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Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.): n. Sunday, May 17, 1903.

Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.): n. Sunday, May 17, 1903. Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.). 400dpi TIFF G4 page images Blade Publishing Co., Lexington, Kentucky 1903 blu1903051701 These pages may be freely searched and displayed. Permission must be received for subsequent distribution in print or electronically. Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.): n. Sunday, May 17, 1903. Blue-grass blade (Lexington, Ky.). Blade Publishing Co., Lexington, Kentucky 1903 $IMLS This electronic text file was created by Optical Character Recognitio n (OCR). No corrections have been made to the OCR-ed text and no editing has be en done to the content of the original document. Encoding has been done through an automated process using the recommendations for Level 1 of the TEI in Librar ies Guidelines. Digital page images are linked to the text file. V ii IY Sk R r JE GKASS BLADErather 1Y011 rilliimlh EDITED BY A HEATHEN IN TilE INTEREST OF GOOD MORtLSPUBLISHED WEEKLY 100 A YEAR 7V r r 4 VOL XII NO 13 LEXINGTON KY SUNDAY MAY 17 E M 303 X100 A YEA f fjJZW 7JrI TERMS OF THE BLADE issue for one year SlOO Terms flOO per year In advance foreign subscription JlGO andlBlue Grass Blade Lexington Ky When you change your address vise this olllce giving your old as well an the new address When you send your subscription say j scriber whether you are a new or old sub The address slip on the paper will show expiration of subscription and as a receipt as the date changes 3as soon as the subscriber pays Subscriptions to this publication are l not discontinued at explratlovi unless en cmltred by the subscriber The r BUGscriberccourts1responalble to tbe publisher for the subscription price of ali Japers ceived until the paper Is paid for in up to date and ordered discon ittull of publication 161 East Third street near Walnut at the Post Office at Lexing Ky as Second Class Mall lEnfered all communications to GRASS BLADE P 393 Lexington Kentucky Fayette Telephone 619 Cumberland Telephone 307 THE DAMNED STUFF CALLED ALCOHOL believe that alcohol to a certain degree demoralizes those who make It those who sell It and those who drink it believe from the time It Issues from the colled and poisonous worm of the distillery until It empties Into the hell of crime death and dishonor It demoralizes everybody that touches- It do not believe that anybody can contemplate the subject without be coming prejudiced against this liquid you have to do Is to think of the deathsof the suicides of the Insan ity of the poverty of the Ignorance of the distress of the little children ging at the faded dresses of weeping and despairing wives asking for bread of the men of genius It has wrecked of the millions who have struggled with Imaginary serpents produced by this devilish thing And when you think of the jails of the almshouses of the prisons and of the scaffolds upon either bank do not wonder that every thoughtful man Is prejudiced against the damned stuff called INGERSOLL Keep Church and State forever separateGrltIn Is this government founded upon the Christian religlonWashingtonThe Church and State should be absolute Garfleld COLLEGE of MEDICINE SURGERY Chicago Four years Graded Course Laboratories fully equipped Abundance of Clinical Material 7EEP MODERATE Fall term opens in September Write today for Catalog to FLORENCE DRESSIER M Sicy p45247 Ashland Awot Chiruioo m afrGt vl EDITOR Urges Friends of the Blade to Greater Energy and Liberality In Spreading It have just read the Blade of March 10th It has typographical errors In It for which am to bo blamed moreI than anybody else because busy with writing my book to attend to the proof reading but apart from that comparatively small Imperfec tion It seems to me that the Blade Is a phenomenal newspaper There Is no reason why cannot say since my part of the writing In practically none now thisI So far as am personally ed my follow mtri have already me for my work far more than de served or expected and paid It In the way that I asked to be paidIn honor and love rather then In money tell you candidly that personally do not want anybodys money I want to die poor and hard run and want the world to understand that that has all tho time been my ambition But with Mr James E Hughes the publisher of this paper the case Is quite different Mr Hughes connection with the Blade has been so phenomenal that had he been a devout Christian and the Blade a Christian paper there Is not a preacher In this land who would not have said that God had raised him up for the special purpose of working with me just as God raised up Timothy to work with Paul Mr Hughes has while being a young man shown his willingness to go to the penitentiary when It was necessary to stand by his convictions of truth and justice Mr Hughes personal popularity and integrity and energy and compe tency bring him into the Blade office much outside work and which of Itself Is a profit to him he not only loses by publishing the Blade but loses so much that it is hardly possi ble for him to live and he must pro vide for his family and himself and he must pay for the material and all the thousand and one costs of this per and neither nor any member of my family is In a condition to help our other Infidel papers can bare ly live and often have to ask assis youIa utt cents a year each for clubs of or moreIsuppose there will be ten or twelve thousand people who will read this Nearly everybody who reads the Blade seems to have just as high an appreciation of It as have and think It Is fully as good as the best Infidel paper that was ever printed and yet appeals of this kind are made over and over and over again and they hardly bring to Mr Hughes as much money as the printing of them course there are many poor ple among us but It is almost certain that one thousand rich people will read what am saying here and that there will be three thousand people who could by making some little sac rifice send Mr Hughes 250 for live postal cards each one of which being sent at any time would send a Blade for one year from the time It Is or dered to any address In America This little paper has now been pub lished for nearly 20 years since started it excepting the times have been forced to stop It by the opposition of Christians In that 20 years such has been the advance of Chris tians toward Infidelity that am now In no more danger from publishing this paper In Lexington originally a hotbed of Christian Insolence and arrogance than Is any other editor In Lexington and the greeting that Is now being given me since my return from tho Orient by people In Lexing ton and by my country neighbors shows that the sentiment of this country toward me has entirely changed and certainly nobody has had any right to think from what have written for our local press or from my conversations that am at all going to slacken my work against the Christian religion My recent experience in the land of the Bibles and among tho scene of Jesus Christ have given me an advantage that none of our Infidel editors enjoys and as soon as can finish my book intend to use these advantages in the Blade to the ut most of my ability The advance of Infidel thought all over America Is certainly evident to any intelligent student of this mat ter Infidelity Is all the time more and more getting Into our popular magazines and newspapers not so plainly of course as we Infidel edit ors write It but plain enough to be read between the lines almost any tine and In lines many times This society literature did not take up Infidel support merely at Its own suggestion Writers of that kind of literature caught the cue from us In fidel writers and the Blade has contributed Its part to this general trans good cultivated Intelll gent and women of this country who want to do something for the amelioration of over race afford in justice to themselves and to others to let a paper like this which has done so much toward the furtherance of this great cause to let It struggle for existence between life and death Every Issue of It Is filled with splendid articles but these cannot be printed Just Indefinitely In the long solid columns of fine type that the Blade uses unless tho Blades friends arouse themselves to tho gencies of the case and send in the money for subscribers at these al most nominal rates faster than they are doing It seems to me then that friends of the Blade haul better for a while Just make a speciality of doing all they can by writing and every other way to Immensely Increase the cir culation of this paper You may say of course that am only doing what every other Infidel editor Is doingbegging for his pa per This Is true and want them all to succeed do not mean to un derrate of my colaborers In this work but you all can see from the difference In our rates that the Blade If put upon the same plane with the others ought to get five or six sub scribers where any other Infidel per In the world gets one- think the Blade is In the best shape of any Infidel publication In the world to read yourself or to hand around or to remall to a friend and It seems to me that Its articles from Its various correspondents of each sex are among the raciest and spici est and freshest and strongest that have ever seen In any Freethought propagnndlsm and certainly a great many other people think the same thing called up Mr Hughes by telephone a few mornings since after was up and dressed and he had not gone to bed but had worked all night at the linotype Is there not somebody who can say or do something that will bring that faithful laborer for our cause some adequate compesensatlon for his labor Among all the people who will read this Is there not some man or wo man that will set a precedent that will arouse to action the many men and women who every day are en joying the advancement of Free thought and doing It on the unreqult ted labor of Mr Hughes do not ask you to give him a cent of your money any way In the world I ply want you to pay him by sending subscriptions for the Blade as good wages as he could command in his calling If his pride and ambition and sense of right and justice did not make him still want to uphold this paper for which he has so long and so nobly striven If this paper should have to go down for the want of support believe there are 100000 people In America who would never cease to regret It as long as they lived and I do not believe I is a single first class man or woman In Lexington tellectually and morally who would not regret It Many of these many say things against it now but they are all seeing that every year the intelligent world Is coming nearer and nearer to the constant contention of the Blade Our State has just been shoked by another cowardly assassination In which It seems that one or more offi cers of the law have murdered a judge by shooting him In me back as he stood In the door of a court house and It seems the plot was arranged In a blind tiger liquor house In raine Ohio two priests are reported to have bought a jug of whisky and one of them is suspected of having murdered the sister of the other In Lexington Mrs Beauchamp the lead er of the W C T U announces her withdrawal from the Prohibition party with a pretty strong Intimation that she Is going to try to destroy It because the men are not doing to suit the women It Is known as radical a Prohibitionist as have been that have withdrawn from any nlllllatlon with the party because they had ligion all mixed up In It and have always told them that religion was the ruin of anything It had to do with These people are seeing that was right and all that have ever said against religion Is In this same way being verified all the time My whole life and pride are In this work My days are necessarily near ly at an end but not before have found turn and women far abler than am to espouse and champion the cause to which have given the main part of my life am In fine health so far as can tell but the chances are against my living live years mpre When my new book Is printed will feel that in the natural order of things my career Is about ended am proud and glad that have used my life as have do not want your money do not even want your praise simply want to see that you are nobly coming to the assistance of Mr Hughes who Is nobly devoting his life for you so that In my declining years which at the best must soon begin to come to me can see that the work have begun will so be carried on after my death that not even a single Issue of this paper will be missed have had to stop in midst of giving for my book an account of a ride from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and this much could have been writ ten on that story and can hardly afford to have my attention diverted front that book which I expect to be preeminently the work of my life but tho cares of Mr Hughes must be mycares Help Mr Hughes In the way have suggested as he deserves to be help ed and as soon as can get my book ready to print will help him with the proceeds from that rt s 0 k pr 4 EASTER Arid WhatIt The Christian world has just obser splendormany of the clergy do not even know the origin of this socalled Christian festival whlch Is taken bodily from the Pagans The following Is what the Encyclopedia Britannica says of the Origin of Easter Easter to an annual festival observed by Christians in memory of the res urrection Like the name of the days of the weeks months stars and planets Easter Is borrowed from the old Pagan mythology Easter was the name ofj the AngloSaxon goddess of spring Ip whom the forth month In the year was dedicated The early Christians had no such festivals So crates ftcleslastlcals History tells us that neither Christ nor his apostlles enjoined the keeping of this or other festival and that It was taken In to the church In perpetuation of an old usage just as many other cus tomes have been established We learn tram Eplphanlus that by reason of there belng no authoritative decis ion as tq the day to be observed nor the prop r mode of calculating It dls crcpancliJs controversies and dissen sions afose which distracted the Church snd became a source of mock ery an l ridicule to unbelievers Some began the festival before the week some after the week some at the beginning some at the middle some at end thus creating a wonderful aid laborious confusion Pope Plus 1 fixed It by a decretal placing the crucifixion on Friday and the res urrection on the following Sunday But the matter did not remain settled It was a bone of contention at the Council of Nic- eSt Ambrose says the church in Gaul A D 587 kept Easter on March while in Italy April 18 was selec ted anti the churches In Egypt a week later the 455 there was eight days dlfjerence between the Roman and Ale mdrlne Easter There were slmular discrepancies and quarrels about tbfc date In the Galilean church as IatejS the eight century Tho an death EMsh church had their own leas abr It also and the gathers and Latin missionaries had much bit ter among them as to the proptime In 651 there was a double Easter that is while Queen F the Roman rule and nfiedamadoPted Sunday her hus was cele brating the Easter festival The Ro man rule was finally established in England by Archbishop Theodore In The rule Is thus stated Easter day is the first Sunday after the 14th day not the full moon of the calendar moon which happens on or next after March 21 This calendar moon however Is not the moon of the heavens nor the mean moon of the astronomers but an Imaginary moon created for ecclesiastical con venience In advance of the real moon The church of Russia and Greece and the Oriental churches generally still observe the unreformed calendar their Easter falling sometimes be fore and sometimes after that of the Western church By this we learn that the whole thing rests on an iniaglnery moon created for ecclesiastical conven ience In advance of the real moon If all the imaginary things that have been created for ecclesiastical con venience could be told In print it would take a library of encyclopedias to record them yet poor gulled hu inanity observe these church days without having any