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About Torch of reason. (Silverton, Oregon) 1896-1903 | View Entire Issue (Nov. 29, 1900)
THE TORCH OF REASON, SILVERTON, OREGON, NOVEMBER 29, E. M. 300 (1900.) Did Christ Really Live? BY CHARLES WATTS. ______ *" the language is purely similar to those ascribed to theca- [Freethinker . Christian; that the introduction of reer of Christ. There is a strikinv i I propose now to give some reas- Christ’s name entirely interrupts allusion in Justin’s Apology bea n “ --------- m ~ ons for regarding the story of the narrative; and that, although ing on the ......larity of Christian " °" M° ra'S' Christ, as recorded in the New Chrysostom and Pbotios both refer and Pagan beliefs Justin vri n . Darwin gave morality a purely Testament, as «..historical. It is to Josephus, they never allude to in the middle of "the second ce o natural basis. He found that mor not my intention to dispute that a the disputed passage tury save — man by the name of Jesus lived Dean Milman says: “It is inter- “When w. say that the Logos ality was a part of man’s life, not down from two thousand years ago. Josephus pointed with many additional who is the first birth of God was’ an h" ornament a- brought , refers to more than one person of clauses” (Miiman’s Gibbon, vol. ii., produced without sexual unioi’i and n ‘ g’’ acCOrdin8 ‘° - ulhexuai union, and Darwin, make the foundation of the same name who lived about p. 285). Bishop W’arburton calls that time. My contention is that the passage “a rank forgery” [Di that Jesus Christ our teacher, was morals: j. Man ¡ , a 8ociable animaL there is no historical evidence that vine Legation of Moses, book ii., Cruclieil and died, and rose again, the Christ (which really means Sec. 6J. Rev. Dr. Giles also con and ascended into heaven, we pro- loves society; he feels sympathy, 2. Man has power of memory the annointed) who is professed to demns it as a forgery [Hebrew and pound nothing d.fferent from what be believed in by Christians ever Christian Records, vol. ii., p. t$2]. you (the 1 agaus) believe regarding which makes him reflect ou his ac- their <=o*>«quence8; he existed. Remembering the period Dean Farrar says: “The single J u ° d t e ' i - y° U e°tee,n “ 80,18 ° ' tions L ... , . can upon himself as a separate in which he is said to have lived, passage in which he [Josephus] I this be true, there can be no self; he can judge himself. the many remarkable deeds it is alludes to him [Christ] is interpo 3. He has a capacity for lan- alleged he performed, and the num lated, if not wholly spurious” doubt as to the unhistoncal char- acter of the story of Christ. When guage. Ideas fly from brain to erous historians who wrote about [Life of Christ, vol. i.. p. 46]. Dr. that time, it is certainly extraord Epersheim says: “The expressious we read in the New’ Testament of a brain by means of words. Men inary, upon the supposition that he attributed to Josephus must have virgin birth—that is, a child being learn to know each other, to warn, born without a human father; of to praise, to preach. existed, that no secular writer of been altered, and in some parts in 4. Man has the ability to form the first century even alludes to terpolated, by later writer” [Dic the devil taking Jesus up to a high mountain and showing him all the the Jesus called Christ. One of tionary of Ecclesiastical History his habits. Habit is a guarantee of kingdoms of the world; of his hav character. Habit is the secret of the principal Christian contribu and Biography,article “Josephus”]. ing a meal of fish and honeycomb, right conduct. Right conduct is tors to the recently published vol Gibbon says that this passage “was and then being carried up into not goodness in a momentary rush, ume, “The Ancient Faith in Mod inserted into the text of Josephus heaven; of his being “horn of a a spasm, a jerk, but it is a steady ern Light”, in deploring the lack of between the time of Origen and evidence as to the inception of the that of Eusebius,” and may furn woman,” and yet, like Melchisedec, habit of mind which gives a man a “without mother”; of people being Christian faith,'thus writes:— ish an example of no vulgar forg possessed of devils; of the dead be moral purpose and makes him up right and true to the line of duty. “It is a singular fact that Secu ery [Chap, xvi., footnote]. And ing restored to life after the body —[Agnostic Journal. lar history, which relates the ad De Quincy, in his essay on the had become decomposed—I say, vance of the Christian faith, gives Essenes, emphatically says that when we read stories like these, we the very scantiest account of its “this passage has long been given D etestable N onsense. know that we are in the region of origin—gives indeed, no account at up as a forgery by all the men not fable and romance, and not upon all. It seems as though the men lunatic” (Works, vol. ix.). l he great English writer and the solid ground of historical facts. who might have rendered this in The passage in Tacitus in which 1 rue, Jesus is represented as being scholar, Ruskin, was once appealed estimable service were smitten with Christ is mentioned is to be found of real flesh and blood; but the to for a contribution to