item: #1 of 24 id: 10684 author: Bury, J. B. (John Bagnell) title: A History of Freedom of Thought date: None words: 55111 flesch: 59 summary: LL.D. OF EDINBURGH, GLASGOW, AND ABERDEEN UNIVERSITIES; REGIUS PROFESSOR OF MODERN HISTORY, CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY AUTHOR OF �HISTORY OF THE LATTER ROMAN EMPIRE,� �HISTORY OF GREECE,� �HISTORY OF THE EASTERN ROMAN EMPIRE,� ETC. He said: �The most unlimited liberty of religion is in my eyes a right so sacred that to express it by the word �toleration� seems to me itself a sort of tyranny, keywords: authority; bible; book; century; christian; christianity; church; doctrine; england; faith; france; freedom; god �; history; human; knowledge; liberty; man; men; nature; new; opinion; persecution; power; principle; progress; reason; religion; roman; science; spirit; sqq; state; system; theory; thought; time; toleration; truth; work; world; years cache: 10684.txt plain text: 10684.txt item: #2 of 24 id: 15968 author: English, George Bethune title: The Grounds of Christianity Examined by Comparing The New Testament with the Old date: None words: 79655 flesch: 63 summary: � �Think ye, (said he to his disciples) that I have come to put peace on earth, I tell you nay, but rather division. For he calls the subjects of his message �the broken in heart,� �the captives,� � the mourners of Zion,� &c. all which terms are applicable only to the Israelites. keywords: account; apostles; author; books; c. �; chapter; christ �; christianity; christians; day; death; earth; god �; good; gospel; hebrew; israel; jerusalem; jesus; jews; know; law; lord; man; messiah; miracles; nations; new; paul; people; place; prophecies; prophecy; prophets; reader; reason; religion; testament; thee; things; thou; thy; time; truth; words; world; years; � i. cache: 15968.txt plain text: 15968.txt item: #3 of 24 id: 19397 author: Hurst, J. F. (John Fletcher) title: History of Rationalism Embracing a Survey of the Present State of Protestant Theology date: None words: 189779 flesch: 64 summary: In him is the Theanthropos, not God _and_ man, but God _in_ man. Berlin was completely under its sway, and _Berliner_ was a synonym of _Rationalist_. keywords: authority; bible; book; boston; century; chapter; character; children; christ; christian; christianity; church; church history; churches; colenso; common; condition; course; criticism; day; death; development; divine; doctrine; dutch; england; english; essays; evangelical; evil; faith; father; form; france; french; friends; future; general; german; god; good; gospel; great; hand; heart; history; holland; holy; human; idea; infidelity; influence; inspiration; jesus; john; knowledge; labors; language; law; left; life; light; like; literature; london; lord; love; man; men; mind; miracles; moral; nature; new; number; opinions; order; origin; orthodoxy; page; paris; people; period; philosophy; pietism; place; position; power; present; principles; professor; protestant; protestantism; public; rationalism; real; reason; religion; renan; revelation; reviews; school; science; scriptures; second; sense; sin; skepticism; soul; spirit; state; strauss; study; system; testament; theologians; theological; theology; things; thought; time; truth; views; way; words; work; world; writers; years; young cache: 19397.txt plain text: 19397.txt item: #4 of 24 id: 19566 author: Patterson, Robert title: Fables of Infidelity and Facts of Faith Being an Examination of the Evidences of Infidelity date: None words: 176449 flesch: 64 summary: God _created_ man in his own image. What an outrage of decency for such men to call themselves philosophers and Christians! keywords: account; animals; apostles; authority; beginning; bible; book; cause; chap; chapter; character; christ; christian; church; city; common; contrary; creation; darkness; darwin; day; days; death; discovery; distinct; divine; earth; egypt; evolution; existence; eye; eyes; fact; faith; fire; form; forth; god; good; gospel; heathen; heaven; history; human; idea; infidel; infinite; instance; jesus; knowledge; land; language; law; laws; life; light; lord; man; matter; men; miles; millions; mind; modern; moses; motion; nations; nature; new; number; origin; people; period; place; planets; power; present; process; progress; prophets; question; reason; religion; revelation; science; scripture; second; soul; space; species; stars; state; sun; system; testament; testimony; theory; things; thou; time; truth; universe; water; way; words; work; world; years cache: 19566.txt plain text: 19566.txt item: #5 of 24 id: 19879 author: English, George Bethune title: Five Pebbles from the Brook date: None words: 41765 flesch: 64 summary: to Mr. Everett; in the belief that when he should have the weakness of his arguments in behalf of what he defended and the injustice of his aspersions upon me, fairly and evidently laid before him, that he would make me at least a private apology. Mr. Everett commences his work with the following remarks. keywords: