Huxley, I've never read "the Mysterious Stranger", that'll be another book for me to look for.
Valis, that was funny. I'm sure some of my conversations sound equally absurd. At least, judging by my husband's face at the end of them.
Cellist
Mark Twain: Letters From The Earth
by Cellist 11 Replies latest jw friends
-
-
patio34
I read it shortly after leaving JWs. I posted this excerpt from it that I particularly liked:
On angels observing the animals on earth:
"Busy, all busy--mainly in persecuting each other...Here are countless multitudes of creatures, and they all kill, kill, kill, they are all murderers...(says the) Divine One: They are not to blame. It is the law of their nature...the Law of God."After Adam and Eve's sin and the serpent enticing them:
"As you perceive, the only person responsible for the couple's offense escaped...in your country and mine we should have the privilege of making fun of this kind of morality, but it would be unkind to do it here..."The best minds will tell you that when a man has begotten a child he is morally bound to tenderly care for it, protect it from hurt, shield it from disease, clothe it...never in any case inflict upon it a wanton cruelty. God's treatment of his earthly children, every day and every night, is the exact opposite of all that, yet those best minds warmly justify these crimes, condone them, excuse them, and indignantly refuse to regard them as crimes at all..
"God banished Adam and Eve from the Garden, and eventually asassinated them...But he did not stop there...He requires his children to deal justly--and gently--with offenders, and forgive them 70 and 7 times; whereas he deals neither justly nor gently with anyone, and he did not forgive the ignorant and thoughtless first pair of juveniles even their first small offense and say 'you may go free this time, I will give you another chance.'
"On the contrary! He elected to punish THEIR children, all thru the ages to the end of time, for a trifling offense committed by others before they were born. He is punishing them yet. In mild ways? No, in atrocious ones.
"You would not suppose that this kind of a Being gets many compliments. Undeceive yourself: the world calls him the All-Just, the All-Righteous, the All-Good, the All-Merciful...These sarcasms are uttered daily, all over the world. But not as conscious sarcasms. No, they are meant seriously: they are uttered without a smile."