38. As the Bible teaches that Adam named all the beasts,
animals, and birds, it must have occupied a great number
of years for the Lord God of Moses to have caught and
taken the several hundred thousand species to Adam to receive
names in all the three thousand languages, and then convey
them back to their respective climates.
39. The question naturally arises, "Why should Adam give
them names I)}’ sajing, “This is a horse, that is an ass,
the animal yonder shall be called a hippopotamus,” &c.,
TWO THOUSAND BIBLE ERRORS.
81
when there was nobody present to hear it and be benefited by
it ? And nobody could have remembered half the names had
they been present. Here we wish to call the attention of the
reader specially to the fact that all the thoughts and language
Tre have so far cited as being either that of God or Moses
sounds like the utterance of ignorant children, and unworthy
the dignity of an intelligent and sensible man, much less that of
a God.
40. The Bible teaches that u God made man in his own
image/’ The reverse statement would have been true, “Man
made God in his own image;” for this is true of all nations
who believe in a God.
41. Here let it be noted the Bible contains two contradictory
accounts of creation; one found in the first chapter of Gen-
esis, the other in the second. In the first, animals are created
before man ; in the second, after man.
42. The first chapter of Genesis says, “ Let the earth bring
forth plants” (Gen. i. 11) : the second says, “ God created
every plant . . . before it was in the earth” (Gen. ii. 9).
A contradiction; and neither statement is true, there being
no creation.
43. The first chapter has the earth created several days
before the firmament, or heaven: the second chapter has it
created on the same day (Gen. ii. 4).
44. The first represents fowls as originating in the water
(Gen. i. 20) : the second has them created out of the water.
45. After the first chapter says “ God created man in his
own image” (Gen. i. 27), the second says “there was not
a man to till the ground ” (Gen. ii. 4).
46. The first chapter represents man and woman as being
created at the same time (Gen. i. 27) : the second represents
the woman as being created after the man.
47. The first implies that man has dominion over the whole
earth: the second restricts his dominion to a garden. Which •
is the inspired story of creation?
48. The Mexicans claim that the first man and woman
were created in their country. The Hindoos aver that the
original progenitors of the race (Adimo and Iva) first made
82
THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.
their appearance amongst them. The Chinese claim a similar
honor. The Persians contend that God landed the first human
pair in the land of Iran. And, finally, the Jews affirm that
Jehovah created the first pair in Eden.
J
The Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of Life.
Moses tells us God planted two trees in Eden, one of which
he called “ the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.” This
tree bore fruit which nobody was allowed to taste (Gen. ii. 9).
49. Why the tree was planted, or why its fruit was forbidden
to be used, are problems which the Bible does not solve, and
which set reason at defiance.
50. And then it looks like a senseless act to create a tree
for the purpose of bearing fruit (as we can conceive of no
other purpose for which it could have been created)*, and then
decree that it should all go to waste.
51. It was worse still to create human beings with an appe-
tite for this fruit, and place it in their sight, and then forbid
them to taste it on penalty of death. Nothing could be more
opposed to our ideas of reason and justice.
52. Did God create beings in his own image, and then treat
them' as if he wished to tantalize them and render them
unhappy?
53. It would seem that he created man for no other purpose
than to tease and torment him, and quarrel with him.
54. Common sense would suggest it to be the act of an
ignoramus or a tyrant to implant in man the desire to eat fruit
which he did not allow him to eat.
55. And would it not be unjust to punish Adam and Eve for
doing what he himself had implanted in them the desire to
do?
5G. God must have known they would eat the fruit, if he
were omniscient.
57. If he were not omniscient, he was not a God in a
supreme or divine sense.
58. God must have had the power without the will to prevent
the act of disobedience, which would make him an unjust and
unmerciful tyrant.
TWO THOUSAND BIBLE ERBOBS.
83
59. Or else the will without the power, which would make
him a weak and frail being, and not a God.
(For a full elucidation of these points, see chapter sixty-nine.)
We will notice a few other points.
60. As God declared eating the fruit would make Adam
“ like one of us,” that is, Godlike (and all men are enjoined to
become Godlike), was not Adam, therefore, justified in eating
the fruit in order to become Godlike ?
61. In chapter sixty-nine it is shown, that, as Adam and
Eve got their eyes open by eating the inhibited fruit, the act
of disobedience turned out to be a great blessing, inasmuch as
it saved the earth from being filled with a race of blind human
beings.
62. And, as this blessing was obtained through the agency
of the serpent-devil, we must admit “ the father of lies” was
a great benefactor of the human race, as shown in chapter
sixty-nine.
