BL
263
347
1914
A 697,967

ARTES
LIBRAR
UNIVER
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RELIGION
AND
EVOLUTION
One Phase of the Effects of Evolution on
Modern Thought
WHY THEOLOGIANS OPPOSE EVOLUTION
THE COMING RELIGION
By C. W. BENNETT
Member of the American Association for the Advancement of Science;
Member of the National Geographic Society;
Member of the Michigan Academy of Science
Third Edition, Enlarged
L
Daily Reporter Print, Coldwater, Michigan
MAY, 1914
7

Religion and Evolution
Charles Darwin set the world to
thinking more than any other man
that has ever lived. His opponents
began studying to disprove his the-
ories, and his friends studied to sus-
tain them. As a result more progress
has been made in the sciences during
the last fifty years than in all pre
vious time.
A greater result is that Evolution
is now firmly establisht among sci-
entists (every scientist in the world
today is an Evolutionist) and educat
ors, not merely as a theory or hy
pothesis, but as a law of the Uni-
verse, as fully as the law of gravita-
tion; because it has been found that
everything in this world and the sur-
rounding universe has become what
it is by a process of evolution from
other forms, generally of simpler and
lower nature or condition. The proofs
that man developed from lower ani-
mals has become overwhelmingly
convincing.
Evolution has simply been God's
method of accomplishing what we call
creation. The work of creating never
had a beginning-it will never have
an end. God and creation have ex-
isted from eternity, and a future eter-
nity will not end them.
This new thought has had a pro-
found influence on all the natural sci-
ences, and on education, politics and
religion. It is to the latter that I
wish to now call attention.
Evolution has not only already
modified religious thought, but it will
eventually revolutionize religious be-
lieis; in fact it will finally abolish
the old orthodox ideas of Christianity.
This result has been so apparent that
the orthodox theologians have all
along waged a bitter warfare against
evolution-first by ridicule, then by
argument. But their opposition has
been as futile as was that against the
ideas that the world was round,
volved around the sun and was go-
erned in its motions by the laws of
gravitation.
Religion is a course of conduct
men adopt in trying to win favors
from their gods. All religions are
man-made, and all are born of feat
In proportion as men lose their feat
of their gods and hells they neglec
their religion. Each religion has its
grade of excellence depending on the
intelligence of its makers, and each
is improved as its devotees grow in
intelligence.
The Christian religion was formu
lated by a union of the altruism (lov
for others) and asceticism (sever
self-denial of worldly pleasures) of
Buddha (of India); the idea of an opt
posing god, Satan, and a future life
in hell or heaven, of Zoroaster (Per
sia); the Genesis legends of Baby
the
lonia, the austere God and necessary
blood sacrifice for atonement of sins
of the Hebrews; the mythology of the
Greeks; the worship of Saints, of th
Romans; and the Trinitarianism o
the Egyptians, with the priesteraf
and some of the superstitions of al
of them. That union was brough
about by the intermingling of those
peoples in trade and commerce, mi
grations, and wars of conquest pre-
viously carried on for centuries. It
was inaugurated by Jesus, but really
established by Paul, who carried to
more congenial, because more cultur
ed peoples-and as a consequence
the most of the creeds of the church
es are founded on what Paul wrote
instead of what Jesus taught
The Christian religion is the high
est order of religion because it has
been adopted and improved by the
highest civilized peoples-the great
er the culture the more altruism and
the higher ideas of God.

