. For the most\npart, their characterization has been that it is \"pessimistic.\" As if by\ncalling it \"pessimistic,\" they refute its claims!\n\nIf to tell a man the true nature of a disease from which he is\nsuffering, with the hope that he will seek a cure for his malady, is\npessimism, then I am a pessimist. Is the use of a danger signal at a\nhazardous crossing, for the purpose of preventing disaster, pessimism?\n\nIf to literally \"hold the mirror up to Nature,\" disclosing Nature's\nutter disregard for the life and feelings of man, as a warning against\nthe extravagant and useless propagating of life, is pessimism, then\nsurely I am a pessimist.\n\nIf a fervent desire to help Man, instead of wasting time in prayer to\n\"God,\" is pessimism, I am a pessimist.\n\nIf to think, to investigate, to express one's thoughts courageously in\nthe face of centuries old dogma is pessimism, then I must confess I am a\npessimist.\n\nIf to expose sham, hypocrisy and fraud; if to open the mind and free it\nfrom fear; if to stimulate the intellect, and work for the Here instead\nof the \"Hereafter\"--if all these are classified as pessimism, then truly\nmay I be called an arch pessimist.\n\n\"The Tyranny of God\" was written to express the truth as I see it--to\nportray life, not as we would like to have it, but as it actually is.\n\nMillions are still like frightened children, afraid of their own\nshadows. Fear of the truth is the greatest deterrent to its acceptance.\n\n                                                  JOSEPH LEWIS\n\n_April 14, 1922_\n\n\n\n\nPREFACE TO THE FOURTH EDITION\n\n\nI am indeed gratified to send forth the fourth edition of \"The Tyranny\nof God.\"\n\nI wish, however, to say to the reader that my book deals with life\nphilosophically and not individually. It was from the viewpoint of life\nin general and the universe as a whole that the sentiments herein were\nexpressed.\n\nTo love God is not the duty of man and one of the most important tasks\nto be accomplished for the human race is to destroy the Theistic\nconception of Life and the Universe.\n\nThe sentiments I expressed at a memorial meeting in honor of Luther\nBurbank last May best illustrate my convictions. I said:\n\n\"The religious person loves God so vehemently that he has no love left\nfor Man.\"\n\nMay \"The Tyranny of God\" do much to accomplish the purpose of its\nauthor.\n\n                                           JOSEPH LEWIS\n\n_January 10, 1928_\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION\n\n_Where did we come from?\nWhat are we doing here?\nWhither are we going?_\n\n\nThese questions have puzzled thinking people since consciousness first\ndawned in the brain. Many have sought to answer them, so why not\nI?--with the hope that the reading of this book will arouse in the minds\nof the readers thoughts that will enable them to answer these questions\nfor themselves.\n\nWere you suddenly to find yourself living on another planet, and you\nwere a thinking being, one anxious for knowledge, you would naturally\ninvestigate the conditions under which you found yourself, and seek, if\npossible, a solution for your existence there. Surely it is equally\nappropriate, situated as we are on this earth, endowed with brains and\npossessing senses and nerves, to inquire into and investigate the\nconditions under which we live, and the purpose, if any, of our\nexistence here.\n\nThe peculiarity of this existence warrants such analysis. It is certain,\nfrom our understanding as well as from all visible scientific facts,\nthat we did not make ourselves, and that we never had a former\nexistence; and we are led to conclude, in view of lack of credible\nevidence to the contrary, from those who have passed on, that the\nfuture, so far as our individual life is concerned, is an eternal void.\n\nIt is also certain, as science has indubitably shown, that we do not\nmake our offspring, that we are not creators, but are instruments merely\nin producing life.\n\nFurthermore, we did not make any portion of the globe which we inhabit\nand of which we are a part, and, so far as we are able to determine, all\nthe natural conditions and \"raw materials\" of our environment are\nsomething separate and distinct from anything which we ourselves\npossess sufficient power to accomplish.\n\nTherefore, since among the organs of my body, there is a _thinking_\nportion, I am within the bounds of sanity when I investigate and express\nsuch thoughts, opinions and findings as my reason and understanding\ndictate. No one can truthfully say that he possesses sufficient\nknowledge to account for or to explain the peculiar and mystifying\nrules, conditions and surroundings which we are _forced_ to accept,\nabide by and live under. And, therefore, the result of one person's\nfindings is worthy the same consideration as those of another.\n\nUpon such basis I submit an honest attempt to express logically my\nconvictions upon this vital and puzzling condition of our existence, and\nshall endeavor to aid those who read this book to see conditions in what\nI believe to be their true light, and to stimulate the readers to think\nfor themselves. It is only through the exchange of the results of\ninvestigations, and of honest opinions, that we have been able to add\nimprovement to improvement, and make easier the routine of our lives.\nThe conditions and elements that compose Nature, for the sake of\nclearness, I will ofttimes call \"God.\" I shall be more easily\nunderstood, and at times the term \"God\" will express more succinctly the\nthoughts or ideas I wish to express.\n\n\n\n\nTHE TYRANNY OF GOD\n\n\n\n\nI\n\n\nLest I be misunderstood, I will say at the outset that I do not believe\nin a God.\n\nThe belief in a God is still generally accepted, not because of the\nexistence of one, but for the reason that it is the easiest way to\naccount for our condition. But in the light of scientific discoveries\nand demonstrations, such a belief is unfounded and utterly untenable\nto-day. Yet the word \"God,\" and even the word \"Nature,\" must often be\nused to describe that condition which the brain of man has not yet been\nable to analyze fully and scientifically. One ridiculous conception of\nGod that is believed by a multitude of people, is that of a massive\nbeing, sitting in a marble chamber studded with gold and lighted with\nglistening crystals. Do those who believe in such a creature ever\nconsider him taking a bath--and in what? Or of eating his breakfast--and\nof what it consists?\n\nIf there were a God, and the world were governed with stern justice,\ntempered to our feeble intelligence, existence might become tolerable,\nbut as it is, with a so-called God \"ruling above,\" the earth is an\nabominable place and life a long series of terrifying torments. If I\nwere to advocate a belief, or faith, in a God, I would seek the\nembodiment of those things diametrically opposite to the attributes of\nthe popular God of to-day. Such a creature is not worthy the sacrifice\nof ourselves and our thoughts.\n\nLet us examine and investigate the system and arrangement of the\nworld--that is, that portion of which we are a part and which so vitally\nconcerns us.\n\nThe result of our most extensive study and labor shows us that the\nearth, after an illimitable duration of time, has gradually attained its\npresent peculiar development. In other words, Nature has taken millions\nof years to produce the earth as it is now formed; and if it were made\nparticularly for human beings it is not yet completed, for we still find\nspots, aye, vast areas, where human life is incapable of subsisting. The\nclimate is either too hot or too cold; there is too much water or too\nlittle moisture; the means of cultivation are too meager or utterly\nunobtainable.\n\nIn short, after eons of labor, Nature has failed to be able to present\nto every one of us, for our habitation, a parcel of earth commodious and\ncomfortable enough to be perfectly desirable for life and its living.\n\nSurely, if the earth were made for our benefit, Nature has been not only\na very poor provider, but a very thoughtless parent.\n\nSome say that man is Nature's best product, that the earth was made for\nus, that we are particularly selected by God, and that a certain race is\nhis chosen people. But that is not true. The Jews are no more God's\nchosen people than the jay is his chosen bird, or the mosquito his\nchosen insect.\n\nIt is not true that Nature particularly works for us--facts prove the\ncontrary.\n\nFacts prove that we are nothing but an undesirable by-product, to make\nour way and to live our life as best we can within a cruelly turbulent\nspace, imprisoned by invisible, impenetrable walls of limitation.\n\nNo, it is not true that our life is favored by Nature. After we build\nour homes, make our cities and add improvements, what happens? Nature,\nwith her forceful winds, blows them down; her cruel storms and rising\nfloods wash them away as so much refuse, and a tremor of the earth\ndestroys not only our homes but ourselves also, leaving no traces of our\nefforts, treasures and sacred ties.\n\nEven as individuals we \"curse God\" for the shortcomings with which we\nare afflicted. The exceedingly stout person, one who is \"in his own way\"\ncurses God for making him so stout. The thin person has a similar\ngrievance. Those who are too large and those who are too small are\nequally dissatisfied. The shape of an eye, the curve of the mouth, a\nblemish here, an impediment there, is the direct cause of poignant\nembarrassment. Organs or dimensions too unsightly and unsatisfactory are\nproductive of continual worry and torment throughout our lives. The\nblind, the deaf, the dumb and the crippled have forever a curse for God\nupon their lips.\n\nWe inhabit the air, with a density of fifteen pounds to the square inch,\na mixture of dirt and water, in the same manner that the fish inhabits\nthe water and the worm the earth. Were we beings of a superior type,\nNature would have made us so versatile that we should be able to\naccustom ourselves to any condition, and survive in any climate. But\ndespite all our improvements, despite all man's efforts to avoid and\nescape the conditions of Nature, many of us freeze to death in winter\nand become prostrate from the heat of summer. If it were true that the\nearth were purposely made and existing for us there would be \"no flowers\nborn to blush unseen and waste their sweetness on the desert air.\"\n\nWe, ourselves, scientists tell us, are the result of a long series of\nevolutionary development. They tell us that Nature started with a single\ncell of protoplasm, a single cell of living organism, and produced the\npresent human species after the life and death of an illimitable number\nof forms through the stages of countless ages, not exempting those lives\nfrom the fear, torture and misery that are still so essential a part of\nthe scheme of life. Why impose so cruel and wasteful a condition upon\nthose numberless billions that have lived before us, since nothing but\neternal death was gained by their existence?\n\nSurely, Nature is a poor architect and builder, after taking so much\nmaterial and so much time, to make such an incomplete place for such an\noutlandish form to rule and occupy. If we were given the same\nopportunity (that is, you and I), with all the power and resources of\nNature, to build a habitable place, and mold a living something to\ninhabit it, our results would be ten thousand times better than that\nwhich circles the scope and boundary of our lives, with the\nincomprehensible physical form with which we breathe and manifest life.