Thursday, December 24, 2009

Deism Changing Hearsay Revealed Religion by using Reason.

Deism
Leading the way to a Religion of Reason encouraging Progress

Excerpt from Thomas Paine's Age of Reason:
"The book of Matthew gives, chap. i., ver 6, a genealogy by name
from David up through Joseph, the husband of Mary, to Christ; and
makes there to be twenty-eight generations. The book of Luke gives
also a genealogy by name from Christ, through Joseph, the husband of
Mary, down to David, and makes there to be forty-three generations;
besides which, there are only the two names of David and Joseph that
are alike in the two lists. I here insert both genealogical lists, and
for the sake of perspicuity and comparison, have placed them both in
the same direction, that is from Joseph down to David.

Genealogy according to Matthew.         Genealogy according to Luke.

      Christ        23 Josaphat               Christ        23 Neri
   2 Joseph        24 Asa                  2 Joseph        24 Melchi
   3 Jacob         25 Abia                 3 Heli          25 Addi
   4 Matthan       26 Roboam               4 Matthat       26 Cosam
   5 Eleazar       27 Solomon              5 Levi          27 Elmodam
   6 Eliud         28 David*               6 Melchi        28 Er
   7 Achim                                 7 Janna         29 Jose
   8 Sadoc                                 8 Joseph        30 Eliezer
   9 Azor                                  9 Mattathias    31 Jorim
  10 Eliakim                              10 Amos          32 Matthat
  11 Abiud                                11 Naum          33 Levi
  12 Zorobabel                            12 Esli          34 Simeon
  13 Salathiel                            13 Nagge         35 Juda
  14 Jechonias                            14 Maath         36 Joseph
  15 Josias                               15 Mattathias    37 Jonan
  16 Amon                                 16 Semei         38 Eliakim
  17 Manasses                             17 Joseph        39 Melea
  18 Ezekias                              18 Juda          40 Menan
  19 Achaz                                19 Joanna        41 Mattatha
  20 Joatham                              20 Rhesa         42 Nathan
  21 Ozias                                21 Zorobabel     43 David
  22 Joram                                22 Salathiel


*From the birth of David to the birth of Christ is upwards of 1080
years; and as the lifetime of Christ is not included, there are but 27
full generations. To find therefore the average age of each person
mentioned in the list, at the time his first son was born, it is
only necessary to divide 1080 years by 27, which gives 40 years for
each person. As the lifetime of man was then but the same extent it is
now, it is an absurdity to suppose that 27 following generations
should all be old bachelors, before they married; and the more so,
when we are told, that Solomon, the next in succession to David,
had a house full of wives and mistresses before he was twenty-one
years of age. So far from this genealogy being a solemn truth, it is
not even a reasonable lie. This list of Luke gives about twenty-six years
for the average age, and this is too much.

Now, if these men, Matthew and Luke, set out with a falsehood
between them as these two accounts show they do) in the very
commencement of their history of Jesus Christ, and of whom and of what
he was, what authority (as I have before asked) is there left for
believing the strange things they tell us afterward? If they cannot be
believed in their account of his natural genealogy, how are we to
believe them when they tell us he was the son of God begotten by a
ghost, and that an angel announced this in secret to his mother? If
they lied in one genealogy, why are we to believe them in the other?
If his natural genealogy be manufactured, which it certainly is, why
are we not to suppose that his celestial genealogy is manufactured
also, and that the whole is fabulous? Can any man of serious
reflection hazard his future happiness upon the belief of a story
naturally impossible, repugnant to every idea of decency, and
related by persons already detected of falsehood? Is it not more
safe that we stop ourselves at the plain, pure, and unmixed belief
of one God, which is Deism, than that we commit ourselves on an
ocean of improbable, irrational, indecent and contradictory tales?"

My first question, however, upon the books of the New
Testament, as upon those of the Old, is, Are they genuine? Were they
written by the persons to whom they are ascribed? for it is upon
this ground only that the strange things related therein have been
credited. Upon this point there is no direct proof for or against, and
all that this state of a case proves is doubtfulness, and doubtfulness
is the opposite of belief. The state, therefore, that the books are
in, proves against themselves as far as this kind of proof can go.

But exclusive of this, the presumption is that the books called
the Evangelists, and ascribed to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, were
not written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and that they are
impositions. The disordered state of the history in those four
books, the silence of one book upon matters related in the other,
and the disagreement that is to be found among them, implies that
they are the production of some unconnected individuals, many
years after the things they pretend to relate, each of whom made
his own legend; and not the writings of men living intimately
together, as the men called the apostles are supposed to have
done - in fine, that they have been manufactured, as the books of
the Old Testament have been, by other persons than those whose
names they bear.