-3-
Men improve their religion as their
intelligence increases. Christianity
of today is much better than that of
past centuries. For example, we do
not now climb stairs on our knees,
repeating a prayer at each step; do
not try to cure diseases by casting
out devils; do not burn witches; do
not tolerate slavery or polygamy; do
not execute or torture heretics, who
are generally leaders of Reformations
(we just excommunicate, ostracise
and boycott them,); and Baptists and
Presbyterians now even shake hands!
Orthodox Christianity is
is largely
based on the stories in Genesis, which
represent that the whole universe
was created in six days about 6,000
years ago; that man was created in
the immage of God, who, the Genesis
writer thought, was in the shape of a
man, but that idea seeming to later
thought untenable, it was said to
mean that man was like God in per-
fect character. But they tell us a
moral character cannot be established
without a temptation to do wrong,
and an opportunity to exercise what
they call man's "free moral agency"
to choose good or evil.
So, not knowing what man would
do, the story says God prepared a test
by setting tempting fruit before him,
and preparing a snake for a tempter.
I say "preparing," because none but
God could enable a snake to talk.
But who shall inspire this snake?
Tho the universe had been created
but a few days or weeks, it would
seem that God's government in hea-
ven had been so unsatisfactory that a
“referendum and recall" was attempt-
ed by one-third of the angels starting
a rebellion. This "war in heaven" re-
sulted in the defeat of the rebels, and
they were cast out and allowed to
come to earth and became our "le-
gions of devils," and their leader,
Satan, was delegated to inspire the
serpent. Eve was selected because
the ancients considered woman the
weaker minded.
(This story of a war in heaven and
fall of Satan and the angels was
borrowed by John from the Greek
myth about Zeus as a childish ex-
planation of the origin of Satan and
devils.)
The temptation succeeded, which
seemed not to be in accordance with
God's expectations, for he turned
them out of the Garden of Eden, curs
ed man with toiling for his bread,
and cursed the ground to raising
weeds and thistles to make labor
greater, and, because of this legend,
all thru the ages labor has been con-
sidered onerous, disgracing, a curse.
Woman was cursed with the pains
of motherhood, and so firm was that
belief that so recently as when chlo-
roform was discovered the Scotch
Presbyterians forbid its use at child-
birth because it would be circumvent-
ing God's plan of punishment on wo-
mankind for the sin of Eve; and wo-
man was made the slave of man, and
for ages every woman who has been
married to man by a priest or preach-
er has had to promise to obey her
husband. And the church ever has
been, and to this day remains, the
strongest opponent of woman's equal
rights with man. As examples, the
pope's late order to all Catholics to
oppose woman suffrage, and the acts
of the national assemblies of the
Methodist and Presbyterian churches
in the Spring of 1912 refusing to al-
low women to preach!
Theologians have always fought the
sciences, especially astronomy, geolo-
gy and evolution, because they dis-
prove Genesis on which their cher-
isht "plan of salvation" is founded.
Haeckel says this opposition keeps
them from being studied in the pub-
lic schools as much as they should
be. If you study about the stars, the
earth and the human race you will
learn that they are more than 6,000
years old and were not made in a
day!
they say
By Eve's disobedience
man fell from a state of innocence
and purity to a condition of "total
depravity"-an inability to have piety
or do anything good-every faculty
od-every fac
tinctured with evil. It also brought
death into the world, and Satan be-
came "prince of the power of the air,"
and "god of this world," who caused
earthquakes, tornadoes, famines, pes-
tilences, diseases and witches, and
has ever since been ruling the hearts
and acts of men more than has God.
They teach that from that time
God had but little to do in this world
except on emergencies. One of these
came in about 1650 years afterwards
when the sons of God took the daugh-
ters of men for wives and raised chil-
dren, which, they infer, brought a
climax of corruption. But think of
the impossibility of angels and wo-
producing children!
men
"And it repented the Lord that he
had made man on the earth, and it
grieved him at heart." Just think of
a grieving, repenting God! So he re-
solved to destroy the race by a flood,
which he did (including the sinless
animals) except Noah and his family.
And God wrought this awful destruc-
tion of the human race before he had
given them any laws, bibles, teachers
or preachers to instruct them what
he wanted them to do! The infer-
ence is that God did not then under-
stand the law of heredity, for the
descendants of Noah inherited the
racial sins, and mankind was no bet-
ter for the flood. This experiment
failed.
Then God selected Abraham for
building up a nation that would be
righteous and loyal. They claimed
God taught them to atone for sins by
offering the blood and burned bodies
of animals, from doves to oxen, the
larger the sin the greater the sacri-
fice, and in some cases human beings
were sacrificed. But the Hebrews
never reached the promised success.
Another experiment failed!
nation. But to redeem the whole race
they thought it needed God for the
offering. The ancient Aztecs of Mex-
ico had the same Jewish idea and
every year they selected a young man
to represent their god whom they
sacrificed to atone for the sins of the
nation.
But long before resorting to such
an awful extremity you or I would
have killed or banished Satan, the
sole cause of the whole wickedness
and suffering of the world. But there
is no record where God ever was
angry at Satan, or cursed or threaten-
ed him; while he frequently assumed
all of those attitudes against man-
the victim of Satan. Satan appeared
to be necessary to help carry out the
great "plan of salvation." He caused
the "fall" of man; in two friendly
interviews with God he was given
confidential missions to afflict Job
with savage and horrible cruelties
for an experiment; and if he had not
put it into the heart of Judas to be-
tray Jesus, there would have been no
crucifixion, no shedding of blood, no
atonement for sin!
Christ became a ransom for the
race. Now when a redemption or ran-
som is paid, it, must be paid to some
one. Who was the one in this case?
None other than Satan whom God had
permitted to come here and become
"god of this world," and ruler
ruler of
mankind!
And this is the great "plan of sal-
vation" to explain which thousands of
books have been written, tho it is still
as incomprehensible as the doctrine,
of a Trinity-how three can be one,
and one three. Theologians have so
surrounded their religion with the
mysteries of the Trinity, plans of sal-
vation, atonement, regeneration, sec-
ond birth, articles of faith, that thou-
tianity are kept from embracing Chris-
hend how to have a "change of heart,
become "converted," and "get relig
ion."

