My Friends: As I mentioned this forenoon, I might, with safety, rest this portion of this discussion entirely upon the last law that I have read. My friend, Mr. Campbell, deems it a metaphysical question. I conceive it to be entirely a question of fact. And I think the whole point was conceded when Mr. Campbell discovered that he could not disbelieve Christianity, or believe Mahometanism at will. However, it is necessary that the subject should be presented in every varied point of view, in order to enable men to unassociate their early implanted ideas opposed to it. Mr. Campbell was a little surprised to discover that this was one of the old laws of nature for which I have been contending; but truth is immutable; it is the same to-day that it has ever been, and will ever continue to be. Therefore, in all future preachings, after the truth shall be clearly and fully developed, there will be no occasion to have any more texts of scripture than is contained in these twelve laws; for they will ever remain immutably true, and be a foundation for an ample code of moral law, sufficient to lead us unerringly to every beneficial practical result.

      There were a great number of statements in Mr. Campbell's last [226] half-hour's discussion, which I might very easily refute; but as they do not in the least concern the true merits of the argument, I deem it an unjustifiable waste of time to do more than merely to mention them. For example, when Mr. Campbell said he could not avoid seeing the sun, he committed a mistake; for he might shut his eyes, and then he could not see it.

      The last law on which I commented, was that which declares that our belief is involuntary, and therefore all religions are untrue, as they presuppose our belief to be voluntary, or they are perfectly needless, and mean nothing. The next law is, that each individual is so created that he must like that which is pleasant to him, or that which produces agreeable sensations on his individual organization; and he must dislike that which creates in him unpleasant or disagreeable sensations; while he cannot discover, previous to experience, what those sensations shall be. A large portion of all the religions of which I know anything, presuppose that man is so created that he can love or hate at pleasure. Now the law of our nature is in direct contradiction to this notion. There are no individuals in this assembly who can like, be indifferent to, or dislike me, for instance, by any effort of the will, in opposition to the impression which all my proceedings have already made upon them. They are obliged to receive exactly the impressions which my exterior, my manners, and my whole conduct make upon their individual organization; and whether they like, are indifferent to, or dislike me, I cannot in consequence blame them. And when this principle of human nature shall be understood, it will be discovered to be of the highest practical importance--it will tend (concurrently with the one immediately preceding) to implant and to root principles of kindness and knowledge so deeply in the human heart and understanding, that we shall, indeed, have unlimited charity for the whole family of men. Then, instead of being angry with our children when they have not affection for us, we shall scrutinize into the cause why they do not feel as much love as we wish them to entertain for us; and we shall look for that cause in ourselves. Instead, therefore, of scolding our children, or of quarreling with them, we shall devote our attention to self-examination, and be patient, calm, kind, and affectionate to them. This is another of those invaluable practical results which will be produced by our obedience to these laws of our nature. Then, my friends, we shall cease to blame our children for their feelings, their thoughts, or their actions. On the contrary, we shall be taught to know that we have efficacious means of correcting the defects of our children, whether organic or superinduced upon their [227] defective organization, and this without the slightest emotion of anger or irritation. And a knowledge of these laws or principles will force the same rational practice from us to all the rest of our fellow-beings as well as to our offspring. There can be no error, no irrationality in any of our proceedings, when we understand these laws, and that knowledge will compel us to act upon them.

