The present texts are based upon three untitled manuscripts, DV2745 and Paine 102d, the only phases under Mark Twain's control. In all three he used the same pen, ink (brown or faded to brown), handwriting, and brand of stationery. He probably wrote them at about the same time, perhaps on the same day, but even the decade of composition is conjectural. From evidence of hand and stationery Paine suggested a date in the early 1880s (MTB, p. 1582), which is plausible. The paper is a heavy white laid stationery torn into half-sheets measuring 4½” × 7”, with a watermark reading “Pure crowned harp design Flax | Marcus Ward | & Co.”
The pronoun “he” He (56.2), referring here to God, has been capitalized. In accordance with Mark Twain's usual style the present volume generally capitalizes pronouns referring to God and Jesus where manuscripts have lower case, but the words remain in lower case in most of “Letters from the Earth,” where the style appears functional, and in quotations from writers whose practice differed. An erroneous duplication, “wisest & &” wisest and (58.8), has been corrected.
Previous printings: I: MTB, pp. 1583–1584. II (in part): MTB, p. 1584. III: previously unpublished.
[1880–1885?]
I believe in God the Almighty.
I do not believe He has ever sent a message to man by anybody, or delivered one to him by word of mouth, or made Himself visible to mortal eyes at any time or in any place.
I believe that the Old and New Testaments were imagined and written by man, and that no line in them was authorized by God, much less inspired by Him.
I think the goodness, the justice, and the mercy of God are manifested in His works; I perceive that they are manifested toward me in this life; the logical conclusion is that they will be manifested toward me in the life to come, if there should be one.
I do not believe in special providences. I believe that the universe is governed by strict and immutable laws. If one man's family is swept away by a pestilence and another man's spared, it is only the law working: God is not interfering in that small matter, either against the one man or in favor of the other.
I cannot see how eternal punishment hereafter could accomplish any good end, therefore I am not able to believe in it. To chasten a man in order to perfect him might be reasonable enough; to annihilate him when he shall have proved himself incapable of reaching perfection might be reasonable enough: but to roast him forever for the mere satisfaction of seeing him roast would not be [begin page 57] reasonable—even the atrocious God imagined by the Jews would tire of the spectacle eventually.
There may be a hereafter, and there may not be. I am wholly indifferent about it. If I am appointed to live again, I feel sure it will be for some more sane and useful purpose than to flounder about for ages in a lake of fire and brimstone for having violated a confusion of ill-defined and contradictory rules said (but not evidenced,) to be of divine institution. If annihilation is to follow death, I shall not be aware of the annihilation, and therefore shall not care a straw about it.
I believe that the world's moral laws are the outcome of the world's experience. It needed no God to come down out of heaven to tell men that murder and theft and the other immoralities were bad, both for the individual who commits them and for society which suffers from them.
If I break all these moral laws, I cannot see how I injure God by it, for He is beyond the reach of injury from me—I could as easily injure a planet by throwing mud at it. It seems to me that my mis-conduct could only injure me and other men. I cannot benefit God by obeying these moral laws—I could as reasonably benefit the planet by withholding my mud. [Let these sentences be read in the light of the fact that I believe I have received moral laws only from man—none whatever from God.] Consequently I do not see why I should either be punished or rewarded hereafter for the deeds I do here.
I would not interfere with any one's religion, either to strengthen it or weaken it. I am not able to believe one's religion can affect his hereafter one way or the other, no matter what that religion may be. But it may easily be a great comfort to him in this life—hence it is a valuable possession to him.
Latter-day Protestantism, by selecting the humaner passages of the Bible, and teaching them to the world, whilst allowing those of a different sort to lie dormant, has produced the highest and [begin page 58] purest and best individuals which modern society has known. Thus used, the Bible is the most valuable of books. But the strongly-worded authority for all the religious atrocities of the Middle Ages is still in it, and some day or other it may again become as heavy a curse to the world as it formerly was. The devastating powers of the Book are only suspended, not extinguished. An Expurgated Bible would not be an unuseful thing.
If the very greatest and wisest and most experienced man the earth could produce should write a book, it would be instinct with common sense—it would not totally lack this quality in any clause or sentence. If it made a statement, it would be a statement possible of belief. If it made a requirement, it would be one possible to be obeyed.
If the Bible had been written by God, it also would have possessed these virtues. But it conspicuously lacks them in places. Therefore I think that it not only was not written by God, but was not even written by remarkably capable men.
God could have said “Thou shalt not commit adulteryⒺexplanatory note;” but He would not have followed it up in the same book by plainly violating His own law with Mary the betrothed bride of Joseph. The lamest of modern book-makers would hardly be guilty of so egregious a blunder as that.
To become a right Christian, one must hate his brother, his sister, his wife, etc. The laws of God and nature being stronger than those of men, this one must always remain a dead-letter. It was not worth while to cumber the Book with this one, since no single individual of all the earth's myriads would ever be able to obey it.
“Straight is the gateⒺexplanatory note and narrow is the way, and few there be,” etc. This is the utterance of the same authority which commands man to “multiply and replenish the earthⒺexplanatory note.” What! meekly and obediently proceed to beget children, with the distinct understanding that nearly all of them must become fuel for the fires of [begin page 59] hell? The person who could obey such a command, under such an understanding, would be simply a monster—no gentler term would describe him. How easily men are self-duped. Many think they believe they are begetting fuel for hell, but down in their hearts they believe nothing of the kind.