ery word in the Bible
was absolutely true. Since his day it has been proven false in its
cosmogony, false in its astronomy, false in its chronology and geology,
false in its history, so far as the Old Testament is concerned, false
in almost everything. There are but few, if any, scientific men, who
apprehend that the Bible is literally true. Who on earth at this day
would pretend to settle any scientific question by a text from the
Bible? The old belief is confined to the ignorant and zealous. The
church itself will before long be driven to occupy the position of
Thomas Paine. The best minds of the orthodox world, today, are
endeavoring to prove the existence of a personal Deity. All other
questions occupy a minor place. You are no longer asked to swallow the
Bible whole, whale, Jonah and all; you are simply required to believe
in God and pay your pew-rent.

There is not now an enlightened minister in the world who will
seriously contend that Sampson's strength was in his hair, or that the
necromancers of Egypt could turn water into blood, and pieces of wood
into serpents. These follies have passed away, and the only reason
that the religious world can now have for disliking Paine, is that they
have been forced to adopt so many of his opinions.

Paine thought the barbarities of the Old Testament inconsistent with
what he deemed the real character of God. He believed the murder,
massacre, and indiscriminate slaughter had never been commanded by the
Deity. He regarded much of the Bible as childish, unimportant and
foolish. The scientific world entertains the same opinion. Paine
attacked the Bible precisely in the same spirit in which he had
attacked the pretensions of the kings. He used the same weapons. All
the pomp in the world could not make him cower. His reason knew no
"Holy of Holies," except the abode of truth. The sciences were then in
their infancy. The attention of the really learned had not been
directed to an impartial examination of our pretended revelation. It
was accepted by most as a matter of course.

The church was all-powerful, and no one else, unless thoroughly imbued
with the spirit of self-sacrifice, thought for a moment of disputing
the fundamental doctrines of Christianity. The infamous doctrine that
salvation depends upon belief, upon a mere intellectual conviction, was
then believed and preached. To doubt was to secure the damnation of
your soul. This absurd and devilish do