At the end of a long discussion with missionaries, the Christian Carlton Elkins added a list of famous men who believed in God and cried out: "I wonder how it is that Mr. Haupt imagines himself intellectually superior to such men". March 1st, 1996.
Here my answer (published):
Letter to the Editor of the Tokyo Weekender
Mr. Elkins wrote that when Jesus cried out at the ninth hour: "My god, my god, why hast thou forsaken me?" he actually hints at Psalm 22, which Mr. Elkins claims, is the prophecy of the crucifixion of Jesus. I have heard that before, but I cannot - by all means - see such a prophecy. Many things are written in the past tense, it seems to be a cry of anguish by David and nothing else.
"Why hast thou forsaken me?" contradicts however clearly with "and my Father are one." John 10:30, and "For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily." Col. 2:9.
Mr. Elkins also wrote an impressive list of quotations by famous men and ended with the classic (sarcastic) inquiry as to whether I "imagined myself intellectually superior to such men." I first thought of countering with my own impressive list of quotations by famous men, but than thought the idea was silly, because if we would just follow famous people, we would be torn apart: Volta, Ampere and Pasteur were Roman Catholics, Kelvin believed in the Church of England, Faraday belonged to a sect of Sandemanianism, Ludwig van Beethoven called himself a pantheist, others like Thomas Paine but also Einstein were deists, and their god had nothing to do with the god father figure of the bible, the great American Civil War colonel and politician Robert Green Ingersoll was called `The Great Agnostic', the following famous people were Atheists: Isaac Asimov, Mikhail Bakunin, August Bebel, Simone de Beauvoir, the German medical professor Ludwig Büchner, Denis Diderot, the editor of the Encyclopaedie, who hoped that education would lead the people out of the clutches of religion, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Albert Ellis the American psychologist and founder of the Rational Emotive Therapy, Sigmund Freud, Emma Goldman, the 18th American president Ulysses S. Grant, Jack London, John Lennon, the Irish ex-priest Joseph McCabe, who wrote many volumes on lies and corruption in the Church, Oscar Wilde, the following suffragists ware also Atheists: Frances Wright, Susan B. Anthony, Annie Besant, Matilda Joslyn Gage, Margaret Sanger, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, who wrote in her biography that "the religious superstition of women perpetuate their bondage more than all other adverse influences." And of course Madalyn O'Hair is the Atheist! Newton, however, who Mr. Elkins cites, was a a adherent of Socinianism, which was an anti-Trinitarian movement.
Since Mr. Elkins mentioned Newton, let us take a closer look at him: Newton lived before the days of Evolution, he knew nothing of the Origin of Species, of the Descent of Man, or the Nebular Hypothesis, or all the many other new scientific discoveries, which would surely have modified his religious ideas. It is clear, that Newton was not above the level of the culture of this time, he even dabbled in alchemy and spent several months at work in quest of the "philosopher's tincture", which he believed existed. I hope Mr. Elkins is also a firm believer in its existence, if not, I would accuse him of the arrogance to "imagine himself intellectually superior to such a great man as Newton was."
Newton believed in some foolish things, but he did not believe every foolish thing. As his biographer Brewster "Life of Newton" (1860) tells us: "He considers the account of the creation in Genesis as adapted to the judgement of the vulgar." That is, it would do for the ignorant and uneducated, but was not scientifically true. We further learn from the same work: "Newton's religious opinions was not orthodox, he did not believe in the Trinity. This gives reason why Horsley, the champion of the Trinity, found Newton's papers unfit for publication..."
Although Newton's contribution to science is enormous, his theological writings are wholly worthless. In the 7th chapter of his work "Observations on the Prophecies of Daniel and the Apocalypse of St. John" the eleventh horn of Daniel's fourth beast is shown to be the Church of Rome, and in studying the Apocalypse he discovers that the Pope is meant under the mysterious figure of Antichrist! What is more, Newton's scientific discoveries, which made him so great, were opposed and denounced by both the Romans and the Protestants (and by Mr. Elkins, if he were alive at that time) in the same manner as they had denounced the discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo, although the Churches no longer had the power to deal with Newton as Galileo was dealt with.
