The Project Gutenberg EBook of Bible Romances, by George W. Foote

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Title: Bible Romances
First Series

Author: George W. Foote

Release Date: October 6, 2009 [EBook #30209]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK BIBLE ROMANCES ***

Produced by David Widger

BIBLE ROMANCES

First Series

By G. W. Foote

CONTENTS:

THE CREATION STORY.
NOAH'S FLOOD.
EVE AND THE APPLE.
THE BIBLE DEVIL.
THE TEN PLAGUES;
JONAH AND THE WHALE.
THE WANDERING JEWS.
THE TOWER OF BABEL.
BALAAM'S ASS.
GOD'S THIEVES IN CANAAN.
CAIN AND ABEL.
LOT'S WIFE.

THE CREATION STORY.

BIBLE ROMANCES.--1.

By G. W. FOOTE.

The Book of Genesis is generally thought, as Professor Huxley says, to
contain the beginning and the end of sound science. The mythology of the
Jews is held to be a divine revelation of the early history of man, and
of the cosmic changes preparatory to his creation. The masses of the
people in every Christian country are taught in their childhood that God
created the universe, including this earth with all its flora and fauna,
in five days; that he created man, "the bright consummate flower" of
his work, on the sixth day, and rested on the seventh. Yet every student
knows this conception to be utterly false; every man of science rejects
it as absurd; and even the clergy themselves mostly disbelieve it Why,
then, do they not disabuse the popular mind, and preach what they deem
true instead of what they know to be false? The answer is very simple.
Because they feel that the doctrine of the Fall is bound up with the
Genesaic account of Creation, and that if the latter be discredited the
former will not long be retained. The doctrine of the Fall being the
foundation of the scheme of Atonement, the clergy will never admit the
Creation Story to be mythical until they are forced to do so by external
pressure. At any rate they cannot be expected to proclaim its falsity,
since by so doing they would destroy the main prop of their power. What
the recognised teachers of religion will not do, however, should not
be left undone,