Tyranny of God Part 5

They may be different manifestations, but fundamentally they are the same.

In fact, the very force that manifests itself in a mechanical instrument made by man is the identical substance that rules the organs, and charges the brain of our being. In the same manner that the force dissipates itself in the mechanical instrument made by man, and no longer gives motion to its parts, so the force that animates our being dissipates itself and is no longer capable of giving motion to our parts and organs.

As man's instruments are dependent upon many channels for their complete performance, so the human brain and body have their many dependencies that must fully and properly be nourished to maintain their power.

Each day science draws another veil from the mystery of life.

Our eye is but a chemical camera, that we have not only reproduced, but even improved upon.

Our voice is nothing but a vibration, that we have not only reproduced and improved upon, but whose minutest modulations we have recorded in innumerable duplications.

Our ear is but a drum, that carries and conveys to the brain the vibrations of our voice, and that function we have reproduced and even improved upon by the instrument we call the telephone.

The telegraphic system of the human body that communicates to the brain the conditions that the senses perceive, is no other than that which man has even improved upon by the transmission of an intelligible message to a far-distant land without the use of any apparent conductor. With the marvelous instrument, the telephone, man sends his voice around the world.

Man's greatest inventions, the phonograph, the camera and the telephone, both wire and wireless, make the work of Nature, as manifested in our bodies, a simple, childish affair, fit only for the kindergarten of things.

When Edison invented the incandescent light and reproduced the human voice in the phonograph he pulled aside the veil of secrecy and penetrated the infinite.

_He proved and demonstrated man to be greater than G.o.d._

Our limbs carry our bodies in the direction our brains dictate, and _that_ function we have reproduced and even improved upon in all the means of locomotion that we daily use and which we now consider as a "matter of fact" among the ordinary things of life. "Comparisons are odious" when we compare the awkward motion of Nature with the rapid locomotion of man.

Man progresses far too rapidly for the accommodation of Nature, and as a result adapts for his use and benefit vital essentials that Nature in her laziness has either failed to utilize, or will not utilize.

Although we have not yet completely discovered all the material and mechanical elements that compose life, we are sure and certain of their origin.

We hear ourselves talk; we decide upon our destination and direct our motion; we eat when we are hungry; sleep when we are tired; cry when we are in pain; and laugh when we are tickled. Our whole being from start to finish is mechanical, and the element of something "spiritual,"

something separate and distinct from a purely material sense, is absolutely illogical and ill-founded in view of the illimitable ill.u.s.trations that are being demonstrated every day.

It is a thing easily understood, if we logically, and intelligently, without blindness, preference or prejudice, a.n.a.lyze the problem.

It may sound better and more desirable to say that we possess a "soul"--that this life is but a "stepping stone to a higher plane"--but it is not true.

We cannot observe the true, actual facts of life by coloring our subject. If we want to determine the _truth_ we must be mentally prepared to accept the _truth_.

A painted face, brightened eyes, blackened eyelids, Marcelled hair, and a form draped in all the splendor of the finest silks do not make a woman possess the sweetness and charm that all this "dope" is intended to make us believe.

As much as man wants to have the end of this life attain certain benefits and destinations, this desire does not make them real.

The implicit confidence in a faithless wife does not make her loyal and virtuous. A wife's confidence in a profligate husband does not make him stanch and true.

Life calls for a cold a.n.a.lysis. It must be stripped of all its artificial colorings and superfluities. It must be measured and weighed for what it actually is, not for what we would like it to be. It must be determined in the unwavering scales of science.

The proper study of mankind is not the man in the white starched collar, with trimmed hair, shaven face and polished shoes, but the man recently from the forest, with coa.r.s.e, grizzly hair upon his back, brutal and violent pa.s.sion dominating his body, and savageness and hatred in his startled and terrifying eyes.

The sooner we come to the realization of this vital fact, the sooner we become acquainted with the basic origin of life, the sooner we shall understand life, with its achievements, with its aspirations and hopes.

XI

It is an absolute fact and certainty, impossible of refutation, that when animation ceases in the body and no effort is made to revive it, life ceases and the processes of decay and decomposition set in.

Yet it is permanently established and has been successfully demonstrated innumerable times, that certain methods of artificial stimulation have revivified and resuscitated the delicate organs that cause the heartbeat and give consciousness to the brain.

Recently my local newspaper contained the following item:

"DEAD" BUT SAW NO SPIRITS

_Oklahoma City, Okla._, February 7th--Neal Dillingham doesn't believe in after-death communication with the living. Dillingham was "dead" for twenty minutes recently, and he says he ought to know.

Doctors said Dillingham's blood circulation was stopped by a clot of blood. His heart stopped beating, and he did not breathe.

Insertion of a saline solution into his artery just above the heart caused the clot to dissolve, and Dillingham came back to life.

"I did not return to earth after I left it," said Dillingham. "I had no knowledge of anything that took place, but I must have been pretty dead, as I do know I didn't recognize several persons I had known all my life, after I was myself again. If I had any talks with anybody while I was 'dead' I don't remember anything about them."

Believing that the publicity that this case received would make the party known to the postal authorities, I sat down and wrote him a letter, hoping that, if fortunate enough to have a letter delivered to him, he might be kind enough to write me personally of his experience.

After a lapse of several days I received from him a letter substantiating in detail all that was mentioned in the newspaper clipping quoted above.

In the instance of this man Dillingham, he was "dead," so to speak, and as far as his "soul" was concerned it had "left" the body; yet the injection of a material solution, compounded by man, in conjunction with artificial respiration, caused the beating of the heart and gave back to the brain its power of consciousness.

If it is the "soul" that causes the functioning of the body, where is it when such an action takes place?

If it is the "soul" that gives us "life," how is it that we can materially and mechanically destroy it?

We are born and nourished by material means.

We live our life by material means.

We reproduce our kind by material means.

And we can destroy ourselves by material means.

Everything that touches and concerns our life is purely material, and it should be inc.u.mbent upon those who believe in the "Soul" or the "Spiritual Element" of man to produce the proof of their contention.

We are nothing but a continual propagating instrument, without spiritual, moral, lasting or ultimate value. We are here to reproduce our kind and for nothing more. What man secures for himself within the narrow circle of his existence here is all that he gains for the life that Nature forces him to live.

Everything man has, man has made. Nothing has been given to him by Nature. G.o.d has been a miser!

If man possessed a "soul" the thousand deformities of the brain would not exist. Insanity would be impossible, and all the forms of petty vices that so miserably afflict us would be totally unknown.

That which gives us the power of life is a combination of the material forces of Nature, and the elements that compose the brain are of a chemical substance. The difference between a "live" person and a "dead"

one can be summarized by a great many instances about us, and because of their commonplaceness, we do not observe them.