Newton had discovered the laws of attraction upon which a rational explanation of the world could be formulated. 1796, Laplace, based on Newton's discoveries, published his "Exposition of the System of the Universe", and later his "Celestial Mechanics". In these famous works he lays down the Nebular Hypothesis of the origin of the heavenly bodies. Laplace presented a copy of his book to Napoleon, and, upon the Emperor observing that he could see no mention of god on it, Laplace replied: "Sire, I have no need of the hypothesis."
That was the direct outcome of Newton's discoveries carried to their logical conclusion. Leibnitz declared that "Mr. Newton robs the Deity of some of his most excellent attributes, and sapped the foundations of religion."
The Churches were bitterly hostile, when Newton was rewarded with the Mastership of the Mint, not only the Catholics but also the Reformed Protestant Churches, which now so loudly boast their devotion to liberty and enlightenment, and which today skulk behind the great name of Newton. It was only, when they found the truth too strong for them, that they turned around and pretended to discover a support to religion in the very system which they had unanimously declared to be Atheistic.
Mr. Elkins accuses me of being dishonest. I have till now shunned personal accusations of this kind, and only deplored the distant between me and my fellow men, who are Theists. But I will now accuse Mr. Elkins and his kind of being dishonest. Almost everything they say, is wrong: Christian missionaries did not tame cannibals, but incited fellow colonialists to kill one tribe after the other.
Christian charity is not altruistic, but egoistic, because it is done for a reward: paradise. And if Baptist preachers no longer defend the witch hunt, or even oppose it. How dishonest! What gives them the right to oppose something that is explicitly demanded in the bible? See Exod. 22:8, Lev. 20:27, Deut. 18:10,11 and Gal. 5:19, 20.
In my next letter, we will take a closer look at Thomas Jefferson, since Mr. Elkins quoted him, too, as a champion for his superstition.
Yours
Holger Hermann Haupt
Letter to the Editor (unpublished):
In his letter to the Tokyo Weekender (April 5), Mr. Elkins, in need of help from `great men' for his fight for religion, invoked Thomas Jefferson as his champion.
As promised in my previous letter, I will now write about Jefferson.
But first, I want to declare, that I am not impressed by slaveholders on stolen land who cry freedom but that is what the Americans were who fought for Independents.
Jefferson's anti-Christian views became very clear in his later life, probably because he did not have to worry any more about a Christian electorate. To make it short, I will only quote from his `Memoir, Correspondence, and Miscellaneous' posthumously published by his grandson.
Letter to Horatio Spafford, March 17, 1814: `In every country and in every age, the priest has been hostile to liberty. He is always in alliance with the despot, abetting his abuses in return for protection to his own.'
Letter to Peter Carr, August 10, 1787: `Question with boldness even the existence of a god; because, if there be one, he must more approve the homage of reason, than that of blindfolded fear.'
`...Do not be frightened from this inquiry by any fear of it's consequences. If it ends in a belief that there is no god, you will find incitements to virtue in the comfort & pleasantness you feel in it's exercise, and the love of others which it will procure you.'
Letter to William Short, August 4, 1822: `For if we could believe that he really countenanced the follies, the falsehoods and the charlatanism which his biographers father on him, and admit the misconstructions, interpolations and theorizations of the fathers of the early, and the fanatics of the later ages, the conclusion would be irresistible by every sound mind, that he was an imposter.'
In the same letter he calls the gospel history of Jesus `a groundwork of vulgar ignorance, of things impossible, of superstitions, fanaticisms and fabrications' and the god of the Old Testament `a being of terrific character, cruel, vindictive, capricious and unjust.'
