Chapter 2 A REVIEW OF THE DELUGE AND THE CONFUSION OF TONGUES AT THE TOWER OF BABEL

TO destroy all mankind by drowning, because of their wickedness, seems to us a strange reason; for, when we attentively consider it, we are compelled to conclude that the Jewish God had banished from his moral government the very appearance of justice. What! no compassion for the young men and women who had been brought up under circumstances so unfavorable to virtue, from the bad example of their fathers? What! no mercy for the thousands of infants? What! no feeling towards the youth, from manhood through all the gradations down to helpless infancy? None.

We know that it is common for men and women to go crazy. From so strange a perversion of justice on the part of Jehovah, it would seem that he, at times, has his crazy fits, also. Destroy the innocent with the guilty-allowing the innocent no chance of escape! If this were performed by an earthly monarch, insanity would be the most charitable allowance to be made for so atrocious an act. But when ascribed to the all-wise and powerful God, and insisted on as an article of faith, such doctrines are only fit for madmen to preach and idiots to hear. Christians little think to what extent they blaspheme the God whom they profess to adore.

Let us bring this horrid scene nearer to our eyes:-thousands and tens of thousands of children from six years old and up to the age of maturity, of both sexes, imploring for mercy, cut off in the midst of enjoyment, for crimes over which they had no control, and which their tender age precluded them from committing: yet to them the door of mercy was forever closed. A raging Almighty God commanding Noah to proceed, that his vengeance might be satisfied! Only look at such a picture, so faintly drawn; for if the deluge did really take place, this portrait bears but a small resemblance to a scene too dreadful for the contemplation of man, and, Oh! heavens! too unjust and cruel to ascribe to a God. To drown the whole of the human race by a flood, is one of the most dreadful visitations of vengeance that cruelty could execute. In it, we discover nothing to defend. The mind shrinks back with horror at the bare recital. It is one among hundreds of such acts recorded as being performed by the Lord.

Turn to what part of the history you will, where the Jewish God is about to do something, or to interfere in any way in human affairs, the conduct ascribed to him, either in punishment or granting favor, you will find to be always contrary to justice and reason. If justice be the theme, it will end in cruelty. If to show favor, it will be sure to be ill directed and allied to favoritism. Among men, justice is the foundation of correct moral principles. On the contrary, the Bible God acts as if influenced by fury and almighty rage; soon, very soon, angry; very hard to please; punishing and destroying his creatures, as if pain were a good instead of an evil, and man died without a groan. It is not possible to calculate the amount of evil that has taken place on the earth, in consequence of Christians taking for their example the conduct of their God. Let us mark the difference between any misfortune that may befall the human race in the course of events, and the same evil inflicted by the Lord. In the former case, man will sympathize with his unfortunate fellow man; in the latter, however, it appears cruel and unjust. "It is just, yes, and also merciful," says the Christian, "for God to destroy the innocent descend-, ants of his enemies, because he has a right to do whatever he pleases with his own."

This mode of reasoning, the believers in the divinity of the Bible resort to, in order to shield Jehovah from the attacks of Infidels, for bringing on the deluge; and the same mode is followed throughout, to justify the Lord in all his warlike movements against the nations doomed to die by the hands of his chosen people. Can we, then, wonder that both Jews and Christians, believing in, and worshipping, a God whose acts are so revolting to every idea of justice and humanity,-can we, ought we, to be surprised that they have drank so deeply of that spirit of cruelty, injustice, and intolerance, that is recorded concerning the dealings of Jehovah with his creatures, in involving in one common ruin the innocent with the guilty? For it is from the horrible character given of the Lord, that both Jews and Christians have in all ages drawn in, as by a kind of inspiration, the same spirit of cruelty and proscription, in imitation of their God.

It is in vain that Christians assert, that the persecution that has attended the progress of Christianity, in all ages, is but the abuse of it No; it has been the thing itself. The moral precepts of the New Testament (and many of them are excellent) have never been strong enough to deter men from putting each other to death on account of their difference of faith. Cruel Calvin, with the New Testament before his eyes, and that saying staring him in the face, "He that hateth his brother is a murderer,"-with this before his eyes, he caused the unfortunate Servetus to be burnt by a slow fire, so completely had the doctrines of the Bible destroyed in him all compassion.