The story of the angel announcing what the church calls the
immaculate conception is not so much as mentioned in the books
ascribed to Mark and John; and is differently related in Matthew and
Luke. The former says the angel appeared to Joseph; the latter says it
was to Mary; but either Joseph or Mary was the worst evidence that
could have been thought of, for it was others that should have
testified for them, and not they for themselves. Were any girl that is
now with child to say, and even to swear it, that she was gotten
with child by a ghost, and that an angel told her so, would she be
believed? Certainly she would not. Why, then, are we to believe the
same thing of another girl, whom we never saw, told by nobody knows
who, nor when, nor where? How strange and inconsistent it is, that the
same circumstance that would weaken the belief even of a probable
story, should be given as a motive for believing this one, that has
upon the face of it every token of absolute impossibility and
imposture!

The story of Herod destroying all the children under two years
old, belongs altogether to the book of Matthew; not one of the rest
mentions anything about it. Had such a circumstance been true, the
universality of it must have made it known to all the writers, and the
thing would have been too striking to have been omitted by any. This
writer tells us, that Jesus escaped this slaughter because Joseph
and Mary were warned by an angel to flee with him unto Egypt; but he
forgot to make any provision for Elisabeth's baby John the Baptist, who was then under two years
of age. John, however, who stayed behind, fared as well as Jesus, who
fled; and, therefore, the story circumstantially belies itself.

When was Jesus born? Before 4 BCE. After 6 CE.
Matthew 2:1
Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king.
Luke 1:5
There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judaea, a certain priest named Zacharias, of the course of Abia: and his wife was of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisabeth.
Herod the Great died in 4 BCE

Now here is the real explanation from the Torah "Isaiah" (which has been preached in all the Christian Churches as a prophesy tying the new to the old)  from a learned Rabbi…. Isaiah 7:14, "Therefore the Lord shall give unto you a sign; behold, the young woman is with child, and she will bear a son, and she will call his name Emanuel" (God is with us). This verse is applied by the Christians as an evidence of their faith. The prophet, they say, predicted here, that an Israelitish virgin would conceive, and bare a son (Jesus) under the influence of the Holy Ghost, as is related in the Gospel of Matthew.

The wife of Isaiah, who was still youthful, is termed in Scripture, עַלְמָה young woman. Moreover, the sense of the chapter is altogether adverse to the exposition of the Christians. It refers to Ahaz, King of Judah, who had been in great trouble and consternation on account of the confederacy which the monarchs (Pekah, King of Israel, and Rezin, King of Syria,) had determined on, namely, to besiege and subjugate Jerusalem. See Isaiah 7:2, "And it was told to the House of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim; and his heart was moved, and the heart of the people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind." Hence, the Lord sent to him the prophet Isaiah, to give him courage, that his heart should not be dismayed at their approach—since their design would assuredly be frustrated. To convince him of this, the Almighty gave him a sign, or token that Jerusalem would remain unmolested, and that the territories of Samaria and Damascus would soon be abandoned and deserted. Had it been the purpose of inspired writ to announce, as the Christians maintain, the advent of Jesus, how could Ahaz be concerned in a sign that could only be realized many centuries after his death, To wit: 700 years! (The sign of Rain comes just before the rain otherwise what good is the sign?) or how could any promise cheer his heart that was not to be fulfilled in his own days? It is true, there is also a prophecy, in this chapter, relating to calamities suspended over the hostile kings, and which happened within sixty-five years subsequent to the existing danger; "For the head of Syria is Damascus, and the head of Damascus is Rezin; and within threescore and five years shall Ephraim be broken, that it be no people." But the computation of sixty-five years did not commence from the date of the prophecy. At the period when the prophet spoke, his young wife was pregnant, and bore a son, who was first called Emanuel (God is with us), and afterwards, Maher-shalal-hash-baz (speed the plunder, hasten the spoil). "For," says Isaiah, "before the boy shall know how to call father and mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the King of Assyria." The fulfillment of this event is thus recorded in 2 Kings 16:9, "And the King of Assyria hearkened unto him, and the King of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the captives to Kir, and slew Rezin." In the same book (15:29-30) the fate of Pekah, King of Israel, is described in the following words. "In the days of Pekah, the son of Remaliah, King of Israel, came to Tiglath-Pileser, King of Assyria, and took Ijon, and Abel-Beth Maachah, and Janoah, and Kedeth, and Hazor, and Gilead, and Galilee, all the land of Naphtali, and carried them captive to Assyria." Verse 30, "And Hosea, the son of Elah, made a conspiracy against Pekah, the son of Remaliah, and smote him, and slew him, and reigned in his stead, in the twentieth year of Jotham, the son of Uzziah." The word of the prophet Isaiah

1 comment:

  1. Jorge Ricardo Urquiza, Su problema es con Compañías de Seguros y tiene poco que ver con el Deísmo.

    ReplyDelete