The Hebrews taught that "without sands
the shedding of blood there is no re- tianity because they do not compre-
mission of sins," and
and while they
thought that a dove might atone for
a small sin, it needed a larger animal
for greater sins, and a large number
of them, or even a human being to
sacrifice to atone for the sins of a
Briefly restated:-Man was created
pure and holy. In a test of his moral
strength he sinned and fell to a con-
-5-
dition of "total depravity"-a state of
helpless sinfulness-and became sub-
ject to the dominion of Satan and
Death. Satan so outwitted God, show-
ed such superior management, that
he got complete control of the human
race; so, after several other experi-
nents had failed, as a last resort God
offered his own life as a ransom to
Satan to redeem the race from his
control! Just think! God died! Such
a thought, that God could die, must
have originated in the mind of an ig-
norant savage who had many gods.
But this plan of salvation did not
include the whole race. Only those
who should hear of this plan, and be-
lieve and accept it, were to be saved.
And as only about one in a thousand
of the race comply with those condi-
tions (two-thirds of the race have
not yet heard of them), Satan gets
the other nine hundred and ninety-
nine thousandths of the race for his
kingdom in an everlasting lake of
fire and brimstone!
Billions of human beings perished
before this "plan" was provided, and
think of the millions on millions more
God is continuing to create whom He
knows will not hear of nor accept this
plan and will go to Satan's eternal
hell! So Satan gets the best of the
bargain-again outwitting God!
Now think a minute. According to
these teachings God is only about
6,000 years old or else was idle from
all eternity; for they say, "in six days
the Lord made heaven and earth, the
sea, and all that in them is." If He
existed before that time he was not
only idle, but he did not hear, for
there was nothing to make a noise;
he did not see, for there was nothing
to see and no light to see by; he did
not even think, for nothing existed
or had happened to think about! He
not
foresee the danger of "testing" or
tempting him, and was too weak to
prevent Satan, his arch enemy whom
he had created and permitted to come
here, from getting control of the race.
He tried several experiments to re-
created man perfect, but could co
gain control of mankind which failed,
and finally had to die as a ransom
for just a small fraction of the race
from Satan, who retained the great
bulk of mankind for a hell which we
are told was prepared for the devil
and his followers. Could any ideas
of God be more humiliating, more
belittling, more derogatory to his
power and wisdom?
Now let us contrast these ideas of
God with those revealed by the facts
of science.
The telescope reveals infinite space
occupied in every direction with in-
numerable millions of systems, suns
and worlds in all stages of develop-
ment, (showing that the processes of
creation have been going on from all
eternity, and will continue thru in-
finite time to come. It is childish ig-
norance to think that the earth and
heavens were made in six days only
6,000 years ago!
a
Astronomy and geológy teach us
that this world developed from a
nebulous mass
mass of matter thru
dreds of millions of years to accom-
course of evolution that required hun-
plish. Evolution teaches that man
has evolved from the lower animals,
than a hundred million years.
a process requiring probably not less
Hence
man was never more perfect than
now. If we could see the numerous
animal stages thru which he has risen
it would be impossible to tell where
the animal ended and the man began.
So there was never an Adam and Eve,
never a "fall" of the human race.
Mankind is not "totally depraved.'
Every human being has some good
quality.
The race was never "lost," but has
ever been rising from its lowly ani-
mal origin-from Eoanthropus (the
recently discovered fossil 250,000
years old) to Lincoln and Edison. If
human progress had not been as fast
as God desired he could have given
the world a written language, Moses,
Homer, Buddha. Confucius, Aristotle,
Jesus, Luther, Shakespeare and Edi-
son centuries sooner.
Civilization is not a product of


