d, then, that it is utterly impossible for God (admitting
that there is one) to convey the same thoughts in human language
to all people. No two persons understand the same language alike.
A man's understanding depends upon his experience, upon his capacity,
upon the particular bent of his mind--in fact, upon the countless
influences that have made him what he is. Everything in nature
tells everyone who sees it a story, but that story depends upon
the capacity of the one to whom it is told. The sea says one thing
to the ordinary man, and another thing to Shakespeare. The stars
have not the same language for all people. The consequence is that
no book can tell the same story to any two persons. The Jewish
Scriptures are like other books, written by different men in
different ages of the world, hundreds of years apart, filled with
contradictions. They embody, I presume, fairly enough, the wisdom
and ignorance, the reason and prejudice, of the times in which they
were written. They are worth the good that is in them, and the
question is whether we will take the good and throw the bad away.
There are good laws and bad laws. There are wise and foolish
sayings. There are gentle and cruel passages, and you can find a
text to suit almost any frame of mind; whether you wish to do an
act of charity or murder a neighbor's babe, you will find a passage
that will exactly fit the case. So that I can say that I am still
for the reasonable, for the natural; and am still opposed to the
absurd and supernatural.

_Question_. Is there any better or more ennobling belief than
Christianity; if so, what is it?

_Answer_. There are many good things, of course, in every religion,
or they would not have existed; plenty of good precepts in
Christianity, but the thing that I object to more than all others
is the doctrine of eternal punishment, the idea of hell for many
and heaven for the few. Take from Christianity the doctrine of
eternal punishment and I have no particular objection to what is
generally preached. If you will take that away, and all the
supernatural connected with it, I have no objection; but that
doctrine of eternal punishment tends to harden the human heart.
It has produced more misery than all the other doctrines in the
world. It has shed more blood; it has made more martyrs. It has
lighted the fires of persecution and kept the sword of cruelty wet
with heroic blood for at least a thousand years. There is n