idea how they originated or what they mean If a preacher attempts to explain Easter or other high days In the church calendar he gets himself in a tangle and shows that he does not know what he Is talking about As for the laity they cannot tell you why they celebrate these days Last Eas ter asked several devout Christians why the Christians celebrated Easter One said Because it was the day Christ founded His church on earth Another said It Is the day to have dyed eggs and another said It was the Sunday after the spring millinery openings Of course Easter would not be Easter without dyed eggs and spring millinery The average Christian woman ex periences more joy In wearing her new spring hat to church on Easter than she does on receiving the baptism of Holy Ghost when she gets there Fine clothes have been a powerful influence in spurring women on to their religious duties New outfits will bring them to their knees in the church pew and the tag ends of sum and winter when clothes ale rusty and out of style always wit ness a falling off in female congrega tions But when the Easter costumes are ripe there is a general spiritual awak ening I have known large families of women who had not fine clothes enough to go around Part of them would don the finery and go to the sanctuary to worship the Lords while the rest had to remain at hone and starve spiritually for lack of fur Christians know what Eas j k J to 5fiJln r1i Ii ter Is all about or not It brings them to church looking radiant In their new clothes The St Louis Republic filled columns describing the Easter services In that city Among other things it said Balmy weather fa paradeIashlonahlespring attire fill the principle churches and shirt waists In endless variety are a feature of costumes which excite admiration StXavlorsnearby a column of names of women with elaborate description cf their toilets In this Easter parade Of course the souls of these daintily gowned worshippers were overflowing with devotion with not a worldly thought to disturb their re passingthroughweeks of Lent Easter Is hailed by the Christian world with joy though few know why the tiny Is celebrated but great Is the mystery of godliness JOSEPHINE K H13NRV Versailles Ky Svt MMwt nnnvn i Blades l ClubMrs Josephine Henry Ver sallies Ky SuttonMassDr Esther Van Riper Circle vllle Ohio StChattanoogaMrs E Davis Rockdale Texas Mrs Vlna Hodges Salado Oregon WisconsinKyAdaMary E Crigler Bartow Fla Mrs Krone Cincinnati Helen Collins 639 E 21st St Los Angeles Calif Emily Jones East Lynne Mo KyMrsAve Columbus Ohio Mrs A Lee Blue Earth Minn Elizabeth Henry Sparks Carllse KyMiss Ora Baughman 540 W Hal ler St Lima Ohio Mrs Nellie Evans 540 W Haller t Ul11 Mrs W Royster 426 W Durall St Jacksonville Fla Alice Roby Caplinger Mills Mo Laura Roby Caplinger Mills Mo Lucinda Roby Caplinger Mills Mo Ella Roby Caplinger Mills Mo John F Clark Arlington Md Mrs E Markell Belleville Kan Mary Emerson Oak Center WIs Mrs Kelsey Bellvue W Harp Kathleen Fla Andrew Cook Manatee Fla F Church Essex Mich Lexington PageAveMarllla Ricker Dover J W Riggins Diamond Ala Mrs Aline Wright Denton Texas Robt Wright Denton Texas Mrs Eliza Martin Mableton GaJ W Byler Combs Mich Minnie Lowry Woolsey Ind Ter Mrs Jessie Hazelrlgg Ryan Iowa Jas Davis 526 Prospect St Lima Musgrove Arnettsvllle W Va Mary Collins Cincinnati Ohio Capt Geo W Loyd New Rochelle New oYrk Mrs Oades Olympia Wash 420 Third St Thomas F Flood Barrs Mills Clark Corrigan Texas Wm Emmltt Johnson McLeanes bore Hans F Hanson Eslef Minn Mrs Isadora Davis 528 Prospect Ave Lima Ohio Alberto Fisher New Haven Gibson 112 Post Ave St Elmo Tenn Miss Lula Gibson 112 Post Ave St Elmo Tenn Mrs Gibson 112 Post Ave St Elmo Tenn- Hassler 1849 Mullanphy St St Louis Mo Mrs Rachel Grober 105 W Fourth St Covington Ky Mrs Pefferle Ontario Ore Mrs Sarah Richards Ashland Richards Ashland Ore John Wulf Exchange St Mil ford Mass Frances Vraetz Rochelle Ills Mrs Mary Vraetz Rochelle Ills Mllliam Jones Mary and Patton St Covington Ky Harriet Closz 537 Bank Sreet Webster City Iowa Hortense Malcolmn Phelps Otter vllle Ont W Simpson Ft Wrangle Alaska Mrs Jean Pohl and Dr Gustav Pohl 96 Lemon St Buffalo Y Mrs Caroline Rowell 30 Locust St Buffalo Mrs Carrie Becker 21 Harlow St Buffalo Y Mrs John Lawrence 113 Spaulding Ave Buffalo Mrs Ausln 410 E Fayette St Connellsvllle Penn Send 250 get five postal cards god for live subscribers at any time you want them t BIBLE j Not Like Other Books By Harriet Closz literaturehns believethatwhich some wicked children found timegoodGodspraises orChrIstian notthechurches have taken it up and are Pthanahiliajecution In this line The April num Thefrontispiecewoman lifting a dark robe tram a Inscriptionof death few of the headings of articles are Can a man be success consistentChristianThis last Is a tale In which man was made a helpless Invalid so that he might translate the Bible Into the Chinese language The wayside mission work of an upholsterer tells of five dailyThey trustGcdstories of lasting acknowledge by min isters must have been lies It is u willIIfthedepravltPennsylvania to Georgia In view of the fact that all these people are Christians one cant understand that soul winning is necessary Howtone young man met and overcame temptation Is an account In which a mother and sweetheart are mixed up with godly and ungodly thoughts The story of how an Oxford graduate foundnvuii54iuwnt7 iiinivkgruy in one night but was finally converted by meeting God face to face To dayHisdaughterInart of a begging meeting In which a po r woman consecrated her daugh ter as a missionary advise Blade readers to procure a copy of the Rains Horn occasionally so they may nut forget the old methods Here are a few questions that are asked about the Bible after some one Is supposed to have said that the Bible Is just likeyother books The writer of the cle W T Gunn says What other hocks are like the Bible What other becks tell of a God like Him revealed in the Bible Well as for me must admit that dont know of any other books lue the Bible The ques sa tlon Is a poser have never yet found one that begins to equal It In the great amount of foolish and fiend ish material and the comparatively small amount of reasonably good ma terial I have never discovered an author of a book who openly and fla grantly violated every law of decency f atul justice one who approved de bauchery slavery polygamy drunk enness murder Incest conquest arson larceny deception purgery cov ftoiiEiuss lust and all the Immortali tics In the calendar No the Bible is not like other books thank fortune The authors of profane productions have In the main been decent men while the author of this sacred book a fiend Incarnate who teaches that the world may escape the consequen ces of all the above diabolisms by simply believing a formula prescrib ed by him Were there any other ijcoks like the Bible the people would repudiate them but since there Is but ore it Is considered a rare and sacred timing and Is flaunted in the face of tile world as Gods revealed word Mr Gunn Is right there are no other bcoks like the Bible and there Is lit tit danger that there will be a pro duction to equal It since most Iluthorsohave Ideals of justice for humanity and hope to guide the people to the heights of truth instead of humiliat ing them to the dust as supine lie lit vers and puppets of priestcraft Wo are glad to announce however that this socalled revealed word of God is being so mutilated by the heretical dictors of divinity that very soon God will net recognize his work and a iuv one will be necessary then mod ern authors will far surpass the out of date traditional volume 887 IS THE NUMBER OF COPIES OF DOG FENNEL IN THE ORIENT SUBSCRIBED FOR TO THIS DATE BROWN LEGHORN EGGS have pure bred Rose Comb Brown Leghorn Eggs for sale at 100 per setting of 15 eggs Address MRS T S CORER- McLeansboro Ills t rr BLUE GRASS BLADE 1 VVVY ANV INtII 1 Why I AmI An AtheistAAA ANtA y TO BE CONTINUED The article will be continued In next weeks Blade and judging from man uscrlpt already on hand It will cupy the entire space of our next sue After the edition of May 24th we will continue publishing theEe contributions from week to wc ek Articles can be sent as heretofore + WHY AM AN ATHEIST have often sulil My mothers lIglon Is good enough for mo und she an Atheist hilt that la not the only IIa son nm an Atheist can see no plncc hi nature for any power except tho pandlng anil contracting of matter heat d cold There la absolutely motion or phenomena of nature miuli In any other way and make this asII tlon boldly and confidently having had Jt000 on deposit for about two years which I offer to any person showing or proving any motion made In any other way in our own solar system the mense heat of the sun radiates or pands solid matter Into gas of thoutands of times greater bulk than when sulld and this Is forced away or up from the sun as other gas Is expanded below til It finally recrystnllzes In the far away regions beyond Neptune wher It is supposed to be degree below zero When this happens graduallY gathers Into a new world which bet lns to full back to the sun In an orbit Iull Ing faster and faster an It rllmI sun but nearlng the sun morn slowly as Us centrifugal force Increull e Increasing Its speed along Its orllt In the same inverse ratio with which It decreases the diameter of olhlt When It finally falls Into the nun It turns In Its falling weight and the tion of fusion or dlstergratlon Into Ias the same heat which It cost tile sun to raise Its great weight by expansion Inally Knowing then that there can be no other force or motion than the px pandlng and contracting of mutter b heat and cold leaves no place or em ployment for a god and can llnd no chance or place for any conscious life outside of the motion of the culldlal protoplasm of a nervous system therc fore no after death viz no sltrlt and as God Is a spirit hence no Qoil FRANKLIN H HEAL Los Angeles Cal WHY AM AN ATHEIST First Because there Is no place for jul other God than nature Second Because there Is no oCluslon i for one God any more than for a mll lion and as much use for a million for one PIC Third Because a God big enough tn make and control the universe WIIUJ be god enough to make a universe wlthlout Injustice and misery Fourth Because a God and a same u at 11disliket Is to a this one In which overy mouth is Jf1 slaughter HbjrSPrmnyeisMsnaiiJC dam fool 1 do not believe lIy InespeWYSCARVEH J i Cincinnati O +WHY AM AN ATHEIST I am an Atheist because Im built on such a plan I cant believe nbsurdltlen or make lieve can For an eternal Unlveme Is ensler In thought Than one made by a selfmade God and both made out of inflight I cant accept theology thats founded on a devil That was created by a God who doell things on the level I cant believe one God Is there or that three Gods are one That one lived all eternity and then got a son I cant belle pure Virgin have bahles by ghosts begot It ought to bo a crime to preach Iueh silly tommyrot I am an Alhlest beoauie Ive never pet God Or heard or smelt or tailed one or lCen Whore one hod trod Phenomenas no proof of God nor flowers nor birds nor grain No mind con act or thought can spring apart from nerve and brain Eternal energy exists effect must fol low cnu e But no eternal bralnleaa Gods fd In Natures laws I am an Atheist because Im nut a hype crlto Am not looking for Influence or trade a little bit Id rather be my honest self and free to think and opoak Than be a President and know was moral snenlII cant believe Atoning blood scheme vicarious Will cut much Ice on that great day and dont care 1 Whod wash his vlleness In the boo of an Atoning Lamb Will steal the Jewels from the crowi of every saint ho can I am an Atheist because I rend within the word That Christ came not sweet to bring hut to pet up a sword Because theology has brought to uufier Ing mankind MorO persecution wars and strife than nil things else combined I nm an Atheist because I cant makt It appear That Gods would mock calamity oi laugh at honest foal I cant conceive a God so base as to connive or wink At witchcraft slaves polygamy which makes the Bible stink I cant conceive a God of Wrath a God of vengeance dire Who sits and sniffs the Incense sweet of damned souls In hell lire Rev XIV I cant bellevo this hell Ideal cant a little Jot A lake of tire and brlmstonod be for kids too blooming hot I am an Athlent because I like the precept true Do unto others as youd havo all others do to you try my best to live up to this Chris tianheathen rule I seek the reason In all things and dont core who keeps school I am an Athlest because I say with brazen face I do believe that character more than saving Bruce Morality will damn your soul All right Just let It ruin Ill take mp chance with Socratls with Bruno and Tom Paine I am an Atheist because Id have my heaven here And for skyscrapers never walt to read my title clear nut why am an Athloat I cant begin The world could not contain the books 4 nor heaven nor rosy hell C11ARLBS DROWN Ithaca X Y tWHY AM AN ATHEIST I was pleased with your recent osition to readers of The Blade to offer for publication their reasons or the causes which to unbelief In that which culled our spiritual wel Christian converts In relating their perlence usually make a tkionltelling the bad things they and when they backslide their record of evil deeds Is public property while tIle Inlldel general with a clear con science and forearmed with a sense of right not called upon to mnko such a humiliating show but should to the contrary be ever ri Irand wiling to declare tho causes Impel the separation the separatlo of common sense and religious supe tlon There are so many causes that one hardly knows which to take up and line to the limited space and In afI of offering my convictions of yenra shall wander back to boyhoods happy hours darkened only by the lurid glare of hell and the wrath to come ind relate an Incident of long ago when was about ten years of age In which through c- tIl1rl lnfeYof the family use name of Drown With thla prelu 1e will proceed to give one of the I AM NOT CHRISTIAN Deacon Brown was a wealthy farmer whoe broad estate adjoined that of my fathers farm In the church Dea Ion Brown was an exemplary Chrlstlon mil a strong pillar of the innctunry he was known as a hardlIst d clutching grasping and aarlclous ild man whose puritanical Intoleranco ast a gloom over his own household ind all who came In contact with him ind who In his Christian zeal h lthat life here below must be one of tull ind sorrow order to tit us for the heavenly mansion His youngest son Chester about twelve ears my sen was a noble young man Inheriting his mothers generous and kindly tion When Chester had reached twer jne years of age after working for board and clothes up to that time his father then promised to deed him a caln piece of land If lie would stay and work for him another year to which the son consented In due time the leed was executed and Chester who vns engaged to the maiden of his choice Ind contrary to his fathers wishes by of such choice began to draw stone ind lumber to build a home on his hard arned piece of land sat atDeacon BrownOne evening as he fireplace his son entered the kitchen whosLooking up he said Chester jeen hauling lumber and stone on my ast lot Ills son replied Father belongs to me and I am hat lot now rolng to build on It Better get a deed lefore you begin to build chuckled the In allier Chester having confidence lls father hud placed the deed In his runk and neglected to have It record Suspecting treachery he bounded upstairs to his room and after some de ny came down with his trunk packed Placing his trunk on the floor Chester trode up to his fathers slue and pial his hand on the shoulder of tIle ering old man he said Father itole that deed from mo after I had arnd It With a shrill voice cnme J ir nii nit Drove It Chester Iftou can i prove Chester crossed tho room to where hll mother sat weeping and throwing his arm around her kissed her good Inl and went forth Into the darkness t wanderer Years came and departed ml regardless of his wifes tears and ntrentles Deacon Brown still remained tubborn and remorseless and still tinued to lay up treasures In heaven practice Luke XIV ana In