John Remsburg
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John E. Remsburg (7 January 1848 - 1919) was an ardent religious skeptic in America in the late 19th century.
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[edit] Early life
Remsburg was born in Fremont, Ohio, a son of George J. and Sarah A. (Willey) Remsburg. He enlisted in the Union army at the age of sixteen during the American Civil War. He married Miss Nora M. Eiler of Atchison, Kansas, October 9, 1870; he was a teacher for 15 years, then a writer and lecturer in support of free thought, his lectures being translated into German, French, Bohemian, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian. Bengali and Singalese.
[edit] Public service
He was superintendent of public instruction in Atchison county, Kansas, for four years; was a life member of the American Secular Union, of which he was president from 1897-1900; a member of the Kansas State Horticultural Society; author of a Life of Thomas Paine (1880); The Image Breaker (1882); False Claims, (1883); Bible Morals (1884); Sabbath Breakers (1885); The Fathers of Our Republic (1886); Was Lincoln a Christian (1893); Was Washington a Christian (1899); The Bible (1903); Six Historic Americans (1906); and The Christ (1909).
[edit] Views
Remsburg, who wrote Six Great Americans, was a rationalist and critic of morality as found in the Holy Bible. Although he lived in Atchison, Kansas, that town’s library has no copies of his work, according to Fred Whitehead in Freethought History (#2, 1992). In Bible Morals, he cited twenty crimes and vices sanctioned by scripture. In his The Bible, he condemns as pernicious and false such Biblical views as:
"Blessed are the poor in spirit; Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth; If thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out; If thy right hand offend thee, cut it off; Whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery; Resist not evil; Whosoever shall smite thee on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; Love your enemies; Lay not up for yourselves treasurers upon earth; Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what he shall drink, nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on; Take therefore no thought for the morrow."
Such views, combined with the name of Christ, Remsburg held, have caused more persecutions, wars, and miseries than any other name has caused. In 1994, The Christ: A Critical Review and Analysis of the Evidence of His existence was reprinted. It is a classic in American freethought although, as Gordon Stein has pointed out, Remsburg in speaking for a mythological Christ makes the error of interchanging “Christ” when “Jesus” is meant. “Remsberg says that the two terms are interchangeable,” writes Stein (The American Rationalist, November-December 1994), “but that is only true if you are a convinced Christian who believes that Jesus was the Christ. Since Remsburg does not believe this, he should distinguish the possibly historical Jesus from the concept of Christ (Messiah).”
While President of the American Secular Union (1897-1900), Remsburg gave an estimated 3,000 lectures throughout North America.
