The Christian Creed; What it is Blasphemy to deny. PART I. SHOWING SOME OF THE ERRORS, CONTRADICTIONS, AND ABSURDITIES, GIVEN ON DIVINE AUTHORITY, IN THE HOLY SCRIPTURES OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. PAMPHLETS by ANNIE BESANT. God's Views on Marriage... Blasphemy Liberty Equality, and Fraternity ... The Influence of Heredity on Free Will, from the German of The Ethics of Punishment. ... Third Thousand Landlords, Tenant Farmers, and Laborers. Third Thousand... The Gospel of Christianity and the Gospel of Freethought 1 The True Basis of Morality A Plea for Utility as the Standard ... ... The Political Status of Women, A Plea for Women's Rights. ... Civil and Religious Liberty, with some Hints taken from the The Gospel of Atheism. Fifth Thousand Is the Bible Indictable? ... ... England, India, and Afghanistan, and The Story of Afghanistan, Force no Remedy. An Analysis of the Coercion Act (Ireland) 1882 Coercion in Ireland and its Results Egypt, a Protest against the War. Second Edition ... London: FREETHOUGHT PUBLISHING COMPANY, 63, Fleet Street, E.C. THE CHRISTIAN CREED; Or, What it is Blasphemy to deny. A STRUGGLE has begun, which promises to be one of the fiercest that this century has seen, between the bigots and persecutors on the one hand and the supporters of free speech on the other. It appears, then, worth while to look closely into this Christian creed, which claims the right to imprison and torture men of pure life for non-belief in its tenets. Christianity threatens us with persecution here and damnation hereafter if we do not believe its doctrines. "He that believeth not shall be damned," says Jesus. "He that believeth not shall be imprisoned and pick oakum," says Mr. Justice North. The threat of damnation would trouble us little if it stood alone-we could put off consideration of that until we arrived in the other world; but the threat of imprisonment here is unpleasant. If we are to burn for ever hereafter, the Christians might really allow us to enjoy ourselves here; is their malice (like their hell) such a bottomless pit that an eternity of torture is not enough to fill it up? Let us see what we must believe on peril of damnation and Newgate. (1) We must believe the "Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be of divine authority; (2) we must believe each "one of the persons in the Holy Trinity to be God," while (3) we also believe that there are not 66 more gods than one; (4) we must believe the "Christian religion to be true; we are strictly forbidden to publish any "ludicrous matter relating to God, Jesus Christ, or the Bible, or the formularies of the Church of England as by law established," and are warned that we A 2 |