Author: E. L. Bulwer
Title: A Dissertation on the Origin of Evil
Author: Lord Brougham
Release Date: August, 2005 [EBook #8654]
[This file was first posted on July 30, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: Us-ASCII
*** Start of the project gutenberg
EBOOK, the fallen star ***
THE FALLEN STAR, or, THE HISTORY OF A FALSE RELIGION
by E. L. Bulwer
A DISSERTATION ON THE ORIGIN OF EVIL
by Lord Brougham
Religion, says Noah Webster in his American
Dictionary of the English Language, is derived
from “Religo, to bind anew;” and, in this
History of a False Religion, our author has
shown how easily its votaries were insnared, deceived,
and mentally bound in a labyrinth of falsehood and
error, by a designing knave, who established a new
religion and a new order of priesthood by imposing
on their ignorance and credulity.
The history of the origin of one supernatural religion
will, with slight alterations, serve to describe them
all. Their claim to credence rests on the exhibition
of so-called miracles—that is, on a violation
of the laws of nature,—for, if religions
were founded on the demonstrated truths of science,
there would be no mystery, no supernaturalism, no
miracles, no skepticism, no false religion. We
would have only verified truths and demonstrated facts
for the basis of our belief. But this simple
foundation does not satisfy the unreasoning multitude.
They demand signs, portents, mysteries, wonders and
miracles for their faith and the supply of prophets,
knaves and impostors has always been found ample to
satisfy this abnormal demand of credulity.
Designing men, even at the present day, find little
difficulty in establishing new systems of faith and
belief. Joseph Smith, who invented the Mormon
religion, had more followers and influence in this
country at his death, than the Carpenter’s Son
obtained centuries ago from the unlettered inhabitants
of Palestine; and yet Smith achieved his success among
educated people in this so-called enlightened age,
while Jesus taught in an age of semi-barbarism and
faith, when both Jews and Pagans asserted and believed
that beasts, birds, reptiles and even fishes understood
human language, were often gifted with human speech,
and sometimes seemed to possess even more than ordinary
human intelligence.