-6--
081
Christianity, else Christian Russia gle church or written a single word
should be superior to pagan Japan. for a Bible! And for 2,000 years
In the recent war Christian Bulgar- God has not used his almighty power
ians were more savage in slaughter- to prevent Mohammedanism from
ing women and children than the Mo- driving Christianity from its native
hammedan Turks. There were well home, nor to extend it to all nations,
developed grades of civilization in and two-thirds of the world have not
Babylonia, Egypt, Greece and Rome yet heard of this "only-saving" relig-
centuries before Christianity. En-
ion; and God continues to create mil-
forced Christianity in Spain and Mex- lions on millions of human beings to
ico has not made their civilization
go down to Satan's kingdom in hell!
cruelly indifferent to the great major-
It cannot be possible that God is so
ity of mankind.
equal to England and America. It is
superiority of races and not religions
that makes grades of civilization.
Civilization is produced by the in-
termingling of tribes and peoples
brought about by trade, commerce,
migrations and wars of conquest.
China and Japan have made rapid pro-
gress in recent years thru commerce,
and home use of railroads, telegraph,
telephone and the press, and not thru
Christianity, which both have official-
ly rejected.
Religion may modify civilization-
sometimes improving it, more often
retarding it, but does not create it.
It was rank egotism in the Hebrews
to claim they were God's chosen peo-
ple. They had no monopoly on re-
ligion. The surrounding nations were
equally as religious, and most of them
reacht higher stages of culture under
their pagan religions than the He-
brews attained.
All men are religious and all are
equally the creatures of God's care.
Hence it is belittling to God's wisdom,
power, justice, goodness and mercy
that he should take pleasure in sav-
ing a few and creating the great mass
of mankind for eternal torment. All
religions are more or less "saving."
So, instead of sending missionaries
to convert the "heathen" to our re-
ligion, in which we have had small
success, we should first educate them
greater civilization. Then they will
to a higher plain of living, and to a
of themselves make or adopt a higher
religion.
Christianity was rejected by the
Jews and other Semitic peoples be-
cause its teachings were too high for
their intelligence. It became the re
ligion of the European peoples be-
cause their greater intelligence com-
prehended the higher morals and du-
ties it teaches. Mohammed's religion
has driven Christianity from its na-
tive land, and in five hundred years
less time has secured more followers
simply because it was better adapted
to the intelligence of that region.

It is equally as absurd egotism to
claim that Christianity is the only
"saving" religion. It is contrary to
present day ideas of God's impartial
justice, and a reflection on his wis-
dom, power and goodness to claim he
did not provide a "saving religion"
for the whole race in the beginning
instead of delaying for thousands of
years until billions of human beings
had been lost, and then, instead of
revealing it to the whole world, or to
great centers of power and culture
like Alexandria, Rome and Athens,
delivered it to an obscure tribe in
Palestine which had already made a
failure of his former religion. And
then he allowed himself to be cruci-
fied before he had established a sin-

Christianty has not spread to all
races because they are yet too ignor-
ant to practice its precepts; but it is
absurd to teach that the greater part
of mankind will be sent to an ever-
lasting hell because they do not prac-
tice a religion they have never heard
of, and one they are not yet developed
enough to comprehend.

--7-
All thru the ages God has given Christianity, and all thru these ages
the race great leaders and teachers they have been stumbling blocks to
high-
to point to higher ideals of life and Christianity, and hindrances to
conduct towards which the race has
ever been approaching. Every tribe
or nation has had a religion suited to
its stage of intellectual development,
each in its alloted place and sphere
"inspired" to elevate the race.
To
improve their religion you need first
to elevate their intelligence and mode
of living.
There was never a Garden of Eden.
God never had to experiment with
or test man to know what was his
moral strength. He knew that all the
time. Hence there never was a temp-
tation. No human father would be so
cruel as to tempt his child to do
wrong when he knew it would not be
able to resist it, and then punish it!
and
er womanhood. If all had followed
the advice of Paul and not married,
the world would have become depop-
ulated centuries ago.
Sin did not introduce or cause
death. The fossils in the rocks prove
that for millions of years before there
was a man to sin death was here.
Death is everywhere. It is just as
natural as life. All things die-ani-
mals and plants cannot sin.
Evolution teaches that what we
call sins are simply the continued in-
dulgence in the appetites, lusts, pas-
sions and selfish desires-sensualism
-inherited from our animal ancestors
("lust of the flesh," Paul aptly says,
Rom. 7:15-25), which we do not yet
control as we should in accordance
with our higher ideas of right and