due time old Brother Drown as other deacons called him was called to his reward was gathered to his iithers In company with my mother and father attended the funeral of Dca Brown Space will not permit dwell on the many good t th hitehalred Rev Francis said about dear old Brother Drown will sim ly state that the deceased was held up the preacher as a criterion or both id and young as one who stood before w Christian world without a mornl Inilsh The eyes of my schoolmates ho were present on that occasion us that of ones outside Ihe fold were wide uplifted with lIur IIrlse at the beautiful obituary while brother deacons and other chulch lembers shl d tears and groaned their deep grief On our way home mother remarkei What a beautlfull funeral service sther who way of digression very badly nfllicted with orthodoxy iekly replied Yes yes I suppose Dllt my boyish spirit was up and ollen rebellion and following my fathers nibtful sold Mother didnt the preacher tell the truth ahout the old skinflint place of 1lng- al everybody knows he dill tell how he eaked Into his sons room and stole thut deed from his trunk and how his on left home and has never been heard rlom since and how his mother has cried eveI day for him ily mother appealed to father to lake that boy stop his wicked 1hl1t mother Is now In her 83rd I love and revere oven white hall her timehonored head and recent bent and kissed her wrinkled cheei II smiled at these thoughts Mother the boy that you rebuked so long ago now a grand father of eight year stllndlnJt and yet with due respect our Christian faith that boy has never topped his honest wicked talk I Our Christian friends ask Why you Inlldels single out these Isolated COPI us a sample whereby you Iemn the whole Isolated cases this nature are so numerous In church that were they detached from the whole the minority would be eS81y Isolated wrote the foregoing because the incidents related made at ImPlellRlon on my youthful mind that time has not effaced and had I to relate the experience and ob senatlons of later years could an entire Issue of the Blade and cause Deoeon Drown If he were alive to blush for shame or grieve with envy und dare say should every distinguished writer for The Blade take up work this line they could fill whole libraries- with Isolated cases Dnt must hasten to close the painful Ihaptel The scene of my narrative shifts to a whitehaired mother whose flte Is deeply carved with age and rowing for one who never returned and of whoso whereabouts she has never- Iparlltd By her side stands another whose hull streaked with gray face Is full of love sorrow strollg yearnings for the boy of her url and only love A stranger suntl himself at the door and mitted He old ragged und u veritable tramp Food Is brought but he pushes It islde and several times assays speole At lust he asks Did you have a lion named Chester With a grasp the mother replies Yes yeti go fhe stranger now proceeds to tell that ilia years ago In company with her und others they started overland ror California and how that her poorlY equipped for sueh a Journey leldll to exposure and hardships dying on the way was hurled In a I1ountllln pass und how that In dying hellofho hall led a drunken and deesolute life j and In his aimless wanderings having reached the vicinity of his old panions home his conscience smote him and drove him to fulilll In person tho promise of long ago hoe passed through scenes of strIfe and bloodshed during the civil war have met prosperity and adversity on the great battle of life and a gray head bends over these lines and as et my early piety has never fully ered from the shock It thus receive In boyhood dos regardless of the fact that I attended Sunday school until was nearly years of age have often wondered where preachers get their thority for lying and In later years hae been directed to these words Fur Ir the truth of God hath more n1 ol1nded through my unto his glory why et am also Judged as a sinner Homans III and then I recvvtd ullothet shock Count me out In fancy I hear again the words or Rev Francis at till grave He tbat bellevcth In me shall not die but shall have everlasting life And I try to picture dear old Deacon Drown clothed In robes of spotless white tlut terlng his snowy pinions and playing on a golden harp In some conspicuous lIon In celestial city of the New Jerusalem but a nauseous lump conlts up In my throat which prevents the functions of my swallowing apparatus as my thoughts go back to the stolen deed und a lonely unmarked grave u far distant mountain canyon Please count mo outl People may name me Inlldel Atheist Sceptic Agnostic or Freethinker and yet according to Shakespeare Whats a name that which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweetE I ROFFE Hamilton R II WHY AM AN ATHEIST reason for being an Atheist Is that used reason with a fearless termInation to know the true or fnlse position of religion when llrst Iegan to Investigate the subject Through the kindness of an Atheist friend with whom became acquainted and to whom shall always feel grateful for the Interest he took In mo to get me to see things their natural and proper light I soon dispelled the clouds of perstition by studying nature and Its laws closely to the material side und rejecting everything that would nut hear the light of reason Having been raised a Catholic the trine and belief a hell and purgat ivas a torture to mind to think ol a Human being suffering endless torment nut by the study of the law of gralta lion the changing of matter by combustion soon succeeded In running out if fuel and could see no way of Ing up the supply Now everything perfectly natural ind feel In perfect harmony with self and nature with no fears of an an try God but knowing that to live In iccordance or violation to natures Inws ve are rewarded or punished mentallY or physically this life and not in Imaginary exlstance of a hereaftci BRUNSWICK Los Angeles Cal 11 WHY AM AN AGNOSTIC I nm an Agnostic because there Is Gor save Nature There Is no proof to rove that there Is a God such as the hrlstlan Bible describe It Is nil sumption perpetrated and kept olive b priests and preachers fur revenue ly No person that capable of son without prejudice can believe the contradiction and unreasonable sta lents made In that holy book That book contains more monumental scenity than miy other book In print iday and should be excluded from the brarles of all moral po E EDWIN EADSJ Los Angeles Cal 01WHY lAM AN AGNOSTIC I am an Agnostic because It is a prln gnrar Btiuiun tur tu ryytrroa because It a principle of hypocrlcy deceit and su erstltlon ecause it Is a principle ttfat would maintain an open court ln stlgatlc am an Agnostic because It Is ple that spurns faith and court facts and stands for every virtue liberty ternity equality nndhumanlt und for the further reason because It is a ciple that stands shoulder to shoulder with the Atheist and the materialist J E ARNOLD Nebraska Ind ++WHY AM AN ATHEIST First Because It conceded that a thelty must be omnipotent omniscient and omnipresent and having these tributes he Is responsible for the rlads of horrors that have cursed Iearth earthquakes deluges cyclones famines pestilences plagues wars therefore such sickening und revolt- Ing to every noble Impulse of my tun j can not believe respect hae fellowship with such an Inflnlto fiend Second In all the ages thelty has neel manifested assuredly not to either In power or goodness Of tho tho sands of gods that have been shiped by man every ono is lend or lacking In power But he would not be a god If not allpowerful Therefoi he Is no- tfhlrdTo believe a God existing this age allwise and allpowerful woul cessarlly debase me and all other men I Ian no acknowledge a God thousand times worse than am Therefore am an Atheist ourth Were there a God of goodnee and justice even he would call up the hypocrites and myriads of agents and representatives and tell them tuke down their signs go to work Quit fleecing the ignorant the gulllbl and cease to serve tyrants that deceive persecute and rob the poor and proclaim 101 truth justice and goodwill to men He has not done so Ther fore he Is not And am an Atheist Ifth It does seem that It has truly said All men are doing best they can but it surely can not he said that God If he exists has dolnf the best lie can con beat him a fold So can you Therefore halng the three said attributes he not be and Ill none of him Rlxtht Is Insulting to common sense to acknowledge a God that Is not evei a gentleman nor equal to a man whom you would be willing to receive an Introduction And especially virgins My God must be a gentleman and Ischolar And remain nn Atheist sventh Ask your God oh hypocrites and weaklings If he Is the author ol the Johnstown horror the Galveston horror the liquid hell In the West dlell that were but yesterday not mention a thousand others He will say yes Then I say to Stand aside And therefore I am an the gods demand That- man shall love them fear them wor ship them though they need nothing at the kind and such can add nothing their power or happiness And some are meanly avaricious Therefore I nm an Atheist NinthBut the most damnable and tumoull requisition is Believe what middle man tells you to believe whether you can or not or be eternally danmned and burnt forever never to die but llvjng order to be tortured Did ever hear of any man so mean the very embodiment of the fiercest Ing tyranny and cruelty I want such a od to distinctly undented that would not speak to Him on the high wa Therefore am un Atheis- tfenthl am an Atheist because gods are great liars And because nil tho gods are very Ignorant Take your lJebr sod can write a better logue and shut my eyes So can twenty- Hlue Grass writers And In his old book of dull fables there are mistakes at the minimum Five In the first verse of the first chapter of the book Sixty- mlstokes In the first chapter of the Bh le going through In a canter wentyone In the last chapter of DIble galloping all the way Besides page upon page of dirty vulgarity dl2gustlng obscenity and diabolical J scene of the most atrocious crimes that the most distempered imagination can conceive enough to make the meanest wretch that ever lived muchlcss a god sneag off and hide forever And there are his greatest favortles Moses JOlhun and David the trio of Infancy adumbrating tho qualities of this contemptible and hateful deity David whoso last word was blood Therefore am all Infldel and Atheist for nn Atheist necessarily and Infldel but nn Infidel not necessarily nn Atheist Eleventh But the devil Satan Dlabo lus seems to be a gentleman a scholor and a good fellow and a great COllqueror of gods He has all the greatest men and women the world has produced nnd has the cream of society If we must have a thelty let Dlabolus be him a thousand times yes have a great spect for Satan He never has an kneeling mid praying In his and wuuld scorn to bo the author of the 31st chapter of Numbers Therefore am an Atheist Twelfth In fact the seventh Sabbaths the Bibles the sixteen clucllled saviors the languages emnnatlng from Babel the religions the gods In years omitting the In computable mistakes propagated mis takes not the right word would moke an Atheist of anybody but un arrant wooldyed double and twisted pusillan- Imous fool And as a deity would be worse than the poor fool Thercfoi am an Inlldel llrst last and nil the timely grandly nobly and b- eIld to the kneeling groaning whining snarling supplicating ea sLorf coplmnts and hypocrites The Prayer helped me on the road to Inti dcllty with Its faulty English and worse Greek not to mention the shallow lit tleness and presumption of the thing In thus addressing a straw god Socrates left two prayers Incomparably better letter Greek too and there are two Blue Grass Blade women who can bellt It and not half try But the deIIs prayer helped me too Now the teenths verse of the sixteenth chapter of Mark alone would make me nn It Is the most Infamous sentenle ever spoken or written by man devil or angel so coiled It has caused more sorrow more tears more broken hearts more bloodshed more murders all through the centuries than would melt the hearts of fiends And still It lives and moves and curses sometimes feel that could curse equal to George Washington on the night of the 29th of August And that beat the army In Flanders Thirteenth And last I am an Atheist because thos who believe In persolllli bible god are so vastly Inferior a class so much meaner more more Illiberal egotistic presumptuous jverbenrlng than the Atheist Save me from a god whose example and precepts make mIll Infamous I have noted that men are better than the Bibles I see fIe different accounts of the last eon Iersntlon of Jesus with his apostles see the dospel of the Infancy was voted out the most marvelous of all the pels see that Luke got Into the Jes lament by a majority of one vote The 0 D s made me read the New resta nent Greek nt though neither nor nny of his apostles did or could ipeal word of Greek Though much It Is of an order of Greek that would make the old Greek masters blush vlsh you would Institute a cursing so lety want to Join Many ore pering rhe people are not prepared for the truth Well am loyal to llabolus What the matter with the devil an ray This bible god a poor scholar has a bad memory and lies like a prineI Give honor truth and justice You nay have all the rest And thererore am an Atheist BROOKE BARTLET1 Crews Ala +WHY AM AN INFIDEL I am an nfldel to the church and much of the Bible I am an Agnostic as to the llrst cause or trsatergo of nomena I am a Freethinker and a liever In all testimony that amounts to evidence to my mind try to avoid prejudice believe with Solomon that laL atter before heareUi It It lStiYttniFntfTi namto him I want the truth I want to be right My reason Is my only guide truth and right I arrive at my convictions of truth and right by exercising my reason by meditation extracting truth from my observation and expe lence Authority does not satisfy my long lug for truth Authority may err I can tell how authority arrived nt Its inclusions but I do know that when reason Inductively by observing and meditating on facts that am satlstled with resultant conclusions I have faith I have faith In the tlnal triumph of truth and right have faith reason that the unbiased reason all men arrives at the same logical eon cluslon My observation teaches me thnt the world moves those who trust to ason and truth alone for authorl id dlsca authority as truth arrive the same conclusions Religion embraces theology and tains to the unknown and unknownabl to a hypothetical God and a hypothetical future and Immortal life and not be proven nor reduced to a able science H Is purely speculative unreasonable and rests not on proof but tradition and authority There Is notl lag In our experience nor observation to corroborate religion The church Is the custodian of religion Its function Is to work upon the tions and feelings of Impressible jects by continued hypnotic suggestions without un appeal to reason often working the emotions up to an extac or Insanity Religion per se bears no relation to irallty Morality pertains to our tion to our fellow men and Is knowable It has been reduced to a science It speculative but demonstrable fhe reason sociology or moral science not received more recognition Is that- the church making n feint of morals Iut quoting ancient authority for moral truth holds Its votaries In thraldom and aerlle to science For that reason I Infldel to the church am Inlldel to the Bible for It tlons the greatest crimes the logue of crimes and Its teachings are ry demoralizing It cultivates agery deception and slavery especial slavery of reason It commands am Inculcates obedience No man should commond or obey am a Freethinker for the reason that thought must be free He who thinks at all Is free to think hut some do not are to think through fear of authority the church as Ingersoll said think for two reasons One Is I love thlnle and the other cant help It J BARNES flndsboro ++AM A RATIONALIST y llrst reason why am a Rationalist because mortal man knows nothing nevlr ban known anything can never- know anything of a future existence Men have assumed tho knowledge God or gods from