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INJUSTICE OF CHRISTIANITY By: Robert Ingersoll ============================================================================= "The instant we admit that a book is too sacred to be doubted, or even reasoned about, we are mental serfs. It is infintely absurd to suppose that a god would address a communication to intelligent beings, and yet make it a crime to be punished in eternal flames, for them to use their intelligence for the purpose of understanding his communication. If we have the right to use our reason we certainly have the right to act in accordance with it, and no god can have the right to punish us for such action. The doctrine that future happiness depends upon belief is monstrous. It is the infamy of infamies. The notion that faith in Christ is to be rewarded by an eternity of bliss, while a dependence upon reason, observation, and experience merits everlasting pain, is too absurd for refutation, and can be relieved only by that unhappy mixture of insanity and ignorance called 'faith.' What man who ever thinks can believe that blood can appease God? And yet our entire system of religion is based upon that belief....Whether the Bible is true or false is of no consequence in comparison with the mental freedom of the race. Salvation through slavery is worthless. Salvation from slavery is inestimable. As long as man believes the Bible to be infallible, that book is his master....All that is necessary, as it seems to me, to convince any REASONABLE person that the Bible is simply and purely of human invention -- of barbarian invention -- is to read it. Read it as you would any other book; think of it as you would any other; get the bondage of reverence from your eyes; push from the throne of your brain the cowled form of superstition -- then read the holy Bible, and you will be amazed that you ever, for a moment, supposed a being of infinite wisdom, goodness and purity to be the author of such ignorance and of such atrocity."

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