The Savannah morning news., 1901-01-03
HIS BABY TO BE AGxosTIC.
Charles :. Sparks Purposes to Teach
His Child to Pity Christmas.

hhN Anliu ~ Elty
From the New York Herald.
Cincinnati, O., Dec 29-Charlesi s.
Sparks. well-known local attorney and
an ardent follower of lngersoll, intends
to make unique test of agnosticism. His
baby girl, only few months old, win
never be permitted to kneel at her moth
erJs knee. She will be taught no pray
ers. She will be kept from Sunday
school and church. The lessons she will
lisp at her mothers knee will be that
God is a myth, that the Bible is not in
spired, and that the Christian religion Is
false, gloomy and an enemy of humanity.
She will be taught to reason and every
effort will be made to raise her in the
paths of virtue charity and kindness.
In statement which MIR. Sparks has
prepared in explanation of his intentions
regarding the infant, he says:
Although it is true that my wife Is
granddaughter of the late Rev. Richard
Williams, who died on the Isle of Man In
1872, despite that fact and the fact that
al the time of our marriage she was
very devout Episcopaian, she was not
willing to deny the authority of her mind,
and in conjunction with myself read the
Bible and all chronological history.
AbEurditles In the Bible.
eve found in the Bible many contra
dictions, many absurdities. and that the
God of the same upheld polygamy and all
other crimes in the calendar; that David
was a man after the heart OF the Bible
God, and in His name carried on cruel
wars and committed many murders and
outrages on the weak We found that
IL It's authors were inspired men their GOD
made many mistakes, which are attribu-
utable to ignorance only.
1--WE also learned that most of the wars
Of the world have been conducted in the
name of the church; that cruelties UNI
speakable have been committed in the
name of religion; that religion has ever
frowned upon progress; that it has ever
secuted at science, and that 1t is tho
greatest enemy Of the human race.
I'VE also discovered that youth is the
impressionable age, and II we would have
our child lead proper life she must
be taught the plain truth, however OBJ
jectionable it is to the clergy.
I'VE do not care for their criticism.
They may pound the pulpit as much as
they choose, but cannot make a falsehood
fit the truth. We know that we have been
criticised all over the country in our de-
termination to rear little Charlotte Inger-
soll Sparks in the faith of agnosticism.
but their criticism does not throw any
light upon what they are pleased to call
The hereafter
1--WE stil stand between the cold and
barren peaks of two alleged 'eternilies,'
and know that from the underlying dead
there comes no sound.
Reason Her Guide.
Therefore our child shall not be taught
to believe in that of which there is abb
solutely no evidence to substantiate, but
shall be reared in the light of reason; she
shall not be taught the Lords Prayer
1t is suggestive of death. and therefore
has a tendency to produce melancholy.
1t proclaims temptations reminds one of
evil and kingly power and is altogether
useless and harmful to the innocent mind.
Trials, troubles and responsibilities
will come soon enough, therefore We have
determined not to burden our child with
them so long as they may be avoided.
She shall not learn to sing songs to
Him on high except in ridicule, nor as
sociate with children who do. Her mind
shall ever be receptacle for the truth,
and not a waste basket for superstition.
She will be taught honor, virtue and self
esteem; to do all the good she may; to
pity those who bend the knee to an imag-
mary being beyond the clouds; that in
telligent parsons and priests are out for
the money, and do not believe that which
they preach, and are imposing upon the
blind and ignorant; that they are the
stumbling blocks in the way of intellect
ual progress; to be ever mindful of the
feeling and sentiments of Others that en-
vronment is probably the cause of their
ignorant faith; to never intentionally hurt
the feelings of any human being; to be
charitable and tender of disposition; to
the brotherhood of mankind and
that we all spring from a common cause
or source; that she must not go through
life like chicken with the cholera, long
ing 10 die; that she has a higher duty ON
earth than to spend her time i'm idle en-
deavor to live up to the foolish dogmas of
the Church; that this world is not a per-
petual place.; that she must so conduct
herself as to leave an impression for the
good-to do something that will be of
real benefit to man.
SHE shall, If nature spares her, attend
the Liberal University at Sllverton, Ore,
despite the protests of the Christians, and
there study the higher branches Of art
and science. She will there learn to know
that when we die we are Just as dead AS
any other animal, and that II is her duty
during life to leave something to be re-
membered by, except crumbling menu
ment OF stone.
In a Liberal Universit.
"She will learn in the university that