The Bible of Bibles; Or, Twenty-Seven "Divine" Revelations. Kersey Graves
of Contents
We maintain, 1st, That man's mental faculties are susceptible of a threefold division and classification, as follows: First, the intellectual department; second, the moral and religious department; third, the animal department (which includes also the social).
2d, That all Bibles and religions are an outgrowth from some or all of these faculties, and hence of natural origin.
3d, That all Bibles and religions which originated prior to the dawn of civilization in the country which gave them birth (i.e., prior to the reign of moral and physical science) are an emanation from the combined action and co-operation of man's moral, religious, and animal feelings and propensities.
4th, That the Christian Bible contains (as shown in this work) several thousand errors,—moral, religious, historical, and scientific.
5th, That this fact is easily accounted for by observing that it originated at a period when the moral and religious feelings of the nation which produced it co-operated with the animal propensities instead of an enlightened intellect.
6th, That, although such a Bible and religion may have been adapted to the minds which originated them, the higher class of minds of the present age demands a religion which shall call into exercise the intellect, instead of the animal propensities.
7th, That, as all the Bibles and religions of the past are more of an emanation from the animal propensities than the intellect, they are consequently not suited to this age, and are for this reason being rapidly abandoned.
8th, That true religion consists in the true exercise of the moral and religious faculties.
9th, As the Christian Bible is shown in this work to inculcate bad morals, and to sanction, apparently, every species of crime prevalent in society in the age in which it was written, the language of remonstrance is frequently employed against placing such a book in the hands of the heathen, or the children of Christian countries; and more especially against making "the Bible the fountain of our laws and the supreme rule of our conduct," and acknowledging allegiance to its God in the Constitution of the United States, as recommended by the American Christian Alliance. Such measures, this work shows by a thousand facts, would be a deplorable check to the moral and intellectual progress of the world.
10th, If any clergyman or Christian professor shall take any exceptions to any position laid down in this work, the author will discuss the matter with him in a friendly manner in the papers, or through the post-office, or before a public audience.
Kersey Graves.
Richmond, Indiana
THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.
CHAPTER I.—THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES.
We live in the most important age in the history of the world. No age preceding it was marked with such signal events. No other era in the history of civilization has been characterized by such agitation of human thought; such a universal tendency to investigation; such a general awakening upon all important subjects of human inquiry; such a determination to grow in knowledge, and cultivate the immortal intellect, and mount to higher plains of development. The world of mind is in commotion. All civilized nations are agitated from center to circumference with the great questions of the age. And what does all this prove? Why, that man is a progressive being; that the tendency of the human mind is onward and upward; and that it will not always consent to be bound down in ignorance and superstition. And, thanks to the genius of the age, it is the prophecy of the glorious reformation and regeneration of society,—an index of a happier era in the history of the human race. Old institutions are crumbling, and tumbling to the ground. The iron bands of creeds and dogmas, with which the people have been so long bound down, are bursting asunder, and permitting them to walk upright, and do their own thinking. In every department of science, in every arena of human thought and every theater of human action, we see a progressive spirit, we behold a disposition to lay aside the traditions and superstitions of the past, and grasp the living facts of the age. We everywhere see a disposition to abandon the defective institutions, political and religious, which were gotten up in the childhood of human experience, and supplant them with those better adapted to the wants of the age. In a word, there is everywhere manifested a disposition and determination to unshackle the human body, and set free the human mind, and place it with its living aspirations on the road to the temple of Truth. An evidence of the truth of these statements the reader can gather by casting his eyes abroad, or by reading the periodicals of the day. At this very time nearly all the orthodox churches are in a state of commotion. The growing light and intelligence of the age, penetrating their dark creeds and dogmas, are producing a sort of moral effervescence. The question of "hell" is now the agitating theme of the churches. Posterity will ridicule us, and class us with the unenlightened heathen, for discussing a question so far behind the times, and one so childish and so absurd in this intelligent and enlightened age. To condescend to discuss such a question now must be Well enough for scientific and intelligent minds. And other important religious events mark the age. When the Roman-Catholic Church, through its Ecumenical Council, dragged the Pope from his lofty throne of usurped power, and robbed him of his attribute of infallibility, it proclaimed the downfall of the Pope and the death-knell of the Church. Already thousands of his subjects refuse longer to bow down and kiss the big toe of his sacred majesty. His scepter has departed, his spiritual power is gone, his temporal power is waning. And the same spirit of agitation is operating as a leaven in the Protestant churches also. All the orthodox churches are declining and growing weaker by their members falling off. The Methodist Church has recently lost more than two hundred of its preachers; and the Baptist Church, according to the statement of a recent number of "The Christian Era," has lost twenty-two thousand of its members within a period of five years. The agitation in the churches is driving thousands from their ranks, while many who remain are becoming more liberal-minded. The orthodox Quaker Church has, in many localities, "run clear off the track."
It has abandoned its old time-honored peculiarities in dress and language, once deemed by them sacred, and essential to true godliness. The use of "thee" and "thou" is laid aside by many of its members; and even leading members have given up the "shad-bellied coat," and the round-crowned hat with a brim broad enough to "cover a multitude of sins." They no longer wait for "the Holy Ghost" to move them to preach; but, as a member once remarked, "they go it on their own hook, like the Methodists, hit or miss." Music, once regarded by many of them as an emanation from "an emissary of the Devil," is now admitted into many of their churches. Thus it will be seen they are making some progress. The light without is benefiting them more than "the light within." All the orthodox systems committed a fatal error at the outset in assuming that their religions were derived directly from God, and consequently must be perfect and unalterable, and a finality in moral and religious progress. Such an assumption will cause the downfall, sooner or later, of any religious body which persists in propagating the error. Religious institutions, like all other institutions, are subject to the laws of growth and decay. Hence, if their doctrines and creeds are not improved occasionally to make them conform to the growing light and intelligence of the age and the principles of science, they will fall behind the times, cease to answer the moral and religious wants of the age, and become a stumbling-block in the path of progress. Common sense would teach us that the doctrines preached by the churches two hundred years ago must be as much out of place now as the wooden shoes and bearskin coats worn by the early disciples would be for us. Their spiritual food is by no means adapted to our moral and religious wants. We are under no more moral and religious obligation whatever to preach the doctrines of original sin, the fall of man, endless punishment, infant damnation, &c.,