will they grovel in the dust before the ignorant legends of the
barbaric past? How long, O how long, will they pursue phantoms in a
darkness deeper than death?

The believers in the bible are loud in their denunciation of what they
are pleased to call the immoral literature of the world; and yet few
books have been published containing more moral filth than this
inspired word of God. These stories are not redeemed by a single flash
of wit or humor. They never rise above the dull details of stupid vice.
For one, I cannot afford to soil my pages with extracts from them; and
all such portions of the scriptures I leave to be examined, written
upon, and explained by the clergy. Clergymen may know some way by which
they can extract honey from these flowers. Until these passages are
expunged from the old testament, it is not a fit book to be read by
either old or young. It contains pages that no minister in the United
States would read to his congregation for any reward whatever. There
are chapters that no gentleman would read in the presence of a lady.
There are chapters that no father would read to his child. There are
narratives utterly unfit to be told; and the time will come when
mankind will wonder that such a book was ever called inspired.

But as long as the bible is considered as the work of God, it will be
hard to make all men too good and pure to imitate it; and as long as it
is imitated there will be vile and filthy books. The literature of our
country will not be sweet and clean until the bible ceases to be
regarded as the production of a god.

In the days of Thomas Paine the church believed and taught that every
word in the bible was absolutely true. Since his day it has been proven
false in its cosmogony, false in its astronomy, false in its
chronology, false in its history, and so far as the old testament is
concerned, false in almost everything. There are but few, if any,
scientific men who apprehend that the bible is literally true. Who on
earth at this day would pretend to settle any scientific question by a
text from the bible? The old belief is confined to the ignorant and
zealous. The church itself will before long be driven to occupy the
position of Thomas Paine!

I love any man who gave me, or helped to give me, the liberty I enjoy
tonight. I love every man who helped put our flag in heaven. I love
every man who has lifted his voice in all the ages for liberty, for a
chainless body, and a fetterles