pay off a mental blindness; the whole Chris in the Annals, not in the History. idea of his rising from the grave, debt contracted in the building of tian movement was to them so There is no proof that the passage' after being deprived of all natural a new chapel. And here is what small, so weak, so entirely unim was ever referred to until the fif- power, and appearing in a room he said in reply; portant, that it never occurred to teenth century. Doane, in his while the doors were shut, is utter “Sir: I am scornfully amused at your appeal to me, of all the peo them to trace it to its source. They Bible Myths, gives seventeen reas ly opposed to all ideas of reality. ple in the world the precisely least held it to be a local folly, a pro ons for believing the passage to be The perpetual repetition of the „ , - 4 . 1 .. icMcviMuii 01 me likely to give you a farthing. My vincial fanaticism, which might interpolation. But something Gospel stories in Inodern tjme8 first word to all men and boys who well be left alone with good na- even important than this shows that the mythical «till rules wish to hear me is, ‘Don’t get in tured contempt” (p. 87). should be remembered Lu m • • . , Tn 187ft 111 the C hristian mind. This is speci- debt. Starve and go to heaven Now it appears incredible that ,.ir h 1 , Wa9 ally “ anifest in the present revival this historical silence should have n published ,n London underthe title of the old tradition about the fall —but don’t borrow. Try first beg obtained if such a person as the of Tacitus and Bracctolmi: The of Jerusalem being the signal for ging. I don’t mind if it is really needful, stealing. But don’t buy Christ of the Gospels actually lived. Annals Forged in the Fifteenth tU \f • i a , , hings you can’t pay for.’ And of And yet apart from the New Tea- Century/’ The object of the writer e„ and the ‘f i n T T r Z p h ” f ' X ♦ament, there is not the slightest was to show that the Annals in Jews 106 all manner of debtors, pious people building churches they can’t pay trustworthy evidence that he exis- which the passage refering to Christ T ted. This is the more strange upon appears were not written by Taci- l . * latest form which this story for are the most detestable non the supposition that Jesus was tus, but were forged in the fifteenth las taken 18/ hat we a^e upon the sense to me. Can’t you preach and equal with God. For if he were an century by the famous Poggio Brae- eve tJie rel^n °f Christ ami the pray behind the hedges—or in a omnipotent being it is legitimate to ciolini. : triumph of his saints. The growth sand pit—or a coal hole—first? conclude that he would have exer- The author says: “I give a de- ° the Chr,8t,an faith> built on an- * 8trikin* ib cised his power, and have given to tailed history of the forgery, from f ' T The specific rules of morality the world a faithful history of his corresnondence correspondence that that Poggio'carried lustration of orthodox ”r’nooox inconsisten- inconsisten-i are not pronounced to he perma- on with a familiar friend who re- y an<l credullty- A> first, poor nent and unalterable. How could life. 8 ,er'nel1’ weavers and tanners, society advance if they were? The It has been repeatedly urged sided in Florence” It thus that Josephus ( a . D. 40) and Taci- pears that there is no historical evi- W e Hre told’ mH''or worBhip ¡n pri- “ “ "m In Ha 8ile'“ that Joseph us ( a . d . 40) and Taci- tno z, rv urn <• Li .L 1 au A vate houses; but now their sucres- 1 n ,n Its moraI ldeaH aft new tus ( a . d . 11 ) mentioned the name dence that the earliest Secular HnrH .. • tastes are generated, new nassions of Christ. As regards the former, writers of the Christian era knew wh l m e 1,1 co8t,y structures, raised, and new modes of existence it is now generally admitted, even anything of the existence of Jesus f repeat the same old and of thought are laid open; but by Christian scholars, that the “the annointed one.” ’ , ® tftat deIude(1 their supersti- alterations such as these, slow and Drincinal na^aae in I m w n h n A a *u a . 1,008 processors. Fortunately, ^arce perceptable,cannot ” - of endanger ...... "■ steady authority morals, fhe sea and the dry ¡and nmv h« occurs is Its _ _ _ lhe I community is a a foreerv. forgery. Its internal internal wh«n when dealing w,«u with the „ story of - w j j ectlon | Z 1 of r"i'i" T T h L L who " L Ci‘an8ing place’> hut, nevertheless evidence goes to prove It to be an Christ Is that the main feature o th ' . « M hy the fables of the sea and dry land are very dis- interpolation. Dr. Lardner gives Christianity have almost an exact th s , i"y °f H8 gre“te8t ion®'; 7 L . lhe,cha"Be ia n0‘ un its Aiithpntimtv unJ , nir ♦ « t 1 n i* ai , exact thinkers of today recognize that cons,*teiit with the habitable na- ,h J , ’ a 7 5 pa, 1 erecords of Previous the Christianity of the L w Testa- ‘«re of our globe, and each genera- that it was never quoted by Chris- religions. Take, for instance, the ment has no h i L r i c l i i . " OD of m°rt«ls walks upon the tian writers before Eusebius; that stories of Krishna and Buddha land th » » t v foundatlon, shore neither detered nor perplexed nu luoa. .and that its teachings are only val- with sense of insecurity -LSel a