The Creation of God, Jacob Hartmann [e manga reader TXT] 📗

1. One God (the concentrated essence of the Chaldean gods), worship him only. 2. Have no other God, image, etc. } 3. Don’t swear by God. 4. Rest on the seventh day (economy of muscular forces). 5. Honor thy parents. } Natural laws of self-preservation and self-protection. 6. Do not commit murder. 7. Do not commit adultery. 8. Do not steal. 9. Do not bear false witness. 10. Do not desire another man’s property.

All these laws had been in existence centuries before the coming of Moses. Nations had already adopted them, as a matter of necessity. Crimes of murder and robbery, etc., were familiar among the Chaldeans and other nations. When Isaac sent messengers to Nahor in order to secure Rebeka for his wife, they had to pass through Mesopotamia, “in which it was tedious traveling, both in winter, for a depth of clay, and in summer for a want of water; and besides this, for the robberies there committed” (Jos.).

It must be remembered that society had reached a degree of organization and civilization; that these fundamental principles, these natural laws, are observed to a considerable extent even among the lower animals, and that they were strictly enforced in every barbarian as well as more civilized community. In the codification of these laws by Moses there is nothing wonderful, nothing miraculous, supernatural. The whole matter consisted in the adoption of these fundamental principles, these common-law usages, and the proclaiming of them as the laws to govern this newly organized nation, as all other nations had done centuries before them.

The laws incorporated in the book of Leviticus, etc., consisting in the regulation or government of the nation, appointing communities or families, dealing with food, dress, sacrifice, crime and its punishment, trade, commerce, domestic affairs, marriage, and above all church affairs, were mostly adoptions from other nations with certain modifications, written up in the manner we find them.

The supernatural phenomena recited in the Bible in the books of Moses—what descended from heaven, clouds, pillars, earthquakes, thunder, lightning, rain, deluge, fire, etc., on and about Mount Sinai—and that God performed these wonders to oblige Moses, because he exercised his influence in prayer upon Jehova—form the greatest piece of nonsense that ever was written.

Clouds belong to the earth, are composed of earthly elements, are taken from the surface of the earth by a natural process and return to the earth by a natural process. Neither God nor man can influence them. The same may be said of all other phenomena. Water cannot be composed from any other elements than oxygen and hydrogen, and the silly theological twaddle cannot change it. What we ought to know is, at least something of the natural. The more we know of the natural the less we believe of the supernatural—in fact, the latter has largely disappeared. In time, let us hope, these childish delusions will be regarded as some of the remnants of the past and infantile ages of humanity.

In all ages and at all times, men of great merit have been admired and honored by mankind. But the mythology and theology that enshrouds ancient heroes, the deification, the supernaturalism, the sanctity, the holiness, and the delusions that accompany and surround their actions, are entirely superfluous. We have outgrown these fables. And truly, these imaginary attributions, these visionary productions, have outlived their usefulness. Whether it be Moses, David, Alexander, Hannibal, Cæsar, Charlemagne, Cromwell, Frederick the Great, Napoleon, or Washington, they were men, nothing but men, and their actions, as also the great good resulting from their actions, that benefited humanity, were natural, not influenced in any way or shape by the smallest particle of supernaturalism.

Josephus speaking of Moses says: “He was one that exceeded all men that ever were in understanding, and made the best use of what understanding suggested to him. He had a very grateful way of speaking and addressing himself to the multitude. 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. He was also such a general of an army as was seldom seen, as well as such a prophet as was never known, and this to such a degree that whatsoever he pronounced, you would think you heard the voice of God himself” (B. iv, ch. viii, 49).

The following verse in the Bible is undoubtedly true: “And there was not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face.”

Moses deserves all the credit for molding the Chaldean God into shape, for creating Jehova, and for inventing prophets and the Jewish oracles.

