Footnotes For The Deist's Reply by: Lysander Spooner

Chapter 1

<fn1> [*2] The promise was probably understood at the time it was made, as referring to temporal thrones; but after the departure of Jesus, was applied to the Apostles by heavenly ones.

<fn2> [*3]  See his ridiculous boast (2 Cor. 12-1 to 5) that he was the man who had been caught up into the third heaven, (query- how many heavens are there in all?) and had there heard certain sounds, which he deemed repeating, on the pretence that it would be unlawful for him to do so. This journey to paradise, therefore, was labor lost, unless the story of it, united with his declarations (2 Cor. 11-5-2 Cor.12-11) that "he was not a whit behind the very chiefest of the Apostles," and his other boastful  pretences, of which the last named chapters are full, served some purpose in gaining him credit among those,  whose backwardness to regard him, he virtually says, (2 Cor. 12-11) " compelled him" to brag a little; although, modest man ! He would not for the world be thought "to glory of himself, but in his infirmities." (2 Cor. 12-5).

<fn3> [*3] Perhaps some explanation may be given to this declaration of Paul, I here state only what appears on the face of the matter.

<fn4> [*3] 2d. Cor. 11-8. "I robbed other churches, taking wages of them, to do you service." It may well be doubted, one would think, whether the last clause of this verse gives his real reason for an act, which he seems to admit, in the first clause, to be unjust.

<fn5> [*7] I trust the time is not too far distant, when the moral courage of the more intelligent and independent portion of the community will be sufficiently aroused to expose, without reserve, the dishonest and cowardly practices of these men; when their attempts to dissuade weak and timid minds from the examination of evidence; to keep the reasons and arguments of their opponents out of sight; and to so fill the minds of their dopes with vulgar and superstitious fears and prejudices as to deprive them of all mental liberty on this subject, will receive their merited condemnation; and when the efforts, which instead of meeting the arguments of men, they are now zealously making, by sabbath-schools and otherwise, to forestal the judgments and permanently  rivet the faith of the young, by impressing and deluding their imaginations, before they are capable of reasoning, will be regarded as a nefarious artifice for perpetuating their own influence by depriving the  human mind of its rights, and truth and reason of their power.  

Chapter 2

<fn6> [*8] Some may perhaps believe that this verse  was not intended to convey such a meaning as I have attributed to it- but can such persons tell us what other definite idea can be gathered from it?

<fn7> [*8-9] We have evidence that there actually were in circulation after his death, and in credit among his followers, a great variety of stories about miraculous occurrence of the most ludicrous character imaginable, though hardly more ludicrous than  some related in the four gospels. That evidence is furthered by those books, (now  published under the  title of the "Aprocryphal New Testament") which were discarded as not being canonical, or at least as doubtful, by the council of Nice, about three centuries after Christ. As they are now  admitted by Christians to be false, on that admission they prove all I wish to prove by them, viz. that after the death of Jesus, there were many stories in circulation respecting him, which rested on no authority but the tongue of rumor, and we are to judge whether these narratives  which are now esteemed by Christians, canonical- considering how many years after the death of Jesus they were written- are not as likely to have  been gathered in part from the simple rumor, as those others. 

<fn8> [*9] For a more full account of these Messiahs, see Rev. Thomas Newton's  Dissertations  on the prophecies, Ch.19, also Josephus, Book 2d. chap. 13. Several of them were finally put to death. Some of them succeeded in gaining a much larger number of followers than Jesus, in his lifetime, ever had.

<fn9> [*13] Some of the expressions, employed by the writers in relating this affair, appear to  have been so unreasonably  "glorified," that in order to put together a story which should appear natural and unrestrained throughout, I have selected the most natural expressions from each of the accounts, instead of quoting the whole of any single one.

<fn10> [*17] Both Mathew and John are supposed to have written their narratives more  than thirty years after the crucifixion. See Rees' Cyclopedia.

Chapter 3

<fn11> [*18] I might here safely leave the question of Jesus's miracles, without any further argument, were I so disposed; because no thinking man would for a moment believe them to have been real ones, unless he could see, or should fancy he could see, that it was important that they should be wrought for the purpose of proving a Revelation-yet, as has been shown, the purpose, for which they are said to have been wrought, cannot logically be taken at all into the account, when judging of their reality.

<fn12> [*19] Such facts as above would furnish a complete answer to all the arguments- founded on the importance of the alleged purpose of establishing in men's minds a belief in a revelation- (supposing such arguments to be admissible), that Christians have ever urged in favor of the probability and propriety of miracles; because the very testimony (the Bible), relied on to prove that miracles were employed for that purpose, declares also, explicitly and unequivocally , that, at the same time, and among the same people, other miracles, equally real,  and equally wonderful as far as men's senses could discover, were performed, which are nor pretended to have any connexion with a revelation, or any other important design. In order, therefore, to support the Bible history of these events, there is just as strong a necessity for arguing in support of the probability and propriety of God's giving miraculous power to some individuals for no discoverable purpose at all, as in favor of his giving it to others to enable them to convince men of the truth of a revelation, because, according to the Bible,  he gave it in the former case as certainly as in the latter.  If the Bible be true, it is as certain, also that God gave miraculous power to a pool of water, as it is that he gave it to Jesus, or any of his disciples, (John 5-4.)