wrong.
No book or prophet ever revealed
sin. That the knowledge of good and
evil came from eating a forbidden
fruit is an absurd legend. All know-
ledge of good and evil, of right and
wrong, has been acquired by experi-
ence, and not from eating. All laws
and rules of conduct are man-made.
Family life developt love for others,
and ages of experience have taught
men that to restrain some of our self-
There was never a Satan to make
a temptation. God was never so un-
wise as to create a malicious being
to be constantly interfering with His
work, and with greater power over
the world than He had. Nobody now
believes that a Satan causes tem-
pests, earthquakes, diseases
witches. Science has discovered that
Satan was just a myth borrowed by
the Jews from Persian Zoroastrianism
while in Babylonian captivity. No
Jewish writer mentioned such a be-
ing before that time. God was Al-ish desires for the benefit of others
mighty, and never tolerated a rival
in his universe.
God never cursed the human race
which he has been millions of years
developing and constantly improving.
He did not curse the earth with
weeds-they are all natural and use-
ful products. He never cursed and
made labor ignoble. Labor is an in-
dispensable boon to the race.
God never laid a curse on mother-
hood. It is woman's most natural
and noblest function. He never made
her a slave to man. Those ideas are
relics of barbarous ages when woman
was treated as an inferior, and wives
were bought and sold. Paul, the
bachelor. injected those ideas into
1
adds to our own happiness. So laws
are adopted to define those restraints,
and every day we are discovering
new duties and enacting new laws.
Violating those laws is sin.
God never repented or grieved over
the failures of his own handiwork-
else he would not be God. Can you
picture to your imagination a disap-
pointed God? He is too wise to make
mistakes; too experienced to ever re-
sort to experimenting.
Hence God never made any unsuc-
cessful experiments. He never drown-
ed the world in an experiment to get
rid of sin. Geology can find no evi-
dences of a universal flood, and at
no time has there ever been a uni
versal destruction of the human race,

-8-
or of the animal and vegetable king-
doms.
And now the archeologists have
found that the stories in Genesis are
legends borrowed from the Chaldeans
which were engraved on tablets 1500
years before Genesis was written. So
the "great plan of salvation" was
founded on myths! A religion found-
ed on legends will have to give way
to the facts of science.
We know now that the Egyptians
and all other nations worshipped
their gods by offering them the blood
and burned flesh of animals, and in
great emergencies, human beings. So
God did not teach that repulsive
method of worship to the Hebrews
they learned it while in Egypt, and
practiced what all their neighbors
were doing. We know this from the
fact that the later prophets declared
that burnt offerings and sacrifices
were repulsive to God, and the other
fact that, as knowledge advanced,
the Jews and all other nations aban-
doned the custom. It was a relic of
barbarism.
So Paul was mistaken in saying
that "without the shedding of blood
there is no remission of sin," and that
it was necessary for Christ to die to
redeem man from the power of Sa-
tan; because, as there had been no
"fall," there was no need for such an
awful sacrifice for a redemption-no
need of an atonement; and as there
had been no Satan that controlled
the race superior to the power of
God, there was no need of a ransom-
no one to pay it to, and no need of a
hell, which it was said was "prepared
for the devil and his angels."
Jesus consecrated his cause by in-
cidentally dying a martyr. But he
did not save the world by his death
as a blood sacrifice, but by his life
and teachings. He is a Savior of
those who follow his precepts of Love
and Duty.
Christianity imbibed the asceticism
(rigid self-denial of worldly pleasures)
of Buddhism, and the church has de-
manded such an austere, cheerless
life, with the idea that the more pain
and sorrow suffered in this world the
greater will be the joys of the next, and
has so neglected the social and cheer-
ful demands of the human heart, that
it has driven the masses into lodges,
clubs and societies; while the church
should have been the "social center"
for all desirable activities. The
church has so centered its view on
the next world that it has neglected
the present one.
The rapid spread of "Christian
Science" shows that the world is hun-
gry for a more joyous religion
ligion that happifies this life as well
as the next.
re-
exploiting rewards and punish-
ments Christianity has been offered
too much as a means for escaping
fear of hell decreases the empty pews
hell to secure heaven. Hence as the
Nincrease.
The bane of Christianity has been
its creeds. A creed is a stake set to
mark the end of progress. All church-
es are controlled by creeds and hence
they have never taken the lead in any
great reforms, religious, moral, social
or political, because such reforms are
not mentioned in the creeds. "Tho
good are always the last to adopt the
better."
Neither did Jesus die in our stead
to satisfy an unrelenting mandate of
God. It is contrary to all present day Their religion is the last thing men
ideas of justice that billions of people change. The majority hold the re-
should be held guilty and condemned/ligion taught them in childhood be-
to eternal torment because of a sin in
Adam which they knew not of and
could not prevent. It would be hor-
rible injustice for a human judge to
hang a man because his grandfather
committed murder. That would not
satisfy a broken law.
cause they have given it but little
thought since. The many seek ease;
they prefer belief to thinking. To
believe you have only to nod the
head; to think you have to concen-
trate your attention, sharpen your
wits, develope your logical powers,