To show what baneful influence the doctrines of the Bible have had upon men eminent for their wisdom, justice, and humanity, the following authentic account will fully prove:-In the year 1664, two old women were hanged upon a charge of witchcraft, having been tried by a Jury before three learned Judges, at the head of whom was Sir Matthew Hale, who passed the dreadful sentence of the law, as it then stood, which was put into execution in about two weeks afterwards. A more upright, honest, wise, and humane Judge never sat in a court of justice; and yet, behold! he condemned and caused two poor, ignorant, and defenceless old women to be hanged for a crime they neither did nor could commit The remarks made to the Jury, by Sir Matthew, in substance were the following:-"Gentlemen of the Jury, you have nothing to do in inquiring whether the crime of witchcraft can be committed; the Bible has settled that subject,-but, whether the evidence you have heard is proof that the prisoners are guilty of the charges brought against them,"-which charges were, killing, their neighbors' children by the agency and power of the Devil, and causing them to vomit pins and nails. Here, then, it is clear that it was the Word of God, and not Judge Hale, that brought about the death of those unfortunate women. Had Sir Matthew been an Infidel, the page of history had never been stained by the blood of two poor helpless beings.

Let not Christians, then, say that persecution and intolerance are the abuses of Christianity. Its very essence is congenial with blood and torture in all their horrid forms. The moral precepts of the Gospel never have nor ever will so far neutralize the doctrines of the Bible, as to guarantee the human race in trusting power in the hands of the disciples of Jesus. They always will, according to the New Testament, prefer the man of orthodox faith, to men in common, however virtuous.

Having shown the injustice and cruelty of drowning all the inhabitants of the earth,-on account of the wickedness of some who ought to have been made an example to society at large,-let us inquire, what end was obtained by so universal a destruction? Have the human race been more moral, and, on the whole, more virtuous, since the flood than before? If they have not, (and that they have not, the Bible itself fully proves,) it then follows, that no moral good resulted from their being destroyed; and instead of the Lord's anger being softened down, it would rage in all its former fury. If the Lord really said to Noah, what the Bible records, "that it repented him that he had made man on the earthy and it grieved him at his heart" it is as much as to say,-"I can bear this distracted state of mind no longer; I will try you and your family, Noah, and ease myself of the disappointment I have endured from the wickedness of my creation; I will have a better race on the earth which I have made, or man shall cease to exist."

But did a better race succeed? No; for Noah, in time, became intemperate, and in a fit of intoxication became an object of contempt to one of his sons, who, so far forgot his duty to his intoxicated father, that instead of concealing his folly and shame, he exposed it. When Noah awoke from his slumber, and discovered what had taken place, he began most heartily to curse his son and his posterity for ages to come, and also to prophesy evil concerning them, which prophecy, according to the Bible, the Lord approved of and brought to pass. Here, again, Jehovah is disappointed; that is, if he expected a moral world better than the one he had destroyed.

Turning, then, with detestation from an account which represents the Governor of the Universe as having drowned a world and repented he had made it, and also of being grieved at heart, we will notice Noah's preparing the ark and making ready for his singular voyage. Nothing short of repeated miracles could have completed the embarkation of Noah, his family, and the living cargo, or freight. A miracle must have been wrought on all those beasts, whose savage nature had made them a terror to man, in order that they might become tame, and be conveyed to the vicinity of the ark. Another miracle must have been in continual operation on all those who were engaged in procuring the beasts, birds, and reptiles, to induce them to labor without any remuneration for their toils, but the certainty of being left to perish by the flood. A continuation of miracles must follow on, to induce the then population to stand quiet, up to their necks in water, and not to make an effort to force their way into the ark before it was closed up; and also to enable Noah and his family to attend to feeding and keeping clean their respective cages and dens. The water, also, to drown the world, and cover the highest hills, must be created for this express purpose, and then reduced again into its native nothingness. For, from an accurate calculation, it would require one hundred and eight times as much water as is now on the face of the earth, to cover the highest mountain, admitting its height to be no more than twenty thousand feet, and there are mountains still higher. It would follow, therefore, that after the flood, one hundred and eight oceans must be annihilated, there not being room for so much water on the earth.

