The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1884-02-14
Women Degraded by the Bible.
IRON the New York Times

From the New York TimeS.l
We have had female acrobats, fe
male bicyclistS and female ball play
ers. That we now have a female
atheist is what might have been eX
pected. Mr.. Bob Ingersoll long age
demonstrated by the success of his
lectures that atheism may be made &
profitable profession, and if people
will flock to hear a man biaspheme
his Maker they will flock with still
greater alacrity to hear woman per,
form similar feat. A female athe.
ist, being more unusual than a male
atheist, can hardly fail to be more at
tractive, and her blasphemies will
have piquancy peculiarly their
own.
| Women ought to be profoundly
grateful to the female lecturer who
on Sunday last, denounced the Bible
and the Christian religion as the enc
mics Of women. There has always
been an impression that Christianity
had elevated women, but a few intel
| Ggent atheists have never failed to
recognize the folly of this impression.
The female lecturer fearleSsly charged
| the Bible with insulting, enslaving
and degrading women. This charge
is so true and forcibly expressed that
it ought to win for the lecturer the
enthusiastic gratitude of her sex.
The religion OF the Bible teaches
that woman has a soul. The lecturer
evidently regards this as an atrocious
calumny, and there can be no doubt
that the belief that woman has soul
has done much to degrade her. 1t has
made it seem necessary for her to Sc
cure the safety of her alleged soul by
embracing the Christian religion, and
that religion requires its VotarieS to
obey the laws of morality. No I'M
prejudiced person, therefor, will
deny that religion enslaveS women.
Nothing could be more conclusive
than this argument.
The Bible has also degraded woman
by teaching the revolving dogma that
we should treat others as we desire to
be treated. This dogma is perhaps
unobiectionable when it governs the
treatment Of women by men, but it
degrades woman by curtailing her lib
critics. 1t requires wife to treat her
husband kindly no matter what her
natural impulses may be, and it for
bids woman to be selfish and unfeel-
ing in her conduct toward others.
Just so far as woman obeys these un-
just demands she becomes slave, and
is consequently degraded. She can
only become free by renouncing
Christianity and treating its require
mentS with contempt.
Christianity, with its insulting as
sumption that woman has soul, and
its tyrannical demand that she shall
be unselfish and obedient to the laws
of morality, is, as the lecturer showed
on Sunday, utterly beneath the notice
OF a true woman. If woman is
weak enough to want religion, let her
embrace Mohammedanism which does
not insult her by theories as to her
pretended soul, and threatens her with
no worse punishment than the whip
or the boWstring of her husband.
There, is Mormonism, which does not
compel a wife to live in solitude with
her husband, but gives her the COM
pany of other wives, and so elevates
her mind and morals, 1t is astonish-
ing that the world should so long have
accepted the claim that Christianity
elevates woman and lovers of truth
cannot be too grateful to the noble
female atheist who has exposed the
falsity of the claim exercised for her
self her natural right to shrek "There
amt no God, and 1 wouldn't believe
in Him if there was Now there"