Mark Twain's Creed
I believe in God the Almighty.
I do not believe He has ever sent a message to man by anybody, or delivered one to him by word of mouth, or made Himself visible to mortal eyes at any time in any place.
I believe that the Old and New Testaments were imagined and written by man, and that no line in them was authorized by God, much less inspired by Him.
I think the goodness, the justice, and the mercy of God are manifested in His works: I perceive that they are manifested toward me in this life; the logical conclusion is that they will be manifested toward me in the life to come, if there should be one.
I do not believe in special providences. I believe that the universe is governed by strict and immutable laws. If one man's family is swept away by a pestilence and another man's spared it is only the law working: God is not interfering in that small matter, either against the one man or in favor of the other.
I cannot see how eternal punishment hereafter could accomplish any good end, therefore I am not able to believe in it. To chasten a man in order to perfect him might be reasonable enough; to annihilate him when he shall have proved himself incapable of reaching perfection might be reasonable enough; but to roast him forever for the mere satisfaction of seeing him roast would not be reasonable... even the atrocious God imagined by the Jews would tire of the spectacle eventually.
There may be a hereafter and there may not be. I am wholly indifferent about it. If I am appointed to live again I feel sure it will be for some more sane and useful purpose than to flounder about for ages in a lake of fire and brimstone for having violated a confusion of ill-defined and contradictory rules said (but not evidenced) to be of divine institution. If annihilation is to follow death, I shall not be aware of the annihilation and therefore shall not care a straw about it.
I believe that the world's moral laws are the outcome of the world's experience. It needed no God to come down out of heaven to tell men that murder and theft and the other immoralities were bad, both for the individual who commits them and for society which suffers from them.
If I break all these moral laws I cannot see how I injure God by it, for He is beyond the reach of injury from me-- I could as easily injure a planet by throwing mud at it. It seems to me that my misconduct could only injure me and other men. I cannot benefit God by obeying these moral laws-- I could as easily benefit the planets by withholding my mud. (Let these sentences be read in the light of the fact that I believe I have received moral laws ONLY from man-- none whatever from God.) Consequently I do not see why I should be either punished or rewarded hereafter for the deeds I do here.
(I'd like to thank WUD Deputy Director Jayson for this writing by Mark Twain. One of the great things about Deism is its lack of dogma. For example, Mark Twain did not believe in the intervention of any kind of Providence in human affairs. Some Deists, like George Washington, did and do believe that God probably does intervene through Providence but that Providence is "inscrutable" as Washington wrote. Likewise, some Deists believe there is a continuation for the individual after their body dies while some Deists do not. Both are Deists since the only qualifications to be a Deist is belief in God based on the application of your reason on the designs in Nature along with the rejection of unreasonable ideas. The editor)
http://www.deism.com
I do not believe He has ever sent a message to man by anybody, or delivered one to him by word of mouth, or made Himself visible to mortal eyes at any time in any place.
I believe that the Old and New Testaments were imagined and written by man, and that no line in them was authorized by God, much less inspired by Him.
I think the goodness, the justice, and the mercy of God are manifested in His works: I perceive that they are manifested toward me in this life; the logical conclusion is that they will be manifested toward me in the life to come, if there should be one.
I do not believe in special providences. I believe that the universe is governed by strict and immutable laws. If one man's family is swept away by a pestilence and another man's spared it is only the law working: God is not interfering in that small matter, either against the one man or in favor of the other.
I cannot see how eternal punishment hereafter could accomplish any good end, therefore I am not able to believe in it. To chasten a man in order to perfect him might be reasonable enough; to annihilate him when he shall have proved himself incapable of reaching perfection might be reasonable enough; but to roast him forever for the mere satisfaction of seeing him roast would not be reasonable... even the atrocious God imagined by the Jews would tire of the spectacle eventually.
There may be a hereafter and there may not be. I am wholly indifferent about it. If I am appointed to live again I feel sure it will be for some more sane and useful purpose than to flounder about for ages in a lake of fire and brimstone for having violated a confusion of ill-defined and contradictory rules said (but not evidenced) to be of divine institution. If annihilation is to follow death, I shall not be aware of the annihilation and therefore shall not care a straw about it.
I believe that the world's moral laws are the outcome of the world's experience. It needed no God to come down out of heaven to tell men that murder and theft and the other immoralities were bad, both for the individual who commits them and for society which suffers from them.
If I break all these moral laws I cannot see how I injure God by it, for He is beyond the reach of injury from me-- I could as easily injure a planet by throwing mud at it. It seems to me that my misconduct could only injure me and other men. I cannot benefit God by obeying these moral laws-- I could as easily benefit the planets by withholding my mud. (Let these sentences be read in the light of the fact that I believe I have received moral laws ONLY from man-- none whatever from God.) Consequently I do not see why I should be either punished or rewarded hereafter for the deeds I do here.
(I'd like to thank WUD Deputy Director Jayson for this writing by Mark Twain. One of the great things about Deism is its lack of dogma. For example, Mark Twain did not believe in the intervention of any kind of Providence in human affairs. Some Deists, like George Washington, did and do believe that God probably does intervene through Providence but that Providence is "inscrutable" as Washington wrote. Likewise, some Deists believe there is a continuation for the individual after their body dies while some Deists do not. Both are Deists since the only qualifications to be a Deist is belief in God based on the application of your reason on the designs in Nature along with the rejection of unreasonable ideas. The editor)
http://www.deism.com
I take it then George Washington was an Israelite?