Letters From the Earth

The death toll is now up to over 100,000 as a result of the South Asian earthquake and tsunamis. My prior post wondered, in a way, how God could inflict such horror upon his children.

Mark Twain's Letters From The Earth wonders at the same thing:

"Many of these people [those who take the lessons of the Bible literally] have the reasoning faculty, but no one uses it in religious matters.

"The best minds will tell you that when a man has begotten a child he is morally bound to tenderly care for it, protect it from hurt, shield it from disease, clothe it, feed it, bear with its waywardness, lay no hand upon it save in kindness and for its own good, and never in any case inflict upon it a wanton cruelty. Gods' treatment of his earthly children, every day and every night, is the exact opposite of all that, yet those best minds warmly justify these crimes, condone them, excuse them, and indignantly refuse to regard them as crimes at all, when he commits them."

Earlier, Twain notes:

"One of his [the human being's] principal religions is called the Christian. A sketch of it will interest you. It is set forth in detail in a book containing two million words, called the Old and the New Testaments. Also it has another name -- The Word of God. For the Christian thinks every word of it was dictated by God...

"It is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies."

A thousand lies...