Ernestine Louise Rose

“ You would cleanse and puri­fy the heart of the noxious, poisonous weeds of superstition, with its bitter, deadly fruits—hypoc­risy, bigotry, and intolerance, and fill it with charity and forbearance towards erring humanity. You would give man courage to sustain him in trials and misfortune, sweeten his temper, give him a new zest for the duties, the virtues, and the pleasures of life.
Morality does not depend on the belief in any religion. History gives ample evidence that the more belief the less virtue and goodness. ”

“ The Universe of Matter gives us no record of his existence. Where next shall we search? En­ter the Universe of Mind, read the millions of volumes written on the subject, and in all the speculations, the assertions, the assumptions, the theories, and the creeds, you can only find Man stamped in an indelible impress his own mind on every page. ”

“ The most strenuous believer has to acknowledge that it is only a belief, but he knows nothing on the subject. Where, then, shall we search for his existence? Enter the material world; ask the Sciences whether they can disclose the mystery? Geology speaks of the structure of the Earth, the formation of the different strata, of coal, of granite, of the whole mineral kingdom.—It reveals the remains and traces of animals long extinct, but gives us no clue whereby we may prove the existence of a God. ”

“ Man has talked about him, written about him, disputed about him, fought about him,—sacrificed himself, and extirpated his fellow man. Rivers of blood and oceans of tears have been shed to please him, yet no one has ever been able to demonstrate his existence. ”

“ But if I am unreasonable in asking you to demon­strate the existence of the being you wish me to believe in, are you not infinitely more unreason­able to expect me to believe—blame, persecute, and punish me for not believing—in what you have to acknowledge you cannot understand? ”

“ But, says the Christian, the world exists, and therefore there must have been a God to create it. That does not follow. The mere fact of its exist­ence does not prove a Creator. Then how came the Universe into existence? We do not know; but the ignorance of man is certainly no proof of the existence of a God. Yet upon that very igno­rance has it been predicated, and is maintained. From the little knowledge we have, we are justi­fied in the assertion that the Universe never was created, from the simple fact that not one atom of it can ever be annihilated. ”

“ No one has a right to give the term a false, a forced interpretation, to suit his own purposes, (this applies also to some of the Infidels who stretch and force the term Atheist out of its legitimate significance.) As well might we use the terms Episcopalian, Unitarian, Universalist, to signify vice and corruption, as the term Atheist, which means simply a disbelief in a God, because finding no demonstration of his existence, man's reason will not allow him to believe, nor his conviction to play the hypocrite, and profess what he does not believe. ”

“ But not only have the priests tried to make the very term Atheism odious, as if it would destroy all of good and beautiful in Nature, but some of the reformers, not having the moral courage to avow their own sentiments, wishing to be popular, fearing lest their reforms would be considered Infidel, (as all reforms assuredly are,) shield them­selves from the stigma, by joining in the tirade against Atheism, and associate it with everything that is vile, with the crime of slavery, the corrup­tions of the Church, and all the vices imaginable. ”

“ Distant fear cannot control present passion. It is much easier to confess your sins in the dark, than to acknowledge them in the light; to make it up with a God you don't see, than with a man whom you do. Besides, religion has always left a back door open for sinners to creep out of at the eleventh hour. But teach man to do right, to love justice, to revere truth, to be virtuous, not because a God would reward or punish him here­after, but because it is right ”

“ If only a part, then he could not be its Creator, for a part cannot create the whole. But the world could not have made itself. True; nor could God have made himself; and if you must have a God to make the world, you will be under the same necessity to have another to make him, and others still to make them, and so on until reason and common sense are at a stand-still.
The same argument applies to a First Cause. We can no more admit of a first than a last cause. What is a first cause? ”

“ No; there is no religion in human nature, nor human nature in religion. It is purely artificial, the re­sult of education, while Atheism is natural, and, were the human mind not perverted and bewil­dered by the mysteries and follies of superstition, would be universal.
But the people have been made to believe that were it not for religion, the world would be de­stroyed;—man would become a monster, chaos and confusion would reign supreme. ”

“ We have no knowledge of, nor can we conceive of, intelligence apart from organized matter; and we find that from the small­est and simplest insect, through all the links and gradations in Nature's great chain, up to Man—just in accordance with the organism, the amount, and quality of brain, so are the capacities to re­ceive impressions, the power to retain them, and the abilities to manifest and impart them to others, namely, to have its peculiar nature cultivated and developed, so as to bear mental fruits, just as the cultivated earth bears vegetation—physical fruits. ”

“ What is it all for, unless there were beings capable of admiring, of appreciating, and of en­joying the delights this beautiful world could af­ford? And suiting the action to the impulse, he said, "Let us make man." "So God created man in his own image; in the image of God created he him, male and female created he them." ”

“ It exists only in the perverted mind of the believer, who, while insisting that God was the cause of everything, leaves Him without any cause. The Atheist believes as little in the one as in the other. He knows that no effect could exist without an adequate cause; that everything in the Universe is governed by laws. ”

