The latter clause of the proposition is so intimately connected, so inseparably interwoven with the former, that what proves the one must necessarily prove the other. In the nature of things, as we find them actually existing, no other result could arise. It is here, my friends, I take my stand upon all these important questions. And it is my deep-rooted conviction, after forty years of the closest investigation of this subject, that it is not in the power of any man living to prove any of these facts untrue, or any of the deductions from them erroneous. My friends, I have already told you that that which opposes the immutable laws of our nature, will be sure to be found, in its consequences, productive only of vice.
Religion lays the foundation for hypocrisy, falsehood, and deception of every description.
Your spiritual pastors tell you that you must believe according to their fanciful notions, and the laws of your nature are continually impelling you to rise up in rebellion against such instructions. Virtue and falsehood, or deception can never exist well together. Our words, looks, and actions, are scarcely anything else but falsehood and deception. Talk not to me of virtue so long as men and women are compelled, by the absurdities of your institutions and erroneous conceptions of all things around you, to be insincere in their language and deceptions in their conduct. Falsehood and virtue can never exist together and now your whole system is false from its foundation upward.