\n\nTruthfully, and without the slightest element of egotism, I should be\nashamed of my efforts were I to present as my handiwork nothing better\nthan the level and plane which Nature has attained.\n\n\n\n\nII\n\n\nWe come into this world a tiny bundle and mass of helpless, feeble\nflesh, utterly unprepared to meet the requirements and fearful\nconditions that lie in wait for us. We are in need of immediate, urgent\nand constant help from those who were responsible for our birth,\nimperatively so from our mother.\n\nThe child does not ask to come, and knows absolutely nothing about its\nwelfare. And the mother often does not want to bear it, as she knows\nabsolutely nothing about maternal cares. And yet that mother must go\nthrough the \"shadow of the valley of death\" before she can deliver this\ntiny bundle and helpless mass of feeble flesh. And how often, aye, only\ntoo often, does the mother _enter_ the valley of death when making\ndelivery of this living form, never to see the face of the child that\nNature imposed upon her to bear!\n\nWhat a despicable arrangement!\n\nWhat an unfair bargain!\n\nCan you imagine a more outlandish, ridiculous, awkward, complicated,\ncruel and fearful system of reproduction than that which we are under\nyoke to pursue? Without the elaborate details of the perilous stages of\nlife's development, this is the method of incubation Nature imposes upon\nus. Before the birth of a human being, one male and one female--that is,\none man and one woman--must have sexual intercourse. Whether this\nintercourse is prompted by all the finer impulses of life or is\naccomplished by the savageness of rape makes no difference to Nature's\npurpose. To Nature the end justifies the means, and she continues to go\nabout her business.\n\nThe male--that is, the man of this pair--can strut and parade with the\nutmost freedom from his responsibility for the result of his act that\nNature has made to be pre-eminent among his desires. But the\nfemale--that is, the woman of this pair--_must for nine months_ (just\nthink of it!) carry and develop the germ of this child in the fertile\nfield of her womb, and be subjected to the innumerable terrifying\ndangers accompanying such a carriage, and then suffer a superhuman\ntorture to make the delivery, through a very meager channel of her body,\nof this living plant which she has never seen, does not know and quite\noften does not want, _but must absolutely bear_!\n\nProvided Nature has not made the creature too deformed and mutilated and\nunable to survive, the mother must, during a period of constant care and\n_outward carriage_, bear this feeble infant for another period of nine\nmonths or more!--suckling at her breast for _food_!\n\nSo you see that woman is not only a human being, but a fertile ground\nand pasture.\n\nI have not gone into the misery of child bearing and caring, nor of the\ningratitude that is so often received. I ask for what reason has Nature\nimposed this terrible penalty upon woman? _Why?_\n\nWould you, reader, were it in your power, formulate such a method of\nreproduction?\n\nI'll answer for you:\n\nNo!\n\nBut that is not all. For years to come, this child that for nine months\nwas carried inwardly and for a much longer period outwardly, by its\nmother, must now be fed, washed and clothed for an indefinite number of\n_years_, and guided through a thousand perils and dangers that Nature\nhas set before it, with disease as Nature's agent, crouching and ready\nto destroy the child's life, not in open combat, but invisibly concealed\nby the limitation of our senses. This is one of Nature's unspeakable\ncrimes; one of God's despicable impositions.\n\nIt is not sufficient that a mother should subject herself to such a\ndangerous and perilous mission, but she must also withstand the cruel\nsavageness, the cold, callous death piercings, of Nature's invisible\ntyrants and destroyers. Life holds but one real attraction, one instance\nthat can be classified above all others. Without this attraction it\nwould be a blessing to choke the life breath from us all. With it we are\nhelped to bear the _Tyranny of God_.\n\nThere comes a time to some of us when the heart of the one man beats for\nthe one woman, and there alights and resides in their breasts that spark\nof devotion that we call \"love.\" When there is born to that union a\nchild, even though in Nature's stupid way, then a bond is created more\nprecious than anything else in this world. Without this little circle of\nloving joy, the earth is a prison and life a grave injustice for those\nwho must bear it. But think of the damnable rule of Nature that strives\nand delights in working destruction of the only condition worthy of\nlife's living!\n\nOh, if only the life of our offspring were more stable, more secure!\n\nIf only the bosom of our family were guaranteed to us! Just think! The\nchild the parents would not harm, Nature tortures and God kills!\n\nLooking back upon the path we have trodden, with its continual fight\nagainst disease, its manifold combats with obstacles of life, and with\nits inevitable portion of sorrow we all must bear, we should think\nseriously and consider the result of our act before we deliberately\nbring another human being into this life.\n\nYou, yourself, do not consider your life worthy of reliving, so why\nbring a human being here to go through the same, if not more, suffering\nand misery than you have borne with no resultant good?\n\n\n\n\nIII\n\n\nUp to this point I have been speaking of human beings only, living under\nimproved conditions that man has made. What must be the horror, darkness\nand emptiness of those living substances that are \"inferior\" to us? Do\nyou know and realize the suffering that we endure? Then let me, in\npassing, urge this: Be also kind and considerate to our less fortunate\ninhabitants of this earth, the \"dumb\" animals. Their feelings are quite\nsimilar to ours. They have gone through the rougher parts of evolution\nthat gave to us our more useful organs and limbs. They are allied to us\nin much the same manner as the members of our own species. They have\ntheir painful aches and periods, their hardships and tortures, their\nbroken family ties and fearful abhorrence of death; their flesh is\ntender and their skin is as delicate to them as ours is to us.\n\nSo let us \"think twice,\" dear readers, before we deliberately harm any\nof our humbler brothers and sisters that must inhabit this cold and\ncallous earth and live their lives under a great deal more tyranny and\ninjustice than we live ours.\n\nWe deliberately enslave and brutally treat the gentle horse.\n\nWe tyrannically imprison birds and fishes as \"pets.\"\n\nWe keep, breed, kill and eat a variety of animals for our own selfish\npurposes, and yet some persons still have the audacity to say that we\nare \"chosen people,\" \"God's children,\" \"divine beings.\" Bah!\n\nYou know what painful inconvenience there is in losing an arm or a leg.\nWell, the winged and footed beings that must bear this life suffer a\ngreat deal more than we do when one of their limbs becomes dismembered.\n\nMan has to a degree remedied or replaced his crippled limbs, but I do\nnot think any other of the higher animals have advanced so far, and as\na result these creatures must endure their pain and distressing\nannoyance to the end.\n\nRecently I watched a common house fly caught upon \"fly paper,\" and\nstudied intently every visible movement of it. Immediately upon\nalighting upon the sticky substance, its first thought, almost\ninstantaneously, was to make an effort to free itself. At once I thought\nof the fly's instinct of \"self-preservation,\" and contrasted it with the\nhuman's.\n\nThe fly must have had intelligence, since it knew that its life was in\ndanger. And, since Nature does not deal in \"fly paper,\" the fly's\nreasoning power told it of its peril. With unabated determination it\nvibrated its wings with lightning-like rapidity, and worked its legs\nunceasingly, _breaking them in the attempt_, in its efforts to pull\nitself away to freedom!\n\nAs I watched this fly in its labor, this thought came to me: Is the fly\nunlike the human being in its desire to live? Is it afraid of death and\nof the mystery of dissolution? Has it, too, all the agony of fear of\npassing to the \"Great Beyond\"? Has it, too, an imaginary God in the form\nof a Big Fly? And is it also afraid of that God's supposed wrath?\n\nIf the fly's desire to live is so great, what interest does it have in\nlife?\n\nDoes it love? Does it derive happiness when it is able to labor to make\nhappy its fly Juliet?\n\nDoes it want to live because it is ambitious and is trying to excel\nother flies?\n\nDoes it really think to better its species and solve the problem of its\nkind?\n\nIs there a fly family to mourn its death?\n\nWhile watching that fly and asking myself these questions, I was\nconvinced of the following _truths_:\n\nThat the force that we call life is the same that animates the fly. That\nit, too, has control of its muscles and nerves in the same proportion\nas we have control of ours. That it, too, possesses the five senses and\nadds to its tiny brain more intelligence through its experiences. Within\nthe movements and actions of that fly was wrapped up the secret of\n\"Whence did I come, and whither am I going?\"\n\nAs I released my attention from that fly, I muttered to myself: \"The\nmore I look at insects, the more I think I am one.\"\n\nFor what purpose do _we_ arise in the morning, fill our stomachs with\nfood, till the fields, and perform labor in exchange for nourishment, in\nthe evening fall into a sleep from exertion, arise the next day, and\nperform the same routine, day in and day out, week in and week out, year\nin and year out, and at the age and in the heyday of physical\ndevelopment seek an outlet in the opposite sex for the strongest impulse\nthat Nature has implanted in us?\n\nThis impulse forces us to commit rape and murder, robbery and assault,\nand to violate every principle of honor that man has tried to establish\nfor the betterment and advancement of the race.\n\nWith the dissipation of this mighty sex force, we subside and decline\ninto weakness and decay, only to pass into death and oblivion.\n\nWhat a fearful, wasted effort is this life!\n\n\n\n\nIV\n\n\nThe system of nourishment that Nature has imposed upon the world is not\nonly stupid and malicious, but also of a cannibalistic character.\n\nWe, as frail human beings, are horrified and shocked to think that our\nancestors trafficked in and delighted in eating the flesh of their race,\nand even to-day we are making a strenuous effort to discourage the\nbarbarous custom of killing animals to eat their flesh, yet it seems a\ndictate of Nature that forces us to uphold that custom. Just think of\nit! Nourishment and life-sustaining forces are derived from eating the\ncooked flesh of a dead animal, the unborn fowl, the bowels of the lamb,\nand the eggs of the fish!\n\nCan you imagine the wildness of life in such a jungle of cannibalism? No\nwonder the savage instinct is so deeply implanted in us.\n\nTo get a fair idea of the food we eat to sustain life and to please and\nsatisfy our palates, we need but take a casual glance at any of our\nmodern butcher shops. Although to-day you will not see human limbs on\ndisplay and for sale, as they were years ago, you will be impressed with\nthe following morsels put there to tempt your appetite: In our modern\nbutcher shops you will find pigs' feet, calves' brains, ox tongues,\nbreasts and legs of lamb, chicken livers, dogs ground to bits and sold\nas sausages, live and dead fish of all kinds and varieties and\ninnumerable other portions of animal flesh.