book; christians; david; day; earth; everett; god; gospels; hebrew; israel; jehovah; jerusalem; jesus; jews; law; lord; man; messiah; nations; new; passage; people; place; prophecy; prophets; read; testament; thee; thou; thy; time; word; work; years cache: 19879.txt plain text: 19879.txt item: #6 of 24 id: 30900 author: Lewis, Joseph title: The Tyranny of God date: None words: 16417 flesch: 67 summary: How often do we prefer _death_ to living life in our former condition, after our efforts have brought us to a point of vantage and comfort! In other words, Nature has taken millions of years to produce the earth as it is now formed; and if it were made particularly for human beings it is not yet completed, for we still find spots, aye, vast areas, where human life is incapable of subsisting. keywords: body; brain; child; conditions; day; death; fear; forces; god; human; life; live; living; man; nature; pain; suffering; tyranny; world cache: 30900.txt plain text: 30900.txt item: #7 of 24 id: 31941 author: Robertson, J. M. (John Mackinnon) title: Rationalism date: None words: 18153 flesch: 53 summary: And for this among other reasons, M. Bergson's attack upon Spencer and other generalisers in science for their 'mechanical' way of conceiving evolution is no blow to 'science,' as M. Bergson would probably avow, though he is lax enough to delimit science at times in his dialectic. There are well-known instances of men of science who by analysis widen the bounds of physical knowledge while accepting, in ways which other men find grotesquely uncritical, loose propositions on psychic existence. keywords: argument; balfour; beliefs; bias; christian; fact; god; judgment; law; life; men; nature; professor; proof; rationalist; reason; reasoning; religion; science; sense; truth; way cache: 31941.txt plain text: 31941.txt item: #8 of 24 id: 37234 author: Besant, Annie title: My Path to Atheism date: None words: 111839 flesch: 60 summary: The band of men who accepted him as their teacher were as far from worshipping him as God as were their fellow-countrymen: their prompt desertion of him when attacked by his enemies, their complete hopelessness when they saw him overcome and put to death, are sufficient proofs that though they regarded him--to quote their own words--as a prophet mighty in word and deed, they never guessed that the teacher they followed, and the friend they lived with in the intimacy of social life was Almighty God Himself. I reject it from beginning to end, as fatally destructive of all true faith towards God, as perilously subversive of all true morality in man, as an outrage on the sacred memory of Jesus of Nazareth, and as an insult to the Justice, the Supremacy, and the Unity of Almighty God. keywords: bible; child; children; christ; christian; church; course; day; death; divine; duty; earth; eternal; existence; fact; faith; father; god; good; gospel; hands; heart; heaven; hell; holy; human; idea; inspiration; jesus; justice; law; laws; life; lord; love; man; men; mind; morality; nature; people; point; power; prayer; reason; revelation; right; science; sense; sin; son; soul; spirit; things; thought; thy; time; truth; way; words; work; world cache: 37234.txt plain text: 37234.txt item: #9 of 24 id: 3743 author: Paine, Thomas title: The Writings of Thomas Paine — Volume 4 (1794-1796): The Age of Reason date: None words: 72882 flesch: 60 summary: The Pope, Zachary II., decided that if his alleged doctrine, against God and his soul, that beneath the earth there is another world, other men, or sun and moon, should be acknowledged by Virgilius, he should be excommunicated by a Council and condemned with canonical sanctions. If by a prophet we are to suppose a man to whom the Almighty communicated some event that would take place in future, either there were such men, or there were not. keywords: account; age; belief; bible; book; case; chapter; children; christ; christian; church; creation; day; death; evidence; god; idea; jerusalem; jesus; jews; joshua; king; life; lord; man; manner; men; moral; moses; new; paine; people; person; place; power; reason; religion; story; sun; system; testament; thing; time; word; work; writer; years cache: 3743.txt plain text: 3743.txt item: #10 of 24 id: 37694 author: Allen, Ethan title: Reason, the Only Oracle of Man; Or, A Compendius System of Natural Religion date: None words: 48291 flesch: 34 summary: To suppose that God Almighty has confined his goodness to this world, to the exclusion of all others, is much similar to the idle fancies of some individuals in this world, that they, and those of their communion or faith, are the favorites of heaven exclusively; but these are narrow and bigoted conceptions, which are degrading to a rational nature, and utterly unworthy of God, of whom we should form the most exalted ideas. To alter or change that which is absolutely perfect, would necessarily make it cease to be perfect, inasmuch as perfection could not be altered for the better, but for the worse, and consequently an alteration could not meet with the divine approbation; which terminates the issue of the matter in question against miracles, and authorizes us to deduce the following