Most of the Bibles, and nearly all the religious teachers of the world, have represented God as being a personal being, and, at the same time, an infinite spirit. But that is another of the "thousand and one" absurdities that have been taught and believed in the name of religion. A personal being must, in all cases, be an organized being. This is so self-evident as to need no argument; and that an organized being can not be an infinite being is almost equality self-evident. An organized being must be a finite being. The word "finite" is used to express the opposite of "infinite." To assume, therefore, that a finite being, or a being with a finite body, can also be infinite, is equivalent to assuming that a thing can be white and black, large and small, long and short, light and heavy, &c., at the same time; which is a self-evident absurdity. A personal being must be constituted of different parts, or members,—as a head, heart, body, feet, &c.; and, if such a being could be infinite, then each member must be infinite. But as it is self-evident that a being to be infinite must fill all space, and that nothing can be infinite unless it does occupy all space, it can be seen at once, that, if one member were infinite, it would occupy all space, which would preclude the possibility of another member being infinite. Thus we are completely swamped at the first step toward making a personal God infinite. Here let it be noted that the God of the Bible is represented as possessing all the members of the human body,—eyes (1 Pet. iii. 12), ears (Ibid.), nose (Isa. 65, 5), mouth (Isa. xiv. 23), feet (Rev. i. 15), arms (Isa. xxx. 30), hands (Exod. xiii. 3), fingers (Exod. viii. 19), head (Dan. vii. 9), heart (Isa. lxiii. 4), lips (Ps. xvii. 4), &c. Now, it is evidently impossible that such a being could be infinite. We may be told that these members are all to be taken in a spiritual sense. Granted, and the thing is equally impossible; for they must still be separate members. There could be no possible sense in applying all these terms to the whole being. They must apply to separate parts; and, the moment we use terms which imply the existence of more than one part, we concede the impossibility of such a God being infinite: for only one part, one being, or one thing can be infinite. There can not be two infinite beings,—self-evidently not.

And there are other logical difficulties in the way of admitting the existence of an infinite personal God. If there could be such a thing as an infinite personality or organized being, it is evident that only one such being could exist. What, then, becomes of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, and also the Devil? They are all spoken of in the Bible as being omnipresent. Hence they must all be infinite, which is another self-evident impossibility. We could as easily conceive of two heads wearing the same hat at the same time, as two such beings being infinite. If one of them is infinite, the others can not be; and yet each is represented as being omnipresent, which would make them infinite. And thus we fail in every attempt to make a personal God infinite. David, in speaking of the God Jehovah, says, "If I descend into hell, behold thou art there." Then he would not find the Devil there; for two infinite beings could not be found there. And, if God's dwelling-place is in hell as well as in heaven, it can make but little difference which of the two places we go to, as we are told our happiness will consist in being in his presence.

The defenders of a personal God sometimes have recourse to an illustrative argument. They tell us that the sun is a local, circumscribed body, and yet shines to a boundless extent. It is here assumed that the rays of the sun are a part of the sun; but this is not true. They once constituted a part of the sun, it is true; but to assume that they are still a part of the sun, after they have left it, is as absurd as to assume that the breath is still a part of the human body after it has escaped from the mouth. Thus every argument and every illustration fail to establish the self-evident absurdity of a personal God of the orthodox world being an infinite being; or, in other words, of their conception of a God conforming to the teachings of science and good sense.

Those who assume the existence of a personal God must hold him accountable for all the crime and all the misery existing in the world. For such a God could not be controlled or circumscribed in his actions by any arbitrary laws; and hence could and should, by personal interference, put a stop to all the crime, misery, suffering, and wrong of every description existing on earth; and the fact that he does not do it we hold to be prima-facie evidence that there is no personal God, but that every thing is governed by fixed, immutable laws, which control God himself, and which no God can alter.

Note.—We have shown in the twelve preceding chapters that all the leading doctrines of Christianity are wrong,—from that of a belief in divine revelation to that of the conception of a personal God. Hence a better religion is needed for this age.