\n\nFortunately we have got beyond the point where we eat the entrails of\nthese animals, although we use their hoofs to make glue, their bones for\npowder, and we string our delicate musical instruments with their\nvitals.\n\nThe things we consume, in turn consume the living forms that they\ncapture and subdue.\n\nThe lion, the tiger and the leopard will devour us more quickly, and\nwith less ceremony and with more delight, than we devour other animals.\nWe, being \"civilized,\" boil the animal's flesh and season it with weeds\nthat Nature allows to grow, to give it zest and flavor, while our wilder\nbrothers eat us in the raw, natural manner, only removing our civilized\nclothes.\n\nReally, if getting nearer to God is getting back to Nature, the beasts\nof the fields have an advantage over us. And we know to-day that even\nthe living things in the vegetable kingdom suffer alike from the fearful\ntortures and penalties of the world. They follow almost the identical\nroutine of life that we follow. Birth, life, reproduction, and death are\ntheir lot as well as ours; so that, if man were only to practice the\nidealism of his cramped and feeble brain he would starve to death!\n\n\n\n\nV\n\n\nIf the world is the result of an established plan, as some say, it must\nbe the conception of a hideous monster whose three cardinal principles\nare Disease, Despair and Death. But this much we can say: Though God\ncreated us a savage, fortunately man is civilizing Nature's brute and is\nmaking him a Man.\n\nDisease is one of Nature's cardinal forces. So, to attain health, we\nstruggle against disease; but health only means the guarding of it\nthrough fear. \"With all the ills the flesh is heir to,\" true health is a\nchimera, an existing state unknown to man.\n\nTo be \"well\" is such a precious condition, that Nature cautions us\nagainst expecting to retain health too long, by instructing us, through\nexperience, to prepare for a siege of illness. Thus, disease and illness\nwould seem to be the natural states, and health the artificial\ncondition under which Nature permits us to live. No one goes to his\ngrave without suffering the tortures of some disease and paying the\npenalty of living. No one is exempt from the inflictions Nature imposes.\n\nThe greater portion of our life consists in devising means and\nmedication to relieve us of our states of ill health and disease.\nSanitation and all the methods we are capable of discovering and\ninventing are becoming universally applied to kill and to destroy the\nmenacing germs that God causes to inhabit the air, and that breed and\nmultiply in the fertile flesh of our bodies.\n\nAnd finally, we are so utterly ignorant of how even to eat, sleep, walk,\nbreathe, stand or sit, that the slightest infringement of the simplest\nrules of life can, and does, cause us irreparable harm.\n\nIf we did not move to help ourselves, Nature would have us live in filth\nand stagnation.\n\nWe seek, discover, or invent all kinds of methods to build health and\nto remain perfectly strong throughout our lives, and yet, despite it\nall, we are puny and sickly beings. In fact, I do not think there is\nsuch a thing as perfect health. What we may do to correct, insure or\nperfect our healthy tissues will have a detrimental effect upon some\nother part of our body. What we do to build up must also tear down. What\nwe do to produce health will, after a certain point, produce disease.\nThis, it seems, is the law not only of life, but also of the universe.\n\nIt is regrettable that God did not possess the magnanimity of an\nIngersoll and make health contagious instead of disease.\n\nPhysical pain and mental suffering are the mysterious sorrows that we\nmust experience and pay to a tyrant God for the existence we bear. It is\nincontrovertible that no realization is given us by Nature of the\nfearful pains and tortures that we are capable of suffering and still\nsustain ourselves, only to repeat over and over again the unending\ntorment in exchange for the consciousness of a worthless life.\n\nWe, with our limited intellects, with our puny strength, with our\ninability to utilize all the materials in our possession, are still\nsuperior to the workmanship and the justice of God.\n\nTyrant is no name for such a God, who creates a living organism\npurposely and maliciously to torment and torture it.\n\nA poor creature is a God who makes his suffering playthings more\npowerful than \"he,\" and compels them to bear their existence under the\nlash of inexorable laws of sorrow and suffering, pain and penalty.\n\nAnd yet we are satisfied with so little. We ask for a crumb only. We are\npleased with the slightest favor. A toy delights us; a little trinket\nelicits from us warm gratitude; a breath of balmy air is drunken with\nkeen and pleasurable delight; a \"fine\" day is celebrated with\nexultation!\n\nBut what a mockery is life!\n\nWe writhe in pain and bear the brunt of an arrogant tyranny from\nwhatever force that created and controls us. We must daily bathe our\nbodies, wash our hair, brush our teeth, change our clothes and perform\nother necessary physical functions to feel freedom from the filthy\nconditions that Nature imposes upon us and surrounds us with.\n\nIf Nature saw fit to give us eyes, she should have given us perfect\nones; not those which, upon the slightest contact with a minute foreign\nsubstance, cause unutterable pain and possible loss of sight, in a world\nwhere sight is so imperative!\n\nIf Nature saw fit to give us ears, she should have given us perfect\nones; not those which are capable of such frightful pain, with the\npossibility of becoming totally deaf, when it is so necessary to hear!\n\nIf Nature saw fit to give us a nose, she should have given us a perfect\none; not one that causes such miserable torture and unbearable suffering\nfrom the slightest defect!\n\nIf Nature saw fit to give us a mouth, she should have given us a perfect\none; one that would perform all the functions of perfect speech; not one\nthat is so liable to harm and so susceptible to dumbness, when speech is\nof such paramount importance to Life!\n\nIf Nature saw fit to give us teeth, she should have given us perfect\nones; not those which ache and pain with such fearful intensity that the\nmind is almost distracted!\n\nIf Nature saw fit to give us arms, legs, and organs, she should have\ngiven us perfect ones; not a body whose tenderness makes it an\ninstrument of such menacing torture; not a body of crippled bones and\ncrippled joints, where suffering results from everything it does!\n\nIf Nature saw fit to give us a brain, she should have given us one\nstrong enough to withstand all the rebuffs of life, and one capable\nenough to utilize all the forces under command. Each person should be a\nmental Hercules capable of solving his own problems and directing all\nmatter to its greatest material uses.\n\nInstead of the human body being the marvelously constructed instrument\nwe are wont to believe it, we now find it to be nothing but a common\nmachine, imperfectly made, and subject to innumerable changes and\nradical improvements.\n\nEvery person acquainted with the anatomy of the body can give you a list\nof imperative improvements that it needs, and without which it will\ncontinue to function imperfectly and continue to cause pain and\nsuffering to its possessor.\n\nIt were a great deal better, after a full summary of life, were we to be\ncreated utterly devoid of feeling, equally impervious to joy and sorrow,\npleasure and pain. We should be manifestly benefited, for the greater\npart of our life is now full of sorrow, anxiety, fear, pain,\ndisappointment and worry.\n\nA small portion of our life is a matter of indifference. A portion\nmight be termed satisfaction, and a minute balance, an infinitesimal\npart, termed--if there is such a thing in life--joy.\n\nAnd yet, the joy we may experience to-day will not be present to-morrow\nto cheer and comfort us, but the pain that we feel to-day will pinch us\nmore strongly to-morrow, and will remain as an ever-poignant memory.\n\nJoy and pleasure are of a transitory nature only, while pain and sorrow\nare of a permanent and accumulative character. Is _all_ of life worth\nthe sorrow, the agony and fear of death?\n\nJust think of giving a life so full of grief that those who have it do\nnot want it and quite often destroy it! No wonder that drugs more\npowerful than our minds, used to numb the pains of life, are so much in\ndemand and so universally used.\n\nWhat a ridiculous assumption it is to think that a soul, separate and\ndistinct from the body, would imprison itself in such a miserable\nconfinement!\n\nInstead of life's being a privilege, it is a prison, wherein we must\nsuffer fearful pains and still more fearful thoughts. Physical pain\nregisters a high degree of intense feverish suffering, but mental\ntorture is fired with the scorch of hell.\n\n\n\n\nVI\n\n\nHuman life is the cheapest thing that God makes! No consideration is\ngiven to the feelings, pains and sorrows it must bear and endure.\n\nNo wonder that ridicule, shame, hatred and other forms of mental\nsuffering cannot be withstood by some frail minds, and cause them to\nseek relief from their torment.\n\nUnder the red-hot brand of mental torture, the jealous husband sees his\nwife violate every rule and principle and vow of virtue. He sees her\nreveling in the arms and embrace of him that he despises, committing\ntrespass upon the one he so loves.\n\nThe husband suffers more mentally in a few moments of these imaginings,\nthan the actual performance, with his full knowledge, could cause him to\nsuffer.\n\nLosses, mistakes, discouragements and disappointments scorch with\nburning blisters the lining of our lives.\n\nI once thought it was cowardly to make destruction of oneself, but I\nmust say that more mature thought, supported by actual scenes and\nexperiences, has caused me to alter my view.\n\nBut before I go farther, let me make my thought clear so as to avoid any\nmisunderstanding.\n\nI do not mean that a person should shirk his or her duty in the face of\nhardship, discouragement or rebuke. On the contrary, the mettle of the\nman is best tested by such adverse forces, and some of the most\ninspiring moments of life lie in overcoming these conditions and\ntriumphing over unjust, undue and seemingly impossible odds. What I do\nmean is, when life no longer holds any attraction, when the ravages of\ndisease have torn and mutilated your body, when pain and torture are\nraking your mind, and your daily companions are these miseries, with no\npossible hope of their relief or change, then by all means, by whatever\nagency you desire to accomplish it, save yourself the terrible agony of\nliving, and defeat one of the tyrant impositions of God.\n\n\n\n\nVII\n\n\nThe child suffers the sharpest pains, the crudest poignancy that could\npossibly be inflicted upon its body, through the stupid, frightening and\nmonstrous tales that are continually told to it to make it \"good,\" to\nmake it \"obey.\"\n\nTo think that a child cannot bear to enter the dark, cannot bear to be\nalone, cannot bear to be separated from its loving and protecting\nparents, and yet must suffer in a few moments from a fatal disease--the\nagony of all this, in the face of death, is the crime of crimes, too\ndamnable and horrible for words.