time Immemorial have succeeded sinking the human- mind In superstition and Ignorance untold what our fathers and mothers were so will we be otbel words we are what our environment make us Not until by long study of all sides on all questions Mundane dill see the absurdity of the socalled Chrilltiun And 1 came to a cided and firm understanding that quired no Intermedium the Immaglna tlon of a crucllled Christ My firm eonvlctlonll are If a man can not be lIIan without nn Irnaglnery premium he not worthy the name of man Thirdly Natures lows are Imperative and Immutable and by disobeying those- laws know that my existence thoso of kin must suffer untold misery- Through my mistakes or misfortune am still today under a cloud of a Ing of my fathers but ow Inlf to an Intellectual spark a spark that will benefit every man woman and they will but como to that Iialf of and drink freely whoso waterll urn Intellectual liberty Intellectual happlness and the crowning glory of this great country of ours Creeds- and lltanys are dead Issues las compared to this fnlth that mokes libertyWh then that little spark of Intellect partially born partially dr reading all s of all questions drawing my conclusions from the laws of nature tho only laws of mans being the only laws necessary to mans happiness pr08 perlty and enjoyment The only gud In spired laws man knows anything of ever can or did know Fourthly Why nm n Rational that the socalled Christian rcllglc Is purely a fabrication or history from cient myth and fable n Mile of bor liarlmn born of passion mustered IY crime nnd matured In Infancy lhe greatest fraud of this twentieth centllr Is today being perpetrated upon n frle peoplo by a lot of monte banks or fakers parading themselves before nn Incredulous public nil of whom IIhould be arrested tried and convicted for ob mining money under fulso pretense s b thn practice of their duplicity and cred ullty on a free R BENNE1- Nownlk Conn +WHY AM AN ATHEIST Because no Supreme being lias ever demonstrated Ills existence becaulle every carnivorous animal Is a cannibal because nature lives by destroying life because there exists nn Infamous called the Holy Bible that Is a dlsgbookI to Intelligence and reason claimed Ills false In Its cli OrlIdhSology astronomy falsi Its geology false In Its geography and most damnably false In Us socalled aplratlon Because Canada thistles nnd ovcry useless und Injurious vegltatlon gi without effort while toll and sweat alldl eontlnuul labor Is necessary to Isor xlstence because tho human full of Ignorance disease suffering ond the material world Is stuffed with lolsonous malaria veiiemous rlptlhs storms hurricanes simoons dall wrecks of appalling horror by land alld icenn sea nnd river Because every Intelligent thought cured by humanity has been earned b tho slow process of mental toll becnusI Supreme being ever gave a thought to assist the mental toll of research lke priests He delights In Ignorance logmntlcs und usurpation of power an oveniie and He Is simply the bastard spawn of those clerical prating liars ox sting only the Imagination of bigoted nonomanla or hypocritical lust and greed Because the history of this moral monstrosity called God so abhorrent evoltlng disgusting cruel savage vln Ictlve malicious murderous thirsty petulant jealous childish norant and degrading as to excite nQth Ing hut contempt disgust GEORGE H BOYD Sandusky +WHY AM AN INFIDEL Especially because I couldnt be otherwise If wished- Specifically for Innumerable reasons irlelly and sulllclently be niisij theology Is evolved from speculation superstition and sophistry becauso s cardinal postulates Inspiration and ifalllblllty of the Bblo Immortality dl Inlty nnd resurrection of Jesus Christ are undemonstrnble Irrational and used on unqualified faith In a forrage of crimes contradictions amblgnltl liscurltles obscenities and Incomp enslbllltles which contravene science and common sense because Initial utter oneIll ascribed to omniscience In detail of order of creation declare a profound norance of astronomy and simplest atural laws because evidences of rupt emanations are on every page the Bible because there no option on vims or declining to live nnd tion of neverceasing tortures as expla tlon for less than n moments sins com irlng life to eternity Is more mustrous and diabolical than would be exaction of the universe as destitution for appropriation of a slmgle atom of matter De causo could not have failed of success in a proposed benefaction fils bofhved children who are created In 11lmage and could and wjmld have ovlded n saintly Instead of sinful vironment Because a human father dowed with power would have provided better than has the divine father Because a finite humanitarian lells a monster and more a philanthropist to Infinite Jehovah Because a Ing father would associate with his dren nnd In event of enforced separ tlon would In devising a lost will and Htament employ phraslology of such rsplculty as to preclude all of controversy Uecauso an omnipotent father would not arrogate alone for his children ley- ond appreciation or comprehension of human parent yet provide a their eternal torture When a mother would cheer iy endure those torturefl to shield HER children 3ecause nn nffectlonate parent would neer demand of nn Innocent child dnement for a guilty one 3ecaune n loving father would havl inlfested his love by assuming the agonies which He Imposed upon His Son iecauso an Impartial father would not discriminate amongst his children would endow all equally and promote fraternal relations by community of language thought and taste harmor and supreme happiness being order or eer detail nn end so easily decreed I omnipotence Jccnusft of the deemer Is not simply problematic but unnnturlli und Impossible Iecauso many of Christs utterances and commands are contradictory us bad grammar can make and often Imprai In concluding recital of IlgnH und wonders to or tell His second coming he declared that- that generation should certainly live to all and necessarllfulfillment of some of them le on hand to greet him Deco use In Ills declaration that the Father knows the hour of Ills secon advent Christ contradicts coequality Indlvlduathe members of that complex chimerathe Trinity ecnuse Josephus King and Tacltu wouM have made copious records thoHe miraculous phenomena which cording to only Matthew men associ- IIltd with the cruclllxlon If SO ecause of the forty gospels the writ erI of tho four which were arbltrarll aud miraculously determined authentic should certainly have agreed on tho scription which was over the cross Lcuuse evolution revision and re muneratlonll of theology memory mlddlengedthe pronounce the lonH of the pretended source realise the proposed expurgation to tit the Holy Scriptures for polite uirrlble and blasphemous Its of the curses promised those win add to or take from Decause Gods children are divided of factions wrangling oerr- oollsh dogmas with tigerish flroclty- which has provoked more brutal atrocities than all other dlssentlons and lit the Ir denominational propagnndlsn therll often greater rejoicing over prosllte than ninetynine sinners- brought to repentance Decaue physiology especially brology conclusively disproves ortho dox IDecause denominational domination ol cl11 governments would assure u speedy Htnbllshment of the Holy Jnltulsltlon- with additional und Improved ments of torture Dlcliuse to subscribe to orthodoxy U to write me down u Dogberry or a ad Inflnltum Respectfully J T I10HON 1lt1dl Store Ky WHY AM AN ATHEIST read the New Testament throulh- when wus In my twelfth year I greatly grieved and shocked at the the chief priests und scribes treutell- Chrilit und my mother why Christ did not strike enemies dead parullze them She told me that Christ had to be crucified that nobody could be saved unless Christ shed His blood for the sins of the whole worldI ell right there I tool up the notion that there was something unjust and cruel about tho whole business and that God was not Just God If Ho would crucify His own Innocent Son to save a wicked world am an old man now and I see no Just cause why my judgment nt twelve years should bo set aside anllhonestImownGnolto answer n prayer I am aware of a IIlItIfltledwith brain and thought that n mm may talk to and make understand toturllhours and to go nrouml In nitlea i thoughtI II nol an delllldllItbo damned would not be In accordance with nn nilwise being If there wor a personal God according to the Scrip erhOtherwlstillfoollshnl9s thetowerUItONBlI1nston ++WHY AM AN INFIDEL I nm Invited to say n halt IOlllllln article Thu Dlnde wh am an Inn IlIIyllllthatntense Presbyterian community In tile lear Southland n neighborhood which n rooster was cussed for crowing 00 loud the negro cook SJKSS rnfe10 km VelItnbleId It would be dumped Into n hell of n Place commenced to read the word U the age of seven years and was well mr eighth Mrttoiay i then withPlutorchsthe time I was ten I had made consider advancement for a poor country 10 seem to havo been born a geologist UHltIngtheIIrstvel much Tllero were all kinds of nMnMnnd stones nlld minerals our they wore of ull niihapes some were rough nnd othffn andVNow what troubled mo was to wh God tok so much pains the llnv theIlItJetho answer to my question never was atlsfactory to me however much It lay have satisfied others Ono Sunuay fund a bed of beautiful highhilithe rlve hllh had countlcsa umbersf e ght years old keataellltnoy about It mid washellthemstatement like n good boy but with a sprinkling of salt on its Ind went on reading about the flood to nd theLoxcellency was cnlled In those days when speaking to llttlo boys But one Joshualell1Id blew down the walls of Jericho thoughtthose peopleIIIspoilrorthe nirmywont up nna attacked a place n got the socks knocked Iff them and they went back to Jericho Ind sut down and wept nnd Joshua call d on Lord for an explanation re is eVle Gentleman of all Hla Prom is somehodySo Joshua called all the people of whatGodguilt person and thc lot fell upon tribe that a gentleman by the name of Aehan belonged to nnd then lots tell Achans fathers family and then on Aehall himself and Joshua said My littleaken a wedgo of gold and a little stl and an outlandish garment nnd ho went and dug them up und gave IoYthatmlssVr that little tre ndnot Hut the sequel was what got away justicestoned him to death good enough r Achan he belonged to the tribe of das but they went further they hls wife and children lit Innocent children hod to do with It is never made plain to me Alas they all dead now und will never know it this was not all They stoned death the old man Achan und his fe and nil the family and connections iludlng Achans motherinlaw and his uslns nnd his mints nnd all the cat and sheep and goats and asses The book does not say anything about lether they killed Achans dogs be ve but I suppose they made a clean all this seemed to a little boy read It to have been done by the mediate direction of God and my boy sense of justice kicked ugalnst It J my old mans sense of justice kicking was made un Infldel then nnd there some considerable extent and It has iwn on mo ever since Tliu more ve read of the Semite conception of the more object to Him A God it would let Ills only child be cruel to save such n lot of people us I io known hi the lust years dont ieal to me as a good God or as a rclful one or as u Just one And I fe to go to hell us the result of care rending and a long llfo of scientific estlgatlon then nm ready and the mer meet my futo the better for will not be long now till am call am sincerely u religious man I leve In with ml my heart and mind have no more soul than og the llglon of Do The New Testament s me hi one place us well can recollect thnt a gentleman called Christ und went about doing good ull off by hat to Him nnd nm ready worship Him when the prettchers con me that Ho wus God time Is not long now till will be ed on to face nil tho gods laid down thc books can not face ull tho s of all tho Imaginations of men j huve lived In the world slncu tho clul Age but am about as ready us over will bo to meet Jupiter Jove und Yuhvo and Osiris und As e und Venus and Juno and Baal and ton und being a lawyer In this world shall assert rny rights If given lice und shall call my witnesses If e Is justice In tho high courts of ven und my witnesses are the llttlft dren on 13th street S W Washing und tho three or four hundred boys girls that go to school at Blount ege and Agricultural Station down Central Alabama and It they say old Grandpa Burns a very bad In their opinion and to bo Ished for a thousand millions of s In hell and If after they give evl e am sentenced to tho flames tho ch has Invented for such us am i shall tuko the advice of Jobs and curse ull tho gods of human ntlon In hell or on earth or In tho cns above will us tho llnmes circle around and tho burning sulphur fills rils and chokes my throat and Is my eyes curse I will curse nu gods from Alpha to Omega from to Becroheba and from hell kfast But If the Eternal Jaln ii BLUE GRASS BLADE tines not destroy my mind nnd con a consummation most de voutly to bo wished I will bless the ut and good Creative Power that made matter nnd endowed It with life Power thnt painted the rainbow the butterflys wing nnd the hum ming birds throat If thern a God thnt made the sixtyfour elements of matter nm ready to worship Him nnd think thnt do n feeble way inn till tho time trying to study the law that governs matter Jut the conception of God Yehovah Jehovah Yulivc nah Yah 7ahl- wouldnt give one good drink of old Kentucky rye coffee for nil the gods of all tho ages since mon shed his tall FllANIC IUIRNS Washington WHY AM AN ATHEIST First because there never was any thing created therefore there cnn be no creator Tim word create to mean anything must mean to make something from nothing physical Impossibility as there Is no medium between nothing something therefore the thing to be created from nothing must necessarily be nothing and something at ono and the same time which repent Is an imssllilllty There creator I can sen no place or need gota God either lierKomil or universal If asked the question how the uni verse came Into existence without a creator wotld answer tho question by asking another how did tho creator Into existence nnd my question would certainly be us dllllcnlt of solu lion as the other IThose who believe In u Jod nssert that he always existed nnd It surely just ns reasonable to iiBsert that the universe always existed as one assertion Is no inciro dogmatic than the other do nut believe any God ever heard or answered a prayer or revealed himself to mankind Then again there bo n God who controls the affairs of this mundane sphere ho must be a monster to allow all the shipwrecks and the human suf fering to go on here while he has pow er to prevent It Tho following are quo tations from Otto Wettstelns Theism in tilt Criilcablo which tully endorse Now would simply say there Is no God sign my name and close the argue ment this would be absolute proof to all logical nnd penetrative minds of the truth of my assertion but the world not belliK up to the first principles of logic and reason It will be necessary to produce testimony The affirmative must be proven the assertion there Is no God proves there no God unless those fltllrmlng provo there Is a God because know there Is a universe the latter Is eternal hero there and everywhere and we know two bodies cannot occupy the same space at the same time The universe being selfevldently everywhere proves that God nowhere Remove God und all remains remove nature and nolnlng remains where then God A God necessitates brain a God without n brain cannot be n God and a God without a brain cannot be Infinite this ulouu proves there Is no God God Inplles eternal formforever the slime as youthful as It was countless millions of ages ago eternal sameness perpetual motion without wear or tear needing no fuel food or assimilation Implying eternal combustion without something to combust eternal manifes tation of force without corresponding waste of energy all without analogy In nature Imposslollltles Now If there was n God he or It would surely manifest himself to his earthly children In such a way that there would be denying