Forgery in Christianity

An Exposition of the Fables and Mythology of the Bible and the Fallacies of Theology. Contents: The Menace of Religious Intolerance; Genesis of Christianity; A Sketch of Hebrew Scriptures; The Patriarchs and the Covenants of Yahveh; Wonders of the Exodus; Forty Years in the Wilderness; The Ten Commandments and the Law; Conquest of the Promised Land; Hebrew-Heathen Religion, Sex Worship and Idols; Pagan God And Gods Of Israel; Yahveh, The Terrible God of Israel; Holy Priests and Prophets of Yahveh; Bible Theology and Modern Truth; The Prophecies of Jesus Christ; The Inspired Harmony of the Gospels; More Harmony of the Gospels; The Sacred Doctrines of Christianity; The Christian Plan of Salvation; Revelations of the Hereafter; Cesset Superstitio! And Then?

Excerpt:

A very modern instance comes to hand and is added for confirmation. Fortunately, or lamentably for Christian pretensions, there yet exist in the world races of very primitive descendants of Adam, who yet preserve their primeval forms of superstition and priestcraft, wherein may be seen their origins in yet active reality of operation. In no more remote a region of these our United States than the Diomede Islands of the Aleutian archipelago of Alaska, tribal superstition and primitive priestcraft may be seen in all their ridiculous crudity today.

In the Report of the Stoll-McCracken Expedition of the American Museum of Natural History, 1928, primitive religious superstition and the power of the priest are graphically described; with simple change of form and ritual it is Religion through the Ages, the war-blessers and rain-makers in action to cajole and control the deity through his priests. As one reads the following extracts from the Report, let him see what differences he may discover, other than of technique, between the Diomeder and the Dupe of any other Cult.

"For the Diomeder humbles himself before the imaginary forces of his spirit world, often disregarding the realities of life with typical primitive inconsistency. ... The only powers really worthy of his respect are the supernatural ones. This is why the Eskimo medicine man, or angutkok, as he is called, holds a position of such influence. He is the middleman between the natural and supernatural world. The Diomeders have no real chiefs or any system of government. Each family is able to manage its own affairs. The common events of life take care of themselves. But whatever is unusual, whatever cannot be readily understood, engages the attention of every Diomeder. Such things as sickness and weather, good or bad luck and the complicated workings of nature fascinate him because they are utterly beyond his comprehension.

Indeed, superstition is the basis of the angutkok's hold over his people. It is chiefly for his supposed alliance with the forces of the supernatural that he is venerated. ... He is supposed to have marvelous powers over bodily ailments. ... The power of conversation with the ancestral spirits is one of the angutkok's strongest holds upon his public. For the ancestral spirits are said to exert a tremendous influence over the lives of the natives. The Diomeder's attitude toward them is more than one of wholesome respect. It is made up of a definite and deep-sated fear. This is because the spirits, if they choose, can send down either good luck or bad -- and usually elect the latter. And clever must be the ruses whereby they may be tricked into benignity. For a departed soul, no matter how kindly has been its earthly owner, is a potential agent of misfortune and must be treated accordingly" (New York Times Magazine, Dee. 16, 1928, p. 9.)

The methods of incantation, of placating the spirits and gods, the charms and amulets used for these conjurations, differ only in material from those in holy vogue today in some very Christian countries. Angutkok, shaman, medicine-man, exorciser, priest, Pennsylvania Witch-doctors, nature-fakers and superstition-mongers, parasites preying on ignorance and fear -- the whole genealogy of dupe-craft, of priest-craft, -- what difference in kind and craft is discernible between the one and the others of the god-placating, devil-chasing Genus Shamanensis? Bombarding the irate god with eggs, as with the Diomedes, or by the prayer of faith as with more up-to-date God-compellers, the cause is the same, and the effect is equally ineffective and desultory.

500 pages