. Fear. Failure.

CONCLUSION
Jesus a Myth. Judged by His Works. Ethical Evolution. Gains, not
Losses.

CODE OF LIVING

FOREWORD

The tradition regarding Jesus is so glamorous that it is difficult to
review his life and character with an unbiased mind. While
Fundamentalists and Modernists differ regarding the divinity of Christ,
all Christians and many non-Christians still cling to preconceived
notions of the perfection of Jesus. He alone among men is revered as
all-loving, omniscient, faultless--an unparalleled model for mankind.

This convention of the impeccability of Jesus is so firmly established
that any insinuation of error on his part is deemed a blasphemy.
Doubting Jesus is more impious than mocking God Almighty. Jehovah may be
exposed to some extent with impunity; a God who destroyed 70,000 of his
chosen people because their king took a census[1] is too illogical for
any but theologians to worship. But the Son of God, or Son of man, is
sacrosanct. Jesus is reverenced as the one man who has lived unspotted
by the world, free from human foibles, able to redeem mankind by his
example.

Respect for the principles of Jesus is so inbred in American people of
all faiths that an attempt to disparage his worth is denounced as bad
taste. The detractor is suspected of being an immoral person, no matter
how convincing may be the proof which he presents. A conspiracy of
silence is directed against any system of ethics advanced as superior to
the Sermon on the Mount. In popular opinion Jesus never made a mistake;
all his teachings were infallible; no other view is tolerated.

_Face the Facts_

This unwillingness to acknowledge the shortcomings of Jesus is partially
due to fear of sustaining a great loss. The familiar answer to heretical
arguments is that faith should not be destroyed unless something can be
put in its place--ignoring the fact that something always may be
substituted for beliefs destroyed. That substitute is faith in the world
as it really is. And our modern world, with all its shortcomings, is
infinitely preferable to the earth, or even the heaven, of the first
century. We now know that man can do more to eradicate sorrow than Jesus
ever thought of. We can have greater confidence in the world as revealed
today than in the doubtful traditions of Biblical times.

But suppose there were nothing to substitute for the myth destroyed,
should that deter the Truthsee