Project Gutenberg's The Freethinker's Text Book, Part II., by Annie Besant

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Title: The Freethinker's Text Book, Part II.
Christianity: Its Evidences, Its Origin, Its Morality, Its History

Author: Annie Besant

Release Date: September 1, 2004 [EBook #13349]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE FREETHINKER'S TEXT-BOOK.

PART II.

CHRISTIANITY:

ITS EVIDENCES.
ITS ORIGIN.

ITS MORALITY.
ITS HISTORY.

BY ANNIE BESANT.

SECTION I.--ITS EVIDENCES UNRELIABLE.

The origin of all religions, and the ignorance which is the root of the
God-idea, having been dealt with in Part I. of this Text-Book, it now
becomes our duty to investigate the evidences of the origin and of the
growth of Christianity, to examine its morality and its dogmas, to study
the history of its supposed founder, to trace out its symbols and its
ceremonies; in fine, to show cause for its utter rejection by the
Freethinker. The foundation stone of Christianity, laid in Paradise by
the Creation and Fall of Man 6,000 years ago, has already been destroyed
in the first section of this work; and we may at once, therefore,
proceed to Christianity itself. The history of the origin of the creed
is naturally the first point to deal with, and this may be divided into
two parts: 1. The evidences afforded by profane history as to its origin
and early growth. 2. Its story as told by itself in its own documents.

The most remarkable thing in the evidences afforded by profane history
is their extreme paucity; the very existence of Jesus cannot be proved
from contemporary documents. A child whose birth is heralded by a star
which guides foreign sages to Judaea; a massacre of all the infants of a
town within the Roman Empire by command of a subject king; a teacher who
heals the leper, the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the lame, and who raises
the mouldering corpse; a King of the Jews entering Jerusalem in
triumphal procession, without opposition from the Roman legions of
Caesar; an accused ringleader of se