63. As Adam could not very well exercise “ dominion over
every living thing that moveth upon the earth” (Gen. i. 26)
while shut up in a little eight-by-ten garden, we can observe
here another practical benefit of the act of disobedience which
drove him from the garden.
64. Is it not a strange piece of moral incongruity to set
Adam to tilling the soil in the garden as a blessing, and then
doom him to till it outside as a curse? (Gen. iii. 23.) He first
embarked in the business as a blessing, and then as a curse.
How the same act could be both a blessing and a curse is a
u m}Tstery of godliness ” which swamps us.
65. The Jews tell us the original tempter was a serpent
(Gen. iii. 1) ; the Mexicans say it was a demon; the Hindoos
call him a snake; the Greeks declare it was a dragon;
Josephus supposes it was an ape ; some of the East-India sects
speak of him as a fish; but the Persian revelations make it
a lizard. Which is right ?
66. The Mosaic or Hebrew cosmogony represents the ser-
pent as dealing out the fruit to the genus homo; while the
Mexicans, the Egyptians, and the Persians set the serpent or
“ evil genius ” to guarding the tree to protect the fruit. Which
is right ?
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THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.
67. When God Jehovah announced to the trinity of Gods,
“Behold, the man has become as one of us to know good
and evil” (Gen. iii. 22), exactly as the serpent had predicted,
instead of dying as Jehovah had predicted, does it not prove
that the serpent was the best and most reliable prophet ?
G8. As Adam and Eve could know nothing of the nature
of right and wrong until they attained that knowledge by eating
the fruit, does not this fact prove it to be a justifiable if not a
righteous act?
G9. How could Adam and Eve know that any act was
sinful before an act of any kind had been committed by which
they could learn the character or consequences of human con-
duct?
69. Is it not a logical conclusion, that, if God created
every tiling, he can control every thing, and hence, strictly
speaking, is alone responsible for the right performance of
every thing ?
70. The Christian Bible tells us the first pair of human
beings sewed fig-leaves together for clothing; but the Chinese
revelation say palm-leaves. Which is right? Who can tell?
71. As it is declared the voice of God was heard “walking
in the garden’’ (Gen. iii.
, we beg leave to ask, what kind
of a thing is a “walking voice ” ?
72. We also beg leave to ask, who took charge of “the
house of many mansions” while Jehovah was down among
the bushes hunting and hallooing for Adam ?
72. And who took charge of creation, and kept the machinery
of the universe running during the thousand 3Tears’ rest of
God Almighty, if the one day he rested means a thousand
years ?
73. Was it necessary for an omnipresent God to come down
from heaven to find Adam when he hid among the bushes?
And what would have been the result if he had not been
found ?
74. Must wc not conclude that the command to “multiply
and replenish the earth” was rather superfluous, inasmuch
as nations who never heard of the command perform the duty
faithfully?
TWO THOUSAND BIBLE ERBOBS.
85
75. If the River Gihon, one of the four rivers of Paradise,
“ encompassed the whole land of Ethiopia’’ (Gen. ii. 13),
which is in Africa, how did it manage to cross the Red Sea, so
as to get into Eden, which is in Asia?
111. As Bishop Colenso shows the territory lying between
the four rivers in Eden, as mentioned in Gen. ii. comprised an
area of several hundred miles, we would suggest that father
Adam, while in Eden, had rather a large garden to cultivate.
112. How could fig-leaves be sewed together for clothing
before needles were invented? (see Gen. iii. 7.)
113. How did Eve see the tree as stated in Genesis (“ she
saw the tree ”) before she ate the fruit which caused her eyes
to be opened ?
114. Is it not calculated to destroy all ideas of justice in the
minds of man and woman to believe that God cursed and
ruined the happiness of the whole human race merely for one
simple act prompted by a being destitute of moral perception or
moral accountability ?
115. And what should we think of a being who would suffer
a grand scheme, on which is predicated the happiness of his
innumerable family for untold ages, to be defeated by the wily
machinations of a brainless creature of his own creation ?
116. Why should Adam hide from God because he was
naked, when, if God made him, he must have become accus-
tomed to seeing him in that condition?
117. If God in the morning pronounced every thing good,
and in the evening every thing bad, does it not imply not only
a serious blunder in the job, but a serious mistake in his
views either in the morning or in the evening?
118. As we are told u the Lord God made clothing for Adam
out of goat-skins,” the question naturally arises, Who caught
and killed the animals, and dressed the skins? Does it not
imply that God was both a butcher and a tanner? Rather
plebeian employment for a God.
119. And the statement that u the Lord God planted a
garden eastward in Eden” (Gen. ii.
seems to imply that
he was a horticulturist also.