\n\nI remember once seeing a little lost child. It cried for its mother. Hot\ntears were streaming down its burning cheeks. Its face portrayed the\nseverest form of suffering that life is capable of experiencing. If\nNature ever made a frail article, it is our tender offspring, so\nbewildered, so utterly helpless, so agonizingly delusioned, so\npitifully searching for some familiar face; something to make it\ndiscover its lost self. Oh, what power ever made us so tender, so\nincapable of self-help, as to have us undergo and feel such terrific\nsuffering! It is injustice enough when adults are made to suffer mental\nand physical ills, without inflicting such a painful decree upon mere\ninfants.\n\nAt least an adult has some conception of his suffering. He can make\nprovision for some remedy. He can seek others to ask them to render\nhelp. He knows, he feels, he understands the situation, and can adjust\nhimself as best he can to obtain some relief.\n\nBut not so with the child. Its mind is not capable of comprehending the\ncondition which makes its suffering so sharp. Its little brain is too\nfeeble, hardly strong enough to direct its awkward and bulky body, much\nless to solve such an incredible predicament as being utterly destitute\nof help, in a world fashioned upon such an unsatisfactory plan.\n\nThere is not, nor can there be, a sadder, more distressing sight, than\nto see a little lost child overcome with fright.\n\nIf it were in my power to abolish any of Nature's cruel laws, I would\ntake from the little child its feeling of pain.\n\nLet me ask, would man, were it in his power, send a helpless creature,\nutterly unable to sustain itself, without power of thought,\nunderstanding or expression, so dependent upon loving care, kindness,\nhelp and comprehension, into a world that is a wilderness, a world\nreeking with pestilence and populated with shrieking beasts and brutal\nand savage people?\n\nAs a passing word regarding the child, let me say this:\n\nDo not judge your child as an ordinary mechanical instrument, as if he\ncould be wound up to a certain degree and gradually, as if by clockwork,\ntick away each moment of the day. The child is a combustible force, and,\nalthough there are certain rules by which you may obtain the greatest\ndegree of improvement, you cannot rigidly adhere to them. There are\nnumberless instances when the propensity or inclination of the child may\nappear to you to be aggravating and annoying; nevertheless, you must not\nlet _your_ irritability interfere with the development of that trait\npre\u00ebminent to the child's character.\n\nLook upon your child, encourage your boy or girl, to be a pioneer and a\nsoldier in the march of progress. Instruct it with the knowledge of the\nmiserable conditions of our past history, and bring it forcibly to\nunderstand that efforts only are repaid, and that we must work in order\nto accomplish.\n\nPrayers are only wasted words on the desert air. The greatest mental\ncrime ever committed is that of teaching a child, \"while still upon its\nmother's knee,\" its duty and obedience to God. It would appear that for\nthe amount of suffering it must endure, and in the face of its\nunconsulted coming, we should at least disregard God for his insolence,\nand impress upon the child the peculiar conditions of life. We should\ninstruct it, that from time immemorial, Nature has been laboring through\nthe most awkward process of reproduction, and has finally brought the\nchild into existence, not to enjoy the benefits, or eat of the fruits of\nthe earth, but to bear a life of continual strife and suffering. Not of\nGod should we speak to our child, but of the importance of being\nprepared to do all in its power to help others to escape the torture,\nmisery and hardships it must so painfully overcome. Is it any wonder\nthat we grow up to be serfs and slaves? Before we are able to know or\nunderstand the very rudest fundamentals of life, our entire mental\nmachinery is corrupted by unshakable fears and dedicated to the vilest\nand most sickening submission. Would that we were left alone, and free\nto follow the thoughts of our own minds, regarding the great problems\nof life. What a mighty, unhampered power we would possess to find the\nproper course of action, and possibly the real solution to the mystery\nof the _Tyranny of God_!\n\nTo love and to reverence our tormentor is repulsive and despicable, and\nsince we refuse to allow man to tyrannize over man, what degradation it\nis for the human race to cringe and bow down unconditionally to the\nimagination in the great realm of uncertainty!\n\nDo not hurt your child. Do not strike it. Do not cause it any\nunnecessary pain. Before it is able to walk, before it is able to talk,\nbefore it is old enough to tell of its pain and suffering, Nature makes\nit endure enough.\n\nRemember, the only language of the babe is the cry of pain.\n\nImagine yourself under the lash of suffering, utterly speechless and\nincapable of conveying your wants and feelings to an absolutely strange\nsurrounding, and you will have a slight picture of the growing child in\nyour household. Did you ever stop to consider that the child, when born,\ndoes not know that you are its parent? It does not know that you are its\nfather, or that you are its mother. It does not know what prompted its\nbirth, or why it must live--and above all, what it has done to be sent\nto such a miserable prison place as the planet upon which we live. We\nmust demonstrate all this as well as we can to the child.\n\nThis much we can be sure of: kindness, tenderness and love should\nforever be our guide in our dealings and contact with children.\n\nThe child is brought into this world from the insuppressible passion of\ntwo people, and surely without its consent, and it is absolute tyranny\nand barbarity to torment its mind or to punish its body, regardless of\nthe result its action may have upon us.\n\nTo the little children that have suffered the horrible punishment so\ngenerally followed in that cruel and false book--the Bible--my heart\ngoes out in pity, since words fail me to describe those savage\ncharacters that visit inhuman, tormenting and torturous treatment upon\ntheir unwelcome offspring.\n\nIf we were forced to perform the thousand tyrannies that are directed\nagainst the child during the day by cruel and thoughtless parents, the\nlunatic asylum would soon be our place of refuge. Such trivial things as\na spot on the shoe, a speck of dirt upon the clothes, a mere tip of the\nhat, a slight turn of the scarf often give rise to such violent\nreprimand, and very often brutal punishment, that the savageness of\nbarbarians is mild compared to such displays of temper.\n\nMy heart again goes out to you, little children, when and wherever you\nare, that must bear the brunt of brutal actions from stupid and\nthoughtless parents and guardians. These people seem to classify\nchildren in the matter of discipline as grown ups, thinking (or,\nrather, not thinking) that children's undeveloped minds should be as\nstrong as theirs, when they themselves are unable to practice the\nself-denial that they expect from mere infants.\n\nHow often does a child receive a slap in the face from a parent for the\nasking of only a simple question, when the parent is not in the \"humor\"\nto \"bother\" with him?\n\nWhat a painful and terrifying beating does a child often get for\ndisobeying some arbitrary command uttered by the one over him. To the\nchild, \"Don't do this,\" \"Don't go there,\" \"Stand up straight,\" and \"Say\nthis\" are commands that carry with them court martial and its severe and\nunrelenting punishment.\n\nRemember this: The child will respond to kindness and love more readily\nand directly than to force and unwarranted discipline. It is purely a\nquestion of whether your feelings are actuated by these impulses.\n\nIf you have become mentally strong enough to restrain your impulses to\nstrike your child, do not substitute other means to \"punish\" him.\nChanging the method of brutally inflicting physical pain upon your child\nto some other means, though less repulsive, is still obnoxious and\nharmful.\n\nIf you are unable to convince your child, by persuasion, example or\notherwise, that you are right and that the child should follow your\ninstruction, then by all means, let it become the victor in the contest.\n\nFear--fear of pain, fear in every form--controls our lives, and shapes\nthe courses of our puny destinies.\n\n\n\n\nVIII\n\n\nThe mind, through fear of death, is capable of suffering, within a few\nmoments, the tortures of an eternity, although to accomplish death,\nNature may require only a few minutes. The extent of the mind's\ncapability for suffering is beyond compare.\n\nNature has been distinctly conspicuous in imbuing us not only with grave\ndoubts and uncertainties, but also with an unshakable fear regarding\ndeath. In the deepest moments of despair, when living has absolutely no\nattraction and life becomes a burden and a menace, we fight desperately,\nand without abatement, for this narrow, worthless thread of existence.\n\nPossibly the fear that we have in the face of death is caused by the\nfact that we must suffer pain before death is accomplished. And a great\ndeal of the theory of \"self-preservation\" is due merely to our great\nhorror of pain.\n\nThe indisputable fact that thousands \"take their lives\" by choosing the\nleast possible painful method demonstrates, with a firm conviction, my\nthought that it is the avoidance of pain, rather than the retaining of\nlife, that prompts our efforts to live.\n\nIt is only too true, and heard from the lips of thousands, that if they\n\"could only lie down and never awake, what a blessing it would be.\" We\nspeak in terms of \"having lived too long,\" \"being tired of living,\"\n\"life not worth living,\" etc., as if life were a prison sentence, and,\noften, rather than continue the servitude, we surmount and overcome the\ndeterrent of pain and destroy the life.\n\nVery often our desire to keep on living is prompted by our baser\nimpulses. We \"live\" sometimes to \"get even\" with someone--to spite\nsomeone. We \"live\" sometimes to be able to \"show\" what we can or cannot\ndo. Were it not for these baser impulses, what an unlimited number of\npeople would refuse to continue this monotonous, painful and non-paying\nlife!\n\nThe foregoing expressions of life, at one time or another, represent the\nfeelings of all humanity. In the United States alone during the year\n1920 it has been conservatively estimated that more than twelve thousand\npersons committed suicide. These persons were engaged in all kinds of\npursuits and came from ALL walks of life. They ranged from social\noutcasts to society leaders; from poverty stricken unfortunates to\npersons of great wealth; from illiterate men and women to editors and\ncollege professors; from laborers and layman to physicians and\nministers. The youngest suicide was a mere infant of five years, the\noldest, a centenarian of 106! Among the suicides of last year were two\nevangelists and twelve clergymen. It would appear that those who had\ndevoted their thoughts and services to God would at least be spared the\nagony of such suffering as to force them to prefer death and to take\ntheir lives. I say with Ingersoll, it is a wonder God does not at least\nprotect his friends and defenders.\n\nThe reluctance we have to die is due in a large degree to the\npossibility of securing a few more moments of joy from an already too\nmuch troubled world, with the hope that a little compensation will be\nderived from the pain and sorrow we have endured.\n\nAnd yet those things that we may live to enjoy to-day and to-morrow may\nlikewise be present to thrill us at some future date, away and beyond\nthe limitation we are capable of surviving. It is from this desire that\nwe unconsciously \"feel\" that we would like to \"live\" always, to get our\nfull measure of return; and since such is neither the lot nor the\nprivilege of our possession, it really makes no difference when we die\nas far as personal satisfaction is concerned.