Of The Old and New Testament
Archbishop Tillotson says: "The difference between the
style of the Old and New Testament is so very
remarkable, that one of the greatest sects in the primitive
times, did, upon this very ground, found their heresy of two Gods, the
one evil, fierce, and cruel, whom they called the God of the Old
Testament; the other good, kind, and merciful, whom they called the God
of the New Testament; so great a difference is there between the
representations that are given of God in the books of the Jewish and
Christian religion, as to give, at least, some color and pretence to an
imagination of two Gods." Thus far Tillotson.
But the case was, that as the Church had picked out
several passages from the Old Testament, which she most absurdly and
falsely calls prophecies of Jesus Christ, (whereas there is no prophecy
of any such person, as any one may see by examining the passages and the
cases to which they apply,) she was under the necessity of keeping up
the credit of the Old Testament, because if that fell the other would
soon follow, and the Christian system of faith would soon be at an end.
As a book of morals, there are several parts of the
New Testament that are good; but they are no other than what had been
preached in the Eastern world several hundred years before Christ was
born. Confucius, the Chinese philosopher, who lived five hundred years
before the time of Christ, says,
Acknowledge thy benefits by the return of benefits, but never revenge
injuries.
The clergy in Popish countries were cunning enough to
know that if the Old Testament was made public the fallacy of the New,
with respect to Christ, would be detected, and they prohibited the use
of it, and always took it away wherever they found it.
The Deists, on the contrary, always encouraged the reading it, that people might see and judge for themselves, that a book so full of contradictions and wickedness could not be the word of God, and that we dishonor God by ascribing it to Him.
The survey shows a giant step forward for Deism in the fact that it actually uses the word "Deist" and for the very significant raw numbers it shows as representing the number of people who are Deists. In reality, the number of Deists is actually higher than the survey shows because the survey uses an outdated definition of Deist. For a more accurate definition please see our Deism Defined page.
Click here to read the actual survey. (It's in PDF)
One of the reasons the freethinker Giordano Bruno was tortured and murdered by being burned alive by the Catholic Church during the Inquisition was that he said the Universe is eternal and infinite which violates the superstitions in the Bible found in Genesis. This new study vindicates Bruno.
The Abraham Accord between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and the US seems to be more of a war plan against Iran than any kind of legitimate peace agreement.