conclusive inference, to wit: that Almighty God, having eternally impressed the universe with a certain system of laws, for the same eternal reason that they were infinitely perfect and best, they could never admit of the least alteration, but are as unchangeable, in their nature, as God their immutable author. keywords: creation; day; divine; doctrine; existence; god; good; human; infinite; knowledge; law; laws; life; lord; man; mankind; moral; moses; nature; order; original; power; providence; reason; revelation; sin; things; time; truth; world cache: 37694.txt plain text: 37694.txt item: #11 of 24 id: 38107 author: Ingersoll, Robert Green title: The Gods From 'The Gods and Other Lectures' date: None words: 16878 flesch: 71 summary: Beyond nature man cannot go even in thought--above nature he cannot rise--below nature he cannot fall. The scriptures give us the most wonderful accounts of divine interference: Animals talk like men; springs gurgle from dry bones; the sun and moon stop in the heavens in order that General Joshua may have more time to murder; the shadow on a dial goes back ten degrees to convince a petty king of a barbarous people that he is not going to die of a boil; fire refuses to burn; water positively declines to seek its level, but stands up like a wall; grains of sand become lice; common walking-sticks, to gratify a mere freak, twist themselves into serpents, and then swallow each other by way of exercise; murmuring streams, laughing at the attraction of gravitation, run up hill for years, following wandering tribes from a pure love of frolic; prophecy becomes altogether easier than history; the sons of God become enamored of the world's girls; women are changed into salt for the purpose of keeping a great event fresh in the minds of men; an excellent article of brimstone is imported from heaven free of duty; clothes refuse to wear out for forty years; birds keep restaurants and feed wandering prophets free of expense; bears tear children in pieces for laughing at old men without wigs; muscular development depends upon the length of one's hair; dead people come to life, simply to get a joke on their enemies and heirs; witches and wizards converse freely with the souls of the departed, and God himself becomes a stone-cutter and engraver, after having been a tailor and dressmaker. keywords: cause; children; devil; earth; effect; fact; force; god; gods; good; infinite; man; matter; men; nature; people; power; superior; thought; world cache: 38107.txt plain text: 38107.txt item: #12 of 24 id: 39455 author: Mangasarian, M. M. (Mangasar Mugurditch) title: Is Life Worth Living Without Immortality? A Lecture Delivered Before the Independent Religious Society, Chicago date: None words: 9284 flesch: 75 summary: He is classed with such men as Sir Oliver Lodge and Lord Kelvin, who though scientists still believe in the supernatural, and by their example have made such a belief respectable. How fortunate it would have been for man had the Deity given that as his first and best thought to the world! keywords: belief; existence; god; health; james; life; man; men; mind; prof; professor; truth; world cache: 39455.txt plain text: 39455.txt item: #13 of 24 id: 40211 author: Carlile, Richard title: Church Reform The Only Means to That End, Stated in a Letter to Sir Robert Peel, Bart., First Lord of the Treasury date: None words: 24768 flesch: 59 summary: Repentance and enquiry are the pillars and foundations of that Church; without repentance and enquiry there can be no Church of Christ; and I ask, confidently ask, with the assurance that a true answer must be in the negative,--has anything calling itself a Christian Church in Europe, established by law, or dissenting from such an establishment, anything to do with the two principles of repentance and proving, the one meaning reflection by animadversion, the other a trial by outward tests of that reflection? This, Sir, is a true picture or effigies of the moral Trinity of the Christian Church, which you will find to be a key to every mysterious sentence of the Bible; and I ask you seriously, as between man and man, is any thing of this kind known or practised in the present Church? Are not the ministers of that Church afraid of every new discovery in science? keywords: christ; christian; church; dissent; god; good; human; knowledge; man; mind; moral; mystery; people; power; present; reform; religion; revelation; spirit; state; subject; time cache: 40211.txt plain text: 40211.txt item: #14 of 24 id: 40978 author: Francis, Samuel W. (Samuel Ward) title: Watson Refuted Being an Answer to the Apology for the Bible, in a Series of Letters to the Bishop Of Llandaff date: None words: 30770 flesch: 66 summary: ver. 16, there was a plague among the congregation of the Lord, on account of the tres pass against the Lord, when he ordered thus, Now, therefore, kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him; but all the women children that hath not known man by lying with him, keep for yourselves. And in like manner, you refer to other books frequently quoted as authorities