Mark Twain on Religion (moral, tradition, beliefs, hell, America)

[Lightkeeper]

An excerpt from the Fables of Man (c. 1905) entitled "The Ten Commandments." The piece clearly demonstrates that Twain has a good understanding of the relativism of the human condition, and further that Twain clearly understands the importance of mental illness in denying the validity of transcendent moral principles. Twain was an empiricist in the great tradition of Deism:

THE TEN Commandments were made for man alone. We should think it strange if they had been made for all the animals.

Here is the rest of the article

http://www.deism.org/marktwain.htm

Any comments on Mark Twain and his beliefs?

[mahayana]

I've always identified with Mark Twain. He saw the human condition as clearly as any existentialist. Life is funny, people are absurd, the cultures are full of silliness embraced seriously by the multitudes.

Twain did have his autobiography published post-humously, probably because of his religious commentary- highly critical of Christianity. One thing I recall from it was that he said that no loving father would ever create Hell for the eternal torment of his errant children.

[huajiro]

Originally Posted by mahayana

no loving father would ever create Hell for the eternal torment of his errant children.

Can I get an "Amen"?

[Davidium]

A couple of other great works by Twain that apply to his religious views....

"War Prayer" by Mark Twain

http://www.lexrex.com/informed/other.../warprayer.htm

(I have an essay based upon this work at http://dynamicdeism.org/library/whyawarprayer.htm )

And

"What is Man" by Mark Twain

http://dynamicdeism.org/library/whatisman.htm

(I will have a Microsoft Reader version of this one up in the DD Library by Sunday night, I am doing this slowly for the whole library, and will do this work tonight since I am posting it here)

Old Sawbones was one of the greatest American Philosophers.

Reason and Respect in all you say and do,

David Pyle