Books of laws, for instance, the
writings of Mahomet, we know have been forged, as even thou wilt
acknowledge."
"True, but those books refer not to miracles and the testimony of
eye-witnesses, nor to laws and ordinances handed down from generation to
generation, even to that time. That Mahomet pretended not to the working
of miracles, he tells us in the Koran. The ridiculous legends related by
his followers are rejected as spurious by the scholars and expounders of
the prophet; and even his converse with the moon, his night journey from
Mecca to Jerusalem, and from thence to heaven, were not performed before
witnesses. The same may be said of the absurd exploits related of the
heathen deities."
"But had not the heathen their priests, their public rites and
sacrifices, equally with the Jews?"
"They had. But it was not even pretended that these rites commenced at
the time when the things which they commemorate were said to have
happened. The Bacchanalia, for example, and other festivals, were
established long after the fabulous events to which they refer. The
priests of Juno and Venus were not appointed by those imaginary deities,
but arose in some after-age, and are therefore no evidence whatever to
the truth of their worship.
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