in the Bible. keywords: author; bible; book; chap; children; christ; daniel; god; history; israel; jews; joshua; like; lord; man; men; moses; nations; paine; passage; people; priests; prophecy; prove; reason; sun; time; ver; weeks; work; world; years cache: 40978.txt plain text: 40978.txt item: #15 of 24 id: 43728 author: Moss, Arthur B. title: Natural Man date: None words: 5455 flesch: 68 summary: Haeckel says (Pedigree of Man, p. 36): If we can only prove the general truth of the Darwinian theory, our idea of the origin of man from lower vertebrata follows of necessity, and we are not obliged to give a special proof as to this latter view if the general proposition is well established. For centuries man groped about in the dark. keywords: earth; god; life; man; men; nature; people; theory; world cache: 43728.txt plain text: 43728.txt item: #16 of 24 id: 45053 author: Phelips, Vivian title: The Churches and Modern Thought An inquiry into the grounds of unbelief and an appeal for candour date: None words: 128749 flesch: 62 summary: [137] We must acknowledge, as it seems to me, that man, with all his noble qualities, with sympathy which feels for the most debased, with benevolence which extends not only to other men, but to the humblest living creature, with his god-like intellect, which has penetrated into the movement and constitution of the solar system--with all these exalted powers--man still bears in his bodily frame the indelible stamp of his lowly origin. So far we have seen that the opponents of the Universal theory presume in their argument that devil-worship has no relation to true god-worship, and we may note that it never even entered the heads of such men as Darwin and Lubbock that it would ever be held that these are essentially identical. keywords: account; ancient; animal; argument; belief; bible; birth; bishop; book; case; century; chapter; character; children; christian; christianity; church; criticism; day; days; death; divine; doctrine; earth; evidence; evolution; existence; fact; faith; fall; form; god; good; gospels; history; human; idea; instinct; jesus; knowledge; life; like; lord; man; matter; means; men; mind; miracles; modern; moral; morality; nature; new; opinion; origin; people; place; power; present; professor; question; read; reason; religion; remarks; resurrection; rev; revelation; science; sense; study; subject; sun; testament; theory; things; thought; time; truth; virgin; way; woman; words; work; world; worship; years cache: 45053.txt plain text: 45053.txt item: #17 of 24 id: 45068 author: Mangasarian, M. M. (Mangasar Mugurditch) title: The Truth About Jesus : Is He a Myth? Illustrated date: None words: 57315 flesch: 70 summary: There were those, then, in the early church who denied the historicity, not of a _title_,--for what meaning would there be in denying that a _title_ is come in the flesh,--but of a person, known as _Jesus Christ. There were many anointed kings, who are historical, and the question is, Is Jesus Christ--or Jesus the Anointed--also historical? keywords: adler; answer; argument; christian; christianity; church; cross; day; dead; death; evidence; existence; god; good; gospel jesus; gospels; heaven; history; human; illustration; jesus; jesus christ; jesus story; life; man; men; mind; mother; myth; new; pagan; paul; people; place; question; reason; religion; science; son; sun; tell; things; time; truth; words; world; years cache: 45068.txt plain text: 45068.txt item: #18 of 24 id: 45483 author: Mangasarian, M. M. (Mangasar Mugurditch) title: The Story of My Mind; Or, How I Became a Rationalist date: None words: 28234 flesch: 68 summary: Where there is an infallible faith there can be no liberty of thought, and without liberty of thought there is no mind, and without mind man is not different from the brute. All we wish is to make good men and women out of them, they said. keywords: christian; christianity; church; desire; ethical; faith; god; good; hand; help; jesus; life; man; men; mind; movement; new; people; reason; religion; right; science; society; teacher; thought; time; truth; way; world; years cache: 45483.txt plain text: 45483.txt item: #19 of 24 id: 45823 author: Newman, Charles Robert title: Essays in Rationalism date: None words: 15505 flesch: 54 summary: First principles must, accordingly, be of two kinds. Reason perceives that these are primary facts or first principles, neither admitting nor requiring any proof, testified by consciousness, and self-evidently verified on that testimony. keywords: brother; charles; conscience; experience; having; locke; mind; newman; philosophy; principles; public; question; reason; truth; way; word cache: 45823.txt plain text: 45823.txt item: #20 of 24 id: 46986 author: Remsburg, John E. (John Eleazer) title: The Christ: A Critical Review and Analysis of the Evidences of His Existence date: None words: 125779 flesch: 72 summary: Strauss in his work, one of the masterpieces of Freethought literature, endeavors to prove, and proves to the satisfaction of a majority of his readers, that Jesus Christ is a historical myth. Gradually