man has become
civilized, he has civilized his god. You can hardly imagine the
progress that our God has made in four thousand years.

Four thousand years ago He was a barbarian; tonight He is quite an
educated gentleman. Four thousand years ago He believed in killing and
butchering little babes at the breasts of their mothers; He has
reformed. Four thousand years ago He did not believe in taking
prisoners of war. He said, kill the old men; mingle their blood with
the white hair. Kill the women. But what shall we do, O God, with the
maidens? Give them to satisfy the lust of the soldiers and of the
priests! If there is anywhere in the serene heaven a real God. I want
him to write in the book of His eternal remembrance, opposite my name,
that I deny that lie for Him.

Four thousand years ago our God was in favor of slavery; four thousand
years ago our God would have a man beaten to death with rugged rocks
for expressing his honest thought; four thousand years ago our God told
the husband to kill his wife if she disagreed with him upon the
important subject of religion; four thousand years ago our God was a
monster; and if He is any better now, it is simply because we have made
Him so. I am talking about the God of the Christian world. There may
be, for aught I know, upon the shore of the eternal vast, some being
whose very thought is the constellation of those numberless stars. I
do not know; but if there is he has never written a bible; he has never
been in favor of slavery; he has never advocated polygamy, and he never
told the murderer to sheathe his dagger in the dimpled breast of a
babe. But they say to me, our God has written a book. I am glad he
did, and it is by that book that I propose to judge them. I find in
that book that it was a crime to eat of the tree of knowledge. I find
that the church has always been the enemy of education, and I find that
the church still carries the flaming sword of ignorance and bigotry
over the tree of knowledge.

And if that story is true, ought we not after all to thank the devil?
He was the first school master; he was the first to whisper liberty in
our ears; he was the author of modesty. He was the author of ambition
and progress. And as for me, give me the storm and tempest of thought
and action rather than the dead calm of ignorance and faith. Punish me
when and how you will, but first let me eat of the fruit of the tree of
knowledge. And there is one pec