his existence the very fact that he has not done so is posltltve proof there no GodIExistence today absolutely proves ex existence In ellmentary form forever in the past and future Theology plies an eternity of stand still or noth ing followed by u very brief period of universal life motion and activity an absurdity which all thinking and honest minds must und will discard In the near future In conclusion I believe I have suf ficient reasons Vhy am an Atheist My logic will probably appear better than my grammar but hope to be portioned as I never studied either SVictor Cal +WHY I AM A FREETHINKER Severe und momentous are the consid erations that lead the hapless slaves of a credulous world down the lonely col onades through which the ghost of free dom stalks out Into the broad fields of Freethought when reason disdains the Santa Claus and the playthings of early youth The tiny little seed of thought an embryo Implanted in every human brain and the pure diffusion of its es sence throbs In every human heart But alas when It Ilrst peeps from Its troll tenement It the sport of circum stance and power and custom And here In Its Jilting bed It blasted ere It has birth and the child though It scarce can lisp the name of mother asks who made me But as Shelley says Force and falsehool stand even oVr the crad lId babe ec1o not understand the power hilt the fact that wegenerative same effect Is produced by some supernatural power is still more Incomprehensible When wo know so little about natural causes and natural effects how can we know so much about supernatural causes and suupernatural effects It Is easier to Imagine n world that has exist ed forever than to Imagine a being who has existed forever and who made that world The story of the creation of Adam and Eve nnd the talking serpent the doctrine of the Immaculate concep lion und who ever disbelieves being punished with eternal lire the atone ment u part of the dlUne plan the despotism of religion ai she avenges herself on the criminals of her own creation in a word all the Inconsis tencies connected with the Christian re llglon are considerations that lead one to reject superstition Especially tills true when wo reflect that the name means that have upholJ all other religions by Imposing on the credulity of the world have upheld tho Christian religion Numerous evidences are brought forward as proof as If what comes from God should need any proof Tho criminality1 of disbelief has doom ed Its victims to despair but the torch of reason gleams though the mist of fcur und man Is no longer tho mechan ized automaton was History repeats hitstJa the history of every nation and of every religion teaches us that each has fallen and the Christian religion will foil founded as It on the ruins of the Roman Empire and on the blood of a human or divine being May Collins one wrote thC is sending her shining a e9fronlcr founded tho on esblof JInn and Lord Dncon In his Moral Essays says Freethought leaves to reason philosophy natural piety laws reputa tion and everything that can serve to conduct him to virtue but superstition destroys all these und erects Itself Intor a tyranny over the understandings men Philosophers and eclentlsts for ages have taught that reason Is founded on the the senses butpWvootb llllllIIJwritings carefully from tilt reading public lest as was of Socrates they might pol ute the minds of the young But the dark ages are disappearing und u practical religion taiifjhl by Thomas Paine who said To do good my religion will take till place of the creeds and dogmas which have long fettered the world MARY E CICincinnati Ohio WHY AM AN ATHEIST Why nm an Atheist Because honest Because do not think there Isl n Uoil Why do not think there Is a God Because think no personality great enough to comprehend the Illimi table details of the vast ness of tho unl verse wo think of the great empire of space studed with planets in numerable all obeying the Impulse Im parted to them by Nature und following their individual orbit courses endlessly while man lives scarcely long enough to learn moro than to eat nnd sleep before he deprived of existence Can we expect man to learn anything of the creation of that which he does not understand The man of one gel oration begins his knowledge where the man of the last generation left off the knowledge the world has permits the honest man to ndmlt that he does not know As tho existence of God Is not t demonstrated claim tho right to lieve In such existence Therefore nm Atheist Do I feel the need of a God No can get through this life or any other life without n God Does this life end my being I bcllcvo so Do Iregret not being Immortal No I am satisfied with ono lifo Man Is wearied out with ono life Nature under no obligation to fur nish man with perpetual life It takes nil of joy grief concord and discord to make life replete Man experiences It nil nnd his voyage ends Natures system of birth the world would be overpopulated If death dill not ensue hence death n necessity I have my turn nt lifes game and must make room for the next player It behoovsu mo to play my point well or else do not advance hilt retard the gradual ele vation of mankind must take life as I find It I cannot change Its mode or extend tho tenure must live nnd let live In youth hope In ago wo see A life well all the recompense I desire havo judged tho Christian by his fruit as ho idvlses like him not Ills character unlovely selllshness can make God In shining through tho Clulu tlan character sheds a bad light a pesu do virtue A man plus God who does wrong had man minus God who does well Is good A man who does rlxht of hh own vlolltlon noble A man who needs a God to enable him to do right not complete lie is undeveloped JOHN F CLARKE Arlington Md WHY AM AN ATHEIST I nm an Atheist because from a busi ness standpoint and by reasoning 1iim cause to effect find no evidence nor Intellectual reasoning to convlnto me that should think otherwise NOAH COLEU Dayton Ohio ++WHY AM AN ATHEIST In compliance with your request pub in the Bluo Grass DIode of March entitled Why I Am An Athe ist I will say understand an Atheist to be n person that does not believe In a great Intelligence that rules nur mil people that have a God make their God or accept the God that somo one else has made will try nnd describe a being such as t could accept as a God He or she or should be the very embodiment of goodness He It or she should have unbounded wlsl1om She itor he should have unlimited power have sought diligently for years for such a being as have described above hut have never found that being am years old nnd such a being as could accept ua a God could not visit the Iniquities of the fathers upon the children as the blind forces of Nature does Such a being ns I could accept ns a God being all powerful would not cause or suffer to be caused earthquakes vol canoes cyclones pestilence famines and wars Innocence is betrayed end de nounced every where and no Oiil to prevent I ask why should I not bs an AthflBt not having found a being that I could accept as JI tin r any man vvtiin or rhlM that hivo found such a being No belnsj to mete out justice to all b Irg In lucid helpless Innnocmoe No Cod no hwivtn no hell no devil If man Immortal he Is Immortal Indepondant of n God ISAAC CONNER Finest City lown +L AMAN ATHEIST To be brief I may say that I could not be well otherwise with my makeup after I had once got rid of the supersti lion ground Into my childhood and youth nnd the same Influences carried on till had grown well Into manhood When my mind began to work In Its natural way and began to think for myself and the pence of mind that now the result of that changeIHow often havo prayed was the fold of course for the certainty of a blessed conversion or for some great change of heart as of course thought was not so good ns ought be nnd this with the sincerely I put Into my prayers the same not being an swered was perhaps one of the first causes of my Inner feeling of disappoint ment against the Master As nm well known ns a student of natural science having been nearly nil my life Its not so much a mystery that am a Freethinker as Its so well known that natural science does not agree with scriptures on which all dog mas of ChrIstianity are founded The only unpleasant feature about my presEnt and my former Ideas was the four or five yearn of doubt and uncer tainly when the change was taking place from superstition to Intellectual life or as me Christians would call from durknes to light But call It whatI tlwy may hold that am the best able to judge of my ease of mind as nothing so tantalising to me as doubt orIuncertainty though Christians seem to revel In that element When by any chance nm thrown on the horns of a dllema Invariably take the side that seems to carry the leastI doubt and this was one of the leading carried my Ideas rleh leader of tho church nnd then another amongst Ihose knew failed to satisfy or dispel my doubts on certain doctrinal points and this set me thinking and helped me ol1walIIIAgain the Irrellglon of those knewI amongst my own friends who professed Christianity was another potent cause of my change and of course helped me onward am In stalnre but I would rtemuch rather so than to bo ine rear ranks of the great army of superstitious hypocrites who do not wont enlighten ment but who seem to prefer to live after their time notetllMay the crusade OUght so ably represented by the Blue Grass Blade continuo to flourish nnd may the able Contibutors too numerous to men tion here reap Uielr Intellectual reward and may Charles Moore long be at the helm W Mllo Maine +WHY AN ATHEIST nm an Atheist because the more read and the moro think see thlltI Is made up of superstition do not believe In being good fur fear of be ing forever damned but believe In beIing good and doing good because It right to do good This world all wish to worry about MARGARET COPPOCK Indianapolis Ind +WHY AM AN ATHEIST My blrh my mothers nnd fathers Instrnetloim to me when a child my unbelief In the Bible My medical studies and rending the To my mind the Bible was not natural and God was a natural crea tor ho could not bo the author of un unnatural book My reading Col R Ingersolln und leclures My reading the Trutn Seeker for years My reading the Bluo Grasu Blade Experience makes character and character makes men Let us bo honest In my early life tried to be a Christian a child lertlliDCass WHY AM AN ATHEIST am nn Atheist for several reasons The main reason why nm an Athelsl Is because do not believe n God nnd ngnln have no particular uso for a mytllife fully ns well ns those who art always on their knees before somo Joss helpIn It Is just as honora ble to be n hobo begging handouts at hack doors as to bo continually coax Ing begging and praying to nn Imagi nary being beyond the clouds Yet the question of whether or not there a God should not vex the minds of our noble men and women ns much an the question of how to put an end to Insanity and crime If there Is a God who was powerful enough to call Into exlslence this uni verse of worlds he certainly cannot bo so small nnd mean ns to get If some of us poor mortals Imo the temer ity to doubt his existence havo arrived at my conclusions from observation have observed that when the blighting frost comes it blights the hud and blossom nnd Die green corn of those who entreat and pray ns well ns the bud and blossom und corn of those who do not So conclude that If there a God he pralWhen the thunders roll and tho Jlsht nlngs flash churches nnd temples that have been built by man dedicated tJ God and turned over to his protecting care lire as remorse destroyed as the worst saloon or the lowest gambling hell that over disgraced the earth If there a designer Jack of nature and the being coiled God the designer It looks to one who has been horn only once as If this God was either a tool or a bungler If there Is a God who has any uso for church or temples this God having control of the elements of na ture ho would protect his own property CHARLES EVANS Limn Ohio + I WHY AM AN ATHEIST My father was n minister and three of my brothers belonging to different churhes were disputing about the teach ings of the Bible commenced study Ing the book with more earnestness than did my arithmetic or grammar found It so contradictory I could not get any satlsfacllon John ISth says No man has seen God at any time John i7 Ye hue neither heard his voice nt any time nor neen his shape Exodus And he said thou canst not see my face for no man shall see me and live Exodus And the Lord spoke unto Moses face lo face as a man speaketh unto his friend Genesis And Jacob called the nome of the place Penld for have seen God face to face and my llf ls preserved I read In ne Christian creed what they consider the true teachIng of the Bible that God was a spirit without body or parts Immaterial Incomprehen sible When consider that man the of nature endowed with live senses see Ingfeellng hearing smelling und tast ing through which we receive all our nformullon cannot understand how anylhlng can exist without body or parts could not see feel or laste that which was Immaterial could not inve any knowledge of that which Incomprehensible hence concluded the Jou Idea Is like the will o the wisp When we try to grasp It Into a reallly- vanishes Into thin air I will conclude by slullng that am not writing this lo compelc with your cabinet of great authors hut simply to have my name enrolled In the army of reformers My good old mother always told mo to keep good company and would rather be enrolled In that grand army of Athelsta than be an angel with a crown upon my forehead HENRY EVANS WInteraet Iowa HWHY AM AN INFIDEL I am almost afraid to make the start tottcll for tear will takeup too much space But I became tired of so much deceit hypocrisy and fraud tired of being n slave toI did not know rightIand had tried to keep my toll In the church hut could not I was In a sea of trouble hall the same old burdens to bear that all fool Chrlstalns tar and call the cross of Christ But broke away from the church Threw the old cross away und began to think for myself Then the light began to dawn Then got Thomas PalneH Age of Reason and next dear old Robert Ingersolls Liberty for Man Woman Child Then aws on the true road lo happiness Then got Moores Blue Grass Illade and got more light was free could see what n great mlttake hud made In trying to find happiness prayers and lears nnd kissing tlie lids of that old book of lies and tables they call the holy word Then I mar ried an Infidel nnd that completed my happiness MRS NELLIE EVA 3 Limn Ohio ++WHY AM AN ATHEIST In response to your request to give reasons for my unbelief Supreme Be ing have no proof by revelullon nor by my senses that there a God The slorleH read and heard about God cannot accept as proof no more than can accept spook stories My imbellef confirmed by the fact thai God does not answer prayers as the Christians claim Admitting for a ment that there a God It would be utterly Impossible for God to answer the prayers of the believers of ill reli gions Anyone that petlllons God has a want that he or she desires that God should answer nnd the wants of the petllloners are so various One prays that God shoulu lend his help that he might be victorious over his enemy and the other one his enemy prays for the same help to assist him In conquering his adver sary This leaves God In a quandary us to which one to help My unbelief further strengthened by the Injustice of God Has God anything to do with Ihe governments of nations Does he help Ihe weaker ones to light their battles Does he help the poor The believers claim he does they have to nliow me nm from Missouri JOHN FAY Culver +WHY AM AN ATHEIST In general I nm nn Atheist because have passed through every other phase of thourht was brought up the Christian church believed In nil its childish dogmas nnd nonsense but had an Irreslslahlo desire for knowledge mineralogyhlstorscientists phrenologists mesmerists and splrlluallss It was n long road from the wrlson house of theism and mlrncullsm to com plete naturalism genuine freedom and enlightened Atheism Tho fruits of Ism alone are sufficient to provo Us filslly Its history one of blood of war and carnage of