“The human will is governed in fate. Of course, nature is fate, and the will it part of nature. The will is not made, it grows. It comes into the mind of its own accord like all the other thoughts. The will could not be made without another will to make it with. That other will would have to be made by will, so there would be an endless chain of wills backward. If any person’s will, whether for good or evil, had been different from what it was, it would have been a miracle. Art also is fixed in fate, as it is a production of nature through man. If any work of art had been different from what it was, it would have been a miracle. Man and woman are mere machines in the bands of nature, and the will is the mainspring of the machine. We often hear it said, “a person can do right if he has a mind to.” That is nonsense. No person can help doing right if he has a mind to, and no person can help doing wrong if he has a mind to. Nobody can have a mind to do right unless the mind comes to him. The same reasoning applies to the will of God, supposing there is such a being. The will of God is governed in fate. He does not make his will, and could not without another will to make it with. He did not create himself, and could not have done it without another self to do it with. It is impossible for him to be bettor or worse than he is. He is obliged to be what he is and do what he does. He has neither merit nor demerit; he deserves neither praise nor blame. He must be the effect of causes before him, so that a first cause is impossible. “Free will” in man or God is nonsense.
It is a common, but incorrect way of speaking—“it is possible, but not probable.” Whatever is possible is sure to happen, and therefore it is probable. Everything that is probable is certain. The man who goes into battle and comes out unhurt was in no danger whatever, as it was not possible for him to be injured.
Man is not accountable to God, supposing there is such a being. God is accountable to man. A God would have no right to create man without asking his leave, nor govern him without his consent. What right would he have to give out his commandments to men? No right at all. It would be the duty of the Creator to make his creatures happy both here and hereafter, supposing there is an hereafter. He would have no right to punish after death. If he did do it, it would prove him a usurper, despot and devil. If God has made a hell he ought to be kicked into it.
Christians think they must be cringing slaves to their God, and they shall be damned if they have any manly independence and self-respect. They think it wicked to take even the devil’s name in vain, and hell must be spoken of with reverence and awe. Profane language is neither good nor bad. It is of no consequence whatever, as it is words without meaning. If God damns people after death, of course it is his will to do it. The Christian who prays “ God’s will be tone,” says, in effect, “ God damn your soul to hell.” Damnation is sworn without meaning it, and prayed for in earnest. The clergy are much opposed to profane language, and the reason is it makes light of their God, devil and hell. Without these three, and unless the people stand in awe of them, the clergy cannot carry on their trade of imposture. The preaching of the clergy is the cause of profane language.
All the works of nature prove there is no God, if anybody knows what a God is. Every natural production is caused by that which makes it necessary. For instance, animals need more hair in winter than in summer. The cold which makes it necessary also makes it grow. People need warmer blood in winter than in summer. The cold weather which makes the need of warm blood, also makes it warmer by closing the pores of the skin and stopping sweats, whereby the beat of the body is retained. One of the Christian arguments for a God is this: “A watch had a maker, therefore the world must have had a maker.” As much as to say the Creator of the world is a man like the maker of a watch, and that the manufacture of a watch proves that worlds are manufactured. We might as well say that the natural growth of a tree proves that watches are a natural growth. Only one thing could prove the existence of a God, and that is, seeing him at work making a world and all things upon it. All we see at work are natural causes or the properties of matter. If there were a “Supreme Being” he would be plain to be seen as the sun. Why does not this “God” show himself to his children? Does he think he should not bear acquaintance, and so keep himself out of sight like the kings of the earth? Supposing there is a “God,” the worship of him is mean, base and degrading in the highest degree. It is entirely without reason. No decent “God” would wish to be worshiped. The Jehovah of the Jews and Christians was originally invented in ancient heathen Asia, where the people almost worshiped their kings. If “God” has a “word” for us he ought to come and speak it to us, and not send it in a book written by we know not whom. A revelation from “God” ought, in the first place, to reveal who or what he is, otherwise mankind would be fools to accept this revelation. The Bible gives us no rational information about him. The book does not even say there is a “God.” It gives us no intelligence what a “spirit” or “soul” is. The Bible does not say that religion is a good thing, and people ought to have it. The book nowhere claims to be the “Word of God.” The words “God,” “soul” and “spirit” have no meaning, and all religion is false and mischievous. Religion is an invention of the clergy. Those who think they need religion are persons who are deficient either in reason or goodness, or both. They who cannot depend upon their own minds are badly off. A traditional and blind belief in this imaginary “ God ” is one of the chief causes that have filled the earth with social wrongs and human woes.
A desire of immortality would be no argument for its truth. Naturally there is no such desire, and accordingly no regret for non-existence before conception. The natural desire is long life on this earth. The feelings revolt at the thought of eternal life either hero or hereafter, with no possibility of escape from it. It fills the mind with horror. Unwillingness to die is repugnance to a future state. Heaven, with its eternity of idleness and sameness, would be a place of misery. A God would have no right to take “ souls ” there without asking their leave, and gaining their consent. Eternal rest is an impossibility, because there can be no rest without previous fatigue. The natural, rational and comforting thought is eternal death. Welcome, endless destruction of mind! It is enough that the materials of the body have eternal life. We ought to be satisfied that we were born, and can live a few years on this earth, and see what there is. Hope of heaven is a mind perverted by religious falsehood. Man desires nothing which he is unable to comprehend. As it is impossible for his finite mind to grasp infinite objects, he cannot comprehend time without beginning or end, space without bounds, or worlds without number. Consequently, his desires are limited to limited objects. He wants all of a good thing, and the word all implies limits. The word has no proper application to the universe. There is no such thing as all time, all space, nor all worlds. Man does not desire and would not be satisfied with eternal time after death, because he would want all time when there is no such thing. He would want to outlive time in order to have it all. The human mind is unfitted for eternity. Of course, every star is a world, and either inhabited by living beings or getting ready for them. The most interesting thing a person could do, were it possible, would be to visit them, and see who and what there is upon them. In doing it he would not be satisfied, because he would want to visit them all and could not, because they are infinite like space.
Man shares the destiny of his glory, eternal oblivion. Every history perishes in time, and with it all knowledge of noble deeds. Napoleon said it caused him sadness to think the time would come when his great deeds would be forgotten. Bad men have reason to rejoice that they and their infamy are lost in the oblivion which Napoleon regretted.
Allowing that man has something which is called a “soul,” if it is immortal it never could have had a beginning. Whatever is eternal in the future was eternal in the past. Man is only a few pounds of thinking dirt.
Our republican government was not founded on the Christian religion, but in opposition to it. The Bible says nothing about democracy, equality and the rights of man. It is all monarchy and submission. The American Revolution, and especially the great and glorious French Revolution, were contrary to the Bible. In the words of Anacharsis Cloots, “Reason dethrones the kings of the earth and the King of Heaven.”
The public has no right to punish crime. Under natural government there could be no crime. Every crime that is committed is caused by having artificial law. Those who are governed by others cannot learn to govern themselves.
We read in the Bible that God told Moses he might see his “back parts.” Was that “obscenity” and “indecent exposure of his person”? Does God wear clothes to cover his “back parts,” or go naked? Comstock ought to attend to him.
The noblest thing ever done was Lucifer’s revolt against the tyrant of heaven. All gods are monsters that ought to be destroyed.
- Eliphalet Kimball, “Sparks from the Flint of Reason,” Woodhull and Claflin’s Weekly 9 no. 22 (May 1, 1875): 3.
