The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> Tom Paine./..Religion and Reason

Tom Paine./..Religion and Reason

Posted by pancho (Guest) - Tuesday, January 22 2008, 22:08:37 (CET)
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What an oasis of clarity and humanity after years of this born-again claptrap.

“I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life”

“I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow creatures happy.”

“I do not believe in the creed professed by the Greek Church, by the Turkish Church, by the Protestant Church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church”.

“All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit”.

“Every national church or religion has established itself by pretending some special mission from God, communicated to certain individuals. The Jews have their Moses; the Christians their Jesus Christ, their apostles and saints; and the Turks their Mahomet, as if the way to God was not open to every man alike”.

“Each of those churches show certain books, which they call ‘revelation’, or the word of God….Each of those churches accuse the other of unbelief; and for my own part, I disbelieve them all”.

“As it is necessary to affix right ideas to words, I will, before I proceed further into the subject, offer some observations on the word ‘revelation’. Revelation, when applied to religion, means something communicated ‘immediately’ from God to man.”

“No one will deny or dispute the power of the Almighty to make such communication, if he pleases. But admitting, for the sake of the case, that something has been revealed to a certain person, and not revealed to any other person, it is revelation to that person only. When he tells it to a second person, a second to a third, a third to a fourth, and so on, it ceases to be a revelation to all those persons. It is revelation to the first person only, and ‘hearsay’ to every other person, and consequently they are not obliged to believe it”.

…farther on he points out that hearsay evidence isn’t admissible in court…so why should it be where religion and god are concerned? If god spoke to George Bush…if he “revealed” himself to Bush…fine and good. But I’m under no obligation to believe George Bush, or anyone else who tells me God revealed himself to them. When he reveals himself to me…which he does every day I open my eyes and see the sun, then I’ll let you know and you can disbelieve me.

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