\n\nThe fear that possesses us now in the matter of death will likewise and\nwith equal force possess us later, when we actually and without\nceremony must submit to the inevitable.\n\nThe desire that possesses a person to live now will, with equal\nattraction, obsess him later.\n\nOur desires and aspirations are never satisfied. What we may cherish to\naccomplish to-day may be consummated and achieved, yet to-morrow another\nsomething will demand our energies to be spent for further desires to be\naccomplished.\n\nWhen we are babies we desire to walk; when we walk, we desire to talk;\nwhen we talk, we desire to grow; after we grow, we want to learn; after\nwe learn, we want to do and to expand--and our performance and expansion\nare only curtailed by insolent death!\n\n\n\n\nIX\n\n\nThe only justification there is to live, once conscious of the damnable\nscheme of life, is the burning desire to do something to help mankind\nbear the conditions and to make easier the burden of life for those who\nare here and for those who are to come; for very often the greatest\nbenefactors of the race are so maligned and persecuted in their day that\nonly the future can render a just appreciation of their labor and their\nvalue.\n\nFor without the improvement bestowed on life by the world's benefactors,\nover the crudity of Nature, it were better that we remain in the bosom\nof our wilder brothers, and hang from the trees by the length and the\nstrength of our tails. Aye, back and back and back, down every degree of\nlife until the time before the first cell of protoplasm from an\ninanimate into an animate state started.\n\nWhy must we be made to suffer such dreadful torment before death, since\nby eternal decree it is the common lot all must endure?\n\nDeath, puzzling, eternal death, is Nature's final stamp upon our fearful\nstruggle through life.\n\nAnd the agony of death is more poignantly mental than physical, since\nthe mind, reviewing the acts of the past, anticipates with anxiety and\nwith picturesque vividness the wrongs, scandals, terrors, fears and\ninjustice of the future.\n\nSince life is so replete with physical pains, no wonder our picture of\ndeath is so horrible.\n\nWe see upon the lifeless form the cast of its agonizing pain, and augur\nfrom that an eternity of sorrow. But fortunately, in reality we can only\nfeel pain as long as we possess \"life.\" In a sense, therefore, death is\na blessing.\n\nAfter all, the severest pains of death lie in the brains of the living.\nThe mind is capable of suffering in one moment all that a lifetime can\nrepay with pleasure, and no joy is sufficient in value to compensate you\nfor enduring an irreparable loss.\n\nThe conditions that existed before our birth are identical with the\nconditions that will exist at our death. As we knew no life and felt no\npain before our birth, we shall know no life and feel no pain after our\ndeath.\n\nDeath is no longer the enigma of life. Living is its problem. The sting\nof death has been removed. We know death's destiny, and no longer fear\nits consequences. The only suffering attached to death now is the\ninjustice of its time of coming, the reluctance of parting with loved\nones, and the loss of the opportunity to attain. Well might I say with\nShakespeare, that:\n\n     \"Cowards die many times before their death;\n     The valiant never taste of death but once.\n     Of all the wonders that I yet have heard,\n     It seems to me most strange that men should fear;\n     Seeing that death, a necessary end,\n     Will come when it will come.\"\n\nThe most despicable characters of human life are those who prey upon\ncredulous persons when in the face of death and shrouded with the fear\nof its uncertainty, picturing to those persons horrible and frightening\ntales of an eternity of torture.\n\nWhat unspeakable misery must those whose religious conviction has so\nterrified death and its aftermath, especially when it is intensified and\nhorrified through the mouthpiece of ignorant priests, suffer in\nconsequence of death.\n\nOh, what a fearful sting must be there!\n\nJust think what this poor, vast, credulous multitude pay, with the sweat\nof their brows and the bend of their backs, to enrich these moral beasts\nin exchange for their ignorant and terrifying mumblings, that rob the\ndeluded ones of every fiber of courage and every thought of perfect\npeace and rest.\n\nIt is while living that death possesses its sting and anguish. Anyone\nthat seeks tribute from the dying, or from the living for services on\nbehalf of the dead, is a damnable moral scoundrel and a cunning rascal.\n\nTo those whose minds have been poisoned from childhood with this\nreligious conviction, this most awful of beliefs, I cry: \"Throw off\nthese tyrants of the mind. Emancipate yourselves from this fearful\nignorance and mental bondage!\" What a burden will be lifted from their\nlives and what a glorious freedom they will experience!\n\nIf we are to die, let us die in perfect calmness and in perfect peace.\nLet us become firmly convinced that, once we are dead, no thought, no\nact, can possibly harm us. We are beyond the pale of Nature's pangs. We,\nthe individuals that we were, are free from everything. We are at rest,\nand forever.\n\n\n\n\nX\n\n\nBut after this life with all our pains and sorrows, what then? What is\nthere to repay us for living?\n\nI answer:\n\n_Nothing!_\n\nI have no misgivings about the \"future.\" I am firmly convinced that\nthere is no \"after life,\" that when we \"breathe our last\" we arrive at\nour eternity. We are \"one with yesterday's seven thousand years.\" We are\nlike the flower which, \"once blown, forever dies.\"\n\nI firmly believe that life as now manifested in our bodies is a\ncombustible force identical with that of any other form of life. No less\nso than the \"seed\" of the flower is different from the \"germ\" of the\nwheat.\n\nBoth are forces!\n\nSo are we!\n\nThey may be different manifestations, but fundamentally they are the\nsame.\n\nIn fact, the very force that manifests itself in a mechanical instrument\nmade by man is the identical substance that rules the organs, and\ncharges the brain of our being. In the same manner that the force\ndissipates itself in the mechanical instrument made by man, and no\nlonger gives motion to its parts, so the force that animates our being\ndissipates itself and is no longer capable of giving motion to our parts\nand organs.\n\nAs man's instruments are dependent upon many channels for their complete\nperformance, so the human brain and body have their many dependencies\nthat must fully and properly be nourished to maintain their power.\n\nEach day science draws another veil from the mystery of life.\n\nOur eye is but a chemical camera, that we have not only reproduced, but\neven improved upon.\n\nOur voice is nothing but a vibration, that we have not only reproduced\nand improved upon, but whose minutest modulations we have recorded in\ninnumerable duplications.\n\nOur ear is but a drum, that carries and conveys to the brain the\nvibrations of our voice, and that function we have reproduced and even\nimproved upon by the instrument we call the telephone.\n\nThe telegraphic system of the human body that communicates to the brain\nthe conditions that the senses perceive, is no other than that which man\nhas even improved upon by the transmission of an intelligible message to\na far-distant land without the use of any apparent conductor. With the\nmarvelous instrument, the telephone, man sends his voice around the\nworld.\n\nMan's greatest inventions, the phonograph, the camera and the telephone,\nboth wire and wireless, make the work of Nature, as manifested in our\nbodies, a simple, childish affair, fit only for the kindergarten of\nthings.\n\nWhen Edison invented the incandescent light and reproduced the human\nvoice in the phonograph he pulled aside the veil of secrecy and\npenetrated the infinite.\n\n_He proved and demonstrated man to be greater than God._\n\nOur limbs carry our bodies in the direction our brains dictate, and\n_that_ function we have reproduced and even improved upon in all the\nmeans of locomotion that we daily use and which we now consider as a\n\"matter of fact\" among the ordinary things of life. \"Comparisons are\nodious\" when we compare the awkward motion of Nature with the rapid\nlocomotion of man.\n\nMan progresses far too rapidly for the accommodation of Nature, and as a\nresult adapts for his use and benefit vital essentials that Nature in\nher laziness has either failed to utilize, or will not utilize.\n\nAlthough we have not yet completely discovered all the material and\nmechanical elements that compose life, we are sure and certain of their\norigin.\n\nWe hear ourselves talk; we decide upon our destination and direct our\nmotion; we eat when we are hungry; sleep when we are tired; cry when we\nare in pain; and laugh when we are tickled. Our whole being from start\nto finish is mechanical, and the element of something \"spiritual,\"\nsomething separate and distinct from a purely material sense, is\nabsolutely illogical and ill-founded in view of the illimitable\nillustrations that are being demonstrated every day.\n\nIt is a thing easily understood, if we logically, and intelligently,\nwithout blindness, preference or prejudice, analyze the problem.\n\nIt may sound better and more desirable to say that we possess a\n\"soul\"--that this life is but a \"stepping stone to a higher plane\"--but\nit is not true.\n\nWe cannot observe the true, actual facts of life by coloring our\nsubject. If we want to determine the _truth_ we must be mentally\nprepared to accept the _truth_.\n\nA painted face, brightened eyes, blackened eyelids, Marcelled hair, and\na form draped in all the splendor of the finest silks do not make a\nwoman possess the sweetness and charm that all this \"dope\" is intended\nto make us believe.\n\nAs much as man wants to have the end of this life attain certain\nbenefits and destinations, this desire does not make them real.\n\nThe implicit confidence in a faithless wife does not make her loyal and\nvirtuous. A wife's confidence in a profligate husband does not make him\nstanch and true.\n\nLife calls for a cold analysis. It must be stripped of all its\nartificial colorings and superfluities. It must be measured and weighed\nfor what it actually is, not for what we would like it to be. It must be\ndetermined in the unwavering scales of science.\n\nThe proper study of mankind is not the man in the white starched collar,\nwith trimmed hair, shaven face and polished shoes, but the man recently\nfrom the forest, with coarse, grizzly hair upon his back, brutal and\nviolent passion dominating his body, and savageness and hatred in his\nstartled and terrifying eyes.\n\nThe sooner we come to the realization of this vital fact, the sooner we\nbecome acquainted with the basic origin of life, the sooner we shall\nunderstand life, with its achievements, with its aspirations and hopes.\n\n\n\n\nXI\n\n\nIt is an absolute fact and certainty, impossible of refutation, that\nwhen animation ceases in the body and no effort is made to revive it,\nlife ceases and the processes of decay and decomposition set in.\n\nYet it is permanently established and has been successfully demonstrated\ninnumerable times, that certain methods of artificial stimulation have\nrevivified and resuscitated the delicate organs that cause the heartbeat\nand give consciousness to the brain.