Approved by the Kansas State Board of Education This page meets all criteria and requirements for use as teaching material within the State of Kansas public school system. It consists of facts, not of theories, and students are encouraged to believe it uncritically, and to approach alternatives critically.
That innocent
Bible tells about the
Creation. Of what -- the
universe? Yes, the universe. In six
days!
God did it. He did not call it the universe -- that name is modern. His whole attention was upon this
world. He constructed it in five days -- and then? It took him only one day to make twenty million
suns and eighty million
planets!
What were they for -- according to this idea? To furnish light for this little toy-world. That was his whole purpose; he had no other. One of the twenty million suns (
the smallest one) was to light it in the
daytime, the rest were to help one of the universe's countless
moons modify the darkness of its
nights.
It is quite manifest that he believed his fresh-made skies were diamond-sown with those myriads of twinkling stars the moment his first-day's sun sank below the
horizon; whereas, in fact, not a single star winked in that
black vault until three years and a half after that memorable week's formidable industries had been completed.
Then one star appeared, all solitary and alone, and began to blink. Three years later another one appeared. The two blinked together for more than four years before a third joined them. At the end of the first
hundred years there were not yet twenty-five stars twinkling in the wide wastes of those gloomy skies. At the end of a
thousand years not enough stars were yet visible to make a show. At the end of a million years only half of the present array had sent their light over the
telescopic frontiers, and it took another million for the rest to follow suit, as the vulgar phrase goes. There being at that time no telescope, their advent was not observed.
For three hundred years, now, the
Christianastronomer has known that his
Deity didn't make the stars in those tremendous six days; but the Christian astronomer does not enlarge upon that detail. Neither does the
priest.
In his Book, God is eloquent in his praises of his mighty works, and calls them by the largest names he can find -- thus indicating that he has a strong and just admiration of magnitudes; yet he made those
millions of prodigious suns to light this
wee little orb, instead of appointing this orb's little sun to dance attendance upon them. He mentions
Arcturus in his book -- you remember Arcturus; we went there once. It is one of the earth's night lamps! -- that
giant globe which is
fifty thousand times as large as the earth's sun, and compares with it as a
melon compares with a
cathedral.
Let us look at ourselves, if we can bear to, and see what is becoming of us. First, we must face that unexpected
revelation, the strip-tease of our
humanism. There you can see it, quite naked, and it’s not a pretty sight. It was nothing but an
ideology of lies, a perfect justification for pillage; its honeyed words, its affectation of sensibility were only
alibis for our
aggressions. A fine sight they are too, the believers in
nonviolence, saying that they are neither
executioners nor
victims. Very well then; if you’re not victims when the
government which you’ve voted for, when the
army in which your younger brothers are serving without hesitation or remorse have undertaken
race murder, you are, without a shadow of doubt, executioners. And if you chose to be victims and
to risk being put in prison for a day or two, you are simply choosing to pull your irons out of the fire. But you will not be able to pull them out; they’ll have to stay there till
the end. Try to understand this at any rate: if
violence began this very evening and if
exploitation and
oppression had never existed on the earth, perhaps the slogans of nonviolence might end the quarrel. But if the
whole regime, even your nonviolent ideas, are conditioned by a thousand-year-old oppression, your
passivity serves only to place you in the ranks of the oppressors.
Fun with Pictures
I really do like the planet
Saturn. It's a good planet, you know? Not too flashy; it's only the second largest planet; it doesn't have a whole lot of variety, but it's evenly colored; and it makes up for any lack of diversity with its
crazy rings. Another good planet is
Jupiter. Of course he's the king of the planets, he's got a
fancy clothes and a
big eye to make sure things go his way. Don't forget also his
four cronies to carry out his orders.
Approved by the Kansas State Board of Education This page meets all criteria and requirements for use as teaching material within the State of Kansas public school system. It consists of facts, not of theories, and students are encouraged to believe it uncritically, and to approach alternatives critically.
That innocent
Bible tells about the
Creation. Of what -- the
universe? Yes, the universe. In six
days!
God did it. He did not call it the universe -- that name is modern. His whole attention was upon this
world. He constructed it in five days -- and then? It took him only one day to make twenty million
suns and eighty million
planets!
What were they for -- according to this idea? To furnish light for this little toy-world. That was his whole purpose; he had no other. One of the twenty million suns (
the smallest one) was to light it in the
daytime, the rest were to help one of the universe's countless
moons modify the darkness of its
nights.
It is quite manifest that he believed his fresh-made skies were diamond-sown with those myriads of twinkling stars the moment his first-day's sun sank below the
horizon; whereas, in fact, not a single star winked in that
black vault until three years and a half after that memorable week's formidable industries had been completed.
Then one star appeared, all solitary and alone, and began to blink. Three years later another one appeared. The two blinked together for more than four years before a third joined them. At the end of the first
hundred years there were not yet twenty-five stars twinkling in the wide wastes of those gloomy skies. At the end of a
thousand years not enough stars were yet visible to make a show. At the end of a million years only half of the present array had sent their light over the
telescopic frontiers, and it took another million for the rest to follow suit, as the vulgar phrase goes. There being at that time no telescope, their advent was not observed.
For three hundred years, now, the
Christianastronomer has known that his
Deity didn't make the stars in those tremendous six days; but the Christian astronomer does not enlarge upon that detail. Neither does the
priest.
In his Book, God is eloquent in his praises of his mighty works, and calls them by the largest names he can find -- thus indicating that he has a strong and just admiration of magnitudes; yet he made those
millions of prodigious suns to light this
wee little orb, instead of appointing this orb's little sun to dance attendance upon them. He mentions
Arcturus in his book -- you remember Arcturus; we went there once. It is one of the earth's night lamps! -- that
giant globe which is
fifty thousand times as large as the earth's sun, and compares with it as a
melon compares with a
cathedral.
Let us look at ourselves, if we can bear to, and see what is becoming of us. First, we must face that unexpected
revelation, the strip-tease of our
humanism. There you can see it, quite naked, and it’s not a pretty sight. It was nothing but an
ideology of lies, a perfect justification for pillage; its honeyed words, its affectation of sensibility were only
alibis for our
aggressions. A fine sight they are too, the believers in
nonviolence, saying that they are neither
executioners nor
victims. Very well then; if you’re not victims when the
government which you’ve voted for, when the
army in which your younger brothers are serving without hesitation or remorse have undertaken
race murder, you are, without a shadow of doubt, executioners. And if you chose to be victims and
to risk being put in prison for a day or two, you are simply choosing to pull your irons out of the fire. But you will not be able to pull them out; they’ll have to stay there till
the end. Try to understand this at any rate: if
violence began this very evening and if
exploitation and
oppression had never existed on the earth, perhaps the slogans of nonviolence might end the quarrel. But if the
whole regime, even your nonviolent ideas, are conditioned by a thousand-year-old oppression, your
passivity serves only to place you in the ranks of the oppressors.
Fun with Pictures
I really do like the planet
Saturn. It's a good planet, you know? Not too flashy; it's only the second largest planet; it doesn't have a whole lot of variety, but it's evenly colored; and it makes up for any lack of diversity with its
crazy rings. Another good planet is
Jupiter. Of course he's the king of the planets, he's got a
fancy clothes and a
big eye to make sure things go his way. Don't forget also his
four cronies to carry out his orders.