9
exercise your reason-all of which thought and action. These
requires effort, and effort is painful
to the multitude. So they hold on to
the creeds, rituals and ceremonies of
childhood, and "continue to walk in
the crooked paths markt out by calves
of centuries ago."
essays
are "talks back" by a ventursome
Pew-protests against superstitious,
out-dated creeds that are blocking
the progress of Christianity.
Reformations are inaugurated by
"heretics” and “cranks.” The churches
join when the movement has become
popular. The agitation against slav-
ery was carried on by Garrison, Phil-
lips, Greely and others twenty years
before the churches acted. Individ-
uals and societies outside of
of the
churches fought the saloons seventy
years before the churches joined the
Anti-Saloon League, and a majority
of them are not in it yet. Not until
the warfare against child-labor, cruelty
to animals, tuberculosis, white slav-
ery and city slums has become popu-
lar will the churches unite in the
work.
For fifteen centuries the churches
opposed popular education (the Cath
olics still do) because ignorant peo-
ple are more easily controlled. Edu-
cated people sometimes think, and a
thinker is dangerous to the creeds.
By continuing to require belief in
creeds formulated in the ignorant past
which have become disproved by
present day knowledge, the churches
are driving untold thousands into ir-
reconcilable infidelity. The church
still clings to the myths of barbar-
ous ages. Because earthly kings
used messengers to carry their
ders, the ignorant ancients who con-
ceived God to be just a heavenly king
thought he also needed messengers,
termed angels. Devils and demons
were fallen angels, and messengers
for Satan, who orthodox
or-
Christians
still think is "god of this world."
What childish absurdities!
Theologians cling to old doctrines
because they are never disputed-all
they utter is listened to with bowed
heads-the pews never talk back.
Thus they get the conceit that their
stalest ideas are undeniable facts.
For these reasons both church and
pulpit are "behind the times"
in
The doctrine of the infallibility of
the Bible is the word of God, and if
the scriptures, that "Every word in
you do not believe all of it you might
just as well throw it all away," has
driven into infidelity thousands who
refuse to stultify their reason or give
up their knowledge.
up their knowledge. They know some
of it cannot be the word of God be-
cause of its many positive contradic-
tions, and so they are compelled to
throw it all away! It represents God
as making laws for slavery, tolerating
polygamy and encouraging the use of
wine. It calls the cruel, murderous
and licentious David "a man after
God's own heart." Ruth and parts of
other books are immoral and inde-
cent, and Joshua and Esther were
fiends incarnate. Joshua, David and
many others did things which
Bible says God commanded that are
horrifying to our present day moral
ideas. It is not possible that God
was more immoral then than we are
now.

the

The Genesis stories of creation,
fall of man, the flood and tower of
Babel were long ago shown by sci-
ence to be impossibilities, and over
thirty years ago biblical scholars dis-
covered that they are legends borrow-
ed from pagan Chaldea. Then why
continue to teach them to the chil
dren in Sunday schools as facts when
they will later learn the truth in the
high schools, and then become dis-
gusted with your deceptions?
The Bible is simply a collection of
Hebrew literature, and thus viewed
is most valuable. It consists of sixty-
six books, more than half of which
are by unknown writers. These
books were selected by fallible men,
who rejected twice as many others,
some of which we know were equally
valuable. The first book is largely
legendary, and the last one is SO
visionary that no man has yet been