\n\nRecently my local newspaper contained the following item:\n\n     \"DEAD\" BUT SAW NO SPIRITS\n\n     _Oklahoma City, Okla._, February 7th--Neal Dillingham doesn't\n     believe in after-death communication with the living. Dillingham\n     was \"dead\" for twenty minutes recently, and he says he ought to\n     know.\n\n     Doctors said Dillingham's blood circulation was stopped by a clot\n     of blood. His heart stopped beating, and he did not breathe.\n\n     Insertion of a saline solution into his artery just above the\n     heart caused the clot to dissolve, and Dillingham came back to\n     life.\n\n     \"I did not return to earth after I left it,\" said Dillingham. \"I\n     had no knowledge of anything that took place, but I must have been\n     pretty dead, as I do know I didn't recognize several persons I had\n     known all my life, after I was myself again. If I had any talks\n     with anybody while I was 'dead' I don't remember anything about\n     them.\"\n\nBelieving that the publicity that this case received would make the\nparty known to the postal authorities, I sat down and wrote him a\nletter, hoping that, if fortunate enough to have a letter delivered to\nhim, he might be kind enough to write me personally of his experience.\n\nAfter a lapse of several days I received from him a letter\nsubstantiating in detail all that was mentioned in the newspaper\nclipping quoted above.\n\nIn the instance of this man Dillingham, he was \"dead,\" so to speak, and\nas far as his \"soul\" was concerned it had \"left\" the body; yet the\ninjection of a material solution, compounded by man, in conjunction\nwith artificial respiration, caused the beating of the heart and gave\nback to the brain its power of consciousness.\n\nIf it is the \"soul\" that causes the functioning of the body, where is it\nwhen such an action takes place?\n\nIf it is the \"soul\" that gives us \"life,\" how is it that we can\nmaterially and mechanically destroy it?\n\nWe are born and nourished by material means.\n\nWe live our life by material means.\n\nWe reproduce our kind by material means.\n\nAnd we can destroy ourselves by material means.\n\nEverything that touches and concerns our life is purely material, and it\nshould be incumbent upon those who believe in the \"Soul\" or the\n\"Spiritual Element\" of man to produce the proof of their contention.\n\nWe are nothing but a continual propagating instrument, without\nspiritual, moral, lasting or ultimate value. We are here to reproduce\nour kind and for nothing more. What man secures for himself within the\nnarrow circle of his existence here is all that he gains for the life\nthat Nature forces him to live.\n\nEverything man has, man has made. Nothing has been given to him by\nNature. God has been a miser!\n\nIf man possessed a \"soul\" the thousand deformities of the brain would\nnot exist. Insanity would be impossible, and all the forms of petty\nvices that so miserably afflict us would be totally unknown.\n\nThat which gives us the power of life is a combination of the material\nforces of Nature, and the elements that compose the brain are of a\nchemical substance. The difference between a \"live\" person and a \"dead\"\none can be summarized by a great many instances about us, and because of\ntheir commonplaceness, we do not observe them.\n\nThere are many apples falling to the ground, but we are not inspired\nwith the knowledge that the actuating force is gravity.\n\nOne of the best illustrations, to show the difference between a \"live\"\nand a \"dead\" person, can be had from that excellent invention called the\n\"film\" or \"plate,\" and which is so remarkably used in the camera.\n\nWhen that sensitive composition of chemicals that forms the \"film\" and\nwhich produces such a vivid and lasting likeness of ourselves is freshly\nmade, it possesses that vital something we call \"life.\"\n\nBut allow this film to remain unused for a period of time, and it will\nno longer be able to perform its remarkable work. It will not possess\nthe \"life\" to take a picture or to record an impression.\n\nIf a premature \"exposure\" of the film is made, it loses its vital\nquality because of the mixture with other elements, or because of the\nevaporation of its constituent parts.\n\nIt is not necessary to analyze all the properties of that film to show\nthe principle whereby it performs its wonderful work. The general\nprinciple, showing its marvelous use while intact and its utter\nuselessness when its composition is no longer the same, should be\nsufficient to illustrate the comparison.\n\nThis illustration can with force and conviction be applied to the\npeculiar quality and nature of our \"soul\" and brain. As long as the\nbrain is incased within our skull, and fully protected from contact with\nany other substance to alter or to change its integrity, it will perform\nall that is warranted of it. In the case of our brain, though, besides\nthe importance of keeping it protected from outside chemical action, the\nvital element concerned in its continuity of life lies in the importance\nof keeping it constantly nourished and supplied with the remarkable\nqualities of the vital substance of blood.\n\nThe moment the blood supply to the brain is stopped, our brain loses its\nmost important constituent, with the ultimate and inevitable result of\ninertia, decomposition and decay. When this condition happens we are\nthen \"dead\" and, like the proverbial egg, \"all the King's horses and all\nthe King's men cannot put Humpty Dumpty together again.\"\n\nIf we possessed a soul, and it were of a permanent and special quality,\nit would maintain its impressions and remember its existence.\n\nIt could pass through innumerable periods and know its many and varied\njourneys.\n\nEven memory, so unreliable in our short life, bespeaks the utter\nimpossibility of such a thing as a soul with a permanent and lasting\nexistence.\n\nThat which we call the \"soul\" is nothing but a chemical composition,\nthat can and _does_ lose its permanency while we are still alive.\n\nWe are acquainted with a number of chemical compositions that must\nremain in a pacific state to maintain their identity, so those chemical\nforces that compose our \"soul\" must perforce maintain their\nequilibrium.\n\nIf we are stunned, or suffer any of the many conditions that upset\nchemical compounds and compositions, we, for the time being, suffer\neither \"unconsciousness\" or some other form of mental disability.\n\nIf we are shocked too severely, we become totally and permanently\nimpaired, and suffer violent fits and fearful rages, insanity or\nimbecility.\n\nDifferent shocks, and even forms of disease, result in certain action\nupon our chemical brain, which causes it to lose only part of its\nability. Extreme high fever is only one form of illness which causes the\nbrain to lose its stability and run rampant and unbridled.\n\nIf I were fully cognizant of all forms and degrees of disease, I could\nrecite exactly how they act and in what degree they harm the delicate\norganism of our brain. In many instances shocks or diseases too powerful\nfor our brain to withstand, cause that portion of our brain that may\ncontrol our speech, our sight, our hearing, our limbs or other organs to\nlose its power, with the consequence that we must suffer and be\nhandicapped with what is properly called \"a great affliction.\"\n\nScience to-day has discovered that great truth, and has not only\ncatalogued the different portions of the brain in their individual\ndepartments or capacities, but, by a master stroke of surgery, can\ncorrect and remedy those impaired parts, and give back to the human\nbeing the use of those valuable organs that the invisible agents of\nNature had taken away.\n\nSo, instead of the brain's possessing a \"soul,\" we find it, only in a\nmore delicate degree, a mechanical formation such as we discovered our\nbody to be.\n\nBut if we possess a soul and it is capable of passing through the many\nand varied stages that life suffers, what becomes of its impressions?\nWhat and where are the benefits of its retention?\n\nWhere is the soul when we are in a state of unconsciousness? Surely, if\nthe soul were ever present to guard and maintain life, it would be\nstanding by and using its power when it is most needed. We have no\noccasion for help when we are not in danger. It is when power can be\nused and exercised that it should be manifested.\n\nEven love, the great compelling force of our life, is subject to the\nvariations of our chemical \"soul,\" its attractions and repulsions.\n\nIf two form the unit of reproduction, and love is the great mating\nmedium of Nature, then once it is animated, once it is brought into\nexistence, it should endure permanently, and the possessors should at\nleast enjoy their blissful companionship until the end. But no. Nature\nwould entice, and then destroy, this most consuming feeling of life.\n\nTwo persons can start life with the most irresistible attraction and\nirrepressible love and within a very short time, unless they guard their\nlove with every means and weapon of advanced thought and reason, Nature,\nthrough her duplicity, will provide searching eyes to alienate their\naffection, causing a wretchedness unparalleled in the mental miseries of\nmankind's life.\n\nThe saddest state of all is when two persons, with the sacred devotion\nof love, cohabit and the happy result is loving children, and yet\nwhile this happy family, free from Nature's pitfalls and snares, are\nliving in a peaceful and blissful state, there exists the ever-menacing\n\"devil\" who tempts the loving wife and mother to follow the\nwill-o'-the-wisp--and thereby undoes and destroys the greatest kingdom\nof life.\n\nThe devoted husband and father, by the flash of an eye, and the charm of\na face, can forsake his sacred ties of devotion and become a degenerate\nand outcast, with death as his only salvation. In either case Nature\nstands by with a sneer upon her lips, and God forgets his obligation to\nhis children. But the final analysis proves beyond doubt that the\nphysical attraction is responsible for this action; and who can deny\nthat it is the chemical attraction of two forces that produced this\nirresistible desire?\n\n\n\n\nXII\n\n\nIf the life we live be a kindergarten or infancy of a larger and better\nlife somewhere else, Nature defeats her own ends, because myriads pass\non, leave here, with the most dwarfed intellects, utterly unprepared to\nlive here, and much less prepared to live in a higher state and on a\nmore lofty plane.\n\nWere such a condition true, that this is but a transitory existence, we\nshould all have to go through the same schooling of life, and be\nindelibly impressed with its lesson, with conviction and understanding\nthat the same mistakes would never be repeated, or the acquired\nknowledge would be constantly and forever used.\n\nThere would be no deaths in infancy, as each child born would be\npurposely sent here; neither would there be premature deaths, as no one\ncould leave without \"learning his lesson.\"\n\nThere would be a fixed standard of knowledge and development that we\nwould be required to attain. Knowledge, or whatever condition Nature\nimposed, would be our destiny, and we would devote our entire life to\nits acquirement.\n\nAs it is, we bend our efforts and use our strength to avoid and to\nescape the acquisition of knowledge.\n\nIf our life were given to us in order to pass through a school of\nexperience, the simplest truths would immediately manifest themselves to\nour minds, and conviction would be instant and permanent.\n\nBut how sadly untrue is this premise!