20 August 2008

The Furnace of Furniss

(from my book in progress, Supernatural Hypocrisy: The Cognitive Dissonance of a God Cosmology")

A popular booklet for children in the late 19th Century was authored by Father Furniss, an English priest who wrote "books for children." Furniss delighted in describing the horrors of hell:

"...his eyes were like two burning coals. Two long flames came our of his ears...sometimes he opens his mouth, and breath of blazing fire rolls out. But listen! There is a sound just like that of a kettle boiling. Is it really a kettle boiling? No. Then what is it? Hear what it is. The blood is boiling in the scalding veins of that boy. The brain is boiling and bubbling in his head. The marrow is boiling in his bones. Ask him why he is thus tormented. his answer is that when he was alive, his blood boiled to do very wicked things."

and,

"A little child is in this red-hot oven. Hear how it screams to come out! See how it turns and twists itself about in the fire! It beats its head against the roof of the oven. It stamps its little feet on the floor. You can see on the face of this little child what you see on the faces of all in hell--despair, desperate and horrible."

Father Furniss was paradoxically dubbed the "Children's Apostle."
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1 comment:

armando said...

Lady, in the main I like your arguments. As far as religion is concerned I agree with you fully. What irks me more than somewhat is that you harp on the fact (fact!) that the Bible is a work of, by, and for men. So what? There are many things that are not today as they were then, and they have changed mainly due to the efforts of, once again, men. So, just stay cool, do what you find best, and please, please! leave the battle of the sexes alone. I, for one, have had enough of it. Armando Pellencin.