      I have now, perhaps, proved sufficiently in detail, that all religions are founded in direct opposition to the facts which now exist, ever have existed, or can exist. I am, therefore, quite willing to rest this part of the subject upon what has now been presented to you to prove that all the religions of the world, in consequence of being altogether irreconcilable to the laws of human nature, are founded in the ignorance of man. The next part of my duty is to demonstrate that these religions are the true and only source of all the vice and misery which have been experienced in the world. The latter clause of the proposition is so intimately connected, so inseparably interwoven with the former, that what proves the one must necessarily prove the other. From the facts exhibited to you, it has been demonstrated that all the religions of the world are directly opposed to the never-changing laws of our nature, and that which compels men to act unnaturally, must be a never-failing source of error, contradiction, vice, crime, and misery. In the nature of things, as we find them actually existing, no other result could arise. It is, perhaps, sufficient to observe, that all the religions of the world are unnatural, or contrary to the nature of man; to demonstrate the truth of all which I have undertaken to prove, when I show the facts, capable of hourly inspection, everywhere, that man is not the being that all these religions presuppose him to be. It is here, my friends, I take my stand upon all these important questions. And it is my deep-rooted conviction, after forty years of the closest investigation of this subject, that it is not in the power of any man living to prove any of these facts untrue, or any of the deductions from them erroneous. But you will ask me, How can religion be the source of vice? My friends, I have already told you that that which opposes the immutable laws of our nature, will be sure to be found, in its consequences, productive only of vice. Religion lays the foundation for hypocrisy, falsehood, and deception of every description. Your spiritual pastors tell you that you must believe according to their fanciful notions, and the laws of your nature are continually impelling you to rise up in rebellion against such instructions. No man likes to appear singular or disagreeable in the eyes of his fellows, and still less to have the means of his subsistence withdrawn from himself and [228] family for expressing his thoughts; and therefore men are under a strong necessity to say they believe as their neighbors appear to believe, and to feel as their neighbors and friends think they ought to feel, and from this beginning a complicated system of falsehood and deception takes its rise. And whenever falsehood is thus implanted in our nature, it soon pervades the whole man, making his whole life one continued lie to his genuine thoughts and feelings; his conduct and conversation are one continued lie against his nature; and thus there is an end to all real virtue among mankind. Virtue and falsehood, or deception can never exist well together. The religions of the world have produced such an accumulation of irrational habits, false notions, and bad feelings, arising, from this, as circumstances now are, unavoidable hypocrisy, that we cannot be in the world without feeling the necessity to cover our real thoughts and feelings--without, in fact, living in an atmosphere of perpetual falsehood and deception. Our words, looks, and actions, are scarcely anything else but falsehood and deception. Who dares speak his real sentiments on the subject of religion and affections, without being subjected to injury in his reputation and property? Are not these fears sufficiently operative to deter men and women from speaking their real thoughts and feelings? Talk not to me of virtue so long as men and women are compelled, by the absurdities of your institutions and erroneous conceptions of all things around you, to be insincere in their language and deceptions in their conduct. Falsehood and virtue can never exist together and now your whole system is false from its foundation upward. Every profession, trade, or occupation, supports itself by its deceptions. Where are the individuals now to be met with who speak the language of truth and no other language to each other? Almost the first thing you are compelled to teach your children is falsehood and insincerity. Our language to our little ones, when they are about to speak the truth, is, "O my dears, you must not say this, that, or the other thing." The poor children cannot imagine why they should be inhibited from speaking the truth; and it is a system of severe training to the infant mind, before we can give children that degree of insincerity and deception which is necessary to constitute them what is called "rational in society." But I trust the time is fast approaching when no child shall be (as at present) systematically instructed in falsehood and insincerity--when there will not exist a motive for deceptious conduct or behavior.

      Is it necessary for me to do more than to call your attention to the extent of falsehood, deception, and hypocrisy which is everywhere [229] prevalent? Do you not find yourselves, surrounded with these crimes from morning till night, and wherever you go? I appeal to your personal knowledge and experience, of what is passing in every department of life, and even in all the little coteries of my female friends. But when we discover that we cannot love or hate, believe or disbelieve at our will, I shall act openly, honestly, and consistently from the knowledge, no rational being will discover any motive for any kind of deception or insincerity. But at present we are not in a situation to incur the hazard incident to the speaking of the truth. What would be the consequences if all these young ladies now before me were to begin to speak the truth and nothing but the whole truth to-day? What would the staid and grave members of society say about them? Why, that they were fit only for a lunatic hospital! So would they say of every man or woman that dared to speak the truth; and this derationalizing and corrupting effect has been produced by religion alone. It is by falsehood and deception of the grossest kind that all the religions of the world have been established, and by these arts they are now alone supported. Hypocrisy, deception, and falsehoods are the floodgates of every kind of vice. They destroy all confidence between man and man and between man and woman, and they create a large portion of the most inferior and disagreeable feelings that can be implanted in our nature. They force us to suppress and disguise the expression of our feelings before the individual; but the moment his back is turned, we launch out with great latitude upon all his defects and peculiarities, not one word of which would we ever utter to his face. Such we know to be almost the universal practice of mankind. Now, simply because I have dared to speak openly exactly what I feel and think, for the benefit and happiness of my species, and thus to proclaim my convictions, and come forward and act upon them, I have been called a fool, a madman, fit only for a lunatic asylum. This has been my reward for having the moral courage to speak the simple truth as nature compels me to comprehend it; therefore, my young friends, you cannot, with safety, yet venture to speak out the truth; for if you do, you will assuredly risk confinement in a lunatic hospital!

      It would require a good deal of time and reflection to trace and deduce all the other vices which necessarily flow from deception, hypocrisy, and falsehood. I leave this to your imagination, because it has been well cultivated; but it would occupy too much time for me to detail them.

      The next evil is disunion. All religions are peculiarly well adapted to disunite the human family. No device so effectual in its nature to [231] create disunion among mankind as religion. At the same moment when a system was introduced and adopted, ascribing merit or demerit to any particular opinions, likings, or dislikings, was the foundation laid for all the dissensions among mankind, which have ever distracted the world. I need not, my friends, refer you to the religious wars and massacres of former times, or to the angry controversies of our forefathers, when they were debating what mysteries or absurd creeds should be devised to be forced into the minds of human beings from their birth; nor need I refer you to all the public calamities which religious dissensions have caused among various nations of the earth. I need only refer you to your own experience of the divisions and jarrings, bad feelings and passions, which occur in families and neighborhoods, solely because they cannot force themselves to think alike on the subject of religion. You find mankind everywhere herding in sects and parties, excluding from their fraternal sympathies, all who possess a different faith. These differing creeds form an impassable barrier to keep asunder the various religious sects and parties. See how the Christians and Turks are now contending against each other. Christianity arrayed on the one side and Mahometanism on the other. Why, my friends, tigers could not be more savage than they are, or exhibit conduct more irrational.

[COD 226-231]