\n\nFor thousands, aye, for millions of years, the people have been\nstupefied with the most ignorant and foolish superstition. An instance\nthat will present with great force an illustration of the utter folly of\nthe contention that we are living on this planet as a lesson in school,\nlies in the fact that for thousands of years people not only believed\nbut religiously guarded the belief that the earth was flat.\n\nEven to-day, with irrefutable demonstrations of the truth, there are\nsome people who either cannot, or will not, accept it.\n\nAs desirable as this theory of a transitory state may be, it is even\ncontrary to Nature herself. The entire scheme of Nature seems to be\nfashioned upon the same principle as our life. The fearful struggle of\nthe elements involved squares identically with our own existence. Even\nthe gigantic constellations, flying with an incalculable velocity,\nleaving destruction and desolation in their tracks, meet in their\nignorant and blind journey the same fate as we meet. Recent astronomical\ndiscoveries speak of a struggle constantly taking place in those areas.\n\nThe belief of an existence after death is so untenable in the face of\nmany scientific discoveries of to-day, and of the irrefutable facts\nthat are constantly staring us in the face, that an instance or two are\nall that are necessary to prove the fallacy of such a belief.\n\nUnder many circumstances we are unable to recognize our own blood\nrelations after a lapse of a certain length of time. Parents fail to\nknow their children; and children their parents. This is equally true in\nevery comparison and degree of relationship. Features and\ncharacteristics undergo such a decided change and transformation that\nrecognition is ofttimes even impossible. Even the law courts are\ncontinually called upon to determine the proper identity of persons, to\nestablish the ownership of property by other means than by personal\nidentification. Most remarkable of all, under new conditions, we do not\nrecognize ourselves within the interval of only a few seconds!\n\nTry this if you would seek proof, and convince yourself that recognition\nof your own personality is momentarily impossible, and that you must\nresort to other senses than that of sight to identify yourself.\n\nPut a wig upon your head, blacken your face, \"make up\" your features,\nand when you have finished and are completely unaware of your changed\nappearance, look into the mirror for your reflection and feel the\nsensation of the startling fact that you know not yourself.\n\nWe speak of changes so radical in a person's appearance that we often\nsay we could not recognize him \"in a thousand years.\"\n\nWhat a ridiculous presumption it is, then, to maintain that we live\nafter death when _all_ senses are gone and perception is dead!\n\nAgain, how anyone can say that when we die we go to \"heaven\" is too\nchildish to consider, because when we die, instead of going up and to\nheaven, we are put deep into the ground to moulder and to rot away.\n\nWhat a far-fetched conclusion it is to assume that we live after death,\nminus all the physical characteristics and under conditions utterly\nincomprehensible to our minds! Even if, at death, the body turned into\ninvisible gases it would mean and prove absolutely nothing.\n\nIf we live after death, by what means can one person communicate with\nanother?\n\nWe cannot feel, because we have no hands.\n\nWe cannot see, because we have no eyes.\n\nWe cannot smell, because we have no nose.\n\nWe cannot hear, because we have no ears.\n\nWe cannot taste, because we have no mouth, no stomach.\n\nBut, with it all, these five mediums of sense are dependent upon a\n_living brain_.\n\nThe fact that we suffer the loss of our senses even before death,\nbecause of the complications in the make-up of our body, should be\nsufficient proof of the nonexistence of a soul and the utter\nimpossibility of a life after death.\n\nUnless we retain and maintain our sacred ties after death, another life\nis valueless and void, useless and unnecessary. It is a fearful sadness\nto think that the ones you love are to pass away into nothingness and be\nno more; that the sparkling eyes will be dim forever; that the rosy\ncheeks will no longer glow with radiant health; that the ruby lips will\nfade into a deathly blue, motionless and forever still; that dimpled\nhands and loving arms will never encircle you again, and the supremacy\nand tenderness of your love must be crushed with a cold and callous\nferocity.\n\nBut, sad and mournful as it is, with the human heart beating hopelessly\nagainst hope for only one more chance to kiss and caress and love the\none you so dearly cherish, it is nevertheless only too poignantly true\nthat death ends all.\n\nDeath means nothing to the affairs of the world.\n\nTo be taken from amid the world in such an ever-living condition as now\nexists, is like taking a cup of water from an ever-full pail. The gap is\nimmediately filled, and the level of the water simultaneously adjusted,\nleaving absolutely no trace of what has been withdrawn. Only the\nindividual suffers. What a mighty burst of heart there would be if we\nall could feel and suffer at the same time!\n\nNature makes no difference and knows no distinction between the living\nand the dead. The warm and tender rays of the sun, and its blistering\nheat, fall alike upon the crying, innocent babe and the lifeless,\nunfeeling corpse.\n\nThe sun does not shine to give us its necessary heat, without also\nbringing to light some new problem and pain for our over-troubled hearts\nto bear.\n\nMurder, rape and greed look no different to Nature than goodness, virtue\nand unselfishness.\n\nTears were made for the things that God causes, laughter is the result\nof man's efforts.\n\n\n\n\nXIII\n\n\nIt is man's labor, man's work, man's achievement, that gives us the\nlittle desire that we have to live. How often do we prefer _death_ to\nliving life in our former condition, after our efforts have brought us\nto a point of vantage and comfort!\n\nDeath is always preferable to the living of a \"dog's life!\" And yet,\nwith it all, the little improvement we have to-day, with the still\nremaining cruel conditions of Nature left to endure and fight, has not\nbeen worth the struggle through the black and bleak past. The price has\nbeen entirely too severe for the little that has been gained.\n\nGod gives man nothing; man gives man everything!\n\nWhat sublime courage it was that made the pathfinders of the past\nsacrifice their lives, in order that their principles of truth might\ntriumph, so that another link might be made in the chain of progress\nthat is endeavoring to break the spell of a tyrant power.\n\nYou must be made to know that for whatever desirable condition we have\nto-day we are indebted to heroic men and women of the past, who, in the\ndays of infant progress, achieved a moral, physical and intellectual\ntriumph.\n\nThe chair you sit on, the cup you drink from, the fork you eat with, the\nlight you read by, the bed you sleep in, the heat that warms you, the\nshoes on your feet, the clothes upon your back, the hat upon your head,\nand every part and particle of improvement that has enriched the world\nwith a little touch of human comfort are the result of the heroic labors\nof the men and women of the past, who victoriously fought the accursed\nand chaotic forces of Nature, so as to make life and living a little\nbetter.\n\nBut at every step and stage of progress the dogmatists have exerted\ntheir influence toward retardation. What these dogmatists were unable\nto accomplish through fear and suppression, they accomplished through\nostracism, and death. Human advancement and progress are foreign to the\n\"believing\" mind. The dogmatists are concerned only with the\n\"supernatural.\" They want not the comforts of life here if they can\nsecure those benefits \"hereafter.\"\n\nIt is the attitude of the religious to belittle anything that is\ndesigned for human betterment. Their philosophy is, the more you suffer\nhere, the less you will suffer \"hereafter.\" Their humility to and fear\nof this \"unseen\" power is the most degrading trait in human beings. It\nis a frame of mind not only despicable and a hindrance in the face of\nprogress, but even antagonistic to and destructive of all things worth\nwhile.\n\nTo them, the insanity of belief is of paramount importance, and is more\nsacred and holy than human life. Aye, human life has been so\nsubordinated to this superstitious belief that it meant death in the\npast to those who rejected it.\n\nRather observe some \"holy day\" than perform \"work\" to help some fellow\nhuman being in distress. Murder, rather than eat meat on a \"forbidden\nday\"! This frame of mind is one of the mental mysteries that science has\nyet to solve.\n\n\n\n\nXIV\n\n\nThe rotundity of the earth was discussed and its circumference\nscientifically measured hundreds of years before the supposed birth of\nChrist, and had not the \"God believers\" been so persistent in forcing\ntheir belief upon others, and had not Christianity been born, I can see\nhow the discovery of America would have been accomplished about a\nthousand years before the discovery by Columbus; and the incalculable\nprogress which would have been the consequence would have carried\nmankind beyond the boldest imagination of to-day, and placed us a\nthousand years nearer civilization.\n\nHero, a mathematician, who lived at the time when the Greek minds were\nthe marvel of the world, invented a steam engine, which was used in\nexperiments and was rapidly nearing completion and perfection, when,\nunfortunately, ignorant and destructive Religion, that was madly\ntrampling upon everything of value, destroyed the famous Alexandrian\nLibrary wherein was kept a model of this engine. It also swept away the\nincalculable wealth of knowledge that had required ages to accumulate,\nand thereby completely annihilated the most priceless possessions that\nthe human race ever owned.\n\nBut that is not all; it is only a fragment. For history at every stage\nof life shows the continual strife between the forces of progress and\nthe religious fanatic and God believer.\n\nWhat is that strange form of insanity that prompts people to torture and\nto destroy those who seek to emancipate them from the _Tyranny of God_\nand from the deluded belief in a hereafter?\n\nThe attitude of all, each and every one of us, should ever be the desire\nand willingness to greet a new idea, to support a new thought, to try a\nnew proposal, to do all in our power to uphold the forces of progress,\nto lend our help and to devote our energies in any direction that will\nultimately lead us from the cruel forces and narrow limitations that are\nour lot to share.\n\nTo those who have no thought for these things, who care not what forces\nand conditions man must face, who take without thought and give only\nthrough compulsion, whose self-satisfied condition (made possible only\nby the heroic work of the martyrs of progress) make of them personal\nheroes, whose life is wrapped within the flicker of a day, who do not\nknow, do not realize, and do not care about the fearful suffering of the\nworld--I say to them to strut their intoxicated hour and pass away. The\nsooner they live their lives and the sooner they die, the better for the\nearth. It needs fertilization.\n\nWere we as mentally progressive as we are materially advanced, what a\nwonderful and magnificent improvement over the present living conditions\nwe would be enjoying! Every new invention, every new improvement, would\nbe immediately and universally installed, and every old and antiquated\ninstrument and method would be discarded and destroyed. That which now\nseems only within the command of the households of the immensely\nwealthy, would be as popularly used and enjoyed as the now commonly used\narticles in the poorest households.