A REPLY.

Thames Star, Volume XII, Issue 3752, 6 January 1881, Page 3

A REPLY.

(To,the Editor of the Evening Stab.)

Sir,— Such erroneous statements as those, with which your correspondent '/ W." opens his letter are calculated to mislead the public by raising a false issue. Infidelity does not war against Christianity in particular, but opposes itself to all religions imposition, and is in fact a contention of truth against falsehood. He might have added that it is the fashion of all churches, in all ages, to blacken the character of those who dare to differ from them.. I will await the completion of his letter before making a reply, other than in observing that, if he thinks tgestablish either the .authenticity of the Scripture or the Divinity of Christ upon miracles, he will fail to cenvince the enlightened minds of your readers. Volumes of much better miracles than the Christian are to be found in Raman Catholic libraries, besides those related by Philostratus, Tacitus, Suetonuis, Basuage, Eunapius, Caligula, Nero, and Dido. Pliny Angustus and Titus were called Divus or God. Iho was said to be generated by a virgin, and .there are thousands of like authority. Error, however disguised, must ultimately terminate in evil . Terror, the result of ignorance of physical causes, having created gods, and superstition having erected altars and instituted worship, curiosity excited speculation as to their nature or essence, which they thought resembled shadows or mind, or soul—or phantasmagoria. They believed, however, that their" gods had substance, although so ethereal that they called them spirits v in fact, that spirit and body were the same, the former being only a rarefied or etherealized form of the latter; an incorporeal spirit being inconceivable. Form, shape, and distinct body was given to each spirit, which had, however, an incomprehensibly subtle naturo. Enquiry as to the mode of action followed assumed knowledge of essence. Stopped at this point by ignorance, conjecture suggested a discovery of the future by a knowledge of the past. This transparently blind conceit prevailed to such an extent that spells made trees loquacious; turned bread into God and metamorphosed all nature. At first gifts, prayers, homage, and submission were voffered to these invisible powers. The bloody sacrifices of moro receat times, were instituted by, and"reserved for the sinister purposes of priests and others therein beneficially ini-'ed^ted. Hope and fear, pamion, prejadlc'^.- and false opinion have originated th^treraefous absurd and fantastical creeds Vbi*h have plunged men into mischief and misery, and nations into revolutionary ■bloedsii^d. i The deisiguing and cunning, profiting by ignorance, have acquired hon^r and vast revenues from priesthood, which excites avarice and ambition, entangling the vulgar in snares, who are insensibly led to'prefer falsehood to truth. The intoxication of ambition claimed friendship and personal communication with invisible beings, dreaded by the people, and Gods, to further impositions, we multiplied ad inpnitum. God chaos was earthly matter; Heaven, earth, " thtf seas and all that in them is," fire, water, air, winds, stars and planets, were all Deified. Man, woman, birds, and beasts, places and things—every dwelling possessed its Lares and Penates. Above and below the earth was filled with gods, spirits, shadows, devils, and demons; even Priopus was worshipped until—m Athens—it was easier to find a god than a man. —I ani, &c, . Sceptic. ,