I can
make their lives happy and fill all their hours with the fullness of
joy. That is my religion; and the holiest temple ever erected beneath
the stars is the home; the holiest altar is the fireside.

What is this blasphemy? First, it is a geographical question. There
was a time when it was blasphemy in Jerusalem to say that Christ was
God. In this country it is now blasphemy to say that He was not. It
is blasphemy in Constantinople to deny that Mahomet was the Prophet of
God; it is blasphemy here to say that he was. It is a geographical
question; you cannot tell whether it is blasphemy or not without
looking at the map. What is blasphemy? It is what the mistake says
about the fact. It is what the last year's leaf says about this year's
bud. It is the last cry of the defeated priest. Blasphemy is the
little breast-work behind which hypocrisy hides; behind which mental
impotency feels safe. There is no blasphemy but the avowal of thought,
and he who speaks what he thinks blasphemes.

That I have had the hardihood--it doesn't take much--to attack the
sacred scriptures. I have simply given my opinion; and yet they tell
me that that book is holy--that you can take rags, make pulp, put ink
on it, bind it in leather, and make something holy. The Catholics have
a man for a pope; the Protestants have a book. The Catholics have the
best of it. If they elect an idiot he will not live forever, and it is
impossible for us to get rid of the barbarisms in our book. The
Catholics said, "We will not let the common people read the bible."
That was right. If it is necessary to believe it in order to get to
heaven no man should run the risk of reading it. To allow a man to
read the bible on such conditions is to set a trap for his soul. The
right way is never to open it, and when you get to the day of judgment,
and they ask you if you believe it say "Yes, I have never read it."
The Protestant gives the book to a poor man and says: "Read it. You
are at liberty to read it." "Well, suppose I don't believe it, when I
get through?" "Then you will be damned." No man should be allowed to
read it on those conditions. And yet Protestants have done that
infinitely cruel thing. If I thought it was necessary to believe it I
would say never read another line in it but just believe it and stick
to it. And yet these people really think that there is something
miraculous about the book. They regard it as a fetish--a kind of
a