Intolerance and bigotry of human beings hove been slaughtered on the altar of thf semipagan Romish church and mil lions more on tho Ihelstlc Mohamme dan altar Docirlnes like men nnd nnlolns are to be judged by their fruits For untold centuries theism Ihe corner stone of priestcraft has fed upon and cursed hu man effort and life Most assuredly the trIo that bears such fruit cannot be good Love truthfulness hope mercy tol erance yea nil till virtues are attrib utes of man and If divinity ns under onlyImownvorlptytroman Infinitesimal Herm Progression the order of nil life There was no be ginning to life It ulwuyu existed as we see Jt today in natures potential bosom lOur globe had itfl beginning but billions other globes were full of life whenour earth was but n orsupcrlorover revealed Itself has never done any thing Is doing nothing today No Intelligent person denies tho existence of n thlhestsibly havo n local existence nor could Historyprovlsthe creations of Ignorant or designing men All the arguments of theists are based ofPlllester nnd substance place un der law automnllcally SujS Ihe move ments of nil the heavenly bodies are governed by the law of atlractlon nnd repulsion There Is no use whatever In the wide SupremeBeingAgain I have obtained satisfactory proof that man lives after the death of the physical form have conversed with n number of excnrnate men and women some of whom have been in spirit life years They all testify that there no God there any more than here I am not alone the recipient of such testimony There ore thousands of Agnosticshavenothing They have not sought it and thereby deprive themselves of a great blessing But truth 1Ieberlsooner or later will redeem dered Ion and daughler of immortal man B F FRENCH Blsbef Arizona WHY AM AN ATHEIST When I was about fifteen years old began to question and compare state menls Before that time was Meth odist teeth and toe nail The preacher said All are depraved wicked corrupt and unclean who have not been saved by the blood of the lamb I knew quite well a good old man who was an Infidel He was generous hon est intelligent and well Informed digni fied reserved courteous and of an affa ble obliging disposition I compared him with the preacher The preacher did not compare well That was the beginning Since then I have rend and compared some of the best questionAnc1never compared favorably The religious side always being confined to assertions proIngTrue he never claimed as much as our Christian friends but he proves much bcttert The above Is n short sketch of how arrived at my present way of thinking about the religions of the world say religions for there are many to be men Honed so put them all together in a bag though to shake It and accept the first to get out So tar I have been un able to get one out They are too much alike I accept the Atheists theories because they are the most natural way if ac counting for phenomena Because they leave out all supernatural things and never we know until we can prove LULA GIBSON St Elmo Tenn +WHY AM AN ATHEIST There no God That an Intelligible explanation of why we accept Atheism It Is also an ade quate one By all rules of logical rea soning it rests with those who affirm lo furnish proof of any postulate By rea son of this failure to do so we are justified assuming thnt they cannot A cot said to have nine lives The God idra has had thousands Jehovah obJec1UveOn rappulp smeared with ink bound In limp itorrocco with dlvlnlly circuit seven jewels ball bearings and all the latest Jinprovemenls The book we will ndmlt Is different some respects from any other Part toCjlMtyecms to have been wrltlen at a morality had reached lowIwater mark It furnishes some proof of the doctrine of total deprlvlty To thejsuperstitious mind it might argue the exlslence of a devil Of a God Never Men have wrItten books We might also Include preachers and jackasses lh i list This Is a sufficient explana tlon of the existence and authorship of the Bible The perserverance of the saints in replenishing the earth with epileptic Idiots accounts for the tact lhat some people still cling lo Iheology of Inspiration theII The God of the Holy Bible was IIwaswllh fanglike leeth on human Like Romulus he suckled nt the 18I it gaunt wild beast the ImpersonlltlonI if Ireachery hatred and revenge His a pedigree that would cause hyena to hang Its c1dr shame The career Ihe mythical Jehovah has been wild and miserable The off spring of barbarian lews he was adopt ed by the whole of Christianity to oct is the falher of her bastard son Be ginning her career with the meekness of conscious weakness at the last she seiz ed the sword of supreme power and wielded It without mecy Like M Gntr Kldder we would like to build a cathe dral wllh the bones of Chrisllunilys tims Across Us front we would wrIte baby blood Jesus Christ come to teach ns mercy and left this souvenir of his visit But we are told that tile belief n Supreme Being almost universal Consequenlly that It must be true At one time the theory that the sun re volves nround the earth was accepted by all men Is that also true nut the widespread acceptance of the godIdea demands n Raltonal explana tion can be given a word tIword Is heredity Our remote ancestors Invented gods to explain the phenomena of Natilre Now natural law explains the gods And the explanation is so complete that the gods are ns dead us our ancestors nut the Ideas drank InI wIth mothers milk for thousands of genernllons can not be destroyed n day True our progenitors lost their lalls when the necessity for tnem no longer existed But physical evolullon has always been more rapid than men tal The Pantheists nnd Transcendenlallsts will tell now lhat the gods we have crlllclzed are gross carlcnlures They have quill another concepllon of God In their hands He has been civilized und rendered perfectly harmless Also per fectly useless Their Is in the words of Oliver Schrelner The shadow of our highest Ideal crowned and throned The God of the orthodox Is a night more The god of the sentimentalist is a pleasant day dream picturing wild hopes and Impossible glories a slrlv Ing nnd a slrlvlng and an ending In nothingOLg X GUERNSEY Kingfisher Okla +WHY AM AN ATHEIST Why I am nn Atheist may perhaps be of Interest to some was born a Christian that Is to say was baptised when n tow days old so the old folks told me five to six years old my parents begun lo teach me religion and can recollect had to say the Lords Prayer after going lo bed al nlghl nm n native of Norway and nt school age I went to the Stale public school At that time it was mostly nil religious teaching Principal school books were Bible scripture nnd these books had to learn by heart I was prlestrldden and church ridden If there any difference belween the two How could Jet out o such mason work is a wonder was reared In the Lutheran Church and what made my first doubt about Its genuineness was by reading a school book which had some church history in mostly aboul Ihe Catholic Church Its cruelty and practice At the age of fifteen I was to be con firmed then I had to for a year study J 3 4t l11anySundn highprllltprllstpOllrldquenllons ami among these was one peoplInto soItrellhluenose was red from liquor before but peculiarcolorHere my Investigation started and for freotromdamnabledoctrlnoIng were spent In learning such trash am working and nil Freelblnkers should do their best to pull iho lasl pillar from under Iho church Private Property humanllIIItriumphed Read Knrl Marx Knpltnl and be convinced Thats why nm an J GDuckle+WHY AM AN ATHEIST I was like Brother Moore born and raised Camphelllte Early life I de veloped n fondness for study of books of ancient history and the ruble In fact had read the Bible through at years of age and could not understand at nil would ask my mother to ex plain some of the glowing Inconsistencies and she was honest enough to tell me She did not understand It herself hut for me to study It thoroughly und it would explain llself As grew older and rend It more closely would ask father and he a deacon of the church could not recon cile lo my mind how n God of love and mercy could be gullly of the atrocIous crimes attributed to Jehovah In the Bible rend the hlslory of the Jews by Flavlus Josephus und thought It had as much right to be called the word of God us the Bible for as regards his torical narratives they are almost Iden tical Then I read the history of ancient Greece Rome Egypt India and nearly every Oriental tribe and nation variably found that every notion had a god or gods and n religion of Its own and the god Idea grew und progressed with each notion just as the said na tion developed menially found on further study and compari son of ancient religions ihul there was a sulking slmtlarlly them and have traced most of them to the old sun and sea myth The sun personified good or God and the sea or serpent personified evil or devil do not apprehend that It Is youi desire to have any ono go Into the ar guments for or agnlnst Ihe dIfferent re passIngto do with founding gods than anything else For Instances a man that aspired to rule In those turbulent times would be compelled to make the populace be lieve that he was descended from God or the gods or had communication with God nnd by calling lo their old cruftj Individuals and making priests of them thereby establishing themselves and their religion in the nation they sought to rule and Inculcating the common herd the belief of their divinity acquir ed right to rule Ihey were enabled strongly entrench Ihemselves In tin various governments of the world It was by studying these questions lr all their phases that led me to ask my self if there was a personal Supreme Being that created and ruled the uni verse und whether or not a belief God was simply a growth peculiar all tribes and nations decided Ihe laller was true and nm ready lo take the mailer up and defend It against any sallsfled myself and comersII convince any unbiased of the foregoing statements W GUTHRIE Indlanola Neb ++WHY AM AN ATHEIST dont believe the exIstence of a be called God whoso nature Jsna1c- nown who remains Inaccessablo to our senses und who has created us wIthout our consent only to make us unhappy ind punish eternally for sins He gave us the power to commit and which He could have foreseen and by a single word could have prevented and of whom we ore the Image Is there anylhlng more incomparable with all the Ideas of common sense Hun lo believe that a wise and powerful God presides over nature and directs the movement of the world nnd watch us with nn ever watchful eye If wise and powerful why dues He permit this world that He so loved lhat He gave his only begotten son crucified that we might be sled filled with so many crimes and mis Why must we suffer death It seems that one so powerful and good as God Is said to be could have saved us by some other means less ap palling than death wIth only a promise of life beyond the grave providing wt keep his commandmenls Is there any thing nature more simple Ihun lo be lieve they will live again think the resurrection will be rather nn Immoral proceeding unless th shroud Is also raised But suppose wt should live again and melt our departed friends in heaven as we lire taught to believe and when we get to that celes till clly some one we hall known on earlh was absent from roll call Could we be happy knowing they were In eter nal lormenl while we reveled In the glory of His presence and sang praises to the Lord forever more Alas no The resurrection but a sad delusion Death only sweet und everlasting sleep from which none ever wake ti weep F II Note The above the first effort of a Kentucky young lady who requests her name to be wit held WHY AM AN ATHEIST In reply to the question Why I am in Atheist will say clime to the con clusion through observation and reading the Bible God represented as being u man and man was made the Image of God John 1st says no man hath seen God at any lime How lId Ihey know that there was a God If He wasnt seer at any time He represented us wreslllng nil nlghl with n man slept a tent ate griddle cakes shaved with a borrowed razor and got licked out of his hoots by the enemy because they had chariots of iron Had Ills feet washed a good Idea and His trailing on toot also selling Ills people several times dont blame Him any for they were ns tough an outfit ns ever graced a Christian cell We are told n sparrow can not tall without His notice Ask and ye slml receive whatsoever ye may ask In my name faUnbellevIng ye shall receive Who and what this whatsoever Thlc whatsoever has been asked millions of times by the Christians Has this Odd ever paid the slightest attention to their petlllons Those poor victims nt St Perre on Ihelr knees prayed lo God fur help when Ihey where overwhelmed powerWhere needed Ills aid Thousands swallowed up by earthquakes nnd thousands dying by ind famine Where was this griddle lIke eater He like a policeman never around when he needed When lake up a paper and read about some iwfnl railroad accident where people are Dinned to the wreck and burned alive ships going lo the bottom with all on board no hand raised to stay the aw ful calavlrophles It enough to shake the faith of anybody that has the sense if a grasshopper In tact this God no more or less than the priest or a myth gotten up by the heads of the church lo scare Ihelr Mibjecls so Ihey can more easily rob them of Ihelr hardearned cash All the jod there Nalure There Ing outside of Nature and the sun the head Everything Is governed by fixed laws Originally the ancients believed God resided In or was the sun for the Lord God in a sun Ps ixxxlv Uod h tHomnte ll or nn y refrniled Nerve Btrencthener mnnltood restorer one J ofjtho United Stfltes upon receipt and guarantee cure or refund Best bank reference uiven Cur biwlnesi REMEDYCOBROTHER LIBERALSI make a specialty In tho treatment of Hem orrdolils When a patient comes to my office for treatment I do not takeany pay until cured Owing to the tact that a larjjo number suffering from plies are not able to come here to be bometrentmentnecessarycorrespondl1Je beenthoroughlytreatment others by the use of two while others have required four and live My home cure cnn be sent through the malls to any point In the United States This treatment glverj11Immediate relief and Is a cure guaiantee perfect satisfac tion In every case entrusted to my care or refund the money Write for the Little Red Booklet and learn for yourself It Is free for tho asking Address DR STOWES CHEMICAL ICO Kansas 119 North Sante Fe Ave Salina From March 20th Doctor Stowe will send his Home Treatment for plies to any who will write him their sympt oms free of any charge whatever for thirty days LEXINGTON EASTERN RAILWAY COMPANY Time Table No Dally No p m n m Lv Lexington 225 745 Lv Winchester 310 825 Lv Btville Junction 511 1029 Ar Jackson 615 1130 Ar Cannel City 1245- Westbound No 1 Dally No3 Ex Sunday Dally a m p in Lv Cannel City 105 Lv Jackson 625 225 Lv Btville Junction 726 32fe Lv Wi lester 923 61- Ar i xmgton 1020 G0o Nos and make close connection at K unction for Cannel City and points on Ohio Kentucky Rail way Nos and connect at L B Junction with Chesapeake Ohio for Alt Sterling and local points Nos and connect dally ex oept Sunday at Beattyville Junction with llalway for Beattyville J R BARR Gen Mgr HiS SCOTT P R MORGAN S P THE WELLKNOWN PHYSIQIAK Cures Where Others Fail FOR PROOP READ HIS BOOK Thole Ife ri 11 1mIllIll nI llulr rental Nclilllty 1J are of a ent to Ihelr for ctnlw a an vlngcnuscsnrlsTmptonuoftliecotu atntsandn of tho lu I1J t cess Al1l1relOR n P FELLOWS this oJver Vlueluu NI h cured so many advanced nnd difficult of a nature whIch were looked conldercdfarorthy physician lu Ills specialty Editor icon Journal of JlealtH Dr Fellows has for a number of years held an enviable reputation In the medical line and has made a specialty of a number of diseases thereby becoming familiar with them and enabling him to treat them suc cessfully He Is wellknown as a pro nounced advocate In all lines of free thought and stands well in his pro fession wherever he s known UCV REUNION NEW ORLEANS MAY 1922 1903 THE QUEEN CRESCENT route has nmde a special Low Rate for tho benent of the Veterans and their friends who