From what has been said concerning the flood, it is clear that no such thing really took place, but that the whole is fabulous; because, the deluge is said to be in consequence of the Lord's being grieved at the wickedness of the antediluvians. This is no reason why he should destroy them, even admitting the possibility of the fact. His grief could not be lessened by so doing, as men since the flood have been equally wicked as before; and have continued so, down to the present time. If the Lord was grieved then, and repented at having made man, he is still unhappy and continues to repent, because the evil that caused him then to grieve and to repent, is not removed.

The reader is requested not to lose sight of one thing that is equally glaring both in the Old Testament and the New-that the Jehovah of the Jews is always blundering and making mistakes; the choice he often makes does not answer the end purposed, but falls short. Another and another plan is pursued; still, some striking failures take place. The God of the Bible is as unlike the Supreme Power that governs the material universe, as the swarthy African is unlike the fair complexion of the temperate zone.

As the main object of this work is to prove, as clear as the nature of argument will admit, that the Jehovah of the Jews is not the Supreme Ruler of Nature, let us examine their respective characters. The God of the Jews, in his acts, is governed by no correct principle of justice; he is changeable, and subject to all the passions that, in turn, agitate the minds of mortals. How different is the Ruler of the World, of whom we know nothing, abstracted from the material universe! In the government of the material world, we discover that "order is heaven's first law"; that a regular arrangement of causes and effects pervade every department of nature. In it, there is no doing and undoing; no derangement in the wonderful, adaptation of cause and effect, of principles and consequences. In the laws that rule the universe, nothing happens that has the appearance of falling short of ends intended to be carried out; these laws depend not on the will or conduct of mortals; but the more we are acquainted with them, the more we are compelled to admire the wonderful wisdom and harmony of the mighty whole.

Is the kingdom of grace, or, in other words, does the Old and New Testaments present to us a God any way similar to the power that rules the world? The God of Nature, an expression used to convey no other meaning than the power that mingles itself with the mighty whole,-does this power show any thing like partiality to nations, or to sects and parties? Do the general laws, by which the world is governed, indicate any thing in their author of a vindictive or vengeful character. Any thing like disappointment or regret? Does the prosperity of nations, or of individuals, depend (abstractly considered) on whether they worship one, or many Gods, or none at all? On the contrary, the Jehovah of the Bible is depicted as being more unstable than mortals. Ye Jews and Christians! in vain do you vindicate the character and conduct of your God towards the human race, by saying that "he ought to do what he pleases with his own." The conduct of the most cruel and unjust tyrant that ever lived can with more truth and propriety be exonerated than your God; because a tyrant, however wicked and cruel, may have to contend with those who are capable of doing him an injury, and self-defence on his part may form some excuse for his actions. A tyrant may have to come in contact with others, his equals in power and physical force. But the Christian God is above any personal injury; he has no rivals; possessing all power, all knowledge, nothing can take place by him unforeseen. If mortals, by their conduct, call forth his anger, he chooses to be angry. The human race did not ask for existence; he alone was the projector. If mortals, in the course of their career through life, (as foreseen by him) deserve punishment, he felt happy in punishing them. Ye ministers! prate, then, no longer against the "unblushing Infidel"; for, as you maintain that the God of the Bible is the author of the universe, we leave you to blush at the horrible character you portray of him whom you hypocritically call a God of love! Oh! heavens! what dreadful consequences have resulted from the Jehovah of the Jews being worshipped as the author of nature! The worshippers of such a God have in all ages partaken, more or less, of his character for cruelty, injustice, and intolerance; and under this banner "whole armies have marched forth to glut the earth with blood."

Viewing, then, the Bible account of the deluge, in which the innocent were destroyed with the sinner, as but a fabulous tale, had I a voice loud enough to make all mankind hear, I would boldly and fearlessly proclaim it a falsehood, disgraceful to God, and too foolish to obtain credit in the present age.