Letter to John Adams, August 22, 1813: `It is too late in the day for men of sincerity to pretend they believe in the Platonic mysticism that three are one, and one is three; and yet that the one is not the three, and the three are not the one... But this constitutes the craft, the power, and the profits of the priests. Sweep away their gossamer fabrics of fictitious religion, and they would catch no more flies.'
Letter to James Smith, December 8, 1822: `The hocus-pocus phantasm of a god like another Cerberus, with one body and three heads, had its birth and growth in the blood of thousands and thousands of martyrs.'
Letter to Dr. Woods, undated: `I have recently been examining all the known superstitions of the world, and do not find in our particular superstition [Christianity] one redeeming feature. They are all alike, founded upon fables and mythologies.'
Letter to John Adams, April 11, 1823: `And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.'
When Jefferson ran for president, the clergy incited their flock not to vote for an `Infidel', and at his inauguration, they succeeded that in some places flags were displayed at half-mast, and people wore mourning and took grief that an `Infidel' had been elected.
During his eighth years incumbency of the office, not a single thanksgiving proclamation was issued, because he was a firm believer that religion had no place in government.
Since Mr. Elkins insisted that we follow great
men, rather than think for ourselves, and mentioned explicitly
Thomas Jefferson, I conclude that he will now stop bothering us
with his Christian belief. It would be dishonest not to do so,
wouldn't it?
Since Mr. Elkins accused me of being dishonest, I want to use the rest of this letter to show that there is a lot of dishonesty in Christians.
Some examples: When Mr. Elkins writes `...if one man's letters are refused, I am sure that mine are the next to go', the persecuted Christian, heh? wrong, in two previous discussions, we had years ago, it were Christians who had the last word, one was even a last mean personal attack against me, but I wrote my answers in vain.
Other example: A more prominent Christian: Billy Graham, he once knew in an Bob Hope Show that god loves `funny people'. Wrong. Dishonest. In the bible, we find a god who loves blood and murder, remember, he even murdered his own son.
In German, we have a word `umlügen', which describes preacher talk so very well, but it is hard to translate into English, reinvent sounds too harmless, something like `change-lie', change with the help of lies, would be more appropriate.
Nowadays, some Christian feminist theologians, Mary Daly, Rosemary R. Ruether, Dorothee Sölle etc. try to `change-lie' the Christian religion into a feminist concoction, with Jahwe as a woman or a least a hermaphrodite. In reality, the bible was of course not even written for women.
My last example shall be an even more famous Christian: Martin Luther King, who fought so bravely for human rights. Why did he do it? What gave him, a Baptist priest, who should respect the bible, the right to fight for human rights? Why did he not fight for the reintroduction of slavery? The bible says it so clearly:
1 Peter 2:18: `Slaves, submit yourselves to your masters with all respect, not only to those who are good and considerate, but also to those that are harsh.'
1 Timothy 6:1: `Teach slaves to be subject to their masters in everything, to try to please them, not to talk back to them, and not to steal from them, but to show that they can be fully trusted, so that in every way they will make the teaching about God our Saviour attractive.'
Ephesians 6:5-8: `Slaves, obey your earthly masters with respect and fear, and with sincerity of heart, just as you would obey Christ. Obey them not only to win their favor when their eye is upon you, but like slaves of Christ, doing the will of God from your heart. Serve wholeheartedly, as if you were serving the Lord, not men, because you know that the Lord will reward everyone, for whatever good he does, whether he is slave or free.'
Colossians 3:22: `Slaves, obey your earthly masters in everything; and do it, not only when their eye is on you and to win their favor, but with sincerity of heart and reverence for the Lord.'
Let us not only abolish slavery, but other traditions as well, like racism, nationalism, discrimination and religion.
And let us always look around with irreverent, but intelligent eyes.
Holger Hermann Haupt
For information for these letters I am mostly indepted to Madalyn
Murray O'Hair and the American Atheists.
Back to Holger Hermann Haupt's Home Page.