\n\nThink of existing to-day in a predominant percentage of dwellings for\nhuman beings where there is not found the essential bathtub, or the\nstill more essential toilet room!\n\nGovernments are instituted for the people's benefit, and shame upon such\na government, in an enlightened age like to-day, that tolerates such a\ncondition, when that government possesses the men, the means, the\nintellect and the materials to electrify the world!\n\nThe first and foremost essential in higher development is the comfort\nand conveniences in a home.\n\nThese are some of the conditions that the progressive minds of the world\nare trying to solve and remedy. It is only a question of how much\nlonger the majority of people will pay homage to an imaginary God for\nimaginary benefits in an imaginary life after death.\n\n\n\n\nXV\n\n\nIt is the antagonism of the dogmatic world, and the apathy of the rest,\nthat is the cause of the mental progress of the world's not keeping pace\nwith the material progress.\n\nBetter still, the universal application of the material progress has\nbeen far in advance of the universal acceptance of mental achievement.\nThe automobile, the gigantic ocean liner, the talking machine, the\nelectric fan, the elevator, the telephone and the other marvelous\nachievements of man are being used by the greater portion of the people,\nwhose mental status belongs to the wheelbarrow, the simple chair, the ox\ncart and the tallow candle.\n\nSlight is the realization by the users and beneficiaries of science's\nmodern methods, of the heroic struggles and battles that the great men\nand women of the past suffered to make possible these accomplishments.\n\nOh, how many suffered torture and death at the hands of the very people\nthey were striving to benefit!\n\nThis same fate has been met by all the brave and courageous, during the\npast, who have made any attempt to broaden the life and to ease the pain\nof the troubled heart of humanity.\n\nThe unselfish endeavors of man have made it possible to take the dumb\nmatter of earth and mold it so the voices of the present can be heard by\nthe ears of the future; so that several generations may hear and know,\nwith a touch of human affection, the traits, features and\ncharacteristics of their ancestors. Language gives us their thoughts,\nthe camera gives us their natural, life-like features and the phonograph\ntheir actual, living voices!\n\nNature never did so much. As far as Nature is concerned, bastardy may\nrule the world!\n\nOne of the comforts of life is that we live again in actions and scenes,\nwhich, although they are apart from our own lives, really belong to the\npast or future races. But Nature sees to it that the births and deaths,\nthe knowledge and acquaintance of each and every generation, are so\nclosely allied that none of us is allowed to escape the suffering of the\nworld and the agony of life and death. No person can avoid the pain and\nthe terrible fear that all must endure.\n\nNo one person can live, move about and possess the varied improvements\nof the earth's materials all by himself. He is indebted to others for\ntheir accomplishments, and they in turn are indebted to him for the\nimprovements he renders. In short, we are all so closely allied with the\nactions and lives of one another that there should be a mutual\nappreciation and a common understanding among all.\n\nThe farmer may know nothing about manufacturing; the manufacturer may\nknow nothing about farming; the artist, the explorer, the thinker, the\ninventor and the scientist may know nothing about any field of endeavor\nother than his own, yet all are inter-dependent.\n\nWith such a condition existing, and with the uncertainty of life forever\nstaring us in the face, and _no one exempt_ from its terrible enactment,\nit is a _marvelous_ wonder to me why there exist so tenaciously in the\nhuman heart all the petty and aggravating tempers, prejudices and\njealousies.\n\nWhat man has done with the forces of Nature are inspiring deeds. What\nprogress has been made in opposing the forces of Nature is marvelous.\nWhat man will accomplish in the future with the arrogant forces of\nNature stimulates our hearts with the sweet satisfaction of a victory of\nthe first magnitude.\n\nBut in the final analysis, what does it avail us?\n\nGeologists tell us that the greater portion of the materials that we\nhave taken from the field of Nature consists of the buried bones and\nbodies of our ancient ancestors, who passed through greater periods of\nagony, torment, disease and death than we are finally and eventually to\nmeet!\n\nWhat sort of crust in the earth's formation are we to make? What will be\nthe product of the future living forces that will utilize the materials\nthat our bodies will make? What will be the future living forces?\n\nIt is fearfully sad to contemplate that life must continue and be\nsubject to the miserable laws that now govern it.\n\nInsect man, with his almost tireless industry, makes clothes to cover\nhis ugly and awkward body; builds houses to shelter him from the winds\nand the torrents of Nature; fashions glittering palaces of amusement to\ncheer his troubled heart; compounds an\u00e6sthetics to ease his pain; carves\nwood to replace his broken limbs; molds metal to take the place of those\nthings that Nature has made inadequate for his use. In short, man has\nimproved upon Nature to uphold his frail body, to strengthen his weak\nbones, and to soothe his tender heart.\n\nThat man, fighting the forces of Nature, has been able to accomplish so\nmuch is simply glorious, and this progress is an achievement of such\nwonderful magnitude that we are thrilled at the thought, and bow in\ngrateful recognition for the benefits derived and the relief enjoyed.\n\nBut why did not God institute all the benefits for the immediate use of\nman, so they could be enjoyed upon the first manifestation of his\nunderstanding?\n\nWhy was it necessary to go through the fearful period of past history\nand gain, only after a most gigantic struggle, the few things that we\nnow use for our comfort?\n\nThat these things could have been done is proved by the fact that man\nhas done them. Fundamentally they always existed. Man has only\ndiscovered and applied them. And these things that we have gained\nto-day, from the struggles of the past, would have been equally enjoyed\nby those who lived before us, with the same degree of benefit, just as\nthe future will find, use and enjoy those things that we do not possess,\nand without which we shall be pinched, and pained, through the\nhelter-skelter of this troublesome life.\n\nI brand as brutal tyranny this scheme of life, that forces us to be a\nlink in a long series of lives to produce something for the benefit of\nthe far-distant future, that we, ourselves, imperatively need but shall\nnot possess.\n\nI cry and denounce and plead, in behalf of future humanity, to\ncircumvent and to defeat this \"sorry scheme of life,\" that uses us as an\ninstrument to produce something that we cannot use, do not know about\nand have not the understanding to comprehend.\n\n\n\n\nXVI\n\n\n\"In God We Trust,\" on coins that represent our labor and our endeavor,\nis an insult to the intelligence, courage and independence of the\npeople, and a stinging rebuke to those responsible for our progress.\n\nA motto that more truthfully represents our material progress and\nintellectual development would be: \"In Science We Trust;\" or, \"Humanity\nand Justice Our Aim.\"\n\nThe more we eliminate God from us, the more we are _one without him_,\nthe better for us all, the better for humanity, the better for all the\nworld. The less we \"know\" of God, the less God that is \"in us,\" the more\n_human_ we become.\n\nThe greatest, most frightful and destructive wars of all time have been\nthose which were started in \"defense\" of God, as if \"he\" cared what man\nsays or does.\n\nThe most frightful and torturous instruments ever conceived by man are\nthose that were made to force people to \"believe in\" God.\n\nThe history of religious persecution and torture is the horror of the\nworld.\n\nMay I ask, where was God, and what did he do, to stop this frightful\nnightmare of torture committed in \"his\" name?\n\nAnd may I answer for you, that he was where Moses was when the light\nwent out?\n\nRemember this: There will never be a solution to any of our fundamental\nproblems, and mankind will never, in the full sense of the word, be\nfree, as long as there exists in the human mind the insanity of\nreligious belief. As long as God occupies a portion of our thoughts,\nmankind must be content to suffer the hatred and antagonism of man.\n\nLet us make up our minds now, let us resolve now, to stop fighting one\nanother, and fight God by helping one another.\n\nLet us stop fighting our fellow prisoners and fellow sufferers, and\nfight God.\n\nLet us help our fellow prisoners and fellow sufferers.\n\nLet us cleanse our minds of this superstitious poison of an \"after\nlife,\" and work and labor for the good and welfare of Here and Now.\n\nWe possess the knowledge and the means and, within the span of only one\nday, could bring about the much-longed-for \"Brotherhood of Man.\"\n\nWe could eliminate hatred from our hearts, and instill Justice as our\nguide. We could eradicate poverty from our midst and bring happiness to\nsorrowing mankind. We could blot out tyranny among men and exchange it\nfor the priceless legacy of freedom and make the relation between man\nand man bear some semblance of humanity.\n\nBut--and I say this with redoubled conviction, and with all the power,\nforce, energy and vehemence that I possess--if we are Nature's best\nendeavor, if man is Nature's best product, if the Natural world is\nincapable of any improvement, and life will forever be made to submit to\nthe tyrannical conditions of Nature, then it were better ten thousand\ntimes over, that life were never called into existence, and that the\nuniverse were null and void!\n\nTHE END\n\n\n\n\nEDISON LETTER TO JOSEPH LEWIS\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\n    _From the Laboratory of Thomas A. Edison, Orange, N.J._\n\n     August 18, 1921.\n\n     Mr. Joseph Lewis, c/o The Truth Publishing Co., 1400 Broadway, New\n     York City.\n\n     Dear Sir:--\n\n     I received your book--\"The Tyranny of God\"--and have read it\n     through. I think as you do that death ends all, yet I do not feel\n     certain, because there are many facts that seem to show that the\n     real units of life are not the animal mechanism itself, but groups\n     of millions of small entities living in the visible cells. The\n     animal being their mechanism for navigating the environment, and\n     when the mechanism fails to function, i.e. die, the groups go out\n     into space to go thru another cycle. The entities are each highly\n     organized and perform their allotted task. If there is anything\n     like this we still have a fighting chance. You have doubtless read\n     interviews I have given lately on this subject. They appeared in\n     the Scientific Monthly for October 30, 1920 and the Cosmopolitan\n     for May, 1920.\n\n     Yours very truly,\n\n      Thos A Edison\n\n\nFamous Inventor Gives Views of Death and Immortality in Correspondence\nwith Author of \"The Tyranny of God.\"","title":"The Tyranny of God","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":16277}