THE TORCH CF REASON, SILVERTON, OREGON, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 1897.
W ere 1 God,
l«e knows everything, past, p re s e n t,'
i t is dem in d -d of me th at I ami th a t which is to l»e. P resent
acc *pt, and unquestioningly believe in every place at all tim e-, nothing
the stories to ’d in the hook called is hid trom him.
li would he only reasonable th a t
the b'ble, an 1 m y rig h t” to investi­
gate it is also deni» d. Of course I it should follow th a t a being hav-
I'evoitJ
U »«V m an thnx ¿3 a man iug tin se a»tr but s would n c fl­
would, and should. I do. B ut I sarily be oinnir> sponsibie as well.
«ball be, w hat C hristians eeldon, B ‘"
chrl8“ a >' theology it d o ,s
r
. i
not appear so.
arc, free and just.
t
/
•
i
i
I do not nee.! to apologize Io m y
ln fact " 18 r a ' her tl,e
readers for coarse and indelicate B ut “ d o,s not “ PPear lh a t ,hls
atkiaion»; these are a p a r t of the
H
far »r-»" perfection.
• „ naattei
a, .. I i am w riting about.
«.k mt H e doesn't know evervihine. He is
sti 1 . >ject
, not alw ays
in every
He
I soften the expressions so as to
/
- 1 nine»*.
»r ^4. to “ »« ears polite, o U m akes m istakes,gets
give th . e 1 least a offense
’y. angry,destroys
«=> / ’
J
. hut I , did not a ........
at.........
......i......
.
the
works
of
his
hand*
and
re­
m ake these people nor . . . . .
th eir history. And if f hod been bullds tbem on “ « ^ r e n t m odel,
G , d l would not have m ade them Punis,re8 “ ie creatures he has
made when they don’t do to suit
as he did.
him or kill each other.
I use the word god in a Christian
And the Christians claim th at,
sense. The C hristian hasfahricated
while he knows better th an to do
th e word for us, an d clothed it with
these things, th at it pleases him to
the attrib u tes of deity, the same
do it. B ut ihey excuse th eir god
as all other religionists have done,
.
,
.
.
, for the evil of c ru e lty a n d th e nuf-
ot whatever nam e or variety. Each . .
al
. ,
: . .
.
.
, ,
... fermg there is her«*, by laving it on
b a s s e t up a god, c lo th e d it w ith
&
1
,
____________ j to th e a n ti power, th e d ev il. But
their own ideas of the suprem e and
th eir g >d m ade their devil, th ey
worshiped it accordingly.
Each
tell us, and has j irisdiction o ver
has sim ply personified his own
asp iratio n s of selfishness, greed,
. .
. .
.
, .'
, .
. ,
. • ' .
But it pleases their god to allow
bigotrv; his own ideas of justice, . . . . . .
,
,
..
ii
;
th is devil to run a t large and spoil
m oral.ty, h u m an ity , ami longing«
works of y o d f„..
F
after the u n attain ab le, am i thus
Nqw r ap
me th a t .,
m ade a god after his own image (hig g()|| is c ,o(hed w ith aU p . ,wer j
A nd the m an ma le god is only a a „ klll)wledgPi alld a „ abjlity t()
reflection of the character
control, in minutiae, the whole uni-
d isp o sitio n of the in»n.«i.
m aker,
u no verse an(j ,la8 m ade it all himself, -
person has
nas ever clothed his got f()r jp sow n glory or am usem ent, he
with hig h ero r better attrib u tes th an ghould a|go
chllrg,.d w i|h a „
h is ow n n a tu r e or dagre. ol in responsibility, anil not shirk it "ft
telligence adm itted of. lie cannot onto somebody el-c.
do otherwise.
But C hristians claim th a t they,
Dealers in General M erchandise :
C o rn er M ain a n d W a te r Streets. Silverton. Or gon.
JOHN HICKS
S A W JE L A M 35
HICKS
& AMES.
: D EA LERS IN j
HARDW ARE,
T IN W A R E
Stoves, A g ricultural Im plem ents, G uns, Fishing
Tackle, ( ’utlerv, and Sporting Goods.
tv
S ilv e rto n ,
O re g o n
A STORE
FOR
But each and all have, in th»*ir
m ind, reversed the process of m ak-
ing ami say th a t their god has
made them . 1 his is necessary he
cause, in th eir egotism, they set up
the claim th a t they are made in
th e “ im age” of th eir god, th at they
a re endowed with some sm all p a rt
(som e ap p ear to th in k nearly ail)
of his attrib u tes, and are the oh-
jects of his special attention and
care, and th a t they, or at least cer-
tain ones of them , have more or
less influence with him.
I use the personal pronoun his,
him , In*, and etc., for convenience
sake, as people arc used to these
term s. The, Christian calls his god
a m ale, and m ost people so u n d er-
stand it, although the evidence as
to sex is very meager.
One would infer therefore th a t
their god is anti, and th eir devil
female, hut the Christians don’t call
it nor picture it so. But I will
leave th e question to the theolo-
gians as I am to consider their god
mostly.
It is a necessity th at godists at-
trib u te to th eir gods, great knowl-
edge and great power. And the
Christians have m ade theirs illim-
¡table in thia re»,wet. Omnipo-
. .
‘
f
t nt. om niscient anil om nipresent.
H aving all power, he can do any-
luiug. Possessed of all knowledge
THE PEOPLE.
(certain ones) have som ething to
gay ¡n t he m atter, and they give
W h e re All can buy to A dvantage.
tp ejr g0(j inform ation; they advise
Some Store-keepers pride them selves on
him , and a-k him to do things th at
¡t a ppPara he is not otherwise
the fact th at they cater to a special class
likely to do. A lthough it does not
of trade.
We d o n ’t. E veryone
can huv
appear to the average sin n er to
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have any effect a t all, the Christian
here and he suited. One price to all, and
claim s th a t it dues, and keeps on
doing it.
th a t the very lowest.
T his is w hat they call prayer
an(J every tim e a Christian prays,
A. W O L F & S O N ,
he assum es to know’ m ore th a n his
god does. He rem inds his god of
S ilv e r to n , O re g o n .
his own unw orthiness and sinful- C o r. M a in A W a t e r S ts .
ness, as though God d id n ’t know
it, He rem inds God of his own
greatness and glory and seeks in
various ways to flatter and cajole
this god into noticing him, (and
his crowd) as if God would neglect
him if he d id n ’t th u s jog his mem- D E A L E R IN
C hem icals, Drugs,
ory and a ttra c t his attention by
flattery and fawning before him .
M edicine, Toilet A rticles,
I have as m uch rig h t to assume
Perfum ery and Soaps, Stationery,
th a t I am wiser than God as the
P aten t Medicines, P aints and Oils,
Christian has, and I don’t see th at
Com bs and Brushes.
it is any m ore silly or egotistic­
al for me to act upon th a t ; assump-
tion th an it is for the Christian to
do it. Therefore I am moved to
th at if I had been God I would
bave d ° n,e , m a " y tb i"K8 di9'e rel,t
from w hat he did.
, th in k , w„u |,j h av e modified
the clim ate of both the torrid and
J. E. Hammond,
DRUGGIST,
Silverton, Oregon.
TORCH OF REASON,
(C o n tin u ed on 6 th . Pa$e.)
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