the title took the place of the name, so that Jesus, Jesus Christ, and Christ became interchangeable terms--synonyms. keywords: believe; bible; birth; body; christ; christian; christianity; church; crucifixion; david; day; days; dead; death; disciples; earth; father; following; galilee; god; gods; gospel; heaven; herod; history; holy; iii; james; jerusalem; jesus; jesus christ; jews; john; joseph; josephus; law; life; lord; luke; man; mark; mary; matthew; men; messiah; ministry; miracles; mother; new; old; passage; paul; people; peter; place; religion; resurrection; roman; second; son; sun; synoptics; temple; testament; things; thou; thy; time; unto; virgin; vol; words; world; worship; xiv; years cache: 46986.txt plain text: 46986.txt item: #21 of 24 id: 50534 author: None title: The Three Impostors date: None words: 28885 flesch: 62 summary: Although this is apparent enough we will attempt to explain it more at length, by inquiring, if there is any evidence that the Prophets and Apostles were differently constituted from other men. He will acknowledge that I am quite prepared to overturn his arguments, when I inform him that I have read this celebrated little work, and that I have it in my library. keywords: account; author; believe; body; book; chap; christ; day; death; deity; divinity; existence; god; good; impostors; jesus; law; mahomet; man; mankind; men; moses; nature; opinions; order; people; religion; soul; spirits; subject; time; truth; way; work; world cache: 50534.txt plain text: 50534.txt item: #22 of 24 id: 50715 author: None title: De Tribus Impostoribus, A. D. 1230: The Three Impostors Translated (with notes and comments) from a French manuscript of the work written in the year 1716, with a dissertation on the original treatise and a bibliography of the various editions date: None words: 40535 flesch: 67 summary: But for mind, it must be that God favored them more than other men, for they claimed an understanding more brilliant than others. The matter is self-evident, but to make it more clear, let us see if they are differently constituted than other men. keywords: author; body; book; christ; death; edition; enemies; following; frederick; god; gods; good; iii; jesus; latin; law; life; mahomet; man; manuscript; matter; men; moses; nature; new; order; people; place; power; reason; religion; soul; spirit; testimony; things; time; title; treatise; tribus; truth; world; worship cache: 50715.txt plain text: 50715.txt item: #23 of 24 id: 59651 author: Hartmann, Jacob title: The Creation of God date: None words: 124367 flesch: 68 summary: Josephus describes the condition of affairs as follows: For whereas the Egyptians were formerly addicted to different customs, and despised one another's sacred and accustomed rites, and were very angry one with another on that account, Abraham conferred with each of them, and confuting the reasoning they made use of, every one for their own practices, he demonstrated that such reasoning was vain and void of truth; whereupon he was admired by them in those conferences, as a very wise man and of great sagacity when he discoursed on any subject he undertook; and this not only in understanding it, but in persuading other men also to assent to him. As to his other qualifications, he had such a full command of his passions, as if he hardly had any such in his soul, and only knew them by their names, as rather perceiving them in other men than himself. keywords: acid; action; air; animal; atmosphere; b.c; blood; body; brain; carbon; carbonic; chapter; chemical; christ; church; common; composition; condition; day; earth; elements; existence; food; force; form; general; god; gods; good; heat; holy; human; hydrogen; ideas; imagination; inches; jehova; kind; king; knowledge; laws; left; life; like; liver; living; lord; lungs; man; matter; men; mind; moses; muscles; nation; nature; new; nitrogen; number; organic; organs; oxygen; parts; people; period; place; plants; portion; power; present; priest; quantity; reason; right; sense; soul; state; substances; sun; surface; system; things; time; tissues; truth; vegetable; verse; water; woman; world; years cache: 59651.txt plain text: 59651.txt item: #24 of 24 id: 6107 author: Mangasarian, M. M. (Mangasar Mugurditch) title: The Truth about Jesus : Is He a Myth? date: None words: 57415 flesch: 70 summary: There were those, then, in the early church who denied the historicity, not of a _title_,--for what meaning would there be in denying that a _title_ is come in the flesh,--but of a person, known as _Jesus Christ. There were many anointed kings, who are historical, and the question is, Is Jesus Christ--or Jesus the Anointed--also historical? keywords: adler; answer; argument; christian; christianity; church; cross; day; dead; death; evidence; existence; god; good; gospel jesus; gospels; heaven; history; human; illustration; jesus; jesus christ; jesus story; life; man; men; mind; mother; myth; new; pagan; paul; people; place; question; reason; religion; science; son; sun; tell; things; time; truth; words; world; years cache: 6107.txt plain text: 6107.txt