These oracles, or pretended consultations or inquiries of God, whether heathen or Hebrew, were all of a similar nature and character. Whenever the question asked was concerning the success or non-success of a battle, whether they should fight or not, the answer depended on the circumstances and the condition of affairs. If the army was well disciplined, had a good leader, a good general, better than the enemy, they were going to fight. If not so well organized, weaker numerically, or with an indifferent general, they would let fighting alone. The priests if well informed would give either a positive or a negative answer, but if they knew nothing about either party, they would deliver the answer of the oracle in such dubious expressions or terms, that let what would happen to the inquirer, the answer might be accommodated or explained to mean the event that came to pass.

The expressions of the Bible during and after the time of Moses are of oracular form, and for that reason of a dubious nature, of marvelous elasticity, accommodating any and every opinion or inquiry, susceptible of a vast variety of interpretations. Many portions may be made to mean anything or everything. There being nothing positive about these biblical expressions, followers of these doctrines have been explaining and explaining. And as new views or opinions are set afloat, clever talkers explain and explain, and grow enthusiastic in explaining. And as fashions change, the explanations change. For centuries these explanations and interpretations have been going on—over what?

Among the Jews there were several sorts of oracles: as, first, those that were delivered viva voce, as when God spoke to Moses; secondly, prophetic dreams, as those of Joseph and others; thirdly, visions, as when a prophet in an ecstasy, a nervous, excitable condition, being properly neither asleep nor awake, had what they called supernatural revelations; fourthly, when they were accompanied with the wearing of an ephod, or the pectoral worn by the high priest, who was endowed with the gift of foretelling future things upon extraordinary occasions; and fifthly, by consulting the prophets or messengers sent by God.

Moses was the first great prophet, the first great general, the first great lawgiver, the first and only organizer, and with his death God, Jehova, ceases to be active.

Everything appears wonderful or miraculous if we do not understand it, or are ignorant and credulous. Thus it was with the manna, that usually falls in certain seasons of the year in that region. Even Moses himself did not know what it was, until it had stuck to his hands and he had tasted it. It was no special favor to the Jews. It falls for all creatures alike, but is not used until it is discovered that it has reached the season when it is good to eat. Nevertheless, it is in our Bible accounted a miracle.

No man has ever performed a miracle except to deceive or delude another, who is ignorant of what he is performing, or how it is performed.

Miracles are natural events occurring to those that are ignorant, or of little understanding; or they are intentionally performed with the intent to deceive, delude, or defraud.

God himself, all believers should know, cannot perform a miracle, contrary to the laws of nature—whether it be the laws governing planets or the laws that govern the various phenomena that appear from time to time on earth. All are simply the result of some natural process.

What shrewdness Moses used, whatever cunning, whatever diplomacy, whatever wisdom or courage, was the production of his own will power, the evolution of his own brain, acquired by education and training. He utilized these powers to gain his ends, to the best advantage and welfare of the people he was trying to organize.

He may have fully believed in the oracles he invoked, the conception of his own powerful imagination. He may have inspired himself by a concentration of nervous force, stimulated by the immense responsibility that rested upon him.

The solitude he enjoyed in the mountain was of great service to his reflecting mind. It gave him an opportunity to analyze every detail, think over every circumstance, form his ideas and his plans. That it was to him a sanctuary, a holy retreat, we can easily imagine, as every place that becomes a retreat for great thinkers is a sanctum to them, and where, when they are deliberating, communing with themselves, it is no place for strangers to intrude.

We must, however, not lose sight of an important fact—that whatever may be the products of the brain, of the nervous system, however stimulated or inspired the workings of the imagination and the production of ideas, evolving powerful thoughts, and however sublime and beautiful they may be, they are the effect of the educated faculties; the result of the combined forces of the great nervous centers.

Notwithstanding the sagacity and cleverness of Moses, the barbarism and brutality of the age in which he lived was predominant in all his actions towards his enemies. Neither God nor Jehova had any mitigating sentiment, neither pity nor mercy. The ark was a superstitious symbol, and the priest the ready tool to carry out any system to deceive and delude the masses. The ark, the creation of Moses, Aaron, Jethro & Co., was nothing more than an idol of another form. Whether the idol is in the image of somebody or a four-cornered box wherein lies the difference?

For several centuries this wooden box plays an important role among these half-civilized barbarians.