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The Old Testament tells us the frightful things that God has done, the New the frightful things that he will do. These two books give us the sufferings of the past and the future—the injustice, the agony and the tears of both worlds.
The more false we destroy the more room there will be for the true.
as we progress, the supernatural dies.
In the place of the worship of something we know not of, will be the religion of mutual love and assistance—the
There are intellectual diseases as well as physical—there are pestilences and plagues of the mind.
Why do all these religions die hard? Because intelligence increases slowly.
Every effort at mental improvement had been opposed by the church,
the few things saved from the general wreck—a few poems, a few works of the ancient thinkers, a few forms wrought in stone, produced a new civilization destined to overthrow and destroy the fabric of superstition.
Just in proportion that you have brains, your chances for eternal joy are lessened, according to this religion.
Write the name of Charles Darwin on the one hand and the name of every theologian who ever lived on the other, and from that name has come more light to the world than from all of those.
the Bible is a book written by ignorance—at the instigation of fear.
The man is lost in the multitude. In the roar of the streets, his cry is not heard. Death becomes his only friend.
Death promises release from want, from hunger and pain, and so the poor wretch lays down his burden, dashes it from his shoulders and falls asleep.
What pleasure can it give God to see a man devoured by a cancer; to see the quivering flesh slowly eaten; to see the nerves throbbing with pain? Is this a festival for God?
The grave is better than the cell. Sleep is sweeter than the ache of toil. The dead have no masters.
while life has but one entrance, it has exits innumerable, and as I choose the house in which I live, the ship in which I will sail, so will I choose the time and manner of my death."
a gleam of frenzy,
the light fading from their lives—seek the refuge of death.
Life is not the same to all—to some a blessing, to some a curse, to some not much in any way.
When there is no fear of the future, when death is believed to be a dreamless sleep, men have less hesitation about ending their lives.
On the other hand, orthodox religion has driven millions to insanity. It has caused parents to murder their children and many thousands to destroy themselves and others.
God and hell are out of their minds.
many are in the twilight or dusk of insanity,
A man seeking death, knowing that he will be punished if he fails, will take extra pains and precautions to make death certain.
People should not suffer for the sake of supernatural beings or for other worlds or the hopes and fears of some future state. Our joys, our sufferings and our duties are here.
Death is liberty, absolute and eternal.
Given a certain heart and brain, certain conditions, and suicide is the necessary result. If we wish to prevent suicide we must change conditions. We must by education, by invention, by art, by civilization, add to the value of the average life.
People do not hate the sick. Why should they despise the mentally weak—the diseased in brain?
If Christ were God, then he had the power to protect himself from the Jews without hurting them. But instead of using his power he allowed them to take his life.
As long as there shall be pain and failure, want and sorrow, agony and crime, men and women will untie life's knot and seek the peace of death.
when we wish for the twilight, for the dusk, for the cool kisses of the night—when the senses are dull—when the pulse is faint and low—when the mists gather on the mirror of memory—when the past is almost forgotten, the present hardly perceived—when the future has but empty hands—death is as welcome as a strain of music.
After all, death is not so terrible as joyless life.
But many have not such natures. They cannot bear defeat. They are disheartened by disaster. They lie down on the field of conflict and give the earth their blood.
On their pallid faces our tears should fall.
One of the best men I ever knew, with an affectionate wife, a charming and loving daughter, committed suicide. He was a man of generous impulses. His heart was loving and tender. He was conscientious, and so sensitive that he blamed himself for having done what at the time he thought was wise and best. He was the victim of his virtues. Let us be merciful in our judgments.
Friend who committed suicide
sometimes in the calm of judgment, sometimes in passion's storm and stress, sometimes in whirl and tempest of insanity—raise their hands against themselves and desperately put out the light of life.
Some have denounced suicide as the worst of crimes—worse than the murder of another.
If there be a good God, he will, to the extent of his power, lessen the evils of life.
But those who have answered me would say to this man: "It is your duty to be devoured. The good God wishes you to suffer. Your life is the gift of God. You hold it in trust and you have no right to end it. The cancer is the creation of God and it is your duty to furnish it with food."
Those who have answered me, those who insist that under no circumstances a man has the right to take his life, would say to this man on the deck, "Remain where you are. It is the desire of your loving, heavenly Father that you be clothed in flame—that you slowly roast—that your eyes be scorched to blindness and that you die insane with pain. Your life is not your own, only the agony is yours."
Between inevitable evils you have the right of choice.
The suicide wants the very thing that a coward fears.
The idea that an infinite God, creator of all worlds, came to this grain of sand, learned the trade of a carpenter, discussed with Pharisees and scribes, and allowed a few infuriated Hebrews to put him to death that he might atone for the sins of men and redeem a few believers from the consequences of his own wrath, can find no lodgment in a good and natural brain.
The Jews did not wish to kill God. If he had only made himself known all knees would have touched the ground. If he were God it required no heroism to die. He knew that what we call death is but the opening of the gates of eternal life. If he were God there was no self-sacrifice. He had no need to suffer pain. He could have changed the crucifixion to a joy.
who met the night of death untroubled as a star that meets the morning.
In this connection we might ask how God can be moral or good unless he believes in some Being superior to himself?
What is morality? It is the best thing to do under the circumstances. What is the best thing to do under the circumstances? That which will increase the sum of human happiness—or lessen it the least. Happiness in its highest, noblest form, is the only good; that which increases or preserves or creates happiness is moral—that which decreases it, or puts it in peril, is immoral.
It is impossible for me to see' why any belief in the supernatural is necessary to have a keen perception of right and wrong.
Every man who has the capacity to suffer and enjoy, and has imagination enough to give the same capacity to others, has within himself the natural basis of all morality.
Subjects who are governed by the threats and promises of a king are merely slaves. They are not governed by the ideal, by noble views of right and wrong. They are obedient cowards, controlled by fear, or beggars governed by rewards—by alms.