120. It is pretty hard to believe that Adam could sleep
86
THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.
while God Almighty (Moses’ God) was digging amongst his
ribs, as stated in Gen. ii. 21.
121. How could Adam know what the word u die ” meant
before there had been any deaths in the world, when the Lord
told him he should die if he ate the forbidden fruit?
122. As Eve was pronounced “ the mother of all living”
when there were no human beings in existence but she and
Adam, the inference seems to be that she was the mother of
herself, her husband, and all the animal tribes.
128. u In the image of God created he them” (Adam and
Eve, see Gen. i. 27). If Adam and Eve were both created in
the image of God, it would seem to follow that he was consti-
tuted of two genders, male and female.
In concluding this section, we ask the reader to think of an
infinitely wise God being defeated in his grand scheme of crea-
tion or salvation by a crawling serpent, and a frightful hell
and all its horrors originating from this act. How sublimely
ridiculous is the thought!
II. The Scientists’ Account of Creation.
1. Millions of years ago the sun in its revolution threw off, as
it had done on previous occasions, a sort of fire-mist, or nebu-
lous scintillations, which floated and rolled through space for
countless ages, gradual^ accumulating from the atmosphere in
its revolution, thus swelling in size until it became a conglomera-
tion of gas; and, continuing to grow and progress, it ripened
into a ficiy, liquid mass possessing the most intense heat.
2. After innumerable ages this fieiy liquid mass began to
cool, and finally formed a crust upon its surface.
3. As its interior elements began to evolve or emanate from
its bosom, it formed a dense, hcav}T, murk}7 atmosphere, almost
as heav}' as water, in which no living thing could have breathed
or lived for a moment.
4. This atmosphere contained moisture, which in the course
of time became condensed into globules forming drops, which
descended to the earth in the shape of rain.
5. This rain, descending to the earth, cooled its surface, and
eventually filled its vast cavities with water, and thus formed
TWO THOUSAND BIBLE ERRORS.
87
lakes, seas, and oceans. The boiling, heaving mass in the
bowels of the earth made it very irregular in shape.
6. As soon as the surface of the earth became sufficiently
cool, small swellings began to appear upon its surface, present-
ing the appearance of blisters, or boils. These outgrowths
finally began to exhibit vegetable life ; but for a long period of
time they presented the appearance of rocks or stones.
7. In the mean time the washings from the surface of the
earth were deposited in the seas and oceans, and, sinking to the
bottom, in the course of time formed rocks.
8. These rocks, as they hardened, gave off an element of life,
which in the course of time supplied the waters with various
forms of animal or finny life, and thus originated mollusks,
fishes, &c.
9. As the surface of the earth cooled and grew thicker, the
elements of life diffused through the liquid mass finally made
their appearance on the surface in t^e character of the lowest
forms of vegetable life, such as mosses, lichens, ferns, &c.
10. As the surface of the earth thickened, and consequently
accumulated the elements of vitality, it gave forth higher and
still higher forms of vegetable life, till finally the most matured
forms of matter began to exhibit animal life.
11. The first species was the zoophite, a compound of vege-
table and animal life, but possessing scarcely an}^ of the func-
tions of animal life except those of absorption and respiration,
and these functions were but slightty manifested.
12. Succeeding the zoophite came the mollusks and various
hard-shelled animal forms, which at first clung to the rocks, then
fed on seaweeds and other vegetable substances, absorbing also
from the atmosphere.
’ 13. In this way various species of animals and birds and rep-
tiles sprang up, ran their course, and then perished, to give
place to higher forms.
14. And finalty, when all the elements of life 'became suffi-
ciently matured, they formed a combination, and turned loose
upon the earth the animal man, who at first was nearly as ugly,
clumsy, and awkward as a baboon, possessed of but little more
sense or intelligence.
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THE BIBLE OF BIBLES.
15. Each one of these changes and outgrowths of the new
forms of vegetable and animal life constituted an epoch of in-
numerable ages, thus showing the age of our planet to be beyond
computation. We submit to the reader whether this is not a
more rational, beautiful, and satisfactory solution of the great
problem of mineral, vegetable, animal, and human existence,
than the jumbled-up medley presented by Moses.
ABSURDITIES IN TEE ARK AND FLOOD STORY. 89
CHAPTER XVI. 1°
ABSURDITIES IN THE ARK AND FLOOD STORY.
If there were no other errors or absurdities in the Bible, our
faith in it would diminish at every step in the investigation
of the ark and flood story as related in the sixth chapter of
Genesis. The avowed purpose of the flood, the means employed,
and their failure to accomplish the end desired, are all at war
with our reason and our moral sense.