-10-
able to explain its "revelations."
In
no place does the Bible claim to be
"the word of God," and none of its
numerous translators claimed to be
"inspired." If they had been, why the
need of dozens of "revised versions,"
and which "version" is "the word of
God?"
Previous to the Reformation the
pope was sole religious authority and
the Bible was not held so sacred.
Luther publisht a new Bible and told
his followers to take that as their
only authority. From that time Pro-
testants have reverenced an "infall
ible" book in place of an "infallible"
pope.
The Bible did not create and reveal
religion. Religion is a natural devel-
opement and comes first; then it
makes its own bibles. The Hebrew
religion that made our Bible was for-
mulated thousands of years ago when
the ideas of God and morality were
far below twentieth century concep-
tions. Hence the coming religion
will treat this Bible like any other
good book-accepting those things
which are known to be good and true,
and rejecting those which present day
culture tells us are false and bad.
When the Bible is accepted in that
attitude its power for good will be
greater than ever before because its
critics will be disarmed.
Man is not a disappointment to God.
To teach that is still more belittling
and degrading to the Almighty. A
disappointed God would not be God.
God was not ignorant of man's an
imal origin. He who had Eternity
at command did not create the uni-
verse and man at a word, but by a
long course of developement. The
goal was a higher intellect, a larger
brain, the climax being reacht in man
It took millions of years to develop
that brain. God did not then create
a malicious despoiler to steal the
world and rule and ruin it. That re-
flects on his wisdom and mercy. Evo-
lution teaches that God's plans, works
or laws cannot miscarry or be defeat-
ed. They are unchangeable. No Sa-
tan can frustrate them.
But man inherited all the lusts, ap
petites, passions, hatreds, anger, re-
venge of his animal ancestors, and
that large brain did not wholly con-
trol them. But be patient. Our short
historical period shows that God,
thru the brain, has made great pro-
gress in subduing the animal nature;
and in the course of time they will
triumph over the flesh, and reach the
climax of excellence.
This little world of curs is the only
one in the whole universe that we
know is inhabited by intelligent be-
ings. There is much more in it to
make us happy than there is to make
us sad. Hence it is not a failure, as
orthodoxy teaches. To think so be-
littles God's power and wisdom.
Don't lie awake nights, as the writ-
er did when a boy, fearing the end
of the world, when "the elements
shall melt with fervent heat." This
world has been millions of years de-
veloping, has not yet reached its cli
max of glory, and will exist for mil-
lions of years to come!
Are not these views more reason
able and cheerful than to cling to the
ancient beliefs in a disconcerted, de-
feated, disappointed God? And these
views are not fanciful. They are in
accordance with present day scien-
tific knowledge.
铲
​We should no longer think of God
as a great big man up in the sky-
an imperious, unapproachable king,
far away. He is everywhere present,
immanent-dwelling in everything, in
all of us. And we should abandon
the old Hebrew idea that he is a God
of war, a God of vengance, a God
of wrath. Jesus revealed him as a
God of mercy, a God of sympathy, a
God of Love "Our Father!"
God isn't mad at us. He's too big
to be angry; too good to be vengeful;
too merciful to take pleasure in pun-
ishing; too righteous to condemn the
whole race for one man's sin; too al-
mighty to tolerate an opposing Satan;
too wise to make mistakes, be disap-
pointed or grieved; too just to "elect"
a few to be saved and the many to be
damned; too powerful to feel like

-11-
X
rushing little weaklings like we are;
oo sensible to be at war with his
own creatures. X
Evolution has so profoundly chang-
ed our ideas of God, of the universe
and of the human race, that the need
of a new religion is very evident. It
is just dawning on the world that
Jesus taught the Fatherhood of God
and the Brotherhood of Man-the
doctrine of Love-the only original
and most important principle in
Christianity. This doctrine, hereto-
fore overshadowed by superstitions,
creeds and bigotry, will form
basis of the new religion, and Jesus,
instead of Paul, will be its leader.
the
The coming religion will not teach
that life in this world is only a
delusion, an evil, and that we must
make ourselves uncomfortable by ab-
juring all worldly pleasures, and
make our religion gloomy, harsh and
uninviting in order to please God. It
will not teach that the evils in this
world are penalties inflicted by an
angry God. It will not teach that
God is alienated from mankind, nor
that man is an alien in this world-a
fallen being, hopelessly wicked, and
by nature tending downward. That
God created the world and then aban-
doned it to the control of an arch
enemy, Satan, is a barbarous concep-
tion of an almighty Father.
The coming religoin will not at
tempt to reconcile men and women to
present day ills by promise of future
blessedness, because such promises
have done infinite mischief by induc-
ing men to be patient under suffer-
ings and deprivations against which
they should have incessantly strug-
gled.
The coming religion will not teach
faith is more important than deeds
or conduct-at it is more essential
to believe that Jesus' blood washt
away your sins than to follow his life
and precepts. It will not be a re-
ligion of fear of punishment and wor-
ship for rewards, but a religion of
Love and Service, prompted solely
for the pleasure it gives to "Be Good
and Do Good."
be
The coming religion will not be a
sad, sorrowful, long-faced religion,
just for a select few. It will not
a religion planned only to enable us
to escape an impossible hell to be
saved in an unknown and indescrib-
able heaven.
The coming religion will not treat
this world as a vale of tears, a world
of sorrow and woe, a world to be de-
spised, a temporary dwelling place in
which to prepare for a better world.
The coming religion will consider
our bodies so precious that it will be-
come our first and greatest duty to
make them strong, healthy, vigorous,
efficient and educated, so we can be
most useful to ourselves and fellows.
This condition will be encouraged by
the new science of Eugenics.
The coming religion will make it
our second duty to do all we can to
make our fellow men good and happy.
The new science, Euthenics, will aid
that work.
The coming religion will teach that
this is a beautiful world-the best
world we know of to live in. It will
make it our duty to improve it all we
can by new fruits, new grains, new
flowers, new and better roads, and all
new inventions that will add to its
comforts and beauties.
The coming religion will be a joy-
ful, cheerful, happifying religion. It
will not be confined to a set who all
believe alike. Membership will not
be restricted to fixed beliefs or
creeds, because creeds, mark the end
of progress, and the coming religion
will be progressive-changing to con-
form to the advancing thoughts and
needs of the people. The member-
ship test will not be founded on be-
liefs and faiths, but on deeds-what
you do for others (Matt. 25:34-45),
conduct, character. It will be founded
largely on Ethics and the Golden
Rule, and probably all will be ad-
missible who desire to "Be Good and
Do Good."
The coming religion will be in ac-
cord with the teachings of science.
It will be a religion of service to