<fn13> [*20] See Lempriere's Biographical Dictionary

<fn14> [*20] See Newton on the Prophecies Chap. 18

<fn15> [*20] See Lempriere's Biographical Dictionary, also in Newton on Prophecies, Chap. 18.

<fn16> [*21] The pretended discoverer of animal magnetism.

<fn17> [*25] In further support for the reasonableness of this explanation, I quote the authority of Dr. Combs, who says, in his work on physiology, that "so powerful, indeed, is the nervous stimulus, that examples have occurred of strong mental emotions having instantaneously given life and vigor to paralytic limbs." This extract my be founded on No.71, Harpors Family Library, page 112.  

<fn18> [*32] In confirmation of the truth  of this explanation, I quote from Carne, a recent Christian traveler in Palestine, who says, in describing this lake, that "the boats used on it are, in some seasons of the year, much exposed from the sudden squalls of wind, which issue from between the mountains."

 I have taken some pains to procure "Carne Travels in the East," (or letters from the East,) so as to be able to refer the reader to the page where this fact is stated; but a book is a rare one, and I have not found it. I can therefore only refer to an extract published in the American Traveler (Boston) Oct. 29, 1833, Article, Lake Tiberias.

<fn19> [*32] Mark 11-21. Master behold the fig-tree, which thou cursedst, is withered away.

<fn20> [*36] What evidence is there of the deliberate villainy of Mahonet, Matthias, or  Joe Smith, that can compare with this evidence of similar conduct on the part of Jesus?

Or what stronger evidence if his knavery can be wanted than his pretence of calming the tempest ?

<fn21> [*37] Luke says (2-52) that as Jesus grew up to manhood, he "increased his favor with God and man." Now this affair too place in "Nazareth, where he had been brought up," (Luke 4-16). He seems therefore never to have gotten into very high "favor" with the people of his own village; for had he done so, they would not have been likely, on this occasion, to have treated him quite so shabbily.

<fn22> [*38] A rite grosser, even more than drinking from the skull bone of Odin, and more appropriate to be observed by cannibals than civilized men.

<fn23> [*39] If the reader wish any further confirmation that this view of the miracles of Jesus is correct, let him read the "Apocryphal New Testament," from which  he will at least learn what kind of miracles it was common for the early Christian to believe in, and will thus be enable to judge whether such works, as I have supposed the pretended miracles of Jesus to have been, would not have been likely, at that time, and among so superstitious a people, to have passed for true miracles.

Chapter 4

<fn24> [*40] He pretended to them that the almighty wrote ten commandments "with his own finger," on the two tables of stone, and gave them to him- although he acknowledges that he was absent in the mountain forty days- a time sufficient for him to have written them himself, and a little longer than would have been necessary for the almighty.  (Deut. 9-9 to 11).

 He also, when there was thunder and lightning and a cloud  (and nothing more, as anybody may satisfy himself by reading the verses hereafter  referred to ) on Mount Horeb, told the Israelites  that the Lord was speaking to them, out of the fire. He also stood between them and the mountain, and pretended to interpret the thunder, and to give to them meaning of the Lord in their own language, (Deut. 4-11 and 12- also 5-4, 5, 22 to 28).

<fn25> [*42] See Newton on Prophecies, Chap. 19.

<fn26> [*42] Same

<fn27> [*43] Connected with  this prediction about a Messiah is one circumstance, hat shows that Daniel knew nothing of what he was talking about; and that is, that when predicting that Jerusalem should sometimes be destroyed, he says "the end thereof shall be with a flood "- whereas (unluckily for inspiration) such happened not to be the fact.

<fn28> [*49] Such angels probably as  he referred to when he said he could call upon his father, and he would give him more than twelve legions of angels to protect him, (Mat. 26-53).

<fn29> [*55] Luke is said by Christians to have written the Acts.

<fn30> [*55] Yet, is not that they thus get men's money, that I would oppose the clergy; although that would be sufficient reason for opposing them; if there were no other reason stronger. The waste of money, immense as though it be, I consider to be as among the slightest of evils attending the existence and support of Christianity.  It seems that because the clergy, by means of infamous doctrine, appal, delude and enslave the imagination of the young; deprive men of their mental liberty,  of their judgments, reason and candor; fill their minds with prejudice, and their imaginations with vulgar disgusting superstitions; rob truth and reason of their power, and resist totis viribus  their progress wherever they conflict with the vile delusion and imposture which it is in their interest to advocate; and because they thus make men dupes, fools, slave, cowards bigots, and fanactics, that I would oppose and expose them and their system.  Its is, in short, because Christianity is nothing more than a miserable and disgusting superstition; because its pretended evidence are false, many of them grossly and glaringly false; because the clergy seem to understand all this, an yet have the audacity to impose upon men by pretending the contrary, and to degrade and govern them by thus imposing upon them, that I would awaken the opposition  to the clergy and Christianity.

<fn31> [*57] I here admit, for the sake of argument, that Jesus did predict that he would rise again, and that this fact was known abroad, as Matthew (27-63) represents it to have been.

<fn32> [*58] In the Acts (1st c.) (if he were the author of the Acts as he is generally supposed to have been) he represents that Jesus was seen many times- but he was not one of the twelve, and what he heard is good for nothing as testimony.

<fn33> [*59] John 20-23. "Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosoever sins ye retain they are retained.

<fn34> [*60] See Lemprieres Biog. Dict.

<fn35> [*61] See Chapter 1st, on the spread of Christianity.