Why I Am Not a Christian

...said to people who did not like His preaching. It is not, in my view, the best tone to take, and there are a great many such references to hell. There is, of course, the familiar text regarding the sin against the Holy Ghost: "Whosoever speaks against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world nor in the world to come." That passage has caused an unspeakable amount of misery in the world, for all sorts of people have imagined that they have committed the sin against the Holy Ghost and have lived in fear that they would not be forgiven, either in this world or in the next. I truly do not believe that a person with a proper degree of kindness in their nature would have introduced such fears and terrors into the world.

Then Christ says: "The Son of Man shall send forth His angels, and they shall gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity, and shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth." He continues to harp on the wailing and gnashing of teeth. It appears in one verse after another, and it is quite clear to the reader that there is a certain pleasure taken in contemplating this wailing and gnashing of teeth, or it would not appear so often. Then, of course, you all remember the story of the sheep and the goats—how at the second coming He will divide the sheep from the goats and say to the goats: "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." He continues: "And these shall go away into everlasting fire." Then He says again: "If thy