anticipate attending this meeting Tickets will be on sale May 1621 Privilege of extension until June 15th Ask your nearest Ticket Agent for particulars or write W RINEARSON P Cincinnati Ohio THE BEST LINE MONON ROUTE BLUE GRASS BLADE t= a consiniiltiR fire also tight Jolm i O I orJ gentiles Blmll como light the kings to tlu brlghtnlIsthy All points to tIthy rising Isa Ix God bonlg the If allowed would gin n dc scrlptton space of Jehovah ns found In He 1st to Id Hob Ill Second Grent Scott It thoPsulin preachers could see the old gent comln their legs offthey would runafter to get avvny After nil wlmt the church doing for the ot simply robbing It It theinanity to rob themeanest kind of business by the endless hell lI1ethollpoor It Is nothing more or less than getLing money under fnlso pretenses It dont make any difference how you Ire rob bed so long as you lose your atwhether by a head or the sneaking way the cliuivh has In either ens on nothing K 111 Kaclcley Kan +J WHY MAJN ATHEIST The unthinking multitude lffirms while the philosopher denies Now while do not claim to very nineli I philosopher still I claim the right to of a Goddoubt or the existence at least ono as delineated In the Ulhll An Atheist Is one who thlnlcs then vestlitfites He simply takes the nlgntlye and demands proof of those who that a God exists which when put to tho test can never be proven The primitive mental slave worship ed the sun vas his god l mlerLl became more foolishmasses childish Ideas and Imagined their ii nod assumed the likeness of man titling on high ruled their destlnlei With this View the people began blllhl Immense tower that would ultlIng an niRtely reach the habitation of this orful Governor But iirelng their ject and fearing success He very wlse ly set about forming a plan to head them off which be has been foreve Ing He their language und them ant pllt of course this nonplussed to flight their daring scheme hat a wonderful personage He must hne been One would think thE would have left Him alone nUN thot but the mysteries of godliness are fathomable The sun Is the sod of the reollng bodies of which the earth a unit Nature being god of the entire S8tem so vastly numerous endless spaN Tho sun being the parent of oach lIullvld ual planet together with their uccom panylng rings satellites asteroids nero lltos etc which revolve In his sstel11 a planet returns toAnd as often ns new plunK Is sentsun as dead matter out from tho sun In Integrated mllltol by tho force of heat Into the remote re pious of space the Intense cold forclllg tho heat from the matter It beeomer clstullz mill a separation Into Itf various kinds of material Illace such as all water and mineral Th planet lives Its natural life the saml as all other things In nature then and returns to the sun god again In this way a Procession of Planets maintained And nil this work wlth out the necessity of an Intelligent cause of this lJubjectfurther elucidationFor a see Higher Science Magazine lished by Franklin II Heald block Los Angeles Cal Atheists do not deny the existence of the god of Nature Jehovah the Uo tho Christian was at once either a 0l a fiend an Imbecile or u myth A foul because after making and Ing this little pigmy of a lie he lleved It was tint and four cornered I1c was a fool with a capital Dm fiend because of wholesale slaughte of His subjects In the manner describe His Holy Book An Imbecile to even keep His word with His chosen so weal und feebleminded that Ioscs found himself obliged to dictate nnll for Him a myth because It woulll be Impossible for such a being to exist a name with meaning1diGod was once upon the earth eating griddle cakes and wrestling with men then we find Him In the all throwing rocks down the heads of a defense ItMpoopIo asalnuaflnd n on IL earth raising hell This time He disguised as a ghost dellllng female chastity since which tlmo He cnn not be found on the earth or In the skies The great effort He made to place HIli Son upon the earth killed him Yes God Is dead So let Him rest He Is not worth thinking of let alone IIshting over What has been the cause of thl disappearance Simply this Kllowl edge has driven Him out of eXlstnce for the more one knows the lean use has for a God In this short artlcl submit the reason why I am an tlHlflt C U HALL Courtland Kan rI01 WHY IAM AN ATHEIST In compliance to your request TIH Blue Grass made of March for short urtlcleH under the caption am an Atheist I will state a few reasons It appeared to be the natural state of my mind when I became old enough to rensqn It appeared to me that r8nltl were caused by natural and not by pernatural reasons or causes that thll earth Is hut a factor of the mherO that It kept In its place by the rcsl t ance offered by other planets and la suh ject to conditions caused the effect of other planets upon It am unnlJle to bring myself to reason aside from th principle that nil beings nnu tilings n the oartli ore solely earthly and are thl natural result of the conditions of earth during the period which the exist In that Individual compound Humanity being the highest develc ment of earthly matter an an Indlvldi presumes to and does manage the fairs of the enrth other than the com tlons produced by the fleet of other planets upon the earth That an all knowing Individual God created this earth and ruled over it and created tlw balance of the universe solely tor thl benefit of the earth does not within my comprehension If such hall been the case there have been no such thing an civil sov eminent by man based upon lI1utual law or agreement the courts of adjus mfltit of affairs while men are in life whllo the Ingredients that go to const two nn Individual man remain in that particular composition nor the ptnltei tlary nor the gallows nor the electrical chair would have been necessary If an allpowerful allwise God creai cd tho world right and was ruling It It would surely have remained good to His will and slory It appears evldei to me that If the living this life lu do me any god It must be while Ie main this individual compound That wo should do right there appeal no question hut It should be to malt this life and the life of those who shall llvo after we are dead more worth the living and not that we be rewarded or for fear of punishment after we arl dead am for earthly government aolel by man und the best that can be at talned by right and reason and Intelll gonco and the standard of good citizen ship and live this life for the glory of good and not of God GEORGE W HALL Noblesvltle Ind WHY AM AN ATHEIST Because no sane reasoning observing mind or person can possibly unythlni elso Atheism In one of Natures funda mental facts Tho llrst Impression un unbiased mind receives Is tho Imposxl bIHty of the creat6n of Infinity whethe It bo of space principle or materiality Nature endowed with Its omniscience omnipotence and Its omnipresence ell in every vestnge of n God from Its mako up and stamps Itself with the un mlstakablo character of selfexistence independent and eternal In natures completeness what do we want of God Ha would be Just as useless as a tenfoot tall on a toad Let natural law with all Its pos lblll ties and requirements be taught to our offspring even to the limited extent our senses reveals it to and how soon tho God Idea would vanish to shades unknown We are tho offsprings of Nature creatures of her forming and fashion ing nor did wo originate until complete provisions were hero for our main Iifl 1 r tenance and requirements physlcall mentally and morally being sub Jecta of this world ana this lire onb why not the remotest shadow nny thing beyond Is given to us becauso It unnecessary superfluous Our busl ness duty and conscience is here nnd hero only Again netting tho undisputed test mony of nature aside as regards a delt till present one believed In carries abun dnut evidence In himself of his mythical character Tako his history the embodiment or every crime tho record of the most lamentable mental physical and moral weakness shortsightedness and beetle nature unbecoming even nn or dlnary man Place this moustros b the side of the eternal cosmos an be Instantly The God Idea originated from th Ig lorniice of Nature and her mode nc Ion Think you We who are but just the threshold of civilization formulate a God Itku Jehovah or ChrlKt much 11inooiv Cal +10WHY AM AN ATHEIST The question we see In The Blade Why am an Atheist Is all right ind can say this for I wall torn tho little village of lul1berlIIe In eastern Pennsylvania Sly ptHents we members of the of Quakers and the views of this society on the lutstluii of religion were of such a air and generous character and their ileus of the principle which should gov rn the human race In Its progress to card a development of civilization were uch as to have nn Intluenc un mind In early life Although was taught to regard n elty or God the Father and Chris the Son and to help along an early and loral belief used the New fcstllment as a school book There was quite n lai of us of tender years say from to years of age but we were not ubjected to that harsh and seore ntchlsm that we learn practice by some of the other sects In order to In utnce and control the minds of their chll len that they may be Induce to follow a sort of a religious coursc through life nut as have advanced in oars I that have naturally hen ver ceptlcal In the belief of a God ol the jmmon ordinary sort but the de nibed by Thomas Paine Is very pleas- Ing to and much In nccord and couplel1with mans understanding of thewith the generous cultivation kws practiced by the Society riends or I think I will have a tendency to de lip belief that will guide us to that of civilization which capable of enjoying the most satisfaction with relations with the powers that IS we understand them am In my year and along with m early training have glen this sublet much thought njthough It never been my lot to enjoy the ot any hut a very limited common school cation but I try to be fall and just- In expressing my mind It may be all right and good to give Jod Ills Sunday rest and man his erJily rest but to say the Create or Ihl lifegiving principle that exlstfi thNughout the universe and stimulates all tothings to a proper development Ink this moving power requires tIC time to regain and recu ote enough strength sufficient to carry on operations is silly In the extreme think that theam much to ritlngs of the free minds the world different ages have and r and of the are the guiding power that reelS us to the better civilization that It Is the l1uty all is in store for us and to sustain and encourage all Free thlllelrs In efforts to advancement HENRY A MAHTLE Rvdkey WHY +AM AN ATHEIST hold that the universe Is ete undless selfexisting and everlast and was not created In six days nbout- six thousand years ago by nn orthodox believe that there are natural nnd Immutable laws that govern the scope of the universe here no use for a Supreme Delng Insll1e of the universe and there cannot he any outside as there Is no outside to the universe ud there the socalled holy Dible It In my estimation Is proof positive that there no Intelligent God The Bible which sanctions twent rllnes und vices cantatns about one ndred and tlfty contradictions eroas lies and much that is obscene filthy is no proof In my opinion- that God is the author of It and the no proof that there Is a God people have acted Innd the way two thousand years and God Intfrferlng makes me believe there no God HENRY enryn Cal 1010 WHY AM AN AGNOSTIC rhe term Agnostic Is applied to wh1 frankly say There may be one or many gods do not know I cannot then as long as none can know think we nil should have an right to guess Belief Is the effect or leiice upon the mind It Is not under our conrtol It is Involuntary So how can one be rightly blamed for ones bellet- When young they taught me that Bible is Infallible They said It d of God that It contains the whole and holy truth and nothing but the read It supposed all this true but after I perused It for my slM thought knew It wasnt thought found Injustice crimes ar nllIlell upheld by God some silly monlls some false absurd ridiculous ond foolish fulry tales and fables some rndlctlons and conflicts with science anti with common sense hen pious folks attempted to explain all away they only made It worse struction seemed to me the only remed thought that could see that science and theology did not agree- neither could the Christians asree- amJlg themselves I found some good olne bad und a deal of superst lion the Jewish Mohammedan Dud hlsl and Christian religions And then 1ull from some such noble minds DUIln Bulwer Shakespeare Shelley Jon Burns George Elliott und Ingei sollI found their views conformed with I1lne more fully than did nny of the callel1 holy books My mind cannot con lphe of the beginning or the end of time or the creation or destruction of partlel of matter or force aside mathr If everything must have a ginning and u creator when dill God be glu and who created Him I think unhrll is nil there My mind not conceive a personal material splrltuul god or anything superior nature But If there an Infinite good merciful and powerful God how consistent the doctrine of hellfire elleve In the religion of humanity th e equal rights of man and woman think a woman has every right a man has ind one more the right to be pro teNel belle in lax divorce laws and In sellaratiun of church and utate I be lIee one standard of morality for mnn and woman I believe In cremu tloa free speech and free press and In lerty and Justice I dont believe thnt one mon can rightly be held sponslhle for the deeds of another t ha t one man can be good for another 110nt believe In the Immaculate ception of Christ nor In miracle fhosts spirits witches devils or hells Inst Christians do I prefer kindliest falsehoods the onstroted to cruelty facts to truth to blind faith reason rellglon and science to superstition religion help for the living hope for till dead J E W McLansboro Ind WHY AM AN ATHEIST nm an Atheist and neither ashamed nor roud of tho fact simply satisfied lly feelings may be compared to those a or on who after wandering until- discouraged and exhausted in a track n less forest suddenly and unexpectedly emerges Into surroundings wblch though seen for the llrst time alToill unmistakable evidence of human habitation My life from earliest childhood to manhood was spent In the gloomy orest of Christian but whcn denly und unexpectedly wns t h face to face s and I recognized not faces I had seen beCore but thoughts that ad long been dimly shadowed In my own mind but which found not the courage for expression When Natures cause was I became her advocate The theological structure that hud been so patient persistently cobbled up In my m lIy Christian Junkcollectors became lulIlll clously rickety so It a home of my own construction IIhld hy those whoso workmanship Inspire my confidence Who can conceive the beginning time Who can conceive the end ho can think of a limit to space Who call limit matter The Bible a knowled of each of these unthinkable limits but at fers no proof that science does not make too rluiculous for a second mention No Intelligent person who Is early superstitious teachings blIees the Bible Inspired I am an Atheist because reaso has supplanted credulity L C KIMBEI- Clrclevllle WHY AM AN ATHEIST First It seems very Improbable that here should be anything more to mnn than to any other living moving think- Ing animal life and secondly If all nnl mal life was Immortal why would not oil vegetable life be Immortal too Ilnd all animal and vegetable life 191m mortal why not nil mineral gaseous nnd chemical If I were to preach across the country from one end to the other on this line would be dubbed a crnnk and yet the last proposition to meiseems as rational as for any one to preach that hey know that man has a soul It all a pious guess It Is the 11roper thing to preach and teach love ness kindness morality gentllnes nnd all that we call good motives and that will promote the welfare of the human race and for us to make and enforce laws for the protection of life nnd dividual rights but each one has aright to believe what to him seems right C L Shenandoah Iowa WHY AM AN ATHEIST In my younger days 1 think I was abollt