Orthodoxy
Two authors write about Christian orthodoxy as it is, with special focus on how orthodoxy causes insanity and other social woes. Extensive use of third party quotes from newspapers and journals. By R. Tomlinson and D. P. Livermore, 1845.
TOMLINSON:
“The doctrine of vicarious atonement, presents problems of an absurd character, that no philosopher can solve! This is taught as a doctrine of the Bible; but it is opposed to reason and every principle which should characterize a righteous government! It represents Christ suffering the penalty due to man; yet millions on millions must suffer it too! It represents divine justice as being satisfied, by inflicting pain upon the innocent, and permitting the guilty to go unpunished!!”....
LIVERMORE:
“...Can the mind of man conceive of a more infernal design, one embracing more heartless cruelty, and determined opposition to human interests? Yet this is attributed to God the Father. What could the most malignant foe do more? One might suppose that it were sufficient for any malignity to damn a soul to all eternity after it had sinned, and thus furnished some seeming cause for its dire calamity; but this doctrine furnishes one infinitely more insatiable and cruel--one that delights, being clothed with omnipotence, in forming human beings irrespective of all action, for this tremendous misery, and unblushingly calls it God. O, the soul might weep tears of blood, would tears avail, in view of such awful representations of the divine character....”