“ We don't have to teach the general elements of human na­ture,—the five senses, seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting, and feeling. They are universal; so would religion be were it natural, but it is not. On the contrary, it is an interesting and demon­strable fact, that all children are Atheists, and were religion not inculcated into their minds they would remain so. Even as it is, they are great sceptics, until made sensible of the potent weapon by which religion has ever been propagated, name­ly, fear—fear of the lash of public opinion here, and of a jealous, vindictive God hereafter. ”

“ Let him feel the great truth that our highest happiness consists in making all around us happy; and it would be an infinitely truer and safer guide for man to a life of useful­ness, virtue, and morality, than all the beliefs in all the Gods ever imagined.
The more refined and transcendental religionists have often said to me, if you do away with re­ligion, you would destroy the most beautiful ele­ment in human nature—the feeling of devotion and reverence, ideality, and sublimity. ”

“ Instead of reverencing an imagi­nary existence, man would learn to revere justice and truth. Ideality and sublimity would refine his feelings, and enable him to admire and enjoy the ever-changing beauties of Nature; the various and almost unlimited powers and capacities of the human mind ”

“ Design in man's capacity for the acquisition of knowledge, or in his groping in ignorance? In the necessity to obey the laws of health, or in the violation of them, which pro­duces disease? In the desire to be happy, or in the causes that prevent it, and make him live in toil, misery, and suffering? ”

“ The Universe is one vast chemical laboratory, in constant operation, by her internal forces. The laws or principles of attraction, cohesion, and re­pulsion, produce in never-ending succession the phenomena of composition, decomposition, and recomposition. ”

“ The first act recorded of him is, that he created the world out of nothing; but unfortunately the revelation of Science—Chemistry—which is based not on writ­ten words, but demonstrable facts, says that Noth­ing has no existence, and therefore out of Nothing, Nothing could be made. Revelation tells us that the world was created in six days. Here Geolo­gy steps in and says, that it requires thousands of ages to form the various strata of the earth. The Bible tells us that the earth was flat and station­ary, and the sun moves around the earth. ”

“ Where Nature is dumb, and Man igno­rant, Revelation speaks in the authoritative voice of prophecy. Then let us see whether that Reve­lation can stand the test of reason and of truth.—God, we are told, is omnipotent, omniscient, om­nipresent,—all wise, all just, and all good ”

“ The very question strikes them with horror, and it is owing to this prejudice so deeply implanted by education, and also strengthened by public sentiment, that so few are willing to give it a fair and impartial investigation,—knowing but too well that it casts a stigma and reproach upon any person bold enough to undertake the task, unless his previously known opinions are a guar­antee that his conclusions would be in accordance and harmony with the popular demand. ”

“ As it is, Superstition has ever been the great impediment to the acquisition of knowledge. Ev­ery progressive step of man clashed against the two-edged sword of Religion, to whose narrow re­strictions he had but too often to succumb, or march onward at the expense of interest, reputa­tion, and even life itself. ”

“ But the monstrous crimes the be­liever perpetrated in persecuting and exterminat­ing his fellow man on account of difference of be­lief, the Atheist, knowing that belief is not volun­tary, but depends on evidence, and therefore there can be no merit in the belief of any religions, nor demerit in a disbelief in all of them, could never be guilty of. Whatever good you would do out of fear of punishment, or hope of reward here­after, the Atheist would do simply because it is good ”

“ Enter Nature's great laboratory—Chemistry.—She will speak to you of the various elements, their combinations and uses, of the gasses con­stantly evolving and combining in different pro­portions, producing all the varied objects, the interesting and important phenomena we behold. ”

“ Had man been a patient and im­partial inquirer, and not with childish presump­tion attributed everything he could not under­stand, to supernatural causes, given names to hide his ignorance, but observed the operations of Na­ture, he would undoubtedly have known more, been wiser, and happier. ”

“ Before electricity was discovered, a thunder-storm was said to come from the wrath of an offended Deity. To this fiction of man's uncultivated mind, has been attributed all of good and of evil, of wis­dom and of folly. ”

“ The watchmaker not only stamped his design on the face of the watch, but he teaches how to wind it up when run down; how to repair the machinery when out of order; and how to put a new spring in when the old one is broken, and leave the watch as good as ever. Does the great Watchmaker, as he is called, show the same in­telligence and power in keeping, or teaching oth­ers to keep, this contemplated mechanism—Man—always in good order? ”

“ But be­lieving, as I do, that Truth only is beneficial, and Error, from whatever source, and under whatever name, is pernicious to man, I consider no place too holy, no subject too sacred, for man's earnest investigation ”

“ And in all ages of the world, some of the most civilized, the wisest, and the best, were entire unbelievers, only they dared not openly avow it, except at the risk of their lives. Proscription, the torture, and the stake, were found most effi­cient means to seal the lips of heretics ”

“ These erro­neous notions conceived in ignorance, propagated by superstition, and kept alive by an interested and corrupt priesthood who fatten on the credulity of the public, are very difficult to be eradicated. ”