The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-01-20

you pretend 10 CLEAN from your coveted
but irreconcilable book.
Do not attempt again to vindicate a
superstition that is in power to-day, only
by the force of arms. Reasons cheek
bushes with shame for you every Cme
you proceed to argue your case before
the public
II my argument could continue, l
would show up the righteousness. incon-
sistencies and absurdities OF the book on
which you rely for the foundations or
your superstition. Do not sanction Com
stockism at the close or the 18th century
A mind must be debilitated that rejects
reason for hope, mournfully advising
his confederates to occupy their minds
during this life in preparing for the fu-
ture-in preparing to meet a God who
ushered them into this world WITHOUT
their consent and who takes chem out
at His will. and Furnishes them or re-
wards them according to their God-
given dispositions. When we attempt 10
argus with. devotee of superstition, we
are confronted with the Stiffness % the
| simpleton, who. wishing to cross the NV
er. went on board the boat on horse
back. When asked the rsaSr m. Ne sn-
swered that he wanted TO get over IN
hurry.
Not so with the Christians however.
they are not in a hurry TO get over the
| river. they are like the Greek cpisram-
| atist was, over the immortality OF Eur
| pides, who wrote that,
IF IL be true that in the grave the
dead
Have sense and knowledge. az some
men have said.
I'd hang myself to see Euripides
We find none of the Christians of TO-
| day ready to hang themselves. not even
| TO see Wesley or Calvin. II you read an
argument which ought TO undeceive you
of your childish notions. you at once Il
| can perceive) become irritated, hence
your reply to said argument corresponds
| with your childish notions. When one
tells the truth relative to orthodox SUI
perstition-that the clergymen have
preached and prayed six thousand years
| without having one of their sermons or
| prayers answered by any thing divine.
they. the clergymen. will with one voice.
| cry out, What monster is this that dare
| make such an assertion"
| The only argument the credulous can
| advance, is Faith and Hope"
Poor deluded beings. thus deceived by
their ministers, who take possession of
| their minds as the merchant does of his
| goods, who disposes of his merchandise
to suit the market and his purse. IL is
thus that the people have been kept in
| ignorance for thousands of years, i'm con-
| sequence of these impertinent sermons
| and prayers of the minister's the people
have ever been afraid to express sensible
views on philosophical questions. hence,
| their minds are occupied, and thereby put
to torture, defining the incomprehensible
| and the unknowable.
The Christians make OF their God a be-
ing who has nothing I'm common with
matter. and who. nevertheless has created
matter which he produced from his own
| essence or substance The clergy define
God as pure spirit. devoid of matter, and
yet produced a material body in the i'm
age of himself, therefore, God is des-
cribed as the mirror of the universe. who
fills all space by his immensely, although
the material world occupies some part
in space. If you will reflect upon the in
| consistency of the above conception of
| your God, you will. like your friend the
| writer, become disguised with your idola-
| trous superstition, and turn your atten-
ton to things tangible and explicable, TO
| matters concerning the happiness and
welfare of the people of the only world
of which we have any positive knowl-
edge
trust you will no longer expect grace
from a being who becomes angry at the
involuntary thoughts of those whom He
created. thoughts which. according 10
your sermons, He puts into their heads
and then condemns them TO everlasting
torment for entertaining those thoughts.
| These revolving ideas must necessarily
shock the sense of all right-minded think
ers; these ideas. so appalling must evil
IDENTIFY hurl man and woman into a state
of doubt as TO even the existence of the
Christians God. who exhibits his power
as an inaccessible tyrant everywhere
through his agents. the ministers. who in
turn, to please their pretended monster.
become irritated II anyone questions
their assumed prerogatives. who claim
they have been called TO expound the COS.
pei, TO think for their dupes, and 10
| MI ha haI eha,
may not be able to see the light OF rea-
son, and at the same time claim that
they alone are the elect who can form an
idea of a spirit, which they define as an
immortal being, being which has none
of the properties reason can define. which
occupies no space. and has neither form
or color.
But" say the clergy. 'Tt is by faith We
must be convinced of the existence OF
this spirit" which is to adhere 20 what
the ministers tell us without investiga-
ton. Faith, they say will remove noun
tains, but no mountains have been moved
except by the actions of nature, hence
we are forced to conclude that the minis
tiers know no more than their confeder-
ates. concerning the future. None have
returned from beyond the grave to en-
tighten us. The more the clergy attempt
to explain the various systems OF theol-
ogy, the deeper do they plunge their fol-
| lowers anu themselves INTO uncertainty
concerning their evidence. They have
never produced a scintilla OF proof rela-
tive to that which they claim TO know
so much. Can we then be convinced that
their teachings are correct. when reason
teaches us that n is Incompatible with
harmony and love?
What idea shall we form OF your in.
compatible doctrine? Shall. we blindly
submit TO your monotonous chestnuts
called sermons. that the clergy have beer
hammering on for eighteen hundred
years, which are devoid OF sense a,
they are OF argument? Notwithstanding
all your Sunday talk relative TO the equil
ibrum goodness and mercy OF your in
visible spirit. we behold only order and
disorder following each other in RAPID
succession, which convlnces men Of
thought and observation that nature (,
perpetually exerting itself In combining
and dissolving. In crystalizng and segre
| In bulIdfpu nm and fcarfpu Inuvp