years old attended revlvnl meetings Excitement ran high as It nl was does at good oldfashioned revlvallJ of religion I among others got ligion with as bright a conversion as most ever had I joined the esleynn Methodist Church Jived a mslstant Christian for years As my children grew larger and came of more help to me thought would take a little time to read nnd study for myself I thought it was vcr coming in a Christian to read the Bible although I had read the New tament a great deal In a prnyerful spiritIcommenced to read the Bible through and find God for myself and learn His real character The result wa the more I rend the Bible the less found of a great and good God He appeared a horrid manmade mon stel This was a sad discovery thought at the time In the meanllme we moved to Dakota anu I was Crom the church never to Join It again Then some of our Immortal Ingersolls writing fell Ito my hands which cnnled so much common sense with It 1hat hecame an admirer of his writings Then again one of my daughters borrowed n neighbor some Freethought papers lose papers were filled ISWIIIIrn j arguments against IIglon Since then I have rend the eral papers for literature fourteen lcan giFreethought ot and buy nil my limited purse wlll low I have no use for a heaven Or3 hell nIve and when ecnuf expect ele rest Truth Is tar better than tlnnlty Yours for Justice andllbertj MRS M A IEE Blue Earth Minn +WHY AM AN ATHEIST In my youth I lived in an orthodox community and was under that IntuencE rea ding the Bble singing hymns salng prayers at the district school Ing to church and Sunday nchool part o the time trying very hard to bellev whnt pious liars told me was nccus- tomed to In secret that I might he rewarded openly found out that- prayers only have an influence over man beings for procuring help when neEd Gods were not near enough to seen or heard I lived in poverty Cather dying when thirty years of leaving my mother with four small dren She worked hard to support the small pay Christians were posed to give her noticed that those who did not claim to he Christians were the most generous- with us Not receiving any help gods In answer to prayers as had read the Bible I began to doubt if book was true As I grew older Atheist gave me books that made more than an unbeliever In 10gmull I found out the Bible was composed or wrttcn by a greater cren ture than man but was ancient hlsto the foolish good to some extent giving laws of the people of those days found out that the miracles were not reasonable To claim a few 10aveE and fishes would feed a multitude people would be like claiming one qunrt ot water would fill a hogshead Making wine of pure water with nothing would prove to be nothing but Water- proving Christ an imposter a deceive of norant people No good man would wleh women to at his feet wnsh with their tears and use their hall for towel or have his head anolnted when not soie with such expensive ointment- would take the poor widows mite if ot to the church to support false trine Asking un Imaginary God to mage for wronging my neighbor Is not practical does not atone for the committed Atheists Unitarians unlver- sullstH spiritualists who do not believe In a hell of endless torture after deal are better than those who pretend bellee It lhe anatomy of man shows he has no soul or double Men designing making things or their use does not proo that we were designed and mndc by a greater creator rhe snow flake takes Its form natural causes not handmade ofI1rst the different species of living- creatures took their forms from natural chemical proceeds electricity being one potent thing about It If the IIrst man anu woman could not evolved without a greater creator to and make them how could this- greater creator come Into existence- without a designer and maker This- proves the design theory worthless when- applied to evolving living creatures- 1helsm guesses is theoretical Atheism Is ipported by demonstrated facts This Is the reason why am an Atheist RED N LOWE- Goshen Mills N H +WHY AM AN ATHEIST The existence of a supernatural God Is a delusion There Is nothing supernatural All Is nature and am a part ot that nature was quite comfortabli betore my time and expect I will herellfter Spirits may thrive in a lam It living but if this world were denolat IIplrlt8 would bo extinct Mind delushe Gods and spirits are delusions- Nature Is something and we are n pnrt of that something A man a sonube being If perfectly arranged derangEd In the upper story mind is de runged also and the God and spirits lr like proportions A mindless man is godlels man Is no supernatural God without the human mind neither It there human mind without the human bod If the body censes the mind and Its God ceases When I lay down to die I can only r l say I go where I was before where I had no aches or pains when I did know no God nor spirits I can not think of n devil there I was out of my body In the arms of Nature Nature command ed me to come and it commands me go have no choice Wo are all un der the same laws without special prlvl llges Nature has no mercy neither dos It repent It dessolves and rcbulliis a continuous transformation without ginning or enclA IUTTERltAN Ackley aowa +WHY AM AN ATHEIST thought would write down a fev of the reasons for my becoming an Atheist No doubt you will think It old Carmer IncormIellmost anything So here goes said becoming nn Atheist I was n Southern Methodist for twenty years and wns brought up In tbat church The first of many thing thnt made me a disbeliever in n Goi wns In my offering so many prayers from a sincere and nn honest heart and henr Ing thousands of such prayers from good and honest people and none these were over answer m certain knowledge caused me to think seriously along this line and Ollal ly to become nn Atheist Another reason many of the hlst and kindest hearted old mothers of ac rjunlntance praying mothers aCtr raising large families suffered a thou sand deaths In their old age from can ceo consumption tumors etc no Gall ever In nny case helped them their suffering tho least Another reason for my disbelief In n Sod being a farmer and close munion with nature every day I hnve seen no evidence of a God whose ten ler mercies Ire over all His works but train loads of proof that there Is no 3od ruling over anything for In nature might makes right for nil Insects rep lies fish fowls and beasts have their leadly enemies and with beak tooth nnd slaw tear and rend and subsist upon tl1I bodies and blood of each other For thousands of these can not make a meal without some other creature gh up Us sweet life even the little has to watch out for the lit tie sparrowhawk and shrike or butcher- bird Also with the human family there Is no such thing as equality naturnlly speaking either intellectually or physl ally Many never have sense nough to take care of themselves and are jects of pity others have barely sense enough to come In out of the rain while others nave n fountain ns It rere of brains and are thus enabled to ami do live oft their less Intelligent mortals and seemingly with ns tie concern ns the beasts of prey Many are born deaf and dumb or Thousands are born deCormed aill are a burden and a curse to them sees and their dearest friends In these phenomena see no evidence Gou in existence He she or It would have shown Himself herself or Itself us creature and told us about how she or It came Into existence and not had us guessing and disputing over the subject so long know the Bible makes Moses Isaiah nnll others to say they saw God but John 118 says no man hath seen God lit any time And I believe John spoke truthfully for I have never seen nor seen any ono who hall nor seen onp that had seen any one that had seen beautiful sunshine the gentle showers and pleasant breezes our Christian friends tell us come from God but oCten they come In such extremes ns hrlng famines floods and cyclones re ecttvely and destroy millions of lives fhln ask where does the God of love ercy or justice for us creatures show but not lliu leant if there God caring for Ills creatures forts we would not have earthquakes volcanoes tidal waves cyclones dlsas- trou9 floods nor cholera bubonic plngue leprosy yellow fever consumption cer smallpox dlptnerla measles nor an y of the thousands of ailments or pestilences that we are beset with These are a few of the reasons wh im an Atheist F MARR orena Texas +WHY AM AN ATHEIST do not expect to win the prize In nor would It take near n column write the why In the first since have been old enough to do nn thinking on my own hook I made m mind that everything or eelt- ruth was based on common sense can see no common sense In the tench- Ings of the Bible U Is contrary to humnn reason and is contrary to ture It Is a mass of contradictions tram kl ver to klver The Jockllns about ninetenths of Christians believe as their torefnthers dill It seems to me that they had just as well believe that the blood in the nn liuU Jo 3iinajp loll saop earth not round or that the sun moe That was the belief of our tore am an Atheist Is because man sense and modern science makes Impossible to conscientiously be thing else Yours for H H R MARTIN Dlue Arizona ++WHY AM AN ATHEIST I start with this premiseIAll knowledge or conclusion come or through one or more of the snse or Supreme Being would be an villual All the knowledge and experience have ever had teaches me that the material universe has existed eternally and the effect we realize Is what we call natural laws cannot believe In a first cause for I have never realized the act of something being made o- The creation of world or snow flake is only transformation o- already In existence Some contend that the created need creator the transformed a transforms No for It Is the very nature o- for the life of nil specific things to bt limited and an Individual Supr Being would be an Impossibility unlEsli the supremacy was beyond the comprl- Jhlnslon of man and If so then bellet- would be unwarranted If It Is true that the existence of the rea tell Is evidence of u creator thf- chain of created and creator is endlei and Isreals God Is hi neiyl of a crentt same as you and I are My experience hall further taught me that nil things that have a beginning necessarily have an end myself had a beginning nnd will have on end If there is sue n Is Homcthlng of which I Imv no uowledKC However if It is Immoi tal never ends In the future It necei saIIY had no beginning the past have an Immortal spirit It did have beginning as my spirit and likewise will hae an end as my spirit have no knowledge of the linmoru spirit while living and do not expec dlng to strengthen that knowledge In other wdrds After death looks to me jUllt like before life Hence I urn Atheillt WADE H MORGAN Stinnett Ky +WHY AM AN ATHEIST In the first place because reason points thut way have been Itconslstllnt- church member nnd Christian for years nnd as we are told to search the scriptures did so finding so many 8torlell that were Indeed tough not ly as far as the story Itself went but In Innsuage that Indeed could not reai them to my boys I besnn to study and Investigate al was liberal minded Upon Investtga tlon found that the Bible the socallec look was not only way behind tin tlmos but a book not to be desired by nny means The God of the Christian religion Is Indeed too human He bears the imprint ot His human origin and as for the mercy and pitying love which He is posed to visit upon His children one has only to read the Old Testament to find t r ++ +01++++ + ++ ++ ++ + + + + R MY PRICES jtsr l For COMPARISON D Inl2 a or 4 Ounce Sllvorlne Screw Cases Prepaid Do DeuberHnmpden 18 size Special RWay 23 lls 32 same jls 24 New RWay 23 jls 26 John Hancock Jls 21 Deuber W Co 21 Jls same 17 jls Elgin Verltas 23 Jls same or No 149 150 181 all jls 25 Father Tlme21 jls or new W Raymond Jls 20 Raymond 17 jls 1850 Waltham Vanguard 23 Jls 29 same 21 jls 25 Crescent Str Jls 20 Appleton Tracey Co Premier new 17 lit 1850 same not Premier 17 jls nickel 16 The above guaranteed to pass Way Inspectors Waltham P S Bartlett or Elgin Wheeler 17 Jls nickel ao justed same gilt 9 sarre Hampden nickel 10 Elgin Waltham or Hampden nickel 15 Jls 7 Elgin or Waltham nickel 7 Jls noncatchable hairspring Hampden 7 jls gilt 450 Standard or Century 3 The above In goldfilled screw cases guaranteed twenty years 350 or In hunting 550 more In 25year screw cases or hunt Ing 850 more than sllverlne cases THE IDEAL GENTLEMANS WATCH Small size Hampden elegant artistic handchased oren huntingt+ 17 jls adjusted 1750 John Hancock 21 Jls extra fine 285- 0Iin open face hinged case 50 cts screw case less All watches guaranteed new perfect cases latest designs hand fno diework engraving and accompanied by mfrs and my pay freight and watches kept In order ono year If used Send for prices of ladles 16 size solid gold sliver and other not listed above Diamonds Opals Sliver Plated and Optl cal goods Music Boxes Jewelry Chains Clocks Freethought and other badges Ingersoll Spoons and my tract Theism In the Cru clble free OTTO WETTSTEIN II La Grange Ill ++ 11111 ++ +++ + + 11111101 Illinois Central RailroadVERY LOW ONEWAY RATES VIA TO CaliforniaAnd the Northwest Daily to June 15 19O3 Only 1495 Louisville to New Orleans and Return MAY 1 6 TO 2 INCLUSIVE Account Confederate Veterans Reunion THROUGH PERSONALLY CONDUCTED EXCURSION SLEEP ERS TO CALIFORNIA TEXAS NEW MEXICO AND ARIZONA TWICE A WEEK REDUCED ONEWAY COLONIST AND HOME SEEKERS EX CURSION RATES TO POINTS SOUTH AND WEST FIRST AND THIRD TUESDAYS IN EACH MONTH WRITE THE UNDER SIGNED FOR CIRCULAR DESCRIPTIVE OF LANDS IN THE SOUTH ASK LOCAL TICKET AGENTS FOR THROUGH TICK ETS AND FURTHER INFORMATION OR ADDRESS F W HARLOW Division Passenger Agent Louisville Kentucky VERY LOW ONEWAY AND ROUND TRIP RATES TO THE NORTHWEST VIA THE Northern Pacfic Railway ONE WAY COLONIST RATES ON SALE UNTIL JUNE 15 19O3RJ- 3UND TRIP HOMESEEKERS TICKETS ON SALE FIRST AND THIRD TUESDAYS APRIL MAY AND JUNE AT RATE OF ONE FARE PLUS 200 FOR ROUND TRIP FOR RATES DETAILS AND GENERAL INFORMATION WRITE TO CHARLES S FEEGENERAL PASSENGER AND TICKET AGENTI Saint Paul MinnCorrespondence and Inquiries are given our prompt attention III was a God of man visiting famine tion used which often gives It quite pestilence upon all who Incurred his different cast wrath While with old mother nature for In I want none such The enrth Is full dor d sho Is old bless her heart she Is ot beauty We aro till children of n always tllo same yesterday today aed minion origin Therefore we should forever the grass and springs fresh and love each other und eln peace Kretn at her touch the Mowers bloom ve the foundation of nil things setil tlmo and harvest whether we are pure and holy Tho love wo hear our just or unjuHt tlm ruin falls on us parents the family tlea should bo held all alike sacrell not beenuxa we niuut but be would not be a devotee of na cnusl we desire no to do from IIIelllrlH shrine What greater god do we And u mans foes nhrill bo of need What more beautiful religion uuehnld Thats what the good book the world my temple to do good my re y8 And not to bring peace ligion 1SAUI3M MATTESON- Kstellet a sword caP and many other T paSHages which It not necessary for ++to quote here led be oat fabrication think ltWHY AM AN ATHEIST whole thing miiat And now let us turn our attention to You usk im to say why wo are At the starry heavens How beautiful how hill The only reason ran assign for undlrss seemingly without a begln not believing In tho ChrlVtlan Qod nlng or end The stars roll on their way Hilile Is cannot bellve a lie when trom age to age presenting to onr gaze know It to be a lie Its not mine the name spectacle of beauty that they natures fault that am a disbeliever to tho ancients Cnn we conceive divine revelation etc their being inadu u day How ab C D McIUNNHY seemNw Market Ohio theory of evolution alone CONTINUKD NEXT WEEK appllcnble to them and If to them why not nlso to man The story of Christ- and the cross as told by many ministers The Blade Is now 50 cents per year m very beautiful lwUJn when we come In clubs of five Sent it to five of wn to cold facts that there la neighbors Only 250 of a necessity a great deal of imagina your

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