Page:A defence of atheism.pdf/7

 rant, Revelation speaks in the authoritative voice of prophecy. Then let us see whether that Reve­lation can stand the test of reason and of truth.—God, we are told, is omnipotent, omniscient, om­nipresent,—all wise, all just, and all good; that he is perfect. So far, so well; for less than per­fection were unworthy of a God. The first act recorded of him is, that he created the world out of nothing; but unfortunately the revelation of Science—Chemistry—which is based not on writ­ten words, but demonstrable facts, says that Noth­ing has no existence, and therefore out of Nothing, Nothing could be made. Revelation tells us that the world was created in six days. Here Geolo­gy steps in and says, that it requires thousands of ages to form the various strata of the earth. The Bible tells us that the earth was flat and station­ary, and the sun moves around the earth. Co­pernicus and Galileo flatly deny this flat assertion, and demonstrate by Astronomy that the earth is spherical, and revolves around the sun. Revela­tion tells us that on the fourth day God created the sun, moon, and stars. This, Astronomy calls a moon story, and says that the first three days, before the great torchlight was manufactured and suspended in the great lantern above, must have been rather dark.

The division of the waters above from the wa­ters below, and the creation of the minor objects, I pass by, and come at once to the sixth day.

Having finished, in five days, this stupendous production, with its mighty mountains, its vast seas, its fields and woods; supplied the waters with fishes—from the whale that Jonah swal­lowed to the little Dutch herring; peopled the woods with inhabitants—from the tiger, the lion, the bear, the elephant with his trunk, the drome­-