-12-
others more than a religion of wor-
ship, a religion of order rather than
of miracles, of brotherhood rather
than of priesthood or class distinction.
a democratic God rather than
the vengeful, monarchical God of
tradition.
with
The coming religion will not be
confined to church work. Everything
that tends to elevate the race physic-
ally, socially, morally and mentally,
will be considered religious work.
Hence the church buildings will be
open seven days of the week for oth-
er than preaching and prayer meet-
ings.
Already the dawn of the coming
religion is being manifested in the
lowering of the walls that separate
the different denominations; the
mingling of the Brotherhoods, Sister-
hoods and Young People's societies;
the broadening and more diversifying
activities of the churches; the in-
crease of new, undenominational "peo-
ples'" churches, where many useful
activities besides praying and preach-
ing services are carried on.
If we perform faithfully all these
duties to ourselves, to our fellow men
and to the world we live in, we shall
perform all the work we can do to
serve, help and glorify God, and reach
the higher life.
Such, in my opinion, will be the
Coming Religion, the religion of Evo-
lution, the religion of Science, and
hence the religion in accordance with
the laws of God as revealed by sci-
ence; for all scientific knowledge and
facts are founded on God's laws which
science has discovered.
BRIEFLY RETOLD.
Orthodox Christianity is founded on
a Chaldean legend that originated in
an age of barbarous ignorance, which
claimed that everything was created
in six days about 6,000 years ago;
that man was created in a state of
purity, but that God permitted his
arch enemy, Satan, whom he had cre-
ated, to come to earth and "test"
man by a temptation which he was
unable to resist; that by that diso-
bedience of Adam and Eve death
came into the world, and the who
race "fell" to a condition of "tot
depravity;" that this superior shrew
ness on the part of Satan gave hi
control of the human race, and, the
God subsequently died as a ransom.
the conditions are such that he gets
back only about one in a thousand of
the race-Satan holding all the other
999 for his kingdom in hell!
Orthodoxy presents to us an out
witted, experimenting, discomfited,
disappointed and defeated God, hav-
ing a rival who not only controls the
human race, but is also "prince of
the power of the air" and "god of
this world," which he rules "in de
fiance of the Almighty!""
Evolution teaches that the human
race never "fell," but has ever been
rising and is still progressing. It
pictures to us an all-wise, all-power
ful, everywhere-present and success-
ful God, who will continue to elevate
the race to sublime heights in this
life and such as may follow-the
strongest proofs for which are fur-
nished by the
the facts of Evolution.
Death is not caused by sin--it is as
natural as life. Science finds no Sa-
tan-its Almighty has no rival!
Orthodoxy preaches a condition of
degradation and defeat-a doctrine of
hopeless despair for the great major-
ity of mankind, whom it dooms to
eternal torment!
Evolution teaches optimism, joyful-
ness in this world, triumphant pro-
gress-pointing to a future sublimity
for the whole human race!
Orthodoxy seeks "a peculiar people'
-an "elect" few-for God's people.
Evolution counts all mankind as
God's children.
Should not the coming religion-
founded on present day
day scientific
knowledge, reason and common sense
-be most welcome?
NOTE-If any reader desires extra
copies of this pamphlet to give to
friends they can be had at actual cost,
postpaid, one copy, 3c; 2 copies, 5c;
5 copies, 10c. C. W. Bennett, Cold-
water, Michigan.

THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN
GRADUATE LIBRARY

DATE DUE
DEC 9 1978
DCT 2n 1979
DEC 1 21973
APR 1 8 1979


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