Self Confidence
So-called "heathen" are not as much afraid of DEATH as are the
"civilized," especially that portion of the civilized population, which
has come under the influence of theology.
For hundreds of millions of years man has been asking the still
unanswered (and, it may be, the unanswerable) questions,
"WHENCE?" and "WHITHER?"
"Where did I come from and where am I going after death?" The more cunning and crafty, as well as the honest but credulous, of the race have not been slow to offer the answer to these questions.
In fact the answering of these questions has become one of the socalled "learned" professions, despite the fact that but little learning is required to enter this profession.
Witness, now, the major source of origin of the fear of DEATH! "Come into my tent, embrace my faith, accept my dogmas (and pay my salary) and I will give you a ticket that will admit you straightway into heaven when you die," says the leader of one form of sectarianism.
"Remain out of my tent," says this same leader, "and you will go direct to hell, where you will burn throughout eternity."
While, in fact, the self-appointed leader may not be
able to provide safe-conduct into heaven nor, by lack of such provision,
allow the unfortunate seeker after truth to descend into hell, the
possibility of the latter seems so terrible that it lays hold of the mind
and creates that fear of fears, the fear of DEATH! In truth no man knows,
and no man has ever known, what heaven or hell is like, or if such places
exist, and this very lack of definite knowledge opens the door of the human
mind to the charlatan to enter and control that mind with his stock of
legerdemain and various brands of trickery, deceit and fraud.
The truth is this - nothing less and nothing more
That NO MAN KNOWS NOR HAS ANY MAN EVER KNOWN WHERE WE COME FROM AT BIRTH OR WHERE WE GO AT DEATH.
Any person claiming otherwise is either deceiving himself or he is a conscious impostor who makes